if we leave off to do evil, and learn, under His Teaching and Guiding by His HOLY SPIRIT and His Revealed Word, to do well.

And hath Given Power and Commandment to His Ministers to declare and pronounce to His People, being penitent, the Absolution and Remission of their sins:

CHRIST, when on Earth, Gave express Power and Commandment to His Apostles to grant or withhold Absolution, Saying, Go ye into all Nations, Baptizing them in The Name of The LORD JESUS! And Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are Remitted unto them; and Whosesoever sins ye retain, they are Retained. But This He did, Knowing, that they would be especially Guided in the exercise of such discretionary power by the Illuminating Influence of The HOLY SPIRIT, Which was shortly afterwards and Signally Cast upon them. The present Ministers of the Church have power and Commandment, from the very nature of their office, to declare and pronounce Absolution from the Punishment of sin, and the bondage of Satan, through the Efficacy of CHRIST's Atoning Sacrifice; but this only to the truly Penitent and Believing, in whom is that vital faith, which worketh by repentance not to be repented of; for as the Minister goes on to say-

HE Pardoneth and Absolveth All Them, that truly repent, and unfeignedly believe His Holy Gospel.

In conformity therefore with the whole tenour of The DIVINE Revelation to Man, and consistently with the combined Object of GOD in Man's Creation, Redemption, and Sanctification, every Minister may with authority and truth say, that GOD for CHRIST's Sake Pardoneth and Absolveth All who truly repent and unfeignedly believe His Holy Gospel. Such Minister not taking upon himself, as the manner of Some is, to discriminate between different Professors of repentance and belief individually; but properly leaving that to the discernment of their own consciences, and to the Infallible Decision of An Omniscient GOD; and only encouraging and exhorting All to a sincere repentance for having done evil in

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His Sight, and to a firm faith in the equal Necessity and Sufficiency of CHRIST's Intercession to Obtain for Such, Pardon and Reconciliation: His Ministers well knowing, that All, Which GOD hath Graciously Promised through CHRIST, He will Graciously Perform: but knowing also, that it is from GOD Alone that both faith and repentance unto righteousness proceed, the Absolution is succeeded by the following supplication

Wherefore let us beseech Him to Grant us true repentance, and His HOLY SPIRIT,

So far from our Church thus arrogating to itself a power of dispensing Absolution unconditionally, and without a strict conformity to the Will and Word of GOD, it here, in becoming humility and conscious imperfection even in its best purposes, calls the Members of its Pastoral care to join with its Minister in imploring The GOD of Mercy and of All Good, whether Temporal or Spiritual, to Grant to All the All-Sufficient, but the Only-Sufficient Grace of The HOLY GHOST, so to Work on our hearts, and Set right our motives as well as actions, that we may receive the Light of Faith, and be impressed, fearfully and condemnatorily, with a knowledge of our sins; and that our expression of sorrow for them may be the confession and sorrow of the heart, and not the cold and dead and unprofitable acknowledgment of the lips, nay, the still further offence to our HEAVENLY FATHER, when we mean to continue in the commission of sin. The Congregation therefore are invited by the Minister to join him in this further prayer to GOD

That those things may please Him, which we do at this present;

Having thus in the House of GOD, and before His Accredited Minister, and in the presence of His People, thrown ourselves individually upon His Mercy, and having, after the most serious and impartial Self-examination, acknowledged our offendings, both in commission and omission, and with a broken spirit supplicated our HEAVENLY FATHER's Forgiveness, for the Sake of The SON of His Love; and having promised.

amendment of Life, on receiving the Purifying, Enlightening and Animating Influence of The HOLY SPIRIT, we further are exhorted to supplicate, that the very office of professed communion with GOD, Who Alone can Answer prayer, and will only Answer when put forth to Him with the Spirit and with the understanding, may Sanction our behaviour on the occasion; and which He assuredly will do and be Satisfied with it, if it be influenced by sincerity and faith.

