ON A CONTINUATION OF THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER USED IN The Church of England, (IN SUCCESSION TO A PUBLISHED VOLUME OF THOUGHTS ON THE BY A LAY MEMBER OF THAT CHURCH, COMPILER OF A BIBLICAL CATECHISM, A METRICAL VERSION OF THE BIBLE PSALMS, FAMILY PRAYERS FROM THE BIBLE PSALMS AND FROM THE LITURGY THOUGHTS ON THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST AND REFLECTIONS ON THE EPISTLES OF ST PAUL, AND ON THAT TO THE HEBREWS Worship The LORD in the Beauty of Holiness! Sanctify The LORD GOD in your heart! May The Grace of our LORD JESUS CHRIST, and The Love of GOD LONDON: PRINTED AT THE SCHOOL-PRESS, GOWER'S WALK, WHITECHAPEL. 1856. f=21 VOL. II. THE Excellence and Scriptural Character of The Liturgy of The Church of England can hardly fail, as a Whole, to impress even Such as have not taken part in it (from not being Members of That Church,) if weighed and examined fairly and fully with The Gospel Dispensation. But to the Sons and Daughters of That Church, if faithful to that Relationship, the Service in all its parts and tendencies constitutes a Source and Element of Converse with GOD, in adoption and appropriation of DIVINE Truth and Revelation, which gives the Soul its Guidance and its best tone for holding Such High Communion; and for joining in Heavenward Offices with its Fellows. An intimacy with it, through a life already beyond the usual limit of Earthly Privilege, has led to the gradual development of reflections on its qualities and to a sincere conviction of its worth, when laid to the heart and brought home to the understanding. Under that feeling the offer is thus respectfully made unto Others' consideration, in the sympathy and Fellowship of a Church of England Member, of the result of such views as have arisen to the mind of the Writer, under the hoped-for Impulse of The HOLY SPIRIT. With the meekness of the Christian Advocacy for Such a Sacred Cause, a desire is cherished thereby to awaken the true influence of Congregational Prayer and Praise, when engaged in with fidelity and with zeal. On the Occasional Prayers and on Some of the Peculiar Services of The Church, the same train of sentiment has already been reduced to writing; but the publication thereof may depend on the reception, which the present specimen may experience. THIS Extension of the original Work, comprising, as it does, a view of the Baptismal and Sacramental Services of the Church of England, with other Occasional Services and Prayers, is respectfully submitted under the impression that the whole Collection and its various Parts are calculated to deepen interest in their observance the more that consideration is given to their several bearings, and to the faithful adoption in them of Scriptural Truth and Gospel Delineation. True it is a Human Composition; and there may be some expressions which, being the ideas or selections of various Writers at various periods of our Church's progress, may give rise to some latitude of interpretation or qualification to reconcile any seeming discrepances in otherwise corresponding parts. But few indeed do these appear to be; and, as a whole, in no known language or difference of Persuasion is the Composition of The Liturgy equalled, much less surpassed. The Thoughts now, as Those offered in the prior volume, are the Thoughts but of one Mind having sought Guidance and Assistance from DIVINE Grace, for the Wisdom, which cometh from Above; Yielded, as It so Encouragingly is Promised, to fervent and confiding prayer, and to the meekness and faithfulness of Trust and of Hope in CHRIST JESUS and His Gospel. The Scriptural Quotations in the Prayer Book, particularly from The Old Testament, are taken, not from The Present Authorized Version of the time of James the 1st, but from the Bishops' Translation previously in general use. |
