ABSTRACT
Walter Steuart of Pardovin discussed the worship and discipline of the Church of Scotland in a treatise published in 1709. He clearly viewed the Westminster Directory as setting the standard for worship. The usual morning service, according to Steuart, after a solemn call to worship of the great name of God, should begin with prayer by the minister.4 Reading of scripture – a chapter from each Testament – should follow, and then lecturing on the readings. Psalms are then sung, followed by public prayer before the sermon, the sermon, prayer after the sermon, a psalm, the Lord’s Prayer as an option, and then the ‘Ministerial Blessing’. John Anderson drew attention to the fact that the General Assembly of 1705 had recommended the observing of the Westminster Directory, and gave a hypothetical prayer after a sermon on the doctrine of absolute election:
O God we thank thee that Thou hast Predestinated Us unto the Adoption of Children by Jesus Christ to thy Selfe, according to the Good pleasure of thy Will, to the Praise and Glory of thy Grace, whereby Thou hast made us accepted in the Beloved; & hast from the Beginning chosen us to Salvation through Sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the Truth. Thou mightest have designed Us for Vessels of Wrath, as Thou didst the fallen Angels, and then we had eternally undone without all possible Remedy. There was Nothing in us to move Thee when we lay all together in the general heap of Mankind. It was Thy own free Grace and Bounty, that made Thee to take Delight in us, to chuse us from the Rest, and to severe [sic] us from the many Thousands in the World who
shall perish everlastingly. Give us Grace we beseech Thee, that we may give all Diligence to make our Calling and Election sure.5