And that the rest of our Life hereafter may be pure and holy;

That such portion of our Life here as The ALMIGHTY in His Mercy and Wisdom may Vouchsafe to Extend to us, uncertain as in all Human knowledge that is, and possibly terminating ere the present year, or day or hour, may in conformity with our confession and profession be given to GOD's Glory and our REDEEMER's Service, in exercises of piety and true charity, with all uprightness of heart and integrity of purpose and Self-government, is the continuation of this admonitory form of prayer. And the Inestimable Consequences of fulfilling it are then thus pointed out

So that at the last we may come to His Eternal Joy ;

So that this Life thus continued and ended, on being Called by the General Resurrection to the Judgment of our HEAVENLY JUDGE, we may awake from the grave to That Judgment, with a peace within us, that shall foretell of the Joy, which is to be Set before us, as Adopted Children of The FATHER of Spirits, and Members of the Inheritance of Saints in Light and Glory Everlasting.

Through JESUS CHRIST, our LORD.

As CHRIST is The Way, and The Truth and The Life, and it is by Him only that we can have Access unto The FATHER, it is on this, as on every occasion of addressing JEHOVAH, that we are thus taught by our Church to let this as well as all our other prayers and all our praises be offered up in the Name, and with a saving faith in That Name, Which

is Above every other Name. And let all the People with the Clerk add,

Amen!

So indeed be it! Gracious GOD! And let every heart prompt to the tongue's utterance of it!-During this portion of the Service, on account of the Prayer it concludes with, the People are expected to continue kneeling; and their minds having been thus excited to ask in faith, nothing doubting but their own sincerity or consistency in the Petition, are next invited to join in one concise but comprehensive Form of Prayer, Left for Universal adoption by CHRIST Himself when upon Earth; calling on JEHOVAH, as Embracing The TRINITY in UNITY, even under the Engaging Character of

Our FATHER, Which art in Heaven,

The Endearing and Encouraging Appellation is thus again Recommended as Proclaimed by GOD Himself in The Person of The Man CHRIST JESUS; and, though The GODHEAD cannot but be Every Where and at All Times Present on Earth as well as in Heaven; yet as He is not here Visible to us, but is so in a Degree at least Where Angels and Sanctified Spirits are Glorifying Him, we are therefore Instructed by Him, Who Spake as never Man spake, more especially to address Him as in HEAVEN, that our minds may be elevated to exalted and becoming ideas of His Power, and Purity and Condescending Love.

Hallowed be Thy Name!

Oh that such an admonition should be necessary! that we should need any other incitement to the exercise of this high and holy Privilege, than what we see and feel around us; that we should not spontaneously rush, with a Sanctified energy to worship, by hallowing That Name, by Whose Power All Things that are, were Created and are Upheld; from Whom all our Faculties and Properties Proceed, and Who, in the Person of His Only SON, The SON of His Love, Freely Offereth us

both Redemption and Sanctification unto Holiness and Happiness Eternal: and Who has So Done His Marvellous Work of Mercy, that even in the Life that is, by an attention to the duties Prescribed to us by our Gracious CREATOR, we may taste of that Peace, which the World can neither give nor take away. Let us, therefore, with all holy dispositions towards A BEING So Great, So Perfect, So Pure, So Powerful, and yet So Merciful, utter His Holy Name now and at all times with a due consideration of The Character That truly should be Attached to It, in all humility and faithfulness and zeal; adding

THY KINGDOM Come!

Meaning primarily, that GOD may Reign in our hearts by Faith, and our submission to That Rule be manifested by uprightness, integrity, purity, devotedness, and Christian zeal, marked uniformly by prudence and Self-government according to the Precepts of His Word; and evincing, from motives of willing obedience to Him, an unfailing charity both of heart and hand, towards All, with whom we have to do. In a second, though even a more Exalted Sense, The Coming of CHRIST'S KINGDOM, thus made so prominently the Object of Prayer, is His Second Advent to Judge and to Rule the World Undividedly, in Perfect and Universal Resignation to Him as KING of Kings and LORD of Lords. And, as the Fulness of Joy will attend Those Spirits, who in singleness of heart and unity of faith thus wait for His So Coming, may it be our earnest prayer, that we may be Prepared by His SPIRIT to meet Him in the Fulness of His Power with the hope and expectation of sincere Believers.

THY Will be done in Earth! as It is in Heaven.

May Thy Will, O GOD, which is Perfect Benevolence and Goodness in Its Every Aim and Object, and to do Which is the high Privilege of all the Angelic Host, be done by us individually, that we may be Blest with that true and permanent Happiness which so peculiarly belongs to Thy faithful