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Prayer before Examination.

MOST great and holy Lord God, Who searchest the heart, and triest the reins, and requirest truth in the inward parts; help me now, I beseech Thee, so diligently and impartially to examine my life, and to seek the ground of my heart, that I may discover all my most hidden corruptions, and suffer not any accursed thing to lurk within me. I have sinned, O Lord, and have done perversely: I have committed wickedness: I have sinned against Thee from my youth even unto this day, and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord my God. Lord, make me to know my transgression and my sin, and to loathe myself in mine own sight for all the evils that I have committed. Open mine eyes, O Lord, that I may see the excellency of Thy law; and being thoroughly convinced that all Thy commandments are holy, and just, and good, I may be ashamed and confounded at my own perverseness and ingratitude, in having so often and so grievously offended against them; and may so bethink myself, and repent, and mourn, and cry mightily unto Thee for pardon and grace, that Thou mayest hear my prayer and my supplication from heaven Thy dwelling-place, and forgive me all my transgressions, wherein I have transgressed against Thee, and hearken unto me in all that I shall call upon Thee for; through the mediation of Jesus Christ Thine only Son our Saviour. Amen.

HEADS OF EXAMINATION.

In order to know with accuracy what have been our failures in duty, we must first know with accuracy what our duty is.

It divides itself into two great heads,

1. our duty to God,,

2. our duty to man.

The Church of Christ, looking to His Word, has found this division established there; and has found also that the Ten Commandments are referred to by our Lord and his apostles as containing a distinct outline of the duties embraced under these two great heads, that their perpetual obligation is enforced,and their meaning more fully opened *. Under this

* Our Lord, when asked what was the great commandment of the law, answered, that the chief was to love one God with all our heart, &c. and that the next was to love our neighbour as ourselves 1.

Thus he divides man's duty into the two great heads of

1. duty to God, and

2. duty to our neighbour.

The first He sets forth in the remarkable words used by Moses 2, when, after recapitulating to the Jews the several precepts of the Decalogue, he sought to enforce on them briefly what it taught them of their duty to God.

The second our Lord expresses in a phrase which, as we learn from various places in the New Testament, was looked on as conveying the full meaning of the Second Table. For St. Paul 3 expressly says that the last five Commandments, as well as any other, are all contained in that phrase," Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself:" and he tells us as expressly in another place, that all the moral law is comprehended in that phrase. St. James, in his general epistle 5, uses words as express on this point as those of St. Paul.

1 Matt. xxii. 37-39.; Mark xii. 28–31.; 2 Deut. vi. 5. 3 Rom. xiii. 9. 4 Gal. v. 14.

Luke x. 25-28.

5 James ii. 8-13.

conviction, the Christian Church at all times, and our own Church in particular, in her catechisms and ser

Thus our Lord divides man's duty into two great heads-the two tables of the law-such is the division of the Decalogue-and in stating them separately He adopts two sentences, which were considered as conveying briefly the meaning of the precepts of the Decalogue on these two great heads. On another occasion, also, when asked what were the Commandments to be observed by one who would enter into life, He enumerated those precepts of the Decalogue which relate to our duty to man, and closed them with the same sentence which he used on the other occasion. On two distinct occasions then we find Him referring to the Decalogue as giving a clear view of our great moral obligations.

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Furthermore, we learn from various parts of His Word, not merely that the Decalogue is a guide which we may, but that it is a guide which we must take, for we find in the New Testament the most solemn declarations of its perpetual obligation. When speaking of it as a whole, or of particular parts of it, our Lord assures us that He came not to destroy, but to fulfil the law contained in it2-that not a jot or a tittle of it is to pass away 3—and especially warns His followers against the breaking these Commandments, or teaching men to do so. St. James, too, speaking his Master's mind, teaches us 5 that these Commandments were given by God, and that the determined transgression of one of them will involve us in the guilt of wilful disobedience to God. Again, our Lord rebuked the Pharisees with much severity for "transgressing the Commandment of God," and "making it," speaking of the 5th Commandment, "of none effect." And when asked (in a passage noticed above) what we must do to inherit eternal life, He answers, that if we will enter into life we must keep the Commandments, viz. those of the Decalogue, some of which He proceeds to enumerate: so that, as our Homilies say, 66 we have from thence a most true lesson, taught by Christ's own mouth, that the works of the moral Commandments of God are the very true works of faith which lead to the blessed life to come."

The language of St. Paul is equally strong and positive. Not only does he tell us that "the law is spiritual"," a text perhaps sufficient by itself, when considered in all its bearings, to establish the perpetual obligation of the law; but, in teaching the Romans that they were bound to live in a constant exercise of love, he expressly declares that love is the fulfilling of the law, i. e. of the moral law of the Decalogue, as he directly shews in the next verse 8.

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So, in the Epistle to the Galatians he directly teaches that Christ

1 Matt. xix. 18, 19.; Mark x. 19.; Luke xviii. 18-20.

2 Matt. v. 17. 3 Ibid.

ver. 18.; Luke xvi. 17. 4 Matt. v. 19.
Matt. xv. 3-6.; Mark vii. 8-13.
9 Gal. v. 13, 14.

5 James ii. 8-11.

7 Rom. vii. 14.

8 Ibid. xiii. 8, 9, 10.

vices, has assumed them as the basis of that system of moral obligation which she is bound to enjoin upon all her members, and has derived from them a clear, comprehensive, and affecting view of our duty to God, and our duty to our neighbour. For convenience sake, it has been thought advisable here to subjoin to each Commandment several of the precepts of the New Testament which seem most connected with it, and then, on the authority of the Church, to shew the duties commanded and the sins forbidden to the Christian, so that the penitent may more readily examine himself, and enquire into the state of his own heart and life *.

ian liberty does not release us from the obligations of this law, but by enforcing more strongly that spirit of love which, as he elsewhere says, is "the end of the Commandment," binds us more positively to observe it.

On his Ephesian converts he enforces the duty of filial obedience, by reminding them that it is the first Commandment with promise, and enjoining them to honour their parents that it may be well with them, and that they may live long on the earth 2.

Finally, we may observe, that St. Paul distinctly informs us that "the law is good, if a man use it lawfully," (i. e. not in opposition to the Gospel, or as a means of justification), and he immediately recites the crimes aimed at in the first nine Commandments. And he uses, elsewhere, a yet stronger form of commendation, saying that the Commandment is holy, and just, and good." We see then that the New Testament refers us to the Ten Commandments for a view of our duties to God and man, and enforces their perpetual obligation. The manner in which it opens their meaning is fully shewn under each of them.

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* The words used are chiefly those of Abp. Wake, Bps. Andrewes, and Jeremy Taylor: but the matter is merely an expansion of that part of our Church Catechism which sets forth our duties.

11 Tim. i. 5. 2 Eph. vi. 2, 3. 31 Tim. i. 5—10. 4 Rom. vii. 12.

(a) The First Commandment, [I am the Lord thy God, thou shalt &c.]

Our Lord and His apostles teach us also

(a) That the Lord our God is one Lord'.

(a) That he that denieth the Son, hath not the Father 2, that in Christ dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, and that we should observe all things whatsoever Christ hath commanded*.

(a) That unto him that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven.

(a) That we are to be baptized into the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost *. (b) That we are to worship the Lord our God, and Him only are we to serve 7.

(c) That we must love God with all our heart and soul and mind 8.

(d) That we must fear Him Which after He hath killed hath power to cast both body and soul into hell '.

(e) That whatsoever we do, we are to do all to the glory of God 1o.

(f) That we must offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually ".

(g) That we must believe that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him 12.

(k) That we must hold fast the profession of our faith, for He is faithful That promised13.

(1) That we must cast all our care upon Him, for He careth for us 14.

(m) That we must be in subjection to the Father of

1 Mark xii. 29. 4 Matt. xxviii. 20. 7 Matt. iv. 10. 10 1 Cor. x. 31.

21 John ii. 23.
5 Luke xii. 10.

8 Ibid. xxii. 37.
11 Heb. xiii. 15.

13 Heb. x. 23.

3 Col. ii. 9.

Matt. xxviii. 19. 9 Luke xii. 5. 12 Heb. xi. 6.

14 1 Pet. v. 7.

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