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and in all our Common Prayers ever fince till the Reftora- Sect. I. tion, a good number was required by this general rubric to receive the Communion with the fick perfon, without determining what number should be esteemed a good one. But the Scotch Common Prayer is a little more explicit, and orders a fufficient number, at least two or three; and from thence, I fuppofe, our own rubric, at the Reftoration, ordered that there fhould be three or two at the least, i. e. at least three, including the Sick, to communicate with the Minifter, which is the fame number that is required to a Communion in the church 33. However, at the same time that fuch a number was required in all ordinary Sickneffes, (i. e. in the fifth year of King Edward,) there was a rubric added at the end of this office, (which has continued ever fince,) that in the time of the Plague, Sweat, or fuch other like contagious times of Sickness or Difeafes, when none of the parish or neighbours can be gotten to communicate with the Sick in their houfes, for fear of the infection, upon special request of the difeafed, the Minifter may alone communicate with him. But this is only indulged in fuch extraordinary cafes: for in other ordinary diseases, lack of company to receive with the fick perfon, is mentioned as a juft impediment why the Sacrament fhould not be adminiftered to him 34.

SECT. II. Of the Form of Adminiftering.

THE Curate having a convenient place in the fick man's The Colhoufe, with all things neceffary fo prepared, that he may lect, Epireverently minifter, he was by the firft Common Prayer to Gospel.

ftle, and

introduce the office with the hundred and feventeenth Pfalm, which was inftead of the Introit, and then to use the fhort Litany, Lord have mercy upon us, &c. with the ufual falutation, The Lord be with you, &c. But Introits now being laid afide, he is to begin immediately with the Collect, that is very proper to the occafion, which is followed by two paffages of Scripture for an Epiftle and Gofpel, which evidently tend to comfort and deliver the fick man from the fears which he may be too apt to entertain. After which he is to proceed, according to the form before of the prefcribed for the holy Communion, beginning at thefe Commuwords [Ye that do truly, &c.]

33 See the third Rubric after the Communion office.

34 See the third Rubric at the end of the Communion of the Sick.

How much

nion Office to be used.

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Appendix §. 2. And if the fick person is vifited, and receiveth the to holy Communion all at one time; then the Prieft, for more Chap. XI. expedition, is to cut off the form of Vifitation at the Pfalm, How much [In thee, O Lord, have I put my truft;] i. e. when he of the Vifi- comes to that Pfalm, he is not to use it, but to go ftrait to tation Of- the Communion.

fice at fuch

time may

In what

Order the to deliver

Minifter is

8.3. At the time of the diftribution of the holy Sacrament, be omitted. the Prieft is firft to receive the Communion himself, and after to minifter unto them that are appointed to communicate with the Sick, and laft of all to the fick perfon. The Minifter, we know, is always to receive the Communion himself, before he proceeds to deliver it to others: but the reason perhaps why the fick man is to receive laft, may be, because those who communicate with him, through fear of fome contagion, or the noisomeness of his disease, may be afraid to drink out of the fame cup after him.

the Elements.

of inftruc

tions for

of receiv

The Rubric §.4. Lastly, because it may happen fometimes that a fick perfon, who defires to receive the Communion, may yet, thofe who by fome cafualty, be hindered from doing it; therefore have no op- here is a rubric added for their comfort, and to remove all portunity fears that may arife on fuch occafions: by which the Cuing. rate is directed, that, if a Man, either by reafon of extremity of Sickness, or for want of giving warning in due time, or for lack of company to receive with him, or by any other juft impediment, do not receive the Sacrament of Chrift's Body and Blood, he is to inftruct him, that if he do truly repent him of his Sins, and ftedfaftly believe that Jefus Chrift hath Suffered death upon the Cross for him, and shed his Blood for his Redemption, earnestly remembering the Benefits he hath thereby, and giving him hearty thanks therefore, he doth eat and drink the Body and Blood of our Saviour Chrift profitably to his Soul's health, although he do not receive the Sacrament with his mouth. For the means, whereby we partake of the benefits of this Sacrament, is a Lively Faith: and therefore as our Church afferts in her Articles 35, that the wicked, and fuch as be void of a lively Faith, although they do carnally and visibly prefs with their teeth (as St. Auguftine faith) the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Chrift; yet in no wife are they partakers of Chrift, but rather to their condemnation do eat and drink the Sign and Sacrament of fo great a thing: fo here the declares, that if a fick man be hindered by any juft impediment from receiving the Sacrament of Christ's Body and Blood; yet by faith and Repentance, and by mentally laying hold of the Benefits obtained for him by

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Chrift, he doth eat and drink the Body and Blood of our Sa- Sect. II. viour Chrift profitably to his Soul's health, although he do not receive the Sacrament with his mouth.

§. 5. The last rubric, which is concerning the Minifter's The laft communicating alone with the fick perfon, in times of con- Rubric. tagious Sickness, has already been spoken to in §. 4. of the foregoing fection.

CHAP. XII.

Of the Order for the BURIAL of the DEAD.

The INTRODUCTION.

