prayer in the closet does not possess in an equal degree. All the charities of life are the proper fruits of general association in rendering homage to the beneficent Father of the human race; nor is it credible that any one who habitually joins with others in the practice of this duty, should be totally insensible to the additional obligation under which he is laid thereby to abstain from whatever would bring discredit on his Christian profession. We readily admit that it is liable to be perverted and misapplied. As it is a powerful instrument of good, so is it of evil also, though in an inferior degree; for the best things are subject to the greatest abuse. But this is equally true of public teaching in any way, as well as of every other religious and moral duty; and if we are to reject any practice, because it has been abused and perverted to evil purposes, we shall retain nothing that is excellent and good. To argue against public worship appears to us to be opposing the best interests, the morals, the civilization, the good order of society, the present and ete hal welfare of mankind. The dispute seems to resolve itself into the question, Whether religion be the friend or enemy of man: and as we have no doubt that religion is of the first importance to his welfare, inasmuch as it is the best and only sure foundation of universal virtue, we are of opinion that the efforts of the opponents of social worship are aimed, and aimed only, at what is most valuable to the human race. Hence this

H

duty has the sanction of antiquity, as well as of all modern practice among Christians. The Hebrews, from the infancy of their nation, were accustomed to it. Prayer was a companion of sacrifice. It formed a part of their worship in the Temple, the whole of which was public and social. From the Temple it was transferred to the Synagogue, where, as there was no sacrifice, it formed the chief part of their religious services, and was offered in a form the most social that can be devised. These services Christ himself and his apostles regularly attended, and by this means at least expressed their approbation of social worship in some form or other, leaving the use of liturgies or free prayer to the discretion and judgement of the worshiper. Besides this, instances are mentioned in the gospels, in which Christ on other occasions prayed in society, and there are some in which his approbation of this custom is implied. Various passages have also been quoted, which prove that social prayer was the common and habitual practice of the apostles and first Christians in general; and from the unexceptionable testimony of the earliest and most respectable writers immediately succeeding the apostolic age, it is also indisputable that in their time this custom universally prevailed in the Christian churches. The manner in which it was conducted bore a striking resemblance to that of the Synagogue, which shows its origin to have been from thence. From that time to this it has

continued to be the uniform practice of Christians of all parties, however opposite in other instances their opinions, and whatever may have been their animosities. It has therefore the clear sanction of the religion we profess, not less than of reason. It has grown with the growth of Christianity; has accompanied with equal steps its progress through the civilized world; and so long as this pure and benevolent system of faith and practice shall retain its hold on the minds of mankind, we have no fear of its decline. To endeavour to root it out from society, or perceptibly diminish the numbers that attend upon it, is an attempt as idle and fruitless as shooting straws against a rock, or trying to overturn a mountain with a lever.

APPENDIX.

No. 1.

As the Mishnah and Talmudical writers have been mentioned in the preceding Treatise, the following account of both may be acceptable to readers who have not had an opportunity of attending to these subjects.

The Mishnah arose out of the following circumstances: The Jews had a tradition that Moses just before his death delivered to the people, not only thirteen copies of the written law, but numerous interpretations of it, which they called the oral law; and which they said was delivered down with great care by Joshua to the elders that followed him, who delivered

it again to the prophets, till it came at length to Ezra and the members of the great Synagogue, &c. But the truth of the matter is, says Prideaux, that after the death of Simon the Just, 292 years before Christ, there arose a sort of men called the Mishnacal Doctors, who made it their business to study and descant upon those traditions which had been received and allowed by Ezra and the men of the great Synagogue, and who drew inferences of consequence from them, all which they had ingrafted into the body of their ancient traditions, as if they had been as authentic as the others; which example being followed by those who succeeded them in this profession, they continually added their own imaginations to what they had received from those who went before them, whereby these traditions became like a great snow-ball,—the further they rolled from one generation to another, the more they gathered, and the greater the bulk of them grew. And thus it went on to the middle of the second century after Christ, when Antoninus Pius governed the Roman empire; by which time they found it necessary to put all these traditions into writing, for they were grown so numerous that it became no longer possible for the human memory to retain them. This work was assigned to, and executed by, Rabbi Judah, called Hakkadash, that is holy, who was then rector of their school at Tiberias in Galilee, and president of the Sanhedrim which sat at that place. He undertook and compiled this work in six books, each consisting of several tracts, in all sixty-three; and in which, under proper heads, was arranged all that had been delivered to them of their law and their religion by their ancestors. This is the book called the Mishnah. This book has always been held in the highest veneration by the Jews, as of equal or even superior authority to the Scriptures. It immediately became the study of all their learned men; and the chief of them, both in Judea and Babylonia, employed themselves in making comments upon it; and these comments, together with the Mishnah itself, make up both the Talmuds; that is, the Jerusalem and the Babylonian Talmud. The comments they call the Gamara, that is, the Complement. The Jerusalem Talmud was completed about the year of our Lord 300, and is published in one large folio. The Babylonian Talmud was published about 200 years afterwards, in the beginning of the sixth century. The last edition, published at Amsterdam, is in twelve folios. This latter is that which is chiefly followed by them, on

account of the obscurity of the other. These are the most ancient books the Jews have, except the Chaldee Paraphrase of Onkelos and Jonathan, written about the year 145, and both of them in the language and style of Judea. Out of the Babylonian Talmud Maimonides has made an abstract, containing only the resolutions and determinations made therein on every case, without the descants, disputes, fables, and other trash, under which they lay buried in a load of rubbish. This is one of the completest digests of the law ever made; and for this and other of his writings, he is deservedly esteemed the best writer among them. Prideaux's Connexion, part i. book v. p. 325. We are justified, therefore, in saying that the Mishnah, having been compiled about the year of Christ 150,— though containing a collection of absurd and fabulous traditions, in a matter of fact, like that of the antiquity of the 18 prayers, is sufficient authority. And if these prayers were old established forms about 120 years after the death of Christ, there can be no doubt of their being in use during his life.

No. 2.

THE following translation of the prayer "Cadish❞ may also be acceptable to the English reader.

Let his great name be magnified and hallowed in the world which he hath created according to his own good pleasure, and may he cause his kingdom to rule. May his redemption flourish, and may his Messiah suddenly come, and deliver his people in your life and in your days, and in the life of all the house of Israel, and that very speedily. And say ye, Amen, Amen, let his great name be blessed for ever and ever. Let his name be celebrated, and his memorial exalted perpetually, and to all eternity. Celebrated, praised, honoured, exalted, lifted up, reverenced, extolled, and proclaimed be the name of the Holy and Blessed One, far above all blessing, and singing, and praise, and gratulation, that are used in the world. And say ye, Amen. Receive our prayers with mercy and favour. Let the prayers and desires of all Israel be accepted before their Father who is in heaven; and say ye, Amen. Let the name of the Lord be blessed from this time even for ever. Let great peace from heaven, and life, be upon us and upon Israel; and say ye, Amen.

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