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Psalm tunes were not taught, and organs and other instruments of music were an abomination. I remember myself to have seen some pious people leave the meetinghouse because the 148th psalm was sung to the tune of Lenox. But they can now have singing schools, learn the gayest tunes, use organs and other instruments of music-Stanhole and Hopkins is laid aside; Tate and Braidy is laid aside Watts is almost laid aside : Barlow is laid aside and Dwight is now in fashion. Once I never heard a chapter read in one of their meeting-houses in my life; now they generally read one or two chapters on each Sunday; but mind, it is by no stated rule; they read such chapters as they please: and no two of them read the same chapter at the same time. Once I never saw a clerical dress upon one of their ministers; now they frequently wear gowns and bands, and you can hardly distinguish them from those who are really in the holy orders. Once it was offensive to call their meeting-houses churches; now they call them churches, and talk of going to church, when they mean meeting. Once I never heard a speech made by them at the grave, on a funeral occasion: now it is not uncommon. Once I never heard of baptism or the communion administered in a private house, even to a sick person, among them and now it is sometimes done. Once I never heard of their administering the communion at their associations: and now it is sometimes done and now I understand they begin to ordain their Deacons. Once their ministers did not baptize nor administer the sacrament out of their own parishes; and now I understand they do both. Once they objected to the celebration of our Saviour's nativity on Christmas; now they begin to open their meeting-houses for worship on that day. Once they appointed their fasts in the spring, on Easter week, when all the rest of the Christian world were rejoicing at the resurrection of our Saviour: now they, with us, appoint their fasts on Good Friday, which is the day when our Saviour was crucified. Once they objected to kneeling in prayer, even in their family wor ship: now they begin to practice it. And now they bogin to keep holy Sunday night, which once they did not

And there is hardly any thing in which they have not been given to change; and we are commanded not to meddle with them that are given to change.

In the Episcopal Church we think it our duty to have our sacrifice of prayer, praise, adoration, and thanksgiving, prepared beforehand; that it be neither maimed, nor halt, nor blind; but that it be founded on the authority of God's word, and the best reason of mankind; that it be perfect as human language can make it; that it be well understood and duly consecrated; that each one present should take a public, active, audible and visible part in it; that it be offered in the Church and elsewhere, upon the alter of our hearts, and consumed with the fire of love to God and good will to men, and in unison with the rest of the Christian world. In the Episcopal Church, the worship of God contains every thing which the Christian Religion requires it to contain: it is contained in language which every one can understand, and offered in such a manner that every man, woman and child, who can speak, may speak, and ought to take a public, active, and audible part in it. Every minister is obliged to begin the public worship of God with some sentences of the Holy Scriptures and that they may all, in every part of the state, nation, country and world, begin in the same way and with the same words at the same time, they are selected and placed in the beginning of the daily morning and evening service in the prayer-book; and so soon as the minister thus begins, the whole congregation is required to rise and stand. The minister always begins with the Holy Scriptures, to shew that they are the foundation of his religion, the rule of his faith and conduct. The people arise and stand, to show how wllling they are to receive the word of God, and to go any where, and to do any thing to obey it, as their rising and standing naturally shew. The minister is then required to read slowly, audibly,distinctly and understandingly, a solemn exhortation, founded upon the Holy Scriptures, pointing out the different parts of public worship, which they are then met together to perform, solemnizing their minds that they should not utter any thing hastily before God and exhorting them

to join with a pure heart and humble voice in what follows. The minister and all the congregation are then required to kneel down devoutly upon their knces, and make a humble confession of their sins before God and one another. The minister says, Almighty and most merciful Father: the whole congregation repeat the same words after him with a loud but humble voice. He then says, We have erred and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep: the whole congregation repeat the same words with a loud but humble voice. He says, We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts: the whole congregation repeat it after him, &c. In this way there is a general and public confession made of all our sins, both original and actual, made in such general terms, that there is no son nor daughter of the human race who cannot conscientiously join in it and it is so particular that each one may and ought to apply it to his own case. God has sworn by himself, that at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess. Here, in the Episcopal Church, every knee, ministers and people, of all nations, countries and languages in all the world, does bow, and every tongue does confess. St. Paul says, "with the heart man believeth unto righte ousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation; intimating that it was as necessary for mankind to confess with their mouths unto salvation, as it was to believe in their hearts unto righteousness. After the confession, the priest is required to arise and declare to the congregation, still kneeling, the glad tidings of the Gospel in the forgiveness of our sins, for the everlasting comfort and consolation of God's people. He declares, that " Almighty God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ will pardon and absolve all those who truly repent, and unfeignedly believe his holy Gospel." Having humbly confessed their sins, and having heard God's merciful forgiveness pronounced by the proper officer; they are now prepared to call upon him in prayer, as their Father, not only by creation and preservation, but by reconciliation. The minister shall then kneel, and with the congregation lift up his voice aloud, and with one accord, in the Lord's prayer, which contains, in few words, all the

