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forth their Lord's death until his coming. 2. Of love, by approaching his table, with an humble, profound and grateful sense of the amazing condescension and love of God in Christ; of the unalterable and unaltered love of the Son of God, which induced him, to take upon himself the iniquities of us all; to be wounded for our offences, to be bruised for our transgressions, that we by his stripes should be healed. When considered in this sense, the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper is, unquestionably, a most solemn ordinance. And while we consider it to be the duty of every believer so to deport himself as to be fitly prepared for a joyful participation and commemoration of Christ's last injunction: "Do this as oft as ye do it in remembrance of me;" as a figure of the shedding of his blood and the offering up of his body for the_remission of their sins, and not theirs only but also for the sins. of the whole world. We, at the same time, consider it highly improper for any person, not properly qualified by true and sincere repentance, and an honest intention of Christian perseverance, to partake of this ordinance, and that without such qualification, they partake of it to their own condemnation, not having regard to, or discerning the Lord's body as represented by the Sacrament, which was to show forth to the world the obedience of his church, an entrance into which, was only to be effected by repentance, and faith in the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, their head, the church being, figuratively, his body. Hence those who approach this table in impenitence, and partake of the divine symbols unworthily, are guilty of having profaned this holy ordinance of our Lord, in which his blood and body are to be spiritually discerned.

We object to the doctrines of Transubstantiation, or the change of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ; and of Consubstantiation, which teaches, that with the bread and wine we partake of the real body and blood of Christ. Neither can we subscribe to the doctrine of the real presense, in any other sense, than that God is every where present; and that in the faithful participotion of this truly solemn and impressive ordinance, he pours

out, in many instances, of the abundance of his Holy Spirit, upon the truly humble, sincere and contrite believer, to the joyful overflowings of their grateful souls, and confirming them in their confidence and Christian faith in his promises that he is with them, "Lo! I am with you alway, even to the end of the world." This blessing is also experienced, not alone in partaking of this ordinance, but also in all sincere approaches to the Giver of all good, whether in prayer, in thanksgiving or in praise. ART. X. Of Justification and Righteousness:-We believe in the justification of man by faith; not in or by his own merits; "For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that, not of yourselves, it is the gift of God! not of works, lest any man should boast." Nor are we righteous in and of ourselves; but only by faith in him, who is "the Lord our Righteousness."

ART, XI. Of Good Works.-Good works are the fruits of Faith, and are an evidence that God worketh in us, all things after the counsel of his own will, in enabling us to be co-workers with him; by which grace we not only let our light so shine before men, that they may see our good works, and glorify our Father, who art in heaven; but is also an evidence, that we are striving "to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling."

As our faith, and our works, as also our salvation, are each of them, the effect of God's grace, exciting and enabling us, to be co-workers with him; we cannot discover any grounds on which to believe in "works of supererrogation, or voluntary works over and above God's command," and particularly as Christ said, "when ye have done all that is commanded you, say, we are unprofitable servants; we have done that which was our duty to do." (Luke xvii. 10.)

ART. XII. Of Christian Perfection." We believe it to be the privilege, as it is also the duty of every believer, to grow daily in grace, and in the knowledge and love of God; that Christian Perfection is a work of the Spirit of God, that baptizing the spirit of man with fire; the eternal invisible fire of his Divine love, and burning

up all the dross and sinful desires of the believer, he becomes more and more perfect, and is more and better enabled to attain to that mark of the prize of his high calling in God through Christ. We believe Faith to be progressive," the leaven, that leaveneth the whole lump;" that "unto every one of us, is given grace, according to the measure of the gift of Christ;" that he gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints. for the work of the ministry, for the edifying the body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the Faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." (Ephes. iv. 7-13.)

