Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his Let them exalt Him in the congregation of the people, and praise THIRD EDITION, REVISED AND enlarged. LONDON: EDWARD T. WHITFIELD, 2 ESSEX STREET, STRAND. 1851. PREFACE. Or the following Liturgical Forms, the first, the third, the fifth and the seventh are the same, somewhat abbreviated and otherwise arranged, with those which were. originally prepared for a Congregation of Protestant Dissenters assembling in Mosley Street, Manchester*. The alternate Services were added to the other four, on occa * Forms of Prayer, for the Use of a Congregation of Protestant Dissenters in Manchester. New Edition. 1817.' A previous edition had been in use from the opening of the chapel in Mosley-street, about the year 1789. sion of the removal of the Congregation to a new place of worship, in Upper Brook Street in the same town, 1839. The theory of a religious service, in accordance with which these Liturgies have been framed, is this: that it should commence with the most general forms of adoration, thanksgiving, confession and intercession, adapted as nearly as possible to the wants of all human hearts when they enter into the presence of God, and expressed in language so consecrated by long and venerable usage, that it shall seem rather the breathing of our common humanity than the utterance of an individual mind; and that then, when the feelings of the congregation have been raised by these ordinary and familiar influences to a certain pitch of religious sensibility, they should be drawn on by the devotional offices of the Minister himself to a more direct sympathy with the particular train of reflection and sentiment to which it is his present intention to invite them the prayer before the sermon, as well as that which succeeds it, alike having reference to its distinguishing topics and tendency, and conspiring to fix and deepen its general impression. By such an arrangement, each part of the service may be made to harmonise with the rest, and help to produce an entire and consistent effect:the individuality of the Minister's own mind, as it glows and kindles with the progress of the service, gradually, as it were, emerging from, and prevailing over, the social character of the introductory offices, and finally pressing home to the heart in one direction and with concentrated force, the religious convictions which it has been the tendency of the whole previous service to awaken. Relieved from the necessity of continually preparing the offices of general devotion, the Minister is enabled to adapt his own prayers more completely to the subject of the ser |