used for the advantages of Faith, or Love, or Contrition: let all the circumstances and parts of the Divine Love be represented, all the mysterious advantages of the bleffed Sacrament be declared; *That it is the bread which came from Heaven; * That it is the representation of Chrift's death to all the purposes and capacities of Faith, and the real exhibition of Chrift's body and blood to all the purposes of the Spirit; * That it is the earnest of the Resurrection, * and the feed of a glorious Immortality; *That as by our cognation to the body of the firft 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 fins, of that Blood which purifies our Souls, by which we are prefented to God pure and holy in the beloved; * That now we may ascertain our hopes, and make our faith confident; for he that hath given us his 1 Cor. 15. 21. Rom. 8. 32. Son, how should not he with him give us all things elfe? Upon these or the like confiderations the fick man may be affisted in his address, and his Faith ftrengthened, and his Hope confirmed, and his Charity be enlarged. 12. The manner of the fick man's reception of the holy Sacrament hath in it nothing differing Vide Rule of holy living, Cha. 4. feet. 10., and Hift. of the Life of Jefus, part 3. Difc. 18. from the ordinary folemnities of the Sacrament, fave only that abatement is to be made of fuch accidental circumstances as by the laws and customs of the Church healthful perfons are obliged to; fuch as Fafting, 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 fustained 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 houfe; and it was recorded for honour, that William the pious Archbishop of Bourges, a small time before his laft agony, fprang out of his bed at the presence 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 administered to dying perfons, when they have no ufe of Reason to make that duty acceptable, and the mysteries effective to the purposes of the Soul. For the Sacraments and ceremonies of the Gospel operate not without the concurrent actions and moral influences of the fufcipient. To infufe the Chalice into the cold lips of the Clinic may disturb 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 perfons, as fools, children, distracted perfons, lethargical, apoplectical, or any ways fenfeless and incapable of human and reafonable acts, are to be affifted only by Prayers: for they may prevail even for the abfent, and for enemies, and for all those who join not in the office. SECT. V. Of miniftering to the fick Perfon by the Spiritual Man, as he is the Phyfician of Souls. ON all cases of receiving Confeffions of fick men, and the affifting to the advancement of Repentance, the Minister is to apportion to every kind of fin fuch fpiritual remedies which are apt to mortify and cure the fin; such as abstinence from their occafions and opportunities, to avoid temptations, to refift their beginnings, to punish the crime by acts of indignation against the person, fastings and prayer, alms and all the inftances of charity, asking forgiveness, restitution of wrongs, fatisfaction of injuries, acts of virtue contrary to the crimes. And although in great and dangerous fickneffes they are not directly to be imposed, unless they are direct matters of duty; yet where they are medicinal they are to be infinuated, and in general fignification 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 England in the time of Theodore, Archbishop of Cauf. 26. q. 7. ab infirmis. Canterbury, and afterwards adopted 2. The proper temptations of fick men for which a remedy is not yet provided are unreasonable Fears, and unreasonable Confidences, which the Minister is to cure by the following confiderations. Confiderations against unreasonable Fears of not Many good men; especially such who have tender Confciences, impatient of the least fin, to which they are arrived by a long grace, and a continual observation of their actions, and the parts of a lasting Repentance, many times overact their tendernefs, and turn their caution into fcruple, and care of their duty into enquiries after the event, and askings after the counfels of God, and the fentences of Doomfday. He that asks of the ftanders by, or of the Minister, whether they think he shall be saved or damned, is to be answered with the words of pity and reproof. Seek not after new light for the searching into the privatest records of God: look as much as you lift into the pages of Revelation, for they concern your duty but the event is registered in Heaven, and we can expect no other certain notices of it, but that it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared by the Father of mercies. We have light enough to tell our duty; and if we do that, we need not fear what the issue will be; and if we do not, let us never look for more light, or enquire after God's pleasure concerning our Souls, fince we fo little ferve his ends in those things where he hath given us light. But yet this I add, that as pardon of fins in the Old Teftament was nothing but removing the punishment, which then was temporal, many times they could tell if their fins were pardoned; and concerning pardon of fins they then had no fears of Confcience, but while the pu Matt. 9. 6. and therefore nishment was on them, for fo long indeed it was unpardoned, and how long it would fo remain it was matter of fear, and of present forrow: befides this, in the Gospel pardon of fins is another Acts 3. 26. thing; Pardon of fins is a fanctification ; Chrift came to take away our fins by turning every one of us from our iniquities; and there is not in the nature of the thing any expectation of pardon, or fign or fignification of it, but so far as the thing itself discovers itself. As we hate fin, and grow in grace, and arrive at the state of holiness, which is also a state of Repentance and imperfection, but yet of fincerity of heart and diligent endeavour; in the fame degree we are to judge concerning the forgiveness of fins; for indeed that is the Evangelical forgiveness, and it fignifies our pardon, because it effects it, or rather it is in the nature of the thing; so that we are to enquire into no hidden records: Forgiveness of sins is not a secret sentence, a word or a record; but it is a state of change, and effected upon us; and upon ourselves we are to look for it, to read it, and understand it. We are only to be curious of our duty, and confident of the Article of Remiffion of fins; and the conclufion of these premises will be, that we shall be full of hopes of a prosperous Refurrection; and our Fear and trembling are no instances of our calamity, but parts of duty; we shall fure enough be wafted to the fhore, although we be toffed with the winds of our Sighs, and the unevenness of our Fears, and the ebbings and flowings of our pafsions, if we fail in a right channel, and steer by a perfect compass, and look up to God, and call for Eft modus gloriandi in confcientia, ut noveris fidem tuam effe finceram, fpem tuam effe certam. Auguft. Pfalm 149. |