W, CotTi< Hwv25 "afemrtness jof Wmte w pntou'e to jBt&jrtion. - A ¦Q SERMON v.J. &u: r^*»*-fe*. THE REV. DR. T. W. GOIT, RECTOR OF ST. PAUL'S CHURCH, TROY, N. Y. ) TROY, N. Y.: WILLIAM H. YOUNG, 216 RIVER STREET, 1855. %mam at Wiath n Jpntate to Stiufion. SERMON BY THE REV, DR. T. W. COIT, RECTOR OF ST, PAUL'S CHURCH, TROY, N. Y. TROY, N, Y.: WILLIAM H. YOUNG, 216 RIVER STREET, 1855. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1855, ET WILLIAM H. YOUNG, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Northern District of New York. D. H. JONES 356.' 15 deep and thorough religious experience, than any of the whole one hundred and fifty. Indeed there is a vein of sameness running through all the Psalms, which proves two things, (both of which contribute' to our argument) to be undeniable. One is, that piety, even when inspired, loves not that variety which is pretended to be so necessary to piety ; for if it did, we should see far greater variety than we do. Another is, that Inspiration did not think variety so necessary to devotion ; for if it were, it would, as it migkVhave done with infinite ease, have pro vided for it more abundantly.- But, as if to demonstrate, that devotion neither loves nor requires that variety, which is contended for by the adversaries of a liturgy, the Bible, the Bible itselfj gives us but one strictly devotional'book, made up in general of very short forms ; and as if those forms were .enough for all ages, it is all of devotional composition which it gives us for two dispensations. There is but one Book of Psalms, for Gentile and for Jew.~ The New Testament • has but a few scattered .forms of devotional composition, and those almost the shortest possible. When the disciples of Christ came to him for such forms he did not give them -a book full, he gave them a solitary one ; and that so brief, that while Christ himself was satisfied with it, not a denomination of Christians under the sun, perhaps, would be content with that and that alone. But it is affirmed, the Lord's Prayer is but a model. This is not. true ; for St. Luke commands it- to be said as a form. His language is, " When ye pray, say; ",* as explicit and imperative as a rubric. vBut granting, the affirmation to be correct, nothing is clearer than that the * Luke, 11.2. 16 Lord's Prayer encourages sameness; for it is but ofte model, and not a hundred; and it is but one model for every day, since the language of the prayer itself,'-" give us- this day our daily bread^" shows that it was intended, (whether as a form or a model only,) for our daily guide. No where, however, has our Lord countenanced the idea, that sameness of language is no hindrance to devo tion, more signally than in the ease selected as a text. Never were his necessities more. pressing, never were, his feelings- more deeply wrought upon, than when the lan guage the text alludes to, fell from his sacred lips. And he was one, who might have called at will from the entire vocabulary of a language, for new forms of thought and expression, had he wanted them; since never man, (his enemies themselves attesting it,) whether orator, poet, or saint, spake as He spake.* But no. With a universe of words (if I may say so) at his command, and the fate' of a universe hanging on his action, he prays again, and again, and again; but his language is invariably the same. And never did Christ more faithfttlly exhibit his entire humanity, or the entire naturalness of his feelings, than in doing so. For feeiing, and the fountain, of feeling, the. heart, want not (as has been maintained) the variety which some appear to prize so highly ; and when moved most, -they want it least. - It is insincerity, policy, maneu^' vering, and hypocrisy, which try to, make up in words, what they want in sensibility ; it is these which are most '¦ voluble, most changeful in their language,- and which strive by ringing changes on Words, to deafen common ¦ sense. Put men in jeopardy, where the strongest- senti ment of our nature, love of life, comes into immediate ¦ action, and see how few and simple the words; they utter. ?John 7.48. ' 17 The disciples, when almost drowning, do but cry, "Lord, save us ; we perish."* But put men where they act the part of a wheedler, or an importuner, and their words are endless in number and in changes. Observe' e. g. the cir cumlocutory, cajoling address of' Tertullus, {absolutely apologizing for its own prolixity,)f when he wished the Roman Governor to issue sentence against St. Paul. Or, if you prefer a prayer to illustrate the point, (as prayer is the subject of discussion,) turn to the two prayers of the Publican and tiie Pharisee.^ The. Publican's is shorter than our shortest prayers, the Collects, so often complained of for their brevity, "God be merciful to me a sinner," is- all he says; and, as the language fairly intimates, says again and again, while he is smiting his breast for anguish. But the Pharisee has the same round-about way of getting at his subject, which characterized the orator before Felix. He absolutely tells the Deity a tale ; as, (profane though it be,) I have heard many a professed christian do, in modern extempore devotions. Not that I speak of such christians as Pharisees or hypocrites. God forbid I should impeach their sincerity ; but though they have done it thoughtlessly or in ignorance, they have done actually as the Pharisee did, held, a sort of conversation with, the Almightjr, and told him a story, But this subject bannot be examined at large, or -the Bible might be quoted too extensively. To cut it short, let me ask, Why, if incessant and elaborated variety is necessary to produce religious emotion, why is the Bible itself, (one solitary book,) all which heaven has given us for such a momentous purpose? There is less in that volume, which is for all ages and sorts and conditions of * Matt. 8.25. t Acts 21.4. , % Luke.lS.10. 18 men, than in many a Sunday School library, design!