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converts; and this was, "that he would grant them, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man." No petition could more comprehensively evince the deep knowledge which St. Paul had of the human heart, and consequently of the absolute necessity he felt there was, in those for whom it was sought, of the strengthening influences of God's Spirit. He had no hesitation in allowing of himself, (for the Christian is always humble), "I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good, I find not; for the good that I would, I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I do." He knew, from his own experience, that, while he delighted "in the law of his God after the inward man," there was "another law in his members, warring against the law of his mind, and bringing him into captivity to the law of sin, which is in his members; thus with the mind serving the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin." He who knew all this to be true of himself, could "thank God through Jesus Christ" that the might of God's Spirit, by infusing strength into the soul, could effectually deliver him from this wretched state of bodily subjection to sin, the wages of which is death. And O, what a blessed assurance, to think that this could be obtained "according to the riches of God's glory!" for, to use the apostle's own words, "there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek; the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him," and he will give his Holy Spirit to them that ask him." How natural, then, that for those in whose temporal and spiritual welfare he was, though bodily absent, yet engaged in heart and recollection-how natural that St. Paul should" bow the knee to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ," to grant them" the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him; the eyes of their understanding being enlightened, that they may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints."

And as it is from Christ," the Vine," that all Christians, "the branches," derive their necessary sustenance, and from him is imparted the might of God's Spirit in the inner man, to strengthen and enable them to bear much fruit, that herein their heavenly Father might be glorified, the apostle's next supplication for his charge is," that Christ may dwell in their hearts by faith." To" abide" in them, and to "dwell in their hearts," are expressions frequent in Scripture, illustrative of the close connexion between Christ as their head and all true believers. Christ says to

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all such," Abide in me, and I in you;" and they are aptly used to signify the entire possession of the heart, as an habitation which is wholly occupied by one only tenant." If a man love me," saith Christ, my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him." St. Paul, availing himself of the same metaphor, urges the Corinthians not to be " unequally yoked together with unbelievers;" for he tells them, ye are the temples of the living God, as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people." And that we may ascertain whether our hearts are the habitation of Christ, the beloved apostle has given us these infallible directions: "He that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him; and hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us." Where, then, his Spirit dwells, Christ may be said to dwell; and he dwells there "by faith,"-the door, as it were, by which the heavenly Guest finds admission; for unto them which believe, Jesus Christ is precious. When, then, the Saviour is elevated to the throne of the heart, and there reigns supreme-when, by the exercise of such a faith as leans solely on his promises and merits for pardon and acceptance, that heart is previously rendered fit for his constant and fixed abode, then, in regard to all Christians, as well as to the Ephesians, the answer to the next petition of St. Paul may be said to be realised, that they "being rooted and grounded in love, are able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge." faith be the necessary qualification for a worthy reception of Christ into the heart-if the Spirit of God be an evidence that Christ dwelleth in us, and one of the fruits of the Spirit be love in its widest acceptation, as extending to God who is love itself, and to all his creatures for Christ's sake,-what wonder the apostle of the gentiles should pray that, like as a tree rooted in a deep and fruitful soil, and therefore proof against every gale that blows-or like a solid foundation, which resists all attempts to undermine it, the Ephesians might be "rooted and grounded in love?" A superficial view of God's free love in Christ may content the half-and-half professor; but they whose affections are weaned from the world, who have laid up their treasures in heaven, and are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, are anxious, as far as is permitted to believers in this imperfect state, to become acquainted with that love in all its dimensions,-in its breadth, which extends to every age, nation, and cli

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mate; in its length, from the beginning of time till time itself shall fail; and in its depth and height, as stooping to lift the lowest from sin and misery, and exalting the humble to the highest state of happiness and glory. Such is the love of Christ, which, though surpassing by infinite degrees the highest attainments of worldly knowledge, may even on earth be comprehended in some measure, and shall be fully known hereafter, by those his saints who have sought of God, and received the true wisdom from above. Be this knowledge of the love of Christ, so prayed St. Paul, established in the hearts of those that were dear to him in the Lord; and, finally, as the sum of all his other petitions in their behalf, he adds, "that they might be filled with all the fulness of God." But what tongue, except that of an inspired apostle, could even hint at "the fulness of God," as at all approachable, much less attainable, by man! Such language-with that of St. Peter, "partakers of the Divine nature;" and that recorded by St. Matthew," be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect," is to be interpreted as comprehending the greatest possible approximation, which a finite and perishable being like man can bear to Him who is infinite and eternal; and this was the end which the apostle had in view.

