¶ Prayer for grace to reform and grow better: AND lest, through our own frailty, or the temptations which encom pass us, we be drawn again into sin, vouchsafe us, we beseech thee, the direction and assistance of thy Holy Spirit. Reform whatever is amiss in the temper and disposition of our souls; that no unclean thoughts, unlawful designs, or inordinate desires, may rest there. Purge our hearts from envy, hatred, and malice: that we may never suffer the sun to go down upon our wrath; but may always go to our rest in peace, charity, and good-will, with a conscience void of offence towards thee, and towards men: that so we may be preserved pure and blameless, unto the coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶ The Intercession. AND accept, O Lord, our intercessions for all mankind. Let the light of thy Gospel shine upon all nations; and may as many as have received it, live as becomes it. Be gracious unto thy Church, and grant that every member of the same, in his vocation and ministry, may serve thee faithfully. Bless all in authority over us; and so rule their hearts and strengthen their hands, that they may punish wickedness and vice, and maintain thy true religion and virtue. Send down thy blessings, temporal and spiritual, upon all our relations, friends, neighbors. Reward all who have done us good, and pardon all those who have done or wish us evil, and give them repentance and better minds. Be merciful to all who are in any trouble; and do thou, the God of pity, administer to them according to their several necessities, for his sake who went about doing good, thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen. то The Thanksgiving : our prayers, O Lord, we join our unfeigned thanks for all thy mercies; for our being, our reason, and all other endowments and faculties of soul and body; for our health, friends, food, and raiment, and all the other comforts and conveniences of life. Above all we adore thy mercy in sending thy only Son into the world, to redeem us from sin, and in giving us the knowledge and sense of our duty towards thee. We bless thee for thy patience with us, notwithstanding our many and great provocations; for all the directions, assistances, and comforts of thy Holy Spirit: for thy continual care and watchful providence over us through the whole course of our lives; and particularly for the mercies and benefits of the past day: beseeching thee to continue these thy blessings to us; and to give us grace to show our thankfulness in a sincere obedience to his laws, through whose merits and intercession we received them all, thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen. IN ¶ Prayer for God's protection through the night following: particular, we beseech thee to continue thy gracious protection to us this night. Defend us from all dangers and mischiefs, and from the fear of them; that we may enjoy such refreshing sleep as may fit us for the duties of the following day. Make us ever mindful of the time when we shall lie down in the dust; and grant us grace always to live in such a state, that we may never be afraid to die: so that, living and dying, we may be thine, through the merits and satisfaction of thy Son Christ Jesus, in whose name we offer up these our imperfect prayers. Amen. THE of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the grace fellowship of the Holy Ghost, be with us all evermore. Amen. On Sundays and on other days, when it may be convenient, it will be proper to begin with a chapter, or part of a chapter, from the New Testament. ARTICLES OF FAITH. As declared by the Clergy and Laity of the Universalist Church of the United States of America, assembled in Convention at Winchester, in the State of New Hampshire, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and three: ARTICLE I. We believe that the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments contain a revelation of the character of God, and of the duty, interest, and final destination of mankind. ART. II. We believe that there is one God, whose nature is love; revealed in one Lord Jesus Christ, by one Holy Spirit of grace; who will finally restore the whole family of mankind to holiness and happiness. ART. III. We believe that holiness and true happiness are inseparably connected; and that believers ought to be careful to maintain order and practise good works; for these things are good and profitable unto men. THE FORM AND MANNER OF ORDAINING MINISTERS. When the day appointed for the Ordination is come, after Morning Prayer is ended, there shall be a Sermon or Exhortation appropriate to the occasion. Then the fact of the examination of the candidates according to the custom of the Church, and their being found worthy of Ordination, having been reported, the Minister thereunto appointed shall say unto the people: OOD people, these are they whom we purpose, God willing, to re examination, we find not to the contrary, but that they are lawfully called to their function and ministry, and that they are persons meet for the same. But yet if there be any of you, who knoweth any impediment or notable crime in any of them, for the which he ought not to be received into this holy ministry, let him come forth in the name of God, and show what the crime or impediment is. ¶ And if any crime or impediment shall be objected, the Ordination shall be deferred until such time as the accused shall be found clear. If not, then shall be said the Collect, Epistle, and Gospel, as followeth : A The Collect. LMIGHTY God, giver of all good things, who by thy Holy Spirit hast appointed divers orders of ministers in the Church: mercifully behold these thy servants, now called to the office of the Ministry: and so replenish them with the truth of thy doctrine, and adorn them with innocency of life, that both by word and good