** only for children. And yet, God has thought it ample, or h.e would have given us more ; and the part intended specially for devotional feeling, was deemed so ample in the Old Testament, that it was not augmented in-the New. What does, what can this mean^ but that it is a' mistake, an entire mistake, to suppose this variety so indispensable- to sustain and perpetuate piety? "No man having drunk old wine, straightway desireth new, for he saith, The old is better."* Such is our Saviour's own solution of the case; for he is referring to a matter of religious taste, and illustrates his position by our preference for one of the articles of a banquet; — wine. He took that for an example, careless whether a rhetorician -should think it beneath the dignity of his subject, because it is beneath the comprehension of no one; and I may fearlessly venture to follow him. Most truly, brethren, our taste for luxu ries of a lower grade, is an admonition to us of the bias of the mind for luxuries addressed to the sensibilities. Those luxuries please us most, which grow richer by time ; those; please the sensibilities most, which do the same. A book that we really love becomes more precious the older it grows, and the more we peruse it ; and so it may be with a book of prayers, as well as with any other»f This is emphatically true of a volume designed not so much for the intellect, as the feelings ; as a volume of poetry^ a - selection of hymns. But a Prayer Book is not designed to demonstrate religion, like a volume of sermons, it is designed to help us act religion out, designed to guide and prompt the feelings, to direct the affections towards God ; * Luke, 5:89. I " He was never tired of hearing anything that pleased him j but would ask for it again and again." — Foster's Life and Correspondence 2,468. t 19 and such a book must become dearer and dearer to the affections, the more and the oftener they hover round it. We believe it will ever be, so — that as the affections employ again and again the same forms of devotion, they twine around them, till no forms can so interest those affections, as those with which they are , completely familiar. But this is a point which our third head will more fully illustrate. To that accordingly let us turn. III. — It is this.— The objection to a" liturgy, that same ness of language destroys devotion, is not true in the experience of those who have most overcome our nature!s defects, and best exhibited religion's excellencies. , A wider field is before us here, than under the head of discourse just concluded ; and yet time admonishes' me to be studious of brevity. But two instances therefore shall be selected, of men whose piety has rarely or never been equaled, either by churchmen, or their adversaries. Those two are George Herbert and Richard Baxter ; the one a steady and unblenGhing advocate of the Church of England, the other an equally steady and unblenching nonconformist. WhemHerbert lay upon the pillow of a death-bed, he was visited by a clergyman sent by one of his nearest and dearest friends, to give him spiritual consolation, and to carry-away a true report of his bodily health and state of mind. "Sir," said the dying* Saint to him, "I see by your habit" that you are. a priest, and I desire you to pray with me." And when the question was put in answer, "What prayers?" he exclaimed,' "0 sir, the prayers of my mother the Church of England, no otheiNprayers are equal to them ! but at this time I beg you to pray only the Litany, for I am weak and faint."* * Walton's Lives, 2.202. 20 Baxter lived to the age of -seventy-six, and his life was a zealous warfare against bishops and liturgies ; yet when he was approaching the portals of the eternal world, - candor drew from him the following remarkable con fession. " "And now," he says, "it is the fundamental. doctrines, ol\ the Catechism which I most highly value, and daily think of, and find most useful to myself and others. The Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Com mandments, do find me now the most acceptable and plentiful matter for all my meditations. They are to me as my daily bread and drink ;- and as I can speak and write of them over and- over again, so I had rather read or hear of them, than of any of the school niceties which once so much pleased me. And thus I observed it was with old Bishop Usher, and many other men."* t As Baxter has alluded to a contemporary, I will tres pass upon my plan so far as to add the words of Richard Watson, just before his departure, (the- greatest name in the , annals of Methodism, Wesley himself hardly ex cepted.) "Read," said he, "the Te Deum, it seems to unite one in spirit with the whole Catholic church in earth and in heaven."f Here, brethren, you have the dying testimony of men, whose piety has received the highest commendation^ within and without our communion ; and, as you per ceive, it is singularly illustrative,- in each case, of the position for which I have contended, that sameness of words hinders not piety when it is genuine, nay the rather helps it, the deeper and more staid that piety becomes. It is not in the outset of their career, when * Prac. IVks. 8,vo ed. 1.TT3. Sylvester's Baxter. Pt. I. 12d. t Ohapin's New Enq. reviewod. p. 24, 21 their piety required attestation and strength, that Herbert and. -Baxter say, that the most familiar language of religion ; is their souls' best nourishment. It is in then* latest, soberest, most solemn and heavenly hours of contem plation; when their spirits were lingering around these mortal shores, and about stretching their pinions for a flight to Paradise. Such examples cannot be gainsayed. They cannot be doubted by candor, or by charity. The sternest logic cannot frown them away. They are results in the experience of the heart, as immutable as the laws of Nature, and as plain in their bearing. Most exquisitely does the great epic poet of Rome teach the immortality of a profound attachment, when he repre sents one pf his dying heroes, dwelling with his latest recollections upon the beloved homo of his childhood.