PREFACE.

THE following course of Lectures will be found to contain scriptural proofs, and practical illustrations, of the whole service of the Litany,-a service which, happily and instructively, combines the actual circumstances, and wants, and duties of all classes of mankind, with all the vital doctrines of Christianity. In submitting these Lectures to the public, the Author is not without a hope that they may prove as useful to others as he may be permitted to trust they have been, with the divine blessing, to his own flock. He will be amply compensated, if they have but the effect of imparting a new interest to this beautiful portion of our Church service, and induce others to examine it more minutely and profitably for themselves.

Such an attempt to prove the pure and scriptural doctrines embodied in the Ritual of our Church appears to be the more called for at the present eventful period, when attempts are so perseveringly made to misrepresent and traduce her;

when the most opposite and mutually intolerant sects combine to subvert her.

The Author has throughout, as far as the several subjects permitted, endeavoured to express himself with that simplicity which, without giving offence to the more educated reader, will render his work intelligible and acceptable to that class of persons, for whom, more especially, the Lectures were originally written, and to whom principally they were preached. Should his attempt be received in the spirit in which it is made, it is his intention, at no distant period, to submit to the public some further illustrations of the Church of England's venerable and incomparable Liturgy.

STIFFORD RECTORY,

Nov. 10, 1837.

VILLAGE LECTURES.

PART I.

INVOCATION.

LECTURE I.

O God the Father, of heaven:

O God the Son, Redeemer of the world:

O God the Holy Ghost, proceeding from the Father and the Son :

O holy, blessed, and glorious Trinity, three Persons, and one God:

Have mercy upon us, miserable sinners.

THE Litany, though obscured sometimes by peculiarity of language, and though still less generally understood from (what is too common) a mere mechanical repetition of it, must be classed among the most plain and practical of all human compositions. It takes for granted the worshipper's belief in all the doctrines introduced, and it introduces all the doctrines of the Gospel. Assuming this belief, it brings into activity such of those doctrines as are of a practical tendency; connecting with them in detail the actual wants, and sins,

B

and duties of every-day life, the circumstances of Christ's universal Church upon earth, of our own Church in particular, of ourselves individually as members, of "all nations," Christian or heathen. It is general, yet personal; comprehensive, yet short; impassioned, yet humble; profound, yet simple.

The substance of our Litany (or, as the word signifies, general supplication) was embodied in that of Gregory the Great*. Ours comes nearer to this than that in the present Roman missal, into which later popes have introduced the invocation of saints and other errors, all which our reformers have rightly expunged. In its present state, it may fairly be considered, both with respect to purity of doctrine, to energy and sublimity of devotion, and, at the same time, in general simplicity and usefulness, unsurpassed by anything short of inspiration.

* This bishop of the Church of Rome, which had already fallen into many of its present errors, is thought by some to have been mainly instrumental in first introducing Christianity into these islands; but it is important to observe at the present moment, when our adversaries are laying so much stress upon the argument, that (as has been clearly demonstrated) the British Church is as ancient as the Roman, having been founded by St. Paul himself; and that St. Augustine and the other emissaries of the Church of Rome only intruded upon and usurped the labours of the old national clergy.— See an excellent pamphlet, entitled The Antiquities of the Church of England, by Rev. M. W. Foye, 1837; also, Tracts by the Bishop of St. David's.