Liberty under the guidance of the Holy Spirit marked the minister's use of the forms provided, and the privilege of extempore prayer was sacredly guarded, the example of Knox, as well as his precept, encouraging his brethren in the ministry to cultivate free and unrestricted prayer to God. In this matter the Church declared her belief in the Holy Ghost and in His presence with her, believing that those who were divinely called to the work of the ministry were by the Spirit of God duly equipped for the performance of the important duties of that office. Although forms of prayer were provided, these appear to have been intended mainly for the use of the Readers, who were not duly ordained to the ministerial office, and for the guidance of ministers, but IN NO PART OF PUBLIC WORSHIP APART FROM THE SACRAMENTS WAS THE MINISTER CONFINED TO THE USE OF PRESCRIBED FORMS. Even the Readers enjoyed a degree of liberty in this matter, a liberty which they exercised, as is evident from an Order of Assembly passed in the reign of James forbidding Readers to offer extemporary prayers, but requiring them to use the forms prescribed.
Lastly, in the administration of the Sacraments honor was put upon them by the care that was observed in their public, reverent and frequent observance. Simplicity marked all the service connected with these holy ordinances, while, at the same time, whatever might appear to unduly exalt them to an unscriptural position in the thoughts of men, was carefully avoided, as well in the prayers and exhortations used as in the manner of administration. The Sacraments were regarded as helps to the spiritual life of God's elect, as "medicine for the spiritually sick," and were never represented as holy mysteries into which only certain of God's children should penetrate.
If these conclusions are just, it is very evident that those who to-day advocate the introduction into Presbyterian worship of responses and prescribed forms can find no support for such a practice, however they might limit it, in Knox's Book of Common Order, or in the practice of our Scottish ancestors in this so virile and vigorous period of the Church's history. Just as little support, too, can those find who would impose upon the ministry of the Church the use of set forms from which no deviation is to be allowed either in the conduct of public worship or in the administration of the Sacraments. The most that can be argued from this ancient regulation of worship, which is much more accurately described as a Directory rather than as a Liturgy, is the desirability of a uniform order of service for the whole Church, of a due proportion of attention to each part of worship, and of the conformity by all ministers to a uniform method in the administration of the Sacraments. The Book of Common Order clearly indicates the conviction of the Scottish reformers that all things in connection with the worship of God should be done "in seemly form and according to order," and it quite as clearly indicates their purpose to acknowledge and rely upon the operation of the free Spirit of God, in the exercise of that worship and in the performance of the public ordinances in the sanctuary.
A Diet of Public Worship in the Time of Knox.
"What I have been to my country, albeit this unthankful age will not know, yet the ages to come will be compelled to bear witness to the truth."—JOHN KNOX.
Chapter IV.
A Diet of Public Worship in the Time of Knox.
A diet of worship on a Sabbath day in Scotland in the days of Knox, or in the period immediately succeeding his death, had for the people of that time a profound interest. It was a period of storm and upheaval, and the Church, with its worship and teaching, was the centre around which, in large measure, the struggles of the age gathered; and although for us these struggles are simple history, and the subjects of debate are, many of them, forever laid aside, still it is of interest to learn how a service in connection with the public worship of the day proceeded in this formative period of Presbyterian practice, when order and method were less matters of indifference than they are now.
Happily we are not left without abundant material for forming an accurate picture of a Sabbath-day service at that time, for in addition to the explicit directions contained in the Book of Common Order, there have come down to us descriptions of public worship by participants therein.