ART. XIII. Of the Holy Scriptures. We believe in, and joyfully accept the Holy Scriptures, contained in the Canonical Books of the Old and New Testaments, as the oracles of God; "that all his Scriptures are given by his Divine inspiration, and in this view and with this faith, we do most gratefully and sincerely receive them, as the next best evidence of his eternal and unalterable Love wherewith he loved, and still loves us; to that of the gift of his Son and Spirit, for the regeneration, reconciliation, and final salvation of all men.

We receive the Bible, as the Will of our heavenly Father: the New Testament as a codicil to that Will, by which a more glorious provision has been made for the Son and heir of God; by which "the heathen is his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth are his session," and by which, all mankind are made the heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.

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In this Will, which is ratified by the oath of the Father, signed, sealed and executed with the blood of the Son, perfected and recorded by the holy Spirit; and witnessed by all God's holy prophets and apostles, since the world began; we discover the greatest of all treasures, the richest of all legacies; enough to enrich all the sons and daughters of Adam! In it believers have the promise of eternal life, nay more, a solemn assurance that it is

theirs, for "this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son." In it, we read, "that all shall be made willing in the day of God's Power; and being thus made willing, eternal life will be theirs also, who were once unbelievers; but are now, by the gifts and graces of God, believers. O the depth of the riches both of the Wisdom and knowledge of God! Wherefore, with the devout Chillingworth, we profess "the Bible, the Bible only is the religion of Protestants." The Bible, the Bible is our chart; Christ our polar star, and the Holy Ghost our pilot, to conduct us to God, the haven of our rest.

-ART. XIV. Of the Universal Church of Christ.*-We believe, that in our dispensation, there is but one true and living Faith: "the faith which was once delivered unto the saints." We believe, and have seen, that the primitive churches throughout the world, were undoubtedly formed by the apostles upon one and the same plan." Hence we believe that there is but one true church in the whole world; that this one universal church is constituted as Christ its head and founder, was, and is, of a visible and invisible nature. And as he is the head of this church, as also the head of every man, we co nclude every man believers, specially, by grace, and the rest of mankind, universally, by covenant and purchase, to be members of his body, which is, his church. For it is written of the Jews, "God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all”—“ that as by the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even so by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life." Hence,

1. The visible Church of Christ is constituted of faithful men and women, among every sect and denomination of Christians, whether they are attached to the Primitive Apostolic Church, or to the Roman or Greek

* With the Greek church we deny that the church of Rome is the only true Catholic church; but we consider it a branch of the Christian Church.

Church, whether Protestants or Dissenters, provided they walk in the light, as he is in the light. These are they of whom it is said, God is the special Saviour, being saved in this life from the fear of death, and of a judgment to come, shall share in the first resurrection, and over whom the second death hath no power. These are a manifestation of Christ's visible body, or Church.

2. His invisible Church we believe to consist of the entire residue of the human family, who are also, according to the foreknowledge and eternal purposes of God in Christ, members of his body, to be hereafter made manifest. These are they who are not specially saved in this life, from the fear of death and of judgment, but have dreadful forebodings of the evils to come, with a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall destroy the adversaries. (See page 47.)

To man, finite man, it seems almost impossible that such can ever be saved; but that is, because we are not possessed of unlimited conceptions and powers. But with God, nothing can, or shall be impossible. The Son of God, in his parable of the ten virgins, gives us clearly to understand that these, who are not as yet visible members of his Church, are still within the ark of his covenant of saving mercy.

"The kingdom of heaven is likened by our Lord unto ten virgins, five of whom were wise and five foolish. The kingdom of heaven was not likened unto five wise virgins only these virgins were distinguished the one from the other, by no one thing but the oil in their vessels with their lamps-that is, light-a lamp without oil is of little value. They who had oil, went in and had peace and joy, they who had not, sought in vain for the place of entrance, (they were in darkness,) and were compelled to tarry without, in that state and kingdom into which they were born, and to which they had continued in subjection, in which, of course, is weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth." (Murray.)

The five wise virgins are characteristic of believers in this life, members of Christ's visible Church, those who

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