* So these holy men, when about leaving the world forever, went back to, and dwelt upon, forms pf religion conse crated from infancy ; and to you, my brethren, at the same momentous crisis of your career, I cannot wish a sweeter solace than a Litany or a Catechism can afford you, plain enough for children as you may account them now. Be encouraged and cheered, and assured then, by such examples and reasonings as have been laid before you, to confront the cavils, the censures, or the. sneers, with which the sameness of our Liturgy is (or rather has been) so often assailed. Time fails me when I 'think-, how such examples and reasonings might be supported by argument,, on two more topics which were assigned to .tins discussion, but which must "now be abandoned, viz., the nature of prayer itself, as an exercise not for exciting the mind into enthusiasm, but for subduing it into reverence, humility, * Anejd 10,TS2, 22 repenitcnce apd , tenderness ; and also the fact, that th'e objection founded on sameness lies about as directly against' extempore as against liturgical devotions — these devotions soon running into the same channels of . thought, and by and by, of expression also;* But I must pass such considerations over, to remind you, in concluding, how piety depends far less upon ex citement than upon principle ; and that the present age will discover this sooner or later to its sorrow and its shame. Excitement, excitement, is now theory, and that religion which will not furnish it, is ruled out of regard, as flat, and tame, and spiritless. The Bible itself is grown old-fashioned; and the Prayer Book at last complained of, (a complaint which, battered as the book has been, I * As these points of the discourse were not enlarged upon, I had intended to add something respecting them in a note or two. But a discovery of the following language, from a Presbyterian or Independent, in the New York Evangelist for Nov. 9, 1843, has , lei me to believe, th.it it will accomplish all I could do, and even more. Without offer ing any thing of my own, I may therefore adopt this writer's language, "I have qvtiteCL enough to answer my purpose." "Presbyterian Forms of Prater. — Presbyterians, in common with many other de- ' nominations, object to forms of prayer, such as are used in the service of the Episcopal church- The arguments which they urge against their use.it is unnecessary to repeat T at tli is time, as they are well known to intelligent Christians in all our churches, Suf fice it to say, that in our opinion, forms of prayer are far from being scriptural or best adapted to promote devotion. But my object now is not to attack this branch of Epis copalian practice, but to draw attention to a practical evil as it exists in churches which' reject stated forms. It consists in (he reiteration uf certain words and phrases to an extent almost sufficient to justify the Episcopalian in answering ou.* argument against the prayer book, hy quoting the ancient proverb " Physician heal thyself. " Many Christians through inadvertence suffer their thoughts to be nearly always ex pressed in the same way, and thus their prayers seem to have been committed to mem ory from some esteemed model. For illustration : how often do we hear members of our churches, always address God by the same titie without variation. The prayer always commences, " unchangeably great, and glorious God !" Ac, Ac. Now that to which we object is not the expression, but the invariabieness with which it is used^ So as the pniyer proceeds, we know what to expect, for the brother never leads our devotions , without saying that " weueserve to be made as miserable as we have made ourselves ' sinful," that we " thank God for not casting us off, as he has many who were as good , by nature, and far better by practice, than ourselves ;" that " we would enter into a covenant never to be broken, never to be forgotten," and asking that " sinners may be convicted and converted," that "multitudes may be heard inquiring the way to Z'on, with their faces thitherward," that " the Lord would comfort poor mourners," that sal vation may run down our streets like a flood," that the Lord would " bless all for whom we are in duty bound to pray," Ac, Ac., together with the quotation of the same pas sages of scripture on every occasion, such as " thou hast said, when two or three are gathered together in thy name, Ac," asking for the coming of the time "when no man -shall say to his neighbor, know thou the Lord," Ac. I misfit mention numerous other words and phrases which are heard, over and over again, in our prayer meetings, tut I have quoted enough to anjwer my purpose." 23 did think it would, escape forever,) at last complainod of, -because it is all out of the Bible, and has nothing new in it.* 0 my brethren it was an excitement, and just such an excitement as this age pants for, which 'crucified the Lord of Glory. The shout of the people carried a Redeemer to his cross. And it may crucify him yet .' again, if already it has not begun such a heaven-daring crime. Value such excitement less, as you would enjoy that golden gift of your religion, a peace whicli passeth all understanding. . How calm, placid, unenthusiastic, is the spirit of your Redeemer's prayer 1 How next to im possible would it be to obtain a shout, nay a murmur of approbation, for that foremost of all prayers ever given for a disciple of Christ! But did not Christ know best what temper he wanted in his followers — what spirit he would have his religion breathe into their souls ? Be content then, to be as calm, and meek, and gentle, as he wishes. In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength.f A quiet and never slackening use of the means of grace, shall make you meet for the inheritance of the saints in light, faster than the endless experiments', of an age gone mad for novelties. A quiet faith, quiet prayers, and a quiet conscience, shall be you? best pass port to a hopeful grave and to the gates of Heaven. Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and tq, present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God— our Saviour — be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen. * A complaint actually encountered by me, in my parochial rounds. Of course not ' a fancy, but a fact. tlsa. 30.15.