in white. The practice of men putting on a white gown to read the Athanasian creed, and then changing it for a black one in order to read a homily, is unmeaning and ludicrous, and altogether at variance with the dignity and simplicity of the Christian religion. Nothing but custom can have reconciled us to such follies. If the dress were more convenient than any other, or had any typical import, it might be admissible or even obligatory, but wanting such recommendation, it would much better befit the mountebank than the Christian minister. A meaning has, indeed, been given to the color, shape, and material of the surplice; and if the reader is satisfied with it, he will be pleased to consider our condemnation of this unmanly garment as revoked. As to the name of the surplice, which comes from the Latin superpelliceum, I can give no better account of 'it than what I can put together from Durand, who tells us that it was so called because anciently this garment was put (super 'tunicas pellicas de pellibus mortuorum animalium factas) upon 'leathern coats made of the hides of dead beasts; symbolically ⚫ to represent that the offence of our first parents, which brought 'us under a necessity of wearing garments of skin, was now hid and covered by the grace of Christ; and that, therefore, we are 'clothed with the emblem of innocence. But whencesoever came 'the name, the thing is certainly good."* The same author adduces reasons for the color of the surplice, and the material of which it is fabricated; but we must refer the reader, who may desire to understand the sacred mystery of this vestment, to the book itself, subjoining only the explanation offered of the shape of the surplice. As for the shape of it, it is a thing so perfectly 'indifferent, that it admits of no dispute. The present mode is 'certainly grave and convenient; and in the opinion of Durand, 'significant; who observes, that as the garments used by the 'Jewish priesthood were girt tight about them, to signify the 'bondage of the law, so the looseness of the surplices used by the Christian priests, signifies the freedom of the gospel.' This no doubt is ingenious and pious, but we might possibly be quite as near the truth, were we to regard the white surplice and black gown as symbolical of the opposite doctrines generally proceeding from the desk and the pulpit. * The cabalistic wonders of the calendar next court our notice. Will the reader turn to the months of March and April? In the first column he sees the numbers from one to nineteen (called golden numbers) ranged in mystic disorder. In the third column are the first seven letters of the alphabet (called Sunday letters), occurring with wearisome frequency and regularity. By the help * Wheatly, pp. 93. 94. Bible, it is high time to express dissent, and to show that these forms of prayer are meagre, not always free from great faults of style, disfigured by tautology and abrupt transitions, contradictory in point of doctrine, and further and especially, that they suppress one of the most important doctrines of the New Testament, and by this means are lulling thousands of impenitent men into fatal repose. Few things would tend more to the increase of true religion in this kingdom than the universal abandonment of this idolized and dangerous book. Let any Christian look to the Gospel according to John, or the Epistle to the Ephesians, or that to the Hebrews, and then turn to the order for morning or evening prayer daily throughout the year, and he will be sensible of a great want of evangelical sentiment. The prayers are such as would well have befitted the days of Daniel, or of Solomon, with the addition of some Christian phrases. The peculiar doctrines of the new covenant are not infused into the prayers, but rather appended to them. Those doctrines do not appear there as a soul animating the body, but rather resemble the charmed scraps of parchment with scriptural sentences written on them, which in some parts of the Greek church are placed in the coffin with the dead body, to serve as a passport at heaven's gate. The mind of the devout worshipper will, it is freely admitted, impart its own unction to these sterile forms, but let such worshippers candidly examine what hitherto they have perhaps received with unenquiring admiration, and they will be amazed at the attachment they have felt for the pauperized formularies of the Prayer-book. A slight alteration only would be required to adapt this code of devotion to the use of Socinians. The experiment, indeed, has been tried.* Of course the parts affirming the divinity of the Son of God are left out, as also are the creeds; but the substance of the forms usually employed has been adopted. The style in which the Prayer-book is composed has been lauded greatly; nor without reason. It is simple, nervous, and majestic; admirably adapted to both the illiterate and the learned; and fitted alike for the expression of humble and devout feeling, and for the communication of knowledge to the many. But this the activity of the church of Rome to extend its influence, especially in those countries wherein Protestant missions are carried on, calls for increasing exertion, liberality, faith, and prayer on the part of members of our Protestant Church, to extend to the heathen that system of pure Scripture truth which is so fully em' odied in her articles, liturgy, and homilies.' If Popery had no antagonist but the Prayer-book, its victory would be certain and easy. * Devotional Services, selected from the Book of Common Prayer, revised and arranged for public worship, as used at the Old Meeting House, Birmingham. Sold by Allen, Birmingham. 6 George; but why then are they not banished from the Prayerbook? Are the bishops and deans so absorbed in their laborious. duties that they have not time to effect this purgation? Besides, there are many of the saints in the calendar whom every good Churchman is bound to honor. Nelson, in his Companion to 'the Festivals and Fasts,' a book yet in high repute, and circulated by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, gives a table of 140 days, besides Sundays, on which vigils, fasts, or festivals are to be observed. And from the time when Butler, in his charge to the clergy of Durham, lamented that the services of the Church were neglected, not only on common days, but also 'upon saints' days,' till the Bishop of Oxford, on a similar occasion, and referring to the authors of the Tracts,' declared that he 'heartily approved the spirit which would restore a due observ'ance of the fasts and festivals of the Church,' there have not been wanting plain indications of the leaning of the Church of England to these ordinances of men: How turn ye again to the 'weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in 'bondage? Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. 'I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labor in ' vain.' The tables of superstition, i. e., of saints' days, dominical letters, and golden numbers, with which the Prayer-book begins, and which the good sense of the laity is consigning, together with the hieroglyphics of Moore's Almanack, to well merited disregard, are followed by the order for prayer throughout the year. That order ought to be observed daily, but by some means the clergy, who have declared solemnly their unfeigned assent and consent to every thing therein contained, contrive to satisfy their consciences whilst neglecting about six sevenths of the duties which the Prayer Book imposes. But let that pass; and let it be cheerfully acknowledged that some of the formularies which the order for prayer contains are scriptural and beautiful. The thought is delightful, indeed, that thousands of devout men and women, do every week, with a pure heart and humble voice, accompany the minister to the throne of the heavenly grace, using the prescribed language of prayer and praise. Imperfect and objectionable-very imperfect and very objectionable as we deem the Prayer-book, God forbid that we should ever fail to respect and love those of our fellow Christians who by means of it draw near unto God. But when that book is spoken of in terms of the highest eulogy, and placed almost on a par with the At the anniversary of the Church Missionary Society in 1839, the Earl of Chichester being in the chair, it was moved by Rev. H. Raikes, Chancellor of the diocese of Chester, and seconded by Rev. R. Burgess, of Chelsea, 'That Bible, it is high time to express dissent, and to show that these forms of prayer are meagre, not always free from great faults of style, disfigured by tautology and abrupt transitions, contradictory in point of doctrine, and further and especially, that they suppress one of the most important doctrines of the New Testament, and by this means are lulling thousands of impenitent men into fatal repose. Few things would tend more to the increase of true religion in this kingdom than the universal abandonment of this idolized and dangerous book. Let any Christian look to the Gospel according to John, or the Epistle to the Ephesians, or that to the Hebrews, and then turn to the order for morning or evening prayer daily throughout the year, and he will be sensible of a great want of evangelical sentiment. The prayers are such as would well have befitted the days of Daniel, or of Solomon, with the addition of some Christian phrases. The peculiar doctrines of the new covenant are not infused into the prayers, but rather appended to them. Those doctrines do not appear there as a soul animating the body, but rather resemble the charmed scraps of parchment with scriptural sentences written on them, which in some parts of the Greek church are placed in the coffin with the dead body, to serve as a passport at heaven's gate. The mind of the devout worshipper will, it is freely admitted, impart its own unction to these sterile forms, but let such worshippers candidly examine what hitherto they have perhaps received with unenquiring admiration, and they will be amazed at the attachment they have felt for the pauperized formularies of the Prayer-book. A slight alteration only would be required to adapt this code of devotion to the use of Socinians. The experiment, indeed, has been tried.* Of course the parts affirming the divinity of the Son of God are left out, as also are the creeds; but the substance of the forms usually employed has been adopted. The style in which the Prayer-book is composed has been lauded greatly; nor without reason. It is simple, nervous, and majestic; admirably adapted to both the illiterate and the learned; and fitted alike for the expression of humble and devout feeling, and for the communication of knowledge to the many. But this the activity of the church of Rome to extend its influence, especially in those countries wherein Protestant missions are carried on, calls for increasing exertion, liberality, faith, and prayer on the part of members of our Protestant Church, to extend to the heathen that system of pure Scripture truth which is so fully em' odied in her articles, liturgy, and homilies.' If Popery had no antagonist but the Prayer-book, its victory would be certain and easy. * Devotional Services, selected from the Book of Common Prayer, revised and arranged for public worship, as used at the Old Meeting House, Birmingham. Sold by Allen, Birmingham. eulogy must be confined to those parts of the Prayer Book which are translated from the Latin. The portions of the service which are strictly speaking Protestant, do not deserve such commendation. The opening address, for example, would expose a tyro in a lecture-room to a severe castigation. The Scripture moveth us to acknowledge and confess our sins and wickedness, and that we should not dissemble nor cloak them, but confess them with an humble lowly heart, especially when we assemble and meet together to ask those things which are requisite and necessary, wherefore, adds the minister, I pray and beseech you, &c. This wordiness would hardly be endured in the extemporaneous effusions of an untaught local preacher, but in forms prepared for the use of learned deacons, priests, and bishops, who pass to the desk, the pulpit, and the throne, from Oxford and Cambridge, it is insufferable. The absolution which follows the general confession, besides being open to similar criticism, is open also to another objection. A second nominative case is very awkwardly introduced in the middle of the sentence, a fault which we should not have mentioned had it not appeared to arise from a greater fault. The sentiment is hobbling and disjointed, and seems to have occasioned the defect in the style. 'Almighty God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who desireth not the death of a sinner, but rather that he may turn from his wickedness and live; and hath given power to his ministers to declare and pronounce to his people, being penitent, the absolution and remission of their sins: he pardoneth and absolveth all them that truly repent, and unfeignedly believe his holy gospel. Wherefore let us beseech him to grant us true repentance, & c.' That part of the preamble about ministers having the power to absolve, leads to no conclusion. It is a mere incumbrance, and a very clumsy one too; and the whole paragraph might lead a stranger, hearing it for the first time, to the suspicion that the priest repented of his design when in the midst of his lesson, and had not the presumption to complete what he had the vanity to commence. The remaining part of the Prayer-book is almost entirely adopted from the service books of the Romish church. What we have already commented upon was supplied by the compilers of the Anglican liturgy. Their composition is wretched: we have now to scrutinize their compilation. If their own performances be lame in style, and suspicious in sentiment, how marvellous that they should have succeeded in arranging a ritual, to all and every thing contained in which all clergymen in after time have declared their unfeigned assent and consent! The commencement of the book certainly would not lead the reader to |
