cution, in an enemy's country, where ordination could not be obtained; but it affords no authority for such conduct in a settled and peaceable state of the Christian Church. Why is it necessary that a Church should now copy the example of the apostles, as to government ?

A Church must be formed after some model, and we have no right to deviate from the model given us in the New Testament, except in such matters as are now impracticable.

Do the Scriptures give any directions on this subject?
The apostle Paul says,

Walk so as ye have us for an ensample. Phil. iii. 17.

And his example as a superintendent of the Christian
Church calls for imitation, as well as his private life.
Is it a proof that the government of a Church is right when
God blesses the labours of her ministers ?

No. Errors to a certain degree are not inconsistent with success: but there can be no excuse for wilful neglect of a divine command; and we should remember,

These ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. Matt. xxiii. 23.

Besides, we cannot tell what injury religion may sustain, in course of time, by departing from that order which God has established; and we have no right, by leaning to our own understandings, to do evil that good may come. But are there not good men of most religious persuasions?

Yes. But we shall not be excused in any neglect or error by pleading the example of others-Let God be true, and every man a liar. It is not our business to condemn others who profess to follow the Scriptures as their guide.

ON THE LITURGY.

How long have those short prayers, called Collects, been used in the Christian Church, which are appointed to be used in the Protestant Episcopal Church?

Not less than one thousand three hundred years.

What instances have we in Scripture, of forms of prayer or praise being used?

The ancient Jews always used precomposed forms in their synagogues; and as our Lord regularly attended at

the service of the synagogue, he gave his sanction to the propriety of them.

As his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day. Luke iv. 16.

John the Baptist appears to have taught his disciples a form of prayer.

Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. Luke xi. 1.

The book of Psalms is a series of forms.

Our Lord taught his disciples a form of prayer.

After this manner, [or thus] therefore pray ye. Matt. vi. 9.
When ye pray say, Our Father, &c. Luke xi. 2.

St. Paul speaks of psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, both for the social and private worship of Christians. Teaching and admonishing one another in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. Col. iii. 16.

The

And hymns are merely forms of prayer in verse. primitive Christians did very early use forms of public worship. which are called in their writings

prayers.'

66 common

What are the excellencies of the Liturgy of the Protestant Episcopal Church?

1. It is so comprehensive, "that nothing is omitted which is fit to be asked in public; and so particular, it compriseth most things which we should ask in private.'

2. The prayers are each so short as not to fatigue the attention, and yet are considerably comprehensive, constantly concluding with a reference to the mediation of Jesus Christ.

3. It tends to secure an unity of doctrine; and as both minister and people have their separate parts to perform, this division of service is well calculated to keep up attention, and to excite devout feelings.

4. Another advantage is, that of knowing beforehand the prayer and praises which are to be offered to God. By

*Mr. Wheatly has shown, by sundry appeals to ancient Christian writers, that the first three centuries joined in the use of precomposed set forms of prayer, besides the Lord's Prayer and Psalms; and that these were styled by so early a writer as Justin Martyr, who died in the year of our Lord, 163, "Common Prayers;" by Origen, "Constituted Prayers;" and by Cyprian, "Solemn Prayers." Hence the inference is fairly drawn, that a Liturgy composed for public use is warranted by the practice of our Saviour, of his apostles, and of the primitive Christians.

this means the mind has time given to consider the nature of the petition, and our own need of the thing we are about to ask, and as we daily need the same things, there is no occasion for a continual variety. Besides, a form of prayer affords security that nothing unsuitable to the majesty of God, and the state of a sinful creature, be found in the language we use.

5. But the grand excellence of the Church service is, that so large a portion of the pure word of God is imbodied, and that the liturgy may be said to be "the word of God converted into devotional exercises."

Why then are you a member of this Church?

1. Because her government is episcopal, that is, by bishops; this being the mode of church government which existed in the primitive Church, and was founded by the apostles of our Lord.

2. Because her doctrines are fixed by articles of religion, which are scriptural and according to godliness.

3. Because her mode of worship is primitive and scriptural, and well qualified to promote edification. Her liturgy is scriptural in its doctrine, comprehensive in the addresses to the throne of grace, and therefore fit for general

use.

4. Because a separation from a Church formed on the apostolic model, tends to encourage a spirit of division in the Church of Christ, which is undoubtedly contrary to the word of God.

Mark them which cause divisions and offences, contrary to the doctrines which ye have learned, and avoid them. Rom. xvi. 17.

Litany. May it please thee to rule and govern thy holy Church universal in the right way.

Collect. We pray for thy holy Church universal, that it may be so guided and governed by thy good Spirit, &c.

5th Sunday after Epiphany-Keep thy Church and household continually in thy true religion,

16th Sunday after Trinity.Let thy continual pity cleanse and defend thy Church.

Collect, St. Matthias day. Grant that thy Church being alway preserved from false apostles, may be ordered and guided by faithful and true pastors,

Communion Service-Inspire continually the universal Church with the Spirit of truth, unity, and concord,

NOTE.

THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH, VISIBLE AND MYSTICAL. HOOKER distinguishes between the Church visible and the Church mystical, (called also invisible, because its members as such cannot be distinguished,) and says of the latter: "Whatsoever we read in Scripture concerning the endless love and saving mercy which God showeth to wards his Church, the only proper subject thereof is this Church. Concerning this flock it is that our Lord and Saviour hath promised, I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand." This distinction is, therefore, of so much importance that some further explanation of its nature appears desirable. The reader will doubtless be pleased to receive it in the language of the Rev. LEGH RICHMOND, one of the brightest ornaments of the Church in the present century. It is quoted from a series of articles written by him for the Christian Observer in 1804, which, to use the words of Mr. Grimshawe, his biographer, "claims a just title to distinction among productions of this class, whether we consider the ability and conclusiveness of its reasoning, the extensive acquaintance that it manifests with the writings of the Reformers, and with the genuine principles and doctrines of the Church of England, or the conciliatory spirit in which it is written." "Whoever," says Mr. Richmond, "reads the works of Cranmer, Hooker, Jewell, Whitgift, Jackson, Hall, Pearson, and Bacon, on the nature of the Church, will find that they expound the article of the Holy Catholic Church as, in its primary and highest acceptation, applicable only to that congregation of faithful and holy men who shall be saved: and that the visible Church is constituted for the express purpose of training and building up that spiritual household, which is called in an emphatical sense the true Church. This Church is not called invisible, because the persons who compose it are not distinguishable from the rest of the world; for with a very few exceptions, (exclusive of infants dying before baptism,) they are all visible members of some visible Church; but because their real title to spiritual Churchmanship is only discernible to him who alone 'knoweth who are his.'"

And again:-"The view we have taken of the subject is so far from being inconsistent with a due attention to the visible constitution of the Church, that it places it on the firmest basis; as is evident from the writings of those learned and pious supporters of the Church of England, whom we have quoted in our margin, as well as of many of their contemporaries. This view of the Church has the farther advantage of guard. ing the representations of its real nature, against those untenable con. clusions into which some modern writers fall, from their exclusively ascribing to its external constitution those characteristic privileges which are inseparable, indeed, from the true spiritual Church; but which only appertain to the visible Church, so far as it contains the true and invisible Church. The visible Church is a community of men, making an outward profession of the truth. The invisible Church is that portion of the visible which is sanctified by the inward possession of the truth. The former [i. e. the visible] derives its value from its containing the latter; and in proportion as it may be deemed, on scriptural ground, so to do, it has or has not a just claim to the appellation of true, holy, and catholic." The following are the quotations from ancient and standard writers of the Church of England, cited by Mr. Richmond, with the addition of a few sentences more in continuation of the passage from Hooker, for the purpose of exhibiting his views more fully to the reader.

"Archbishop Cranmer states, that amidst all the corruptions and errors of the visible Church, there always was a true and 'holy Church, so unknown to the world that no man can discern it but God alone, who only searcheth the hearts of all men, and knoweth his true children from

other that be but bastards.' 'Christ is present with his holy Church, (which is holy elected people,) and shall be with them to the world's end, leading and governing them with his Holy Spirit, and teaching them all truth necessary for their salvation: and whensoever any such be gathered together in his name, there is he among them; and he shall not suffer the gates of hell to prevail against them. For although he may suffer them by their own frailness for a time to err, fall, and to die, yet, finally, neither Satan, hell, sin, nor eternal death, shall prevail against them. But it is not so of the Church and See of Rome, which accounteth itself to be the holy Catholic Church.'

"The Church doth not wholly err: for even in most darkness God shineth unto his elect.' 'This Church is the pillar of truth, because it resteth upon God's word, which is the true and sure foundation, and will not suffer it to err and fall; but as for the open known Church and the outward face thereof, it is not the pillar of truth otherwise than that it is (as it were) a register and treasury to keep the books of God's holy will and testament, and to rest only thereupon.'-'If the Church proceeds further to make any new articles of the faith besides the Scripture or contrary to the Scripture; or direct not the form of life according to the same; then it is not the pillar of truth, nor the Church of Christ, but the synagogue of Satan and the temple of Anti-christ, which both erreth itself and bring. eth into error as many as do follow it; and the holy Church of Christ is but a small herd or flock in comparison to the great multitude of them that follow Satan and Anti-christ, as Christ himself saith, and as the word of God, and the course of the world from the beginning until this day, hath declared. (See Cranmer against Gardiner and Smith, edit. 1580, p. 405, 406.)

"Bishop Jewell maintains that God hath always a Church invisible, and a number of elect; neither is this our only saying, St. Paul also saith the same. 2 Tim. ii. 19.'-'The general or outward Church of God is visible, and may be seen; but the very true Church of God's elect is invisible, and cannot be seen or discerned by man.'-(See the whole passage in the Defence of the Apology of the C. of E., edit. 1611, p. 361.)

"Hooker is particularly express in his third book of E. P. in distinguishing the invisible and mystical Church from the visible. 'That Church of Christ which we properly term his body mystical can be but one; neither can that one be sensibly discerned by any man; inasmuch as the parts thereof are some in heaven already with Christ, and the rest that are on earth (all-be-it their natural persons be visible) we do not dis. cern under this property whereby they are truly and infallibly of that body. Only our minds by intellectual conceit are able to apprehend that such a real body there is, a body collective because it containeth a huge multitude; a body mystical because the mystery of their conjunction is removed altogether from sense. Whatsoever we readin Scripture concerning the endless love and saving mercy which God showeth towards his Church, the only proper subject thereof is this Church. Concerning this flock it is that our Lord and Saviour hath promised, I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hands. They who are of this society have such marks and notes of distinc tion from all others as are not objects unto our sense, only unto God who seeth their hearts and understandeth all their secret cogitations; unto him they are clear and manifest.'-(See the whole of the third book.)

"Archbishop Whitgift, in his defence of the Church of England against Cartwright, observes, that there are two kinds of government in the Church, the one invisible, the other visible-the one spiritual, the other external. The invisible and spiritual government of the Church is when God, by his Spirit, gifts, and ministry of his word, doth govern it by ruling in the hearts and consciences of men, and directing them in all things necessary to everlasting life. This kind of government, indeed,