CHAP. II.

PUBLIC SERVICES.

Introductory Sentences-Exhortation-General ConfessionAbsolution-Lord's Prayer-Versicles and Gloria Patri— Psalms-Psalmody.

INDISCRIMINATE censures of a long established and highly admired institution, are evidently the dictates of inveterate hostility, whereas a mild specification of defects, especially when accompanied with the proposal of an easy and effectual remedy, may justly be attributed to the purest friendship. An objector, indeed, is imperatively called upon to show, that the defects, of which he complains, are not only real] in themselves, but also susceptible of a remedy; for to inveigh against such imperfections as are necessarily connected with every human system, displays the ignorance, if not the factious spirit of the declaimer.

It is under a deep impression of these sentiments, not unmixed with a considerable degree of hesitation and diffidence, that the writer presents the following suggestions to the sincere admirers of our established

ritual. He has not the vanity to suppose that all his alterations will be deemed unobjectionable, much less that they will be regarded as the most suitable, that might be proposed. It is probable, that some of them may be deemed unnecessary, and others more liable to censure than the evils complained of. All that he requests of the reader, is, that he will candidly consider the separate value of the proposed emendations, and freely reject those, which appear to him ill adapted for their object, but without prejudice to the remainder. Should the present work produce no other effect, than that of eliciting the suggestions of an abler and more successful emendator, and thus be indirectly the means of promoting a judicious and authorized revision of the Liturgy, it will not have been written without an adequate result. "The more perfect we can make our Church, the more secure will she be, and the timidity of the coward who refuses the aid of the physician till all medicine be too late, is equally to be condemned with the rashness of the empiric, who prescribes his patient into the grave." *

THE INTRODUCTORY SENTENCES.

The public Service of the Church of England is introduced by the minister's reading one or more passages of Scripture, which are chosen by him out of a number appointed for that purpose. Perhaps a few others might have been beneficially added to the selection. Habak.

* Christian Remembrancer.

ii. 20, Malachi i. 11, and Ps. xix. 14, might be prefixed as in the American Prayer Book, and Ps. xcv. 6, would appropriately close the whole. *

THE EXHORTATION.

It may be questioned whether an occasional, instead of a constant, repetition of this introductory part of Divine Service might not be attended with a beneficial result.

"All exhortations without exception should, if possible, be the production of the officiating minister, and should be often varied. Our Homilies were composed for the use of ministers unable to preach sermons of their own; which it was always thought desirable should be substituted for them. See Canons, and Bp. Jebb's letter to Dr. Ebrington on the Homilies.

"The objections to the use of prayers new to the congregation do not apply to exhortations. Still it may be proper to leave a provision for the case of a minister distrusting his own powers to produce an exhortation of

* Hab. ii. 20,-"The Lord is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him."

Mal. i. 11,-"From the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same, my name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering; for my name shall be great among the heatheu, saith the Lord of hosts."

Ps. xix. 14.-"Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord! my Strength, and my Redeemer."

Ps. xcv. 6.-"O, come let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our Maker."

his own. Let the existing one be left along with two or three more, and with directions to use one of these or else one composed by the minister. Thus, those who abhor innovation, will be at liberty to go on as they do ; and improvement may be introduced gradually by those who like it, and the people weaned by little and little from what they have been accustomed to regard in many instances with superstitious reverence. This gradual weaning is of great consequence in such a case as this; and has not I think been sufficiently thought of.”— Anonymous correspondent.

THE GENERAL CONFESSION.

"Would it not be better to make the confession one of frailty of nature, ignorance, incapability of earning divine favour by our own righteousness, dependence on the sacrifice of Christ, and on the sanctifying grace of his Spirit, and not, of actual sin ? And to put into the exhortation an admonition to the hearer to humble himself, each in silence, for the sins he is conscious of? Query-What if a pause be made for this purpose, as, I believe, in the Lutheran Church?

"The following questions present a difficulty

Query I.-Ought "Confession," properly and strictly so called, to form a part of the ordinary, public or other joint worship? Private confession, to God alone, of such sins as we may be conscious of, is a different case. So is public joint confession, by those who have been guilty in common of the same sin; as when

the Jews confessed their sinful toleration of idolatry &c. But I mean, strictly, general confession.

(1) I mean also confession of actual sin; not, of that universal corruption of human nature which is sometimes called "original sin."

(2) I mean also confession of sin; not of ignorance, infirmity-imperfection-of our inability to add a cubit to our stature, to attain the knowledge of God's will without revelation, or to persevere in a good course by our own strength of mind, without spiritual help &c. All such one is said indeed " to acknowledge and confess;" but not in such a sense as implies contrition, repentance, and hope, that it will be otherwise in future.

:

(3) I mean, lastly, confession of something which it was in our power to avoid,-which we might have been, reasonably have been expected to avoid,—and which we may reasonably hope to avoid hereafter not of any degree or kind of vileness which we regard as universal, and inseparable from the species; or of such an amonnt of actual transgression as we are persuaded none, even of the best men, ever were, or will be exempt from. For all this again we are said in a certain sense to "confess;" though we can hardly feel much mortified at the consciousness of being no better than what we conceive the best men to be; or to have really any hope of hereafter attaining a degree of excellence which we hold it morally impossible ever should be attained. But in the limited sense of confession which I have been describing, ought it to form a part of ordinary, regular, joint worship?