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The Lord bless thee, and keep thee. The Lord make his face to shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace, both now and evermore. Amen.

Dominus faciem suam super vos, et misereatur vestri. Convertat Dominus vultum suum ad vos, et det vobis pacem. Per Dominum.

COMMUNION OF THE SICK.

The English ritual, in conformity with the universal practice of the catholic church, has directed the holy communion to be administered to the sick. It is of course unnecessary to defend or justify this practice to those who have a right faith with regard to that sacrament; but it may be objected to the English ritual, that the custom of the Christian church has been to reserve the sacraments of Christ's body and blood from the public liturgy, and not to consecrate them in private. It is true, that this reservation had been the most usual, and, perhaps, the most ancient, practice of the church; but there are many instances in antiquity of the celebration of the eucharist in private for the sick. Thus Paulinus, bishop of Nola, caused the eucharist to be celebrated in his own chamber not many hours before his death'. Gregory Nazianzen informs us, that his

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father communicated in his own chamber, and that his sister had an altar at home"; and Ambrose is said to have administered the sacrament in a private house at Rome". The English church is therefore justified in directing the eucharist to be consecrated in private houses, for the benefit of the sick; and she has taken care, in the rubric immediately preceding the office, that the sacrament should be decorously and reverently administered. "Having "a convenient place in the sick man's house, with all things necessary so prepared, that the curate may "reverently minister, he shall there celebrate the holy "communion." In case "a man, either by reason of "extremity of sickness, or for want of warning in due "time to the curate, or for lack of company to receive "with him, or by any other just impediment, do not "receive the sacrament of Christ's body and blood," the minister is to comfort him in the following manner, which has long been customary in the English church:

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membering the benefits he bona voluntas; tantum crede

hath thereby, and giving him et manducasti°.

hearty thanks therefore; he

doth eat and drink the body and

blood of our Saviour Christ profitably to his soul's health, although he do not receive the sacrament with his mouth.

• Man. Sarisb. fol. 97.

CHAPTER IX.

BURIAL OF THE DEAD.

THE office for the Burial of the Dead, according to the English ritual, commences on the approach of the body towards the church. In primitive times, the body, immediately after death, was washed and arrayed in new garments; and the clergy and people watched the remains until the time of burial came. During this interval psalms were sung, and lessons read a. The body was then carried to the church, with singing of psalms or anthems, as we learn from the Apostolical Constitutions, from Dionysius Areopagite, Chrysostom, and other sources. With this custom all the rituals of the eastern and western churches, that I have seen, concur; and, amongst other, the ritual of the English church directs the priest and other clergy to meet the corpse at the entrance of the cemetery, and precede it into the church, or towards the grave, singing or saying certain anthems appropriate to the occasion. Of these anthems, the two former have been long used in the English church in some part of the office for the departed.

a

Martene, de Antiq. Ecclesiæ Ritibus, lib. iii. