Rule depends upon this; because there is no divine
Commandment directly forbidding the Rulers of the
Church to give the Communion to any Christian that
detires it, and profeffes Repentance of his Sins.
And

all Church-difcipline, in every inftance, and to every tingle Perfon, was impofed upon him by Men, who did it according to the Neceffities of this State and Conftitution of our Affairs below: But we, who are but Ministers and Delegates of Pardon and Condemnation, muft refign and give up our Judgment when the Man is no more to be judged by the Sentences of Man, and by the Proportions of this World, but of the other: To which if our Reconciliation does advantage, we ought in Charity to fend him forth with all the Advantages he can receive; for he will need them all. And therefore Can. 13.Vi- the Nicene Council commands, that no Man be deprived of this neceffary Pass-port in the Article of his Death, C. 6. A and calls this the ancient and Canonical Law of the Church; Tel. 2. G. 12. and to minifter it, only supposes the Man in the Communion of the Church, not always in the State, but ever in the Poffibilities of Sanctification. They who in the Article and Danger of Death were admitted to the Communion, and tied to Penance if they recovered, (which was ever the Custom of the ancient Church, unless in very few Cafes) were but in the Threshold of Repentance, in the Commencement and firft Introductions to a devout Life; and indeed then it is a fit Mi

de etiam

Con. Ancyr.

O facrum convivium in quo Chri

niftery, that it be given in all the Periods of Time in which the Pardon of Sins is working, fince it is the Sacrament of that great Myftery, and the Exhibition of that Blood which is fbed for the Remiffion of Sins.

ftus fumitur, recolitur memoria Paffionis ejus, mens impletur gratiâ, & futuræ gloriæ nobis pignus datur !

9. The Minifter of Religion ought not to give the Communion to a fick Perfon, if he retains the Affection to any Sin, and refufes to difavow it, or profefs Repentance of all Sins whatfoever, if he be reItà vide ut profit illis ignofci quos quired to do it. The reafon is, ad poenam ipfe Deus deduxit: Quod because it is certain * Death to ad me attinet, non fum crudelis, fed him,and an encrease of his Mifery, vereor, nè quod remifero patiar. if he fhall fo prophane the Body and

I

Tryphaha dixit apud Petronium.

biles Domi

mus.

and Blood of Chrift, as to take it into fo unholy a Breaft, where Satan reigns, and Sin is principal, and the Spirit is extinguished, and Chrift loves not to enter, because he is not fuffered to inhabit. But when savi quoq; he profeffes Repentance, and does fuch Acts of it as & implacahis prefent Condition permits, he is to be prefumed ni crudelito intend heartily what he profeffes folemnly; and tatem fuam the Minister is only Judge of the outward A&t, and by impediunt, that only he is to take Information concerning the fi quado pœnitentia inward. But whether he be fo or no, or if he be, fugitivos whether that be timely, and effectual and fufficient reduxit detoward the Pardon of Sins before God, is another dittis hofibus parciConfideration, of which we may conjecture here, but we shall know it at Dooms-day. The fpiritual Man is to do his Miniftery by the Rules of Chrift, and as the Customs of the Church appoint him, and after the manner of Men: The Event is in the Hands of God, and is to be expected, not directly and wholly according to his Miniftery, but to the former Life, or the timely internal Repentance and Amendment, of which I have already given Accounts. Thefe Minifteries are Acts of Order and great Affiftances, but the Sum of Affairs does not rely upon them, and if any Man put his whole Repentance upon this time, or all his Hopes upon these Minifteries, he will find them and himself to fail.

Quæcunque ergo de pœnitentiâ jubendo dicta funt, non ad exteriorem, fed ad interiorem referenda funt, fine quâ nullus unquam Poenit. D. 1. Quis aliquando, Deo reconciliari poterit. Gratian, de

10. It is the Minister's Office to invite fick and dying Perfons to the holy Sacrament; fuch, whofe Lives were fair and laudable, and yet their Sickness fad and violent, making them liftlefs and of flow of Defires, and flower Apprehenfions: That fuch Perfons who are in the State of Grace may lofe no accidental Advantages of fpiritual Improvement, but may receive into their dying Bodies the Symbols and great Confignations of the Refurrection, and into their Souls the Pledges of Immortality; and may appear before God their Father in the Union, and with the impreffes and likeness of their elder Brother. But if the Perfons be of ill Report, and have lived wickedly, they are not to be

P 3

invited

invited, because their Cafe is hugely fufpicious, though they then repent and call for Mercy; But if they de mand it, they are not to be denied; only let the Minifter in general reprefent the evil Confequents of an unworthy Participation; and if the Penitent will judge himself unworthy, let him ftand Candidate for Pardon at the Hands of God, and stand or fall by that unerring and merciful Sentence; to which his Severity of condemning himself before Men will make the easier and more hopeful Addrefs. And the strictest among the Chriftians, who denied to reconcile lapfed Perfons after Baptifm, yet acknowledged that there were hopes referved in the Court of Heaven for them, though not here: Since we, who are easily deceived by the pretences of a real Return, are tied to difpenfe God's Graces as he hath given us Commif1 Cpr. 2. 3. fion, with Fear and Trembling, and without too forward confidences; and God hath Mercies which we know not of; and, therefore because we know them not, fuch Perfons were referred to God's Tribunal where he wou'd find them, if they were to be had

at all.

11. When the holy Sacrament is to be adminiftred, let the Exhortation be made proper to the Mystery, but fitted to the Man; that is, that it be used for the advantages of Faith, or Love, or Contrition: Let all the Circumftances and Parts of the divine Love be reprefented, all the myfterious Advantages of the bleffed Sacrament be declared; That it is the Bread which came from Heaven; * That it is the Reprefentation of Chrift's Death to all the Purposes and Capacities of Faith, and the real Exhibition of Christ's Body and Blood to all the Purposes of the Spirit; * That it is the earnest of the Refurrection, * and the Seed of a glorious Immortality; * That as by our Cognation to the Body of the first Adam we took in Death, fo by our Union with the Body of the fecond Adam we shall have the Inheritance of Life; (for as by Adam came Death, fo by Chrift cometh the Refurrection of the Dead;}

*

That if we, being worthy Communicants of thefe facred Pledges, be prefented to God with Chrift

within us, our being accepted of God is certain, even for the fake of his Well-beloved that dwells within us: * That this is the Sacrament of that Body which was broken for our Sins, of that Blood which purifies our Souls, by which we are prefented to God pure and boly in the Beloved: * That now we may ascertain our Hopes, and make our Faith confident; for he that hath Rom. 8. 326 given us his Son, how should not be with him give us all things elfe? Upon thefe or the like Confiderations the fick Man may be affifted in his Address, and his Faith itrengthened, and his Hope confirmed, and his Charity be enlarged.

12. The manner of the fick Man's Reception of the Vid. Rule of holy Sacrament hath in it nothing differing from the Holy Living, ordinary Solemnities of the Sacrament, fave only that & Hiftory of C. 4. §. IO, Abatement is to be made of fuch accidental Circum- the Life of ftances as by the Laws and Customs of the Church Jefus, Part healthful Perfons are obliged to; fuch as Fafting, 3. Difc. 18, Kneeling, &c. Though I remember that it was noted for great Devotion in the Legate that died at Trent, that he caused himself to be fuftained upon his Knees, when he received the Viaticum or the holy Sacrament before his Death; and it was greater in Huniades, that he caused himself to be carried to the Church, that there he might receive his Lord in his Lord's House; and it was recorded for Honour, that William, the pious Archbishop of Bourges, a fmall time before his laft Agony, fprang out of his Bed, at the prefence of the holy Sacrament, and upon his Knees and his Face recommended his Soul to his Saviour. But in these things no Man is to be prejudiced or cenfured.

13. Let not the holy Sacrament be adminiftred to dying Perfons, when they have no ufe of Reafon to make that Duty acceptable, and the Myfteries effeEtive to the Purposes of the Soul. For the Sacraments and Ceremonies of the Gofpel operate not without the concurrent Actions and moral Influences of the Sufcipient. To infufe the Chalice into the cold Lips of the Clinick, may difturb his Agony, but cannot relieve the Soul, which only receives Improvement by Acts of Grace and Choice, to which the external Rites are

apt and appointed to minister in a capable Perfon. All other Perions, as Fools, Children, diftra&ted Perfons, Lethargical, Apople&tical, or any-ways fenfelefs and uncapable of human and reasonable Acts, are to be affifted only by Prayers: For they may prevail even for the abfent, and for Enemies, and for all thofe who join not in the Office.

SECT. V.

Of miniflring to the fick Perfon by the Spiritual
Man, as he is the Phyfician of Souls.

N all Cafes of receiving Confeffions of fick Men, and the affifting to the Advancement of Repentance, the Minister is to apportion to every kind of Sin fuch fpiritual Remedies which are apt to mortify and cure the Sin; fuch as Abftinence from their Occafions and Opportunities, to avoid Temptations, to refift their Beginnings, to punish the Crime by A&ts of Indignation against the Perfon, Faftings and Prayer, Alms and all the Intances of Charity, asking Forgiveness, restitution of Wrongs, fatisfaction of Injuries, Acts of Virtue contrary to the Crimes. And although in great and dangerous Sickneffes they are not directly to be impofed, unless they are direct matters of Duty; yet where they are medicinal they are to be infinuated, and in general Signification remarked to him, and undertaken accordingly Concerning which, when he returns to Health, he is to receive particular Advices. And this Advice was inferted into the Penitential of Cauf. 26. England in the time of Theodore Archbishop of CanterQ7. ab bury, and afterwards adopted into the Canon of all the Western Churches.

infirmis.

i

2. The proper Temptations of fick Men, for which a Remedy is not yet provided, are unreasonable Fears, and unreasonable Confidences, which the Minifter is to cure by the following Confiderations.

་ ་ ་ ་་,,་