On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
of mind in which we should always appear . But either Christianity produces no effect , or this indiscriminate language of selfreproach and condemnation cannot be consistent with the piety that is reaching towards heaven .
III . We have now to notice redundancies and repetitions which devotion would gladly escape . And upon reading over the Form of Common Prayer , one is forcibly struck with the admonition—4 Use not vain repetitions as the heathens do , for they think they shall be heard for their much speaking . ' Churchmen are not heathens , but the endless repetitions of their service , show that
they have not regarded the caution which their Master gave . We find that the Lord ' s Prayer may have to be repeated occasionally thirteen times in the day ; that it is always repeated six or seven times ; for what ? except to divest it of its brevity , to make it wearisome by tautology , and to oppress with the letter which profiteth not , and to evaporate the spirit which beautifully exhales
from every one of its short but impressive petitions . Throughout the service they keep asking for the same thing over and over again . The same confessions are made to weariness , till they must , in the majority , become mere matter of course . The perpetual renewal of addresses to Deity , owing to the prayers being broken down into separate short petitions , many of them of
exactly the same import , is more fatiguing than exciting ; and the frequent recurrence of benedictions and ascriptions of praise in the same language , certainly weakens their natural effect . Even the Arnens , that sententious Hebrew form of assent and approbation , delegated to the clerk , keep him upon the alert to far less effect than if they were more rare , in which case they would certainly be more impressive .
IV . We come now to the most important defect , those inconsistencies which enlightened piety would willingly cast out . These arise almost unavoidably from the scheme of theology , in conformity to which the church service has been constructed . But they exaggerate all its defects , and present them in the mcfct glaring light . The creed of St . Athanasius , or as it is styled , commonly
called' bo , everybody , but the bishops and both houses of parliament , knows St . Athanasius did not compose . This however is the base of their theory of the nature of God , and it prescribes that they * shall not confound the persons nor divide the substance ; ' an excellent provision where all appears « confusion worse confounded . * But this prescription it is impossible to follow .
Most of the prayers are justly addressed to God the Father , and entreat blessings through ' Jesus Christ our Lord , our mediator and advocate with the Father ; his only Son and our Saviour . ' In this Trinity , says this famous creed , * there is none afore nor after other , ' But the prayers give the priority to the Father , with only one precaution , whicn let the thinking and astonished world deeply ponder . In the communion service the priest is to say , It is
Untitled Article
302 Tk * Liturgy .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1833, page 302, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2614/page/14/
-