If all our prayers and endeavours for our friend prove Introduct.

unavailable for the continuance of his life, we must

with patience submit to the will of God, to whom the iffues The care of of Life and Death belong: and therefore, after recommend dies an act ing his foul to God, which immediately upon its diffolu- of Religion. tion returns to him, it is fit we fhould decently dispose of his body, which is left to our management and care. Not that the Dead are any thing the better for the honours which we perform to their corpfes, (for we know that feveral of the ancient philofophers cared not whether they were buried or not36; and the ancient martyrs of the Chriftian church despised their perfecutors for threatening them with the want of a grave.) But those who furvive could never endure that the fhame of nature fhould lie exposed, nor fee the bodies of those they loved become a prey to birds and beafts 37. For these reasons the very Heathens called it a divine inftitution and a law of the immortal gods 39. And the Romans especially had a peculiar deity to prefide over this affair 40. Athenians were fo ftrict, that they would not admit any to be Magiftrates, who had not taken care of their parents fepulture, and beheaded one of their Generals after he had gotten a victory, for throwing the dead bodies of the

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38
,

The

39 Eurip. in Supplic. Sophoc. in Antigon.

40 Plut. Vit. Numæ.

41 Xenoph. Rer. memorabil. p.

587.

Chap. flain, in a tempeft, into the fea42. And Plutarch relates, XII. that before they engaged with the Perfians, they took a folemn oath, that if they were conquerors, they would bury their foes; this being a privilege which even an enemy hath a right to, as being a debt which is owing to humanity.

Funerals

performed.

which was

natural.

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§. 2. It is true indeed, the manner of Funerals has vavariously ried according to the different cuftoms of feveral countries: but all civilized nations have ever agreed in perViz. Some-forming fome funeral rites or other. The most ancient times by manner was by burying them in the earth; which is indeed Burying, fo natural, that fome brutes have been observed, by mere the most inftinct, to bury their Dead with wonderful care 43. The ancient and body, we know, was formed of the Duft at firft, and therefore it is fit it fhould return to the earth as it was 44; infomuch that fome Heathens have, by the light of reafon, called burying in the earth, the being hid in our mother's lap, and the being covered with her skirt 45. And that Interment, or inclofing the dead body in the grave, was ufed anciently by the Egyptians and other nations of the Eaft, is plain from the account we have of their embalming, and from their mummies, which are frequently found to this day whole and entire, though fome of them have lain above three thousand years in their graves. That the fame practice of burying was used by the Patriarchs, and their fucceffors the Jews, we have abundant teftimony from the most ancient records in the world, the books of Moses; by which we find, that their Funerals were performed, and their Sepulchres provided with an officious piety 46; and that it was usual for parents to take an oath of their children (which they religiously performed) that they should bury them with their fathers, and carry their bones with them, whenever they quitted their land where they were "". In fucceeding ages indeed it became a cufAnd fome- tom in fome places to burn the bodies of the Dead; which times by was owing partly to a fear that fome injury might be offered them if they were only buried, by digging their corpfes again out of their graves; and partly to a conceit,

Burning.

42 Valer. Max. 1. 9. c. 8.

43 Orig. in Celf. 1. 4. Ælian. Hift. Animal. 5. 49.

44 See Gen. iii. 19. Ecclef. xii. 7. 45 See the Notes upon Grotius de Veritat. Relig. Chriftian. 1. 1. §. 26. p. 40. Edit. Cler. Amftel. 1709.

46 Gen. xxiii. 4. chap. xxv. 9. chap. xxxv. 29. chap. xlix. 31.

47 Gen. xlvii. 29, 30, 31. ch. xlviii. 29. to 33. chap. 1. 25, 26. Exod. xiii. 19. See also Jofh. xxiv. 32. Acts vii, 16. Heb. xi. 22.

that

that the fouls of those that were burnt were carried up Introduct. by the flames to heaven 48,

§. 3. But though other nations fometimes used Inter- Burying alment, and fometimes Burning; yet the Jews confined ways uted by Jews and themselves to the former alone. There is a place or two Chriftians. indeed in our tranflation of the Old Teftament *9, 49 which might lead us to imagine that the rite of burning was alfo used by them sometimes. But upon confulting the original texts, and the customs of the Jews, it does not appear that the Burnings there mentioned were any thing more than the burning of odours and fpices about their bodies, which was an honour they ufually performed to their kings 5. So that, notwithstanding thefe texts, we may fafely enough conclude, that Interment or Burying was the only rite with them; as it was alfo in after-times with the Chriftian church. For wherever Paganism was extirpated, the custom of Burning was difufed; and the first natural way of laying up the bodies of the deceased entire in the grave, obtained in the room of it.

with due

§. 4. And this has always been done with fuch folem-Always nity, as is proper to the occafion. Sometimes indeed it has performed been attended with an expenfive pomp, that is unseemly and folemnity. extravagant. But this is no reason why we should not give all the expreffions of a decent refpect to the memory of those whom God takes from us. The defcription of the perfons who interred our Saviour, the enumeration of their virtues, and the everlasting commendation of her who spent three hundred pennyworth of spikenard to anoint his body to the burial, have always been thought fufficient grounds and encouragements for the careful and decent fepulture of Chriftians. And indeed, if the regard due to a human foul rendered fome respect to the Dead a principle that manifefted itself to the common sense of Heathens, fhall we think that lefs care is due to the bodies of Chriftians, who once entertained a more glorious inhabitant, and were living temples of the Holy Ghoft s1? to bodies which were confecrated to the fervice of God; which bore their part in the duties of religion; fought the good fight of faith and patience, felf-denial and mortification; and underwent the fatigue of many hardships and afflictions for the fake of piety and virtue? to bodies which, we believe, fhall one day be awakened again from their fleep of Death; have all their scattered particles of

48 Plin. Nat. Hift. 1. 7. c. 54.
49 1 Sam. xxxi. 12. Amos vi. 10.
50 See 2 Chron. xvi. 14. ch. xxi.

19. Jer. xxxiv. 5.
51 1 Cor. vi. 19.

duft

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