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SERMON III.

COMMON PRAYER.

PART I. ON THE TEMPER OF MIND PROPER FOR THE HOUSE OF PRAYER.

JOHN iv. 24.

God is a spirit: and they who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

IN setting forth the claims of the English Church to the attachment and strict conformity of her members, which is the immediate object of these discourses, as well as in recommending the Scriptural character of her ordinances to the candid consideration of those by whom that title is disclaimed, it would be doing less than justice to her admirable Liturgy if we did not make it the subject of a separate examination. It is by this, perhaps, more than by any other characteristic, that the Church of England is generally known and distinguished. It is therefore very important that so marked and peculiar a feature should be seen from the first, fully and correctly.

I propose to treat the subject practically: that is to say, as it involves a question of duty, in reference to existing circumstances and actual wants. I shall, therefore, hope to be excused if I commence with a few words on the feelings and views with which, as I think, the inquiry should be prosecuted.

In the words addressed by the Samaritan woman to our Lord, we have a striking instance of the perplexity

occasioned, even in a worldly mind, by opposing systems of worship, each advancing exclusive pretensions, and alleging plausible reasons in their support. "Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship'." Here is a natural prepossession in favour of a local and hereditary practice, met by the claims of a rival scheme, supported by many evident proofs, and recommended by the most respectable authority. In referring this national controversy to the decision of a Jewish doctor, however surprised by his courtesy and encouraged by his condescension, "a woman of Samaria," could hardly have anticipated an answer favourable to her own views. What could be expected from a Jew, however gentle and amiable in his personal character, but a re-assertion of that uncompromising creed which excluded her countrymen from the covenant of promise, as heretics and schismatics, almost as heathens and as strangers? But he was a prophet with whom she spake, though he came from Jerusalem; and an openness to receive conviction on reasonable grounds seems to mark her conduct throughout the whole of the transaction. Our Saviour does not resolve her doubts by involving both systems in a common censure, or even by representing them both as similarly abrogated. "Woman, believe me," thus the mysterious stranger replies, "the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not what we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews." As if he had said, salvation does indeed originate with God's ancient people, but it will now go forth into the world in a manner equally unexpected and

1 John iv. 19, 20.

surprising, through the establishment of a comprehensive dispensation, intended for all mankind. "The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him." The time has arrived, when the narrow household of faith, of which Jerusalem is the centre, shall be expanded into a universal Church, characterized by a spiritual worship, corresponding to the nature of that Being to whom it is addressed. "God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth'."

Alas! the contest between Gerizim and Jerusalem is still unsettled. On the one hand we have arbitrary modes of worship, wilfully set up, and resolutely maintained, till at length they have grown into fixed institutions, upholden by a faithful band of hereditary adherents, many of whom evidently content themselves with the Samaritan plea, "We serve God as we have been taught by our fathers. They had doubtless good reasons for what they did, and we, their descendants, do well to walk in their steps." Be it so. We admit your principle; we have no quarrel with your feeling. Only follow up the same reasoning a little further, and we are content to abide the issue. If your fathers had thought as you do, they would never have been the authors of a separating Church. They would have continued to worship at Jerusalem.

On the other hand, there are those who contend that the form of worship which they observe is of divine appointment; that they occupy a peculiar position, and are favoured with exclusive privileges. And if, as all external evidence goes to prove, the temple in which

1 John iv. 19-24.

they offer up their prayers prayers be indeed situated on the holy hill of God; if it be the same in which the Lord has declared that he will dwell, and which should be called a "house of prayer," unto all nations, who shall discredit their claim? "Salvation is of the Jews." The means of grace are confided to the visible Church. But is it the form of godliness on which we rely? Is it a mere framework of ordinances which we regard with so much reverence, and preserve with so much jealous care? God forbid. We believe that to these externals there is attached a worship of spirit and of truth;-not by man's wisdom, but by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God;-of God, the loving Father of our spirits, who in this, his own good way, is seeking the true worshippers from every nation under heaven, that he may gather them into one. We believe that "the desire of all nations has come, and has filled his latter house with glory'."

Let it not be thought that in thus classing the Dissenter with the worshippers on Mount Gerizim, the Churchmen with those who worshipped at Jerusalem, I display an uncharitable or a presumptuous spirit. It is not my meaning to set a mark of reprobation on the one, while I fix the seal of divine favour on the other. I would rather set forth the palliating circumstances, amounting almost to a justification, under which the first perseveres in the religion of his fathers,-the faith of his childhood; admitting, to a certain extent, both the soundness of his principle and the reasonableness, the propriety of his feeling; while I warn the other of the peculiar danger of his position, bidding him remember that the sign of his profession, though in one sense "outward and

visible," is still of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter only," whose praise is not of men, but of God'." Oh! that they might be brought together in one! Oh! that each might discern in this very parallel, and in the divine words with which it is introduced to our notice, the method and terms of reconciliation! Let the Dissenter admit that though "it is the Spirit that quickeneth," it has yet pleased the great Head of the Church to connect his Gospel with a visible ministration, appointed by himself;-let but the Churchman feel that "the letter killeth," and that the true worshippers whom the Father seeketh, are those who " worship in spirit and in truth :” -let both confess, that all sectarian distinctions, whether connected with Gerizim or Jerusalem, have been abolished, and that the "true worshippers" are one Church; and we may yet "take sweet counsel together, and walk in the house of God as friends"."

But between the confirmed Dissenter, and the decided Churchman, there are found a number of religious inquirers, perhaps a considerable proportion of what is called, strangely, yet not inappropriately, "the religious world," whom it is my more immediate purpose to address.

Multitudes of Christian people, so accounted by their neighbours, and far be it from me to give them a less charitable appellation, to whom the nature of a Church in the abstract is unknown, and Church communion, in a strict sense, disregarded, are in anxious search for "a place of worship," where they may meet with such an exhibition of doctrine, as may correspond with their notions of scriptural truth, and such a system of devotional exercise, as may fulfil their expectations of spiritual edification. In their own phrase, they are ready to go wherever

1 Rom. ii. 29.

Psalm Lv. 14.