example they may faithfully serve thee in this office, to the glory of thy Name, and the edification of thy Church, through our Saviour Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, world without end. Amen. The Epistle. Ephes. iv. 7. The Gospel. St. Matt. ix. 36. St. John, x. 1. YE Then the Minister shall say unto them as followeth ; E have heard, brethren, as well in your private examination, as in the exhortation which was now made to you, and in the holy lessons taken out of the Gospel, and the writings of the apostles, of what dignity, and of how great importance this office is, whereunto ye are called. And now again we exhort you, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye have in remembrance, into how high a dignity, and to how weighty an office and charge ye are called: that is to say, to be messengers, watchmen, and stewards of the Lord; to teach, and to premonish, to feed and to provide for the Lord's family; to seek for Christ's sheep that are dispersed abroad, and for his children who are in the midst of this naughty world, that they may be saved through Christ forever. Have always therefore printed in your remembrance how great a treasure is committed to your charge. For they are the sheep of Christ, for whom he shed his blood. And if it shall happen that the church, or any member thereof, do take any hurt or hindrance by reason of your negligence, ye know the greatness of the fault, and also the punishment that will ensue. Wherefore consider with yourselves the end of the ministry; and see that ye never cease your labor, your care and diligence, until ye have done all that lieth in you, according to your bounden duty, to bring all such as are or shall be committed to your charge unto that agreement in the faith and knowledge of God, and to that ripeness and perfectness of age in Christ, that there be no place left among you, either for error in religion, or for viciousness in life. Forasmuch then as your office is both of so great excellency, and of so great difficulty, ye see with how great care and study ye ought to apply yourselves, as well to show yourselves dutiful and thankful unto that Lord, who hath placed you in so high a dignity; as also to beware that neither you yourselves offend, nor be occasion that others offend. Howbeit, ye cannot have a mind and will thereto of yourselves; for that will and ability is given of God alone: therefore ye ought, and have need, to pray earnestly for his Holy Spirit. And seeing that ye cannot by any other means compass the doing of so weighty a work, pertaining to the salvation of man, but with doctrine and exhortation taken out of the Holy Scriptures, and with a life agreeable to the same; consider how studious ye ought to be in reading and learning the Scriptures, and in framing the manners both of yourselves, and of them that specially pertain unto you, according to the rule of the same Scriptures; and for this selfsame cause, how ye ought to forsake and set aside, as much as ye may, all worldly cares and studies. We have good hope that ye have well weighed these things with yourselves, long before this time; and that ye have clearly determined, by God's grace, to give yourselves wholly to this office, whereunto it hath pleased God to call you: so that, as much as lieth in you, ye will apply yourselves wholly to this one thing, and draw all your cares and studies this way; and that ye will continually pray to God the Father, by the mediation of our only Saviour Jesus Christ, for the heavenly assistance of the Holy Ghost; that, by daily reading and weighing the Scriptures, ye may wax riper and stronger in your ministry; and that ye may so endeavor yourselves, from time to time, to sanctify the lives of you and yours, and to fashion them after the rule and doctrine of Christ, that ye may be wholesome and godly examples and patterns for the people to follow. And now, that this present congregation of Christ may also understand your minds and wills in these things, and that this your promise may the more move you to do your duties; ye shall answer plainly to these things, which we, in the name of God, and of his Church, shall demand of you touching the same. Do you think, in your heart, that you are truly called, according to the will of our Lord Jesus Christ, and according to the customs of this Church, to the work of the Ministry? Answer. I think it. The Minister. ARE you persuaded that the Holy Scriptures contain all doctrine re quired as necessary for eternal salvation through faith in Jesus Christ? And are you determined, out of the said Scriptures to instruct the people committed to your charge, and to teach nothing as necessary to eternal salvation, but that which you shall be persuaded may be concluded and proved by the Scripture? Answer. I am so persuaded, and have so determined, by God's grace. The Minister. W" ILL you then give your faithful diligence always so to minister the Doctrine and Sacraments, and the Discipline of Christ, as the Lord hath commanded, so that you may teach the people committed to your charge with all diligence to keep and observe the same? Answer. I will so do, by the help of the Lord. The Minister. WILL you be ready, with all faithful diligence, to use both public and private monitions and exhortations, as well to the sick as to the whole, within your cures, as need shall require, and occasion shall be given? Answer. I will, the Lord being my helper. The Minister. WILL you be diligent in prayers, and in reading the holy Scriptures, and in such studies as help to the knowledge of the same, laying aside the study of the world and the flesh? Answer. I will endeavor so to do, the Lord being my helper. W The Minister. ILL you be diligent to frame and fashion your own selves, and your families, according to the doctrine of Christ; and to make |