real wants of mankind, founded upon the Christian principle of forgiveness; that God would forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us: we pray for our daily bread, which embraces all the comforts of this life; we pray that his kingdom may come, and his will be done on earth as it is in heaven, which embraces all the means of grace in this world, and the hope of glory in the world to come. After the Lord's prayer, which our blessed Saviour has positively and expressly commanded, Luke xi. 2, that when we did pray we should say. We then pray for divine assistance, and then the minister and all the congregation arise, and standing, he says, Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; that is, glory, honor, praise and thanksgiving, be to God the Father for creating us, to God the Son for redeeming us, and to God the Holy Ghost for inspiring the Holy Scriptures, for sanctifying our natures, and fitting us for God's holy worship and service. The congregation, with one voice say aloud, As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end; that is, as there was glory, honor, praise and thanksgiving, in the Jewish Church, so there is now in the Christian Church, and there ever shall be in the Church triumphant in Heaven. Then shall be said or sung to the glory, honor and praise of God, a portion of the psalms of David, as it is appointed; so that every minister and congregation shall worship God in the same Psalms at the same time. The minister reads or sings one verse, and the congregation the next; and so on till the psalm or portion of psalms is ended; when the minister shall say, as before, Glory be to the Father, &c. and the congregation again say, As it was in the beginning, &c. Here I would observe one thing, which is very remarkable, and which it is probable, that not one person in three thousand in this country ever thought of, viz. that in all the Bible, from the beginning of Genesis to the end of the Revelations, there is not so much as one verse that is in rhyme or metre. I have read the Bible in English, Latin, Greek, and part of it in He-. brew, and have never been able to discover one verse which was in rhyme on metre; and there is no account

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that the Patriarchs, or Noah, David, or the Prophets; there is no account that our Saviour, or the Apostles.or Primitive Christians ever did worship God in this way.The song of Meses and Miriam, the psalms of David, the hymns and spiritual songs in the New Testament, are in prose. The art of poetry, in metre and rhyme, in the time of our Saviour, and in the time of the Phrophets, was in the highest state of perfection. Homer and Ovid, and Virgil and Horace, are now studied in all our colleges; and the heathen, who used to worship Gods of their own invention and making, used to worship them in rhyme and in metre ; but those who worshipped the true God, always worshipped him in prose; and in the Episcopal Church it is now enjoined upon us, that we shall say or sing the Psalm in prose, and in this way there is no one but can join in the sacrifice; for if he cannot sing he can read; and if he cannot read, he can learn by heart; and if he cannot learn by heart, he can say as other folks do. The whole book of Psalms is divided into thirty portions, so that it will be read through once in every month, and each minister and people read the same portion at the same time. The New Testament is read through twice every year, and most of the Old Testament once every year; and it is so ordered that every minister shall read the same chapters at the same time. My limits will not permit me to explain the whole worship of God in the Episcopal Church. I can only say, that there are good and important reasons for eaery part of it. The Christian Church was not left as the world was before it was made, without form, and void, and darkness was upon it, but it is reduced to a regular system.

As we expect our bodies and souls to be glorified together, it is proper that we should worship God with our bodies as well as with our souls. The church, in her worship requires three postures of body, viz. standing, sitting and kneeling, and these should express the inward feelings and sensations of the heart. When we stand, it is to shew that our hearts are elevated in praise and adoration; when we sit, it is to shew that we are receiving instruction from our Heavenly Father; when we kneel, it is to shew our humility and our dependence

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