ESSAY III.

ON PRAYER.

Matt. xxi, 13.

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My house shall be called the house of prayer.

THE house of God is the place where his glory dwells, and takes its name not from the practice of preaching there, but from that of prayer. When the temple of Solomon was finished, it was immediately applied to its proper use to be a house of prayer. When that august and magnificent structure was consecrated and dedicated to the service and worship of Jehovah, we hear of no preaching on that solemn occasion, but only of prayers, sacrifices, and offerings. And now our churches are the places where God has recorded his name, and where his glory dwelleth; where he will come and bless all who ". worship him in spirit and in truth." Jehovah of old commanded his service to be duly performed in the place which he choosed and appointed

to cause his name to dwell there, (Deut. xii.) in order to preserve a perfect uniformity in the divine worship, which, in those early times, was essentially necessary, because all the rites, ceremonies, and sacrifices pointed out and represented one grand event, namely, the redemption of mankind through Jesus Christ our Lord. And it is a remark, which nearly concerns all Christians, that now the same necessity exists for uniformity in every part of the divine worship, because the Saviour who was typified and represented in the Hebrew ritual is come, and the shadows have all fled away: how desirable is it then, that Christians should with one mouth, as well as with one heart, worship the Lamb that was slain, and glorify God their Saviour.

In order to promote and preserve uniformity in the public worship of God, the advantage and convenience of having forms of prayer at once appear. Forms of prayer are not only lawful in themselves, but they are edifying and expedient, and the Scriptures nowhere say that it is unlawful to use them, but on the contrary, our blessed Lord has given us a form, and has directed us to: make use of it. Matt. vi, 9; Luke xi. There

fore we are to look upon this form of prayer given us by Jesus Christ himself, as a plan for a more extended devotion. It should be considered by us as an inestimable privilege that God himself should teach us with what words and in what manner to pray to him. "Lord, teach us how to pray," is a prayer necessary to prayer; for unless we are taught by him, and blessed with "the spirit of grace and supplication, even that perfect form of words taught us by Jesus Christ, and every other form, may be repeated, without any profit to our souls. Prayer requires more of the heart than of the tongue. The eloquence of prayer consists in the knowledge of our wants, and in the simplicity of faith in God."

Since Jesus Christ himself has given us a form of prayer, we may see the advantage of a Liturgy, that "form of sound words which we are to hold fast." 2 Tim. i, 13. The tendency of a scriptural Liturgy is to preserve the spirit of prayer: and it remains as a standard of the doctrines of the Christian church,

* The word Liturgy is derived, according to some, from Arn, prayer, and epyov, work, and signifies literally, the work or labour of prayer or supplication: or, according to others, Xelтoupyia, from λeiros, public, or common, and epyov, work, denoting the common or public work of prayer.

from which its ministers cannot deviate without being found out as deviating from divine truth.*

When the worship of those who join in our Liturgy is sincere, we may look upon it as "praying in the Holy Ghost;" because, when the desires are spiritual, and the heart is engaged, the mere natural affections cannot have been raised by novelty of expression or sentiment. Therefore the sincere and spiritual worshipper has greater evidence of obtaining and enjoying communion with God in the use of forms.+ The prayers of our national Liturgy are so comprehensive, that we meet there with petitions for all our wants, both temporal and spiritual; and so we are not left to the mercy of the minister who prays extemporaneously for what, and in what manner, he pleases.‡

As to the excellence of our Liturgy, the most learned and pious among those who

See Dr. C. Buchanan's Christian Researches in the East, pp. 122, 123, &c. where there are some judicious remarks upon the expediency of a scriptural Liturgy. + See Bickersteth on Prayer, p. 130.

No Heretic, Arian, or Socinian, can heartily join in the Offices of Prayer and Praise, and Confessions of Faith, prescribed in the Liturgy of our Church. See Bp. Bull's Sermon on Prescribed Forms of Prayer. .

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dissent from us candidly bear their testimony. Dr. A. Clarke, the author of a learned commentary on the Scriptures, says that our Liturgy is a work almost universally esteemed by the devout and pious of every denomination, and the greatest effort of the Reformation, next to the Translation of the Scriptures into the English language;” and a work, which all who are acquainted with it, deem superior to every thing of the kind, produced by either ancient or modern times." That eminent dissenter, Mr. Robert Hall, of Leicester, says of our Liturgy, “Though a protestant dissenter, I am by no means insensible to its merits: I believe that the evangelical purity of its sentiments, the chastened fervour of its devotion, and the majestic simplicity of its language, have combined to place it in the very first rank of uninspired compositions."

And here it may be proper to observe, that though the principal part of the prayers in our Liturgy were in use in the Church of Rome, from which the Church of England is reformed, yet we are informed by ecclesiastical history, that those prayers and services did not originate in the Church of Rome;