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lutely determine your state towards God*. If you are really sincere, your sins will be pardoned if not, God alone knows your heart, and I can give you no assurance of pardon at his hands.

But before I pronounce the absolution, I think it right to lead you to confession in the following form, to which I entreat you to attend as well as you can; and, when I have finished it, to make it your own by a hearty Amen.

Here the Minister kneeling down with those who are attending on the Sick Person may say;

Almighty God, father of our Lord Jesus Christ, maker of all things, judge of all men; look down upon this thy servant, who acknowledgeth and bewaileth his manifold sins and wickedness, which he from time to time most grievously hath committed, by thought, word, and deed, against thy divine majesty, provoking most justly thy wrath and indignation against him. He doth earnestly repent, and is heartily sorry for these his misdoings. The remembrance of them is grievous

Wheatley's Illust. P. 418.
D 6

unto

unto him; the burden of them is intolerable. Have mercy upon him, have mercy upon him most merciful Father. For thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ's sake, forgive him all that is past, and grant that he may ever hereafter serve and please thee in newness of life, to the honour and glory of thy name, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

¶ After which the Minister may say,

And now, Brother, seeing that you have made this general confession of your manifold sins and wickedness, and lamented your own sinfulness, and prayed that God would forgive you all that is past, and grant you his grace to enable you hereafter to lead a new life, and all this I hope from your heart; I should proceed to pronounce the absolution, the benefits of which, as I told you before, are not absolute but conditional; that is, depend entirely on the sincerity of your repentance, which is known to God alone: But I think it right first to tell you, that this absolution benefiteth by virtue of the power which Jesus Christ has given his ministers; for our Lord having purchased the forgiveness of sins for

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all

all mankind, he has committed the ministry of reconciliation to us; that having brought men to repentance, we may in Christ's name, and in the person of Christ, pronounce their pardon.

For as under the law of Moses, God made his priests the judges of leprosy, and gave them rules by which they were to determine who were clean, and fit to enter into the congregation, (which was a type of heaven,) and who were not clean even so, under the gospel, he has given his priests authority to judge sin, which is the leprosy of the soul. He has given them rules to judge by, with authority to pronounce their pardon, if they find them qualified; for this is their commission from Christ's own mouth, Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them.

Now although it is my duty to encou rage penitents earnestly to desire absolution, and to exhort them to receive the Lord's supper, as a pledge to assure them of pardon, yet I must again and again admonish you, not to hope for any bene fits either from the one or the other, but on condition of your sincere repentance.

I therefore think it proper for my greater satisfaction, before I pronounce the absolution, to ask you a few more questions,

that

that I may receive by your answers to them such signs of a sincere faith and true repentance, as may lead me charitably to believe, that amendment of your life will follow, if God shall think fit to grant you longer time in this world.

Have you considered the sins which you have been most subject to?

Are you convinced that it is an evil thing and bitter to forsake the Lord?

Are you resolved to avoid all temptations, and occasions of the sins you have now repented of?

Do you verily believe that you shall not fall into any of these sins again?

If you should do so, will you immediately beg God's pardon, and be more watchful over yourself?

Will you strive with all your might to overcome the corruptions of your nature by prayer and self-denial?

Do you purpose, if God should prolong your days, to bring forth fruits meet for repentance?

Are you in perfect charity with all the world*?

And now having declared your repentance to be sincere, (otherwise, as I have said before, my ministry can avail you

Bp. Wilson's Parochialia.

nothing,)

nothing,) and having given me satisfactory answers to the questions I have put to you, I desire you to attend most earnestly to the absolution which I am about to pronounce, and, as before, to make it your own, not by repeating it after me, but by heartily saying Amen, when I have -finished it.

Here the Priest shall absolve the Sick Person (if he humbly and heartily desire it) after this sort:

Our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath left power to his church to absolve all sinners, who truly repent and believe in him, of his great mercy forgive thee thine offences and by his authority committed to me, I absolve thee from all thy sins, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

And then the Priest shall say the collect following:

Let us pray.

O most merciful God, who according to the multitude of thy mercies, dost

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