comparison of passages-and others perhaps are contained only in the Jewish Law. I will mention some specimens to assist the reflection of the reader.

The early Christians were remarkable for keeping to the Apostles' fellowship. Who are more likely to stand in the Apostles' place since their death, than that line of Bishops which they themselves began? for that the Apostles were in some sense or other to remain on earth to the end of all things, is plain from the text, "Lo, I am with you alway," &c.

St. Paul set Timothy over the Church at Ephesus, and Titus over the Churches of Crete; i. e. as Bishops; therefore it is safer to have Bishops now, it is more likely to be pleasing to Him who has loved us, and bids us in turn love Him with the heart, not with formal service.

Our LORD committed the Administration of the LORD'S SUPPER to His Apostles; "DO THIS in remembrance of Me;"-therefore the Church has ever continued it in the hands of their Successors, and the delegates of these.

From CHRIST's words, "Suffer the little children," &c. and from His blessing them, we infer His desire that children should be brought near to Him in baptism ;- -as we do also from St. Paul's conduct on several occasions. Acts xvi. 15, 33. 1 Cor. i. 16. So also we continue the practice of Confirmation, from a desire to keep as near the Apostles' rule as possible.

Again, what little is there of express command in the New Testament for our meeting together in public worship, in large tongregations! Yet we see what the custom of the Apostolic Church was from the book of Acts, 1 Cor. &c. and we follow it.

In like manner, the words in Genesis ii. and the practice of the Apostles in the Acts, are quite warrant enough for the Sanctification of the LORD's Day, even though the fourth Commandment be not binding on us.

For the same reason we continue the Patriarchal and Jewish rule of paying tithe to the Church. Some portion of our goods is evidently due to GOD;-and the ancient Divine Command is a direction to us, which the law of the land has made obligatory, in a case where reason and conscience have no means of determining.

These may be taken as illustrations of a general principle. And at this day it is most needful to keep it in view, since a cold

spirit has crept into the Church of demanding rigid demonstration for every religious practice and observance. It is the fashion now to speak of those who maintain the ancient rules of the ecclesiastical system, not as zealous servants of CHRIST, not as wise and practical expounders of His will, but as inconclusive reasoners, and fanciful theorists, merely because, instead of standing still and arguing, they have a heart to obey. Are there not numbers in this day, who think themselves enlightened believers, yet who are but acting the part of the husbandman's son in the Gospel, who said, "I go, sir," AND WENT NOT.

CHURCH REFORM.

us,

SURELY, before the blessing of a Millenium were vouchsafed to

if it be to come, the whole Christian world has much to confess in its several branches. Rome has to confess her Papal corruptions, and her cruelty towards those who refuse to accept them. The Christian communities of Holland, Scotland, and other countries, their neglect of the Apostolical Order of Ministers. The Greek Church has to confess its saint-worship, its formal fasts, and its want of zeal. The Churches of Asia their heresy. All parts of Christendom have much to confess and reform. We have our sins as well as the rest. Oh that we would take the lead in the renovation of the Church Catholic on Scripture principles !

Our greatest sin perhaps is the disuse of a "godly discipline." Let the reader consider,

1. The command.

"Put away from yourselves the wicked person." tic, after the first and second admonition, reject." divisions and offences, . . . . and avoid them."

"A man that is a here"Mark them which cause

2. The example, viz. in the Primitive Church.

"The Persons or Objects of Ecclesiastical Censure were all such delinquents, "as fell into great and scandalous crimes after baptism, whether men or women, "priests or people, rich or poor, princes or subjects." Bing. Antiq. xvi. 3.

3. The warning.

"Whosoever.... shall break one of these least commandments, and shall "teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven."

[NEW EDITION.]

These Tracts are continued in Numbers, and sold at the price of 2d. for each sheet, or 7s for 50 copies.

LONDON: PRINTED FOR J. G. & F. RIVINGTON,

ST. PAUL'S CHURCH YARD, AND WATERLOO PLACE.

1839.

Gilbert & RIVINGTON, Printers, St. John's Square, London.

ON SHORTENING THE CHURCH SERVICES.

THERE is a growing feeling that the Services of the Church are too long; and many persons think it a sound feeling, merely because it is a growing one. Let such as have not made up their minds on the subject, suffer themselves, before going into the arguments against our Services, to be arrested by the following considerations.

The Services of our Church, as they now stand, are but a very small part of the ancient Christian worship; and, though people now-a-days think them too long, there can be no doubt that the primitive believers would have thought them too short. Now I am far from considering this as a conclusive argument in the question; as if the primitive believers were right, and people now-a-days wrong; but surely others may fairly be called upon not to assume the reverse. On such points it is safest to assume nothing, but to take facts as we find them; and the facts are these.

In ancient times Christians understood very literally all that the Bible says about prayer. David had said, "Seven times a day do I praise thee;" and St. Paul had said, "Pray always." These texts they did not feel at liberty to explain away, but complying with them to the letter, praised God seven times a day, besides their morning and evening prayer. Their hours of devotion were, in the day time, 6, 9, 12, and 3, which were called the Horæ Canonicæ; in the night, 9, 12, and 3, which were called the Nocturns; and besides these the hour of daybreak and of retiring to bed; not that they set apart these hours in the first instance for public worship,-this was impossible; but they seem to have aimed at praying with one accord, and at one time, even when they could not do so in one place. "The Universal Church," says Bishop Patrick, "anciently observed certain set hours of prayer, that all Christians throughout the world might at the same time join together to glorify God; and some of them were of opinion, that the Angelical Host, being

acquainted with those hours, took that time to join their prayers and praises with those of the Church." The Hymns and Psalms appropriated to these hours were in the first instance intended only for private meditation; but afterwards, when Religious Societies were formed, and persons who had withdrawn from secular business lived together for purposes of devotion, chanting was introduced, and they were arranged for congregational worship. Throughout the Churches which used the Latin tongue, the same Services were adopted with very little variation; and in Roman Catholic countries they continue in use, with only a few modern interpolations, even to this day.

The length of these Services will be in some degree understood from the fact, that in the course of every week they go through the whole book of Psalms. The writer has been told by a distinguished person, who was once a Roman Catholic Priest, that the time required for their performance averages three hours a day throughout the year.

The process of transition from this primitive mode of worship to that now used in the Church of England, was gradual. Long before the abolition of the Latin Service, the ancient hours of worship had fallen into disuse; in religious Societies the daily and nightly Services had been arranged in groups under the names of Matins and Vespers; and those who prayed in private were allowed to suit their hours of prayer to their convenience, provided only that they went through the whole Services each day. Neither is it to be supposed that this modified demand was at all generally complied with. Thus in the course of time, the views and feelings with which prayer had been regarded by the early Christians, became antiquated; the forms remained, but stripped of their original meaning; Services were compressed into one, which had been originally distinct; the idea of united worship, with a view to which identity of time and language had been maintained in different nations, was forgotten; the identity of time had been abandoned, and the identity of language was not thought worth preserving. Conscious of the incongruity of primitive forms and modern feelings, our Reformers undertook to construct a Service more in accordance with the spirit of their age. They adopted the English language; they curtailed the already