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In few words, then, according to the hopes of God's glory, boundless as they are, yet liberally bestowed, when sought in prayer, and with a humble conviction of being miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked," without them,-St. Paul prays, that those he addresses may, "in the inner man," go on from strength to strength, by the help of God's Spirit and by faith, apprehending Christ as ever present, nay, dwelling in their hearts, they may, deeply and firmly settled in love, and as those only can, on this side heaven, who are Christ's,-know that love of God which called them to be fellow-heirs with the Jews, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the Gospel-that love which redeemed his Church, out of every kindred and nation under heaven, from the bondage of sin and misery, into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

And, finally, with that fervour of heart which overleaped all bounds in the reception of blessings from heaven for those he loved on earth, St. Paul adds his hope, that a God in covenant with his people may grant them the fullest supplies of all that could promote his glory in this present state, and their own happiness beyond the grave. What a prayer, my brethren, is this! Well might it stir up the heart of every labourer in Christ's vineyard, to seek in like manner for his people

the refreshing dews of God's Spirit; that he may still look down from heaven, and behold and visit the vine which his right hand hath planted; and God forbid it should ever be said of us, by the Master of the vineyard, as it was of the inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah: "What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? Wherefore when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?" And while we pray for Christ's holy catholic Church and family on earth, that, as with the vine, the hills may be "covered with the shadow of it, and the boughs thereof be like the goodly cedars," that she may send "out her boughs into the sea, and her branches into the river," O, may we, as ministers and tillers in the vineyard, and you, my brethren, as objects of the Master's care, and plants of his own rearing, — may we jointly so fulfil our respective duties, that though they be a record of awful severity to others, God's word may never be applied to us : "And now, go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down; and I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned nor digged; but there shall briars and thorns: I will also command the clouds, that they rain no rain upon it."

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THE SERVICES OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.. The Order for Morning and Evening Prayer daily throughout the Year.

No. I.

THE SENTENCES, OR VERSES.

THE first book of King Edward began with the Lord's prayer; but when a review was taken of it afterwards, thought too abrupt, and these sentences were therefore and alterations were made in it, the beginning was prefixed, with the following exhortation, confession, and absolution, as a proper introduction to prepare the congregation for the duty on which they were entering. Whoever is familiar with the ancient offices of the western Churches, knows that nothing has been more common, for many ages, than the use of verses, or small portions of Scripture in various parts of the public service of the Church. We meet with them continually in all the ancient offices. According to the rites of many western Churches, a verse or capitulum was read before the office of compline, or the latest evening service; a custom which is at least as ancient as Amalarius, A.D. 820, for he mentions it. The nocturnal office in the ancient Gallican Church also began with a lesson, and the matins and nocturns have for many ages been accounted one office. These things are sufficient to shew that such

• We commence a new series of remarks upon the Book of Common Prayer. The materials will be gathered out of various excellent Treatises on the subject; such as Wheatley, Shepherd, and Comber on the Common Prayer; Palmer's English Ritual, Boys's Exposition, Bishop Sparrow's Rationale, and others. Quotations from these writers will be continually blended with our own observations.

a mode of beginning the prayers is not novel, nor unknown to the ancient ecclesiastical writers.

The matins (an old word meaning morning worship, from the French matines, and Latin matutinus) and even-song (evening worship) begin with "some one or more sentences" of holy Scripture; all which texts of holy Scripture "are as it were the bells of Aaron, to stir up devotion, and to toll all into God's house. The whole ring consists of two notes especially; man's misery, God's mercy." It will be found that the Church, in the selection of these sentences has manifested much discretion; adapting the addresses to the several classes of persons who make up our public assemblies.

