puritans at Hampton Court, "as soundly as ye have done the papists.-If this be all they have to say, I'll make them conform, or I'll harry them out of this land, or else worse." At the Savoy conference similar circumstances produced the same pertinacity of conduct; and at the period of the Revolution, when the last grand attempt was made on this subject, the result was equally unsuccessful, though some of the most eminent divines and distinguished prelates of our church were zealously engaged in promoting its accomplishment. It was during this eventful period that some new Collects were composed, more adapted to the Epistles and Gospels of the day, and various other alterations were suggested as improvements of the Liturgy. The first draught of the Collects was made by Patrick, who possessed a peculiar talent for composing prayers; energy and spirit were infused by Burnet; Stillingfleet examined every word with the exactest judgment; and Tillotson gave the last polish by the free and masterly touches of his natural and flowing eloquence. Kidder made a new version of the Psalms, which is said to have been more conformable to the original; and Tenison collected all the words and expressions throughout the Liturgy that had been excepted against, and proposed others in their room which were either more clear and plain, or less liable to objection.* How much is it to be regretted that such documents, the production of men so admirably qualified for the task, were rejected by the ruling powers of the day, and probably consigned to oblivion. But, alas! the spirit of the times was unfavourable for such an undertaking; and the Revolution itself had communicated a fresh impulse to unkind and party feeling. And thus, from the time of the Reformation to the present period, a variety of extraneous circumstances have invariably prevented the completion of that great work, which was so happily commenced and so far effected by our Reformers. *See Birch's Life of Tillotson. But surely "now it is high time to awake out of sleep," to shake off that lethargic spirit, and abandon that pertinacious retention of usages, venerable merely for their antiquity, which have so long crippled the Establishment and disfigured the beauty of its Services. And surely never was there a period when a dispassionate but thorough revisal of the Liturgy was so imperiously demanded. The increasing number, influence, and respectability of our dissenting brethren; the increasing requests of the best friends and firmest adherents of the Established Church; and the increasing facilities which every rank in society now possesses for canvassing the excellencies and defects of established institutions, and the improvements of which they are susceptible, demand it at our hands. The circumstances too, and the temper of the present times, are remarkably favourable for such an undertaking. All civil disabilities are now removed from every denomination of Christians. Public men are disposed to lay aside their party feelings and political prejudices, in order that they may co-operate with each other in the great work of temperate and prudent reform. The episcopal bench contains men not less distinguished for talent and learning than for indubitable integrity and ardent zeal for the advancement of religion. We have bishops inferior to none of the Reformers in piety, superior to them all in literary attainments, and (without eulogizing our present prelates, or detracting from the well-earned honour of their predecessors) abundantly better qualified to revise and complete our Liturgy than those who originally framed it. To suppose, indeed, that our Reformers retained no taint of the superstitions of that communion from which they had just separated, would be to expect to find them more than men-in short, prophets and apostles under the immediate and infallible influence of the Holy Ghost; or to maintain, that theologians of the present day had on no subjects more distinct and comprehensive views of religion than their forefathers, would be to assert that the world was stationary upon the highest attainable ground, and that all the united lucubrations of the most eminent divines during the lapse of three centuries, had been utterly useless. The fact is, that, partly from the peculiar character of their times, which rendered every unnecessary deviation from the Church of Rome inexpedient,* and partly from the Reformers themselves being undecided on some important topics in which Protestants have long since been agreed, a slight tinge of popish superstition will occasionally be discovered in their writings. Quo semel est imbuta recens servabit odorem Whether it would be desirable to apply for a commission from the Crown, for the * During the whole of Edward's reign, Cranmer, who had the principal direction of ecclesiastical affairs, experienced such continual opposition from Gardiner and the leaders of the popish party, that he deemed it advisable to proceed in the work of the Reformation by gradual advances and by movements as imperceptible as possible. |