1. The first rank may consist of those sentences which contain support for the fearful, and are designed to prevent that excessive dread of God's wrath which hinders the exercise of devotion, by too much dejecting the spirits. Such persons may be taught by David and Jeremiah not to run from the Almighty, but to pray to him more humbly and earnestly (Ps. li. 9; cxliii. 2; Jer. x. 24).

2. Not much unlike is the case of those who doubt of God's favour, and in despair look upon him as irreconcilable. To strengthen their faith in God's mercy, the Church provides three sentences for them; the first, to shew how fit they are to ask pardon; the other two, to declare how likely God is to grant it on their repentance (Ps. li. 17; Dan. ix. 9; Luke xv. 18, 19).

3. For the information of the ignorant, who know not how to make these penitential addresses, as being sensible neither of their guilt, nor of their danger, because they think either that they have no sin, or that a slight repentance will procure pardon for it, the two following sentences are provided (1 John i. 8, 9; Ezek. xviii. 27).

4. Others there are, who are not ignorant, but negligent; and, though they know they are daily sinning, and cannot be saved without repentance, yet defer this duty from day to day. On these the Church calls in the two following sentences (Ps. li. 3; Matt. iii. 2). 5. Lastly, those who by custom grow cold and formal, confessing their sins with external reverence only, without any sincere devotion, are presented by the Church with that direction and reproof, which God gave the hypocritical Jews (Joel ii. 13).

"Thus we see how wisely and effectually the Church prepares the way to the throne of grace for the various descriptions of character which may be supposed to assemble within her courts for the purposes of devotion. Let us learn to be thankful for these encouragements, admonitions, and instructions; and may it be our earnest desire so to use the ordinances of God's house, as not to abuse them, that we may find them our support through life, and as waters of consolation in the day of adversity."

THE EXHORTATION.

"It does not appear that an address was repeated before the office of morning prayer in early times. Neither in the ancient offices of the English Church, nor in those of any western Church, can such a form in this place be discovered. Omitting, however, all consideration of the utility of this exhortation, of its judicious position immediately before the confession, and of the right which the Church of England possesses to establish any such formulary, even if no other Church had ever done the same, it can be shewn that an address to the people at the beginning of the offices is by no means unwarranted by the ancient customs of the Church. The liturgies of the Churches of Gaul and Spain always prescribed an address to the people after the catechumens had been dismissed, and before the more important part of the communion-service; and we have placed this address in the same relative position in our offices, namely before the psalmody

and the reading of Scripture. The exhortation connects the preceding sentences and the confession that follows; making the former so useful in order to the latter, that whoever hears them, and considers the inferences here made, cannot but be properly disposed for a true confession. And, though neither the Roman nor Greek offices have any such form in this place, yet the pertinency and usefulness thereof will shew that our prudent and pious reformers have every where contrived that the people might perform each part of the office with the spirit and with the understanding also." This exhortation demands our most serious attention, though there is reason to fear that, too often, it is little, if at all attended to, but looked upon as a mere matter of form, not deserving our notice. But, if we will only consider the excellent instruction which it contains, we shall surely think otherwise; and both silently and attentively hearken to this useful and seasonable introduction to the service of the Church. "The exhortation" (says Bishop Sparrow in his "Rationale"*) declares to the people the end of their public meetings, namely, "to confess their sins, to render thanks to God, to set forth his praise, to hear his holy word, and to ask those things, that be necessary as well for the body as the soul." All this is to prepare their hearts, which it does most excellently, to the performance of these holy duties with devotion, according to the counsel of Ecclus. xviii. 23,"Before thou prayest, prepare thyself, and be not as one that tempteth God." To which agrees that of Ecclesiastes v. 2, "Be not hasty to utter anything before God; for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth."

The endearing language with which this exhortation opens, is calculated to win the hearts of those who hear. It reminds us of (as it is probably taken from) the words of St. Paul to the Philippians, "Therefore, my brethren, dearly beloved and longed for" (Phil. iv. 1). The people are warned not to "cloke" their sins, because "he that covereth his sins shall not prosper;" and God denounced against Israel of old "I will plead with thee, because thou sayest, I have not sinned:" but to "confess them" in the spirit of the publican, who cried, "God be merciful to me a sinner," because to this penitent acknowledgment God has annexed a promise of forgiveness: "If my people shall humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin." No time or place is unsuited for humble confession, for "God commandeth all men every where to repent;" but yet the congregation of his people, the solemn assembly, is most suited for that act of humiliation. In the house which he hath "chosen and sanctified, that his name may be there," and in which he has promised that his "eyes and his heart shall be there perpetually," in the great congregation where we meet to give thanks for the "benefits we have received at his hands," in his sanctuary, where "praise waiteth for him," and where the word of God is proclaimed; where, finally, we make known our requests unto God, "that he would send us all things that be needful both for our souls and bodies;" in this house, above all other places, it is becoming that we should "take with us words, and turn to the Lord, saying unto him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously." In consideration of the fitness of the circumstances under which the assembly before him is met together, for the act of contrition to which he would excite them, the minister, as an "ambassador for Christ," beseeches the persons then present that they would "lift up holy hands," and with a tone of voice expressive of "reverence and godly fear," join with him in the act of confession to God, who will commune with his people from above the mercy-seat."

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• We recommend to our readers a beautiful little reprint of this work, which has lately appeared at Oxford, Parker, 1839.

NOTES ON THE STATE OF THE CHURCH Previous to the Schism between the East and West. BY THE REV. CHARLTON LANE, M.A., Minister of St. Mark's, Kennington.

No. I.

HISTORY has been called "philosophy teaching by examples." Amid much that is written and done to promote the mental elevation of the people, it is not just or prudent to omit all mention of those matters which relate to the progress of Christianity. A view of Church-history in general is absolutely necessary to enable us to form a dispassionate judgment respecting the wants of our own day. It is true that the present is comparatively a reading age; yet in our intercourse with men in general, we do not find that their reading is really of a character which instructs and elevates the mind.

Our newspapers are at once voluminous and onesided; our periodical publications seldom aim at conveying a moral influence to the soul. Few of them refer their readers to first principles; or remind them of what ought to be the springs and motives of human feeling and human action: and hence it is that we find few persons equal to offer a sound and serious judgment on those matters and events which form so large a portion of the history of our own day.

A person looking merely at the state of religion at present existing in this country, or even as it exists in Europe, or in the world at large, ought to do so with a mind prepared by some previous knowledge of the state of Christianity in other times, and in various states of human society. And as men, to whom arguments against divine truth are new, regard such arguments as formidable, while those who know that they have long since been repeatedly alleged, and as repeatedly disproved, regard them with contempt,-so they who have examined the history of human nature as connected with that of the Church of Christ regard the divisions which at present unhappily separate Christians in our own and other lands, with equal regret, but with far less of apprehension.

I have lately had my mind drawn to the history of the Greek Church; and it is my intention-if you think fit to avail yourself of them-to send you such observations as a perusal of my notes may suggest for the possible instruction of your readers. Scarcely any one of your readers is ignorant of the great schism between the eastern and western churches; though most of us in general hear only of the great difference existing between the Church of Rome and the Churches of Protestantism. The vast separation of so many Christians from the corruptions of Rome under Luther and his apostolic followers, is the grand object in the landscape of modern history which attracts the eye of him who surveys the later changes of human feelings and of the human condition. Truly it is a subject which is worthy of our most reverential regard, to watch the shifting and alternating forces of the various sects of Christians, as they, separately in some cases, unitedly in others, endeavour to extend the influence of their own party, or of their own views. But there are some circumstances which may render it both interesting and instructive to cast our view beyond the field in which the contest is waged between the adhe

rents of the papacy and those of Protestantism: the spread of our own influence during the last twenty years in the Mediterranean; the connexion with the various tribes of the East through the change in the mode of communication between England and her East Indian possessions; and lastly, the steady and irrepressible rise of the giant dominion of Russia, the most powerful and most extensive of existing empires, may probably give an interest to any lucubrations on the eastern Church which they have not hitherto possessed. But before we proceed to review the peculiar tenets or modes of discipline recognised by these ancient Protestants against the jurisdiction of the Roman bishop, it may, for the reasons I have already given, be useful to go back, and to endeavour, amid the obscurities of former ages, to trace the rise of that great schism which separated the eastern from the western Church, and which, while it laid so vast portion of the provinces of ancient Rome prostrate beneath the feet of the papal successors of Augustus, submitted the more ancient patriarchates of the East to the pontiff of Constantinople, until the feuds, the lusts, the wickedness, social and political, of that empire rendered her an casy, though magnificent, prey to the warlike and ferocious successors of the impostor of Mecca.

Whatever may have been written on the sometimes warmly contested point of Church-government, one thing must be clear to every reader of the New Testament, viz. that the apostles adopted the common-sense plan of sowing the seeds of the Christian faith in places where they were most likely to produce a harvest, again productive of advantage to surrounding places. They themselves aimed at making proselytes in those towns and cities where the Jews formed a material portion of the people, and where, of course, their appeals to the ancient Scriptures were likely to be best understood and best appreciated. And as Jews were more numerous in some of the more important cities of the Roman empire, it followed as a matter of course that these cities would become the respective citadels of the growing religion. Hence arose the patriarchates which anciently divided Christendom, Antioch, Alexandria, Rome, Carthage, Constantinople, and Jerusalem. The bishop or president of each church became naturally the overseer over congregations which, by reason of growing numbers, or of extended distance, succesively draughted off from his own; and as the word of God continued to grow and to prevail, and meetings of the clergy took place, the smaller bishops of the remoter and more rustic dioceses were represented at synods of a more important kind, and which were called to consider the interests of a wider extent of the empire, by one or more of their number, who, from natural force of character, from greater notoriety, or from the greater number which he represented, would properly take a lead, which the modesty of his brethren would willingly concede. Hence, while every bishop was ecclesiastically and spiritually equal to his fellows as regarded his order—an equality which was so jealously kept in view, that translation from one diocese, however humble, to another, however prominent, was regarded as a breach of Church-discipline, as undermining the independence of bishops, and calculated to foster an unholy ambition in the chief pastors of Christendom,

yet a precedence among these peers of the growing republic was, from the force of circumstances, necessarily conceded to some above the rest. This precedence finally settled on the bishops of the larger and more influential dioceses, as being the overseers of larger interests, the shepherds of larger flocks, the elected from among a more numerous collection of pastors.

It is fashionable to accuse the patriarchs of ambition; to assert that they owed their elevation above their episcopal brethren to mere worldly notions and worldly practices.

The subsequent history of the Church unhappily gives too much colour to such representations: but such representations are not candid; it is to be remembered that these officers were the creations of popular election; and that, in conferences where the common interests of Christianity were debated, the bishop who represented the most influential portion of the population of a province or a realm, would, where there was no rule to prevent it, be expected and permitted to take a precedence, which any man, who understands any thing of the most common transactions of public bodies, knows will in time assume a prescriptive and unquestioned influence. To talk, therefore, as some writers do, of the early ambition of leading Christian bishops, is to talk nonsense. A bishop of Antioch would, of necessity, not from his own ambitious obtrusiveness, take precedence of his humbler brother who presided over the little flock in and about Elia.

From the considerations which have given rise to the foregoing remarks, I have been led to these conclusions :

1st, The parity of bishops, and the independence, as to minor matters of Church-regulation, of each separate episcopacy; and

2dly, The acknowledged importance among the first Christians-exposed as they were to severe struggles for the maintenance of their religion-of union among the Churches. The abuse of the independent principle; the proud disregard of the fraternal union, and of the paternal judgments of their fathers and their brethren, was marked by that sectarian spirit which subsequently disgraced, and tore into pieces the Christian Church, occasioned the removal of many a candlestick, and paved the way for the unimpeded and triumphant inroad of the Mahometan superstition— a faith which, by the just judgment of God, has for centuries overlaid countries once Christian, civilised, and prosperous in moral and in worldly grandeur, with a tyranny destructive at once of human happiness and of moral and mental energy.

The separate independence of episcopates was soon surrendered, as experience dictated the necessity of a superior control; and hence the dioceses of the Roman empire became classed into those ecclesiastical provinces, which acknowledged as primates the patriarchs of the most distinguished cities of Italy, Syria, Egypt, and Africa.

It is not to be expected, but that, whenever and wherever the grace of God is deficient, man, exposed to the torrent of ambitious motives, will present a lamentable proof of his nature's depravity; and hence, in the subsequent history of the Church, we are con

strained to deplore, in the struggles between the patriarchs of Rome, and Alexandria, and Antioch, and Carthage, and subsequently of Constantinople and of Jerusalem, that in so many instances, not only in the external, but in the internal, history of the Church of Christ, the sad sentence of its divine Founder-a sentence uttered in melancholy foresight of the workings of man's inborn depravity-that " he came not to send peace on earth, but a sword,"-has been fully verified: and we are more and more impressed with the conviction, that no prosperity, no profession of the divine word, no acquisition of sacred or profane lore, no form of church-discipline, no adversities, no judgment, will (since the ancient Churches possessed all, more or less, of these external advantages and warnings) suffice for the maintenance of Christianity, without the ever-presiding and ever-acknowledged, the at once preventing and sustaining grace of that almighty and beneficent "Builder" (Heb. iii, 4), who is the sole Author of every good and perfect gift.

The Cabinet.

A PRAYER OR PSALM.-Most gracious Lord God, my merciful Father, from my youth up, my Creator, my Redeemer, my Comforter. Thou, O Lord, soundest and searchest the depths and secrets of all hearts; thou acknowledgest the upright of heart; thou judgest the hypocrite; thou ponderest men's thoughts and doings as in a balance; thou measurest their intentions as with a line; vanity and crooked ways cannot be hid from thee. Remember, O Lord, how thy servant hath walked before thee; remember what I have first sought, and what hath been principal in my intentions. I have loved thy assemblies; I have mourned for the divisions of thy Church; I have delighted in the brightness of thy sanctuary. This vine, which thy right hand hath planted in this nation, I have ever prayed unto thee that it might have the first and the latter rain, and that it might stretch her branches to the seas and to the floods. The state and bread of the poor and oppressed have been precious in mine eyes; I have hated all cruelty and hardness of heart; I have, though in a despised weed, procured the good of all men.... Thy creatures have been my books; but thy Scriptures much more. I have sought thee in the courts, fields, and gardens; but I have found thee in thy temples. Thousands have been my sins, and ten thousands my transgressions; but thy sanctifications have remained with me; and my heart, through thy grace, hath been an unquenched coal upon thine altar. O Lord my strength, I have since my youth met with thee in all my waysby thy fatherly compassions, by thy comfortable chastisements, and by thy most visible providences.... Just are thy judgments upon me for my sins, which are more in number than the sands of the sea, but have no proportion to thy mercies; for what are the sands of the sea? Earth, heaven, and all these, are nothing to thy mercies. . . . Be merciful unto me, O Lord, for my Saviour's sake, and receive me unto thy bosom, or guide me in thy ways.-Lord Bacon, Chancellor of England (died 1626).

CONSCIENCE.-God is especially present in the consciences of all persons, good and bad, by way of testimony and judgment; that is, he is there a remembrancer to call our actions to mind—a witness to bring them to judgment, and a judge to acquit or condemn. And although this manner of presence is in this life after the manner of this life-that is, imperfect, and we forget many actions of our lives,-yet the greatest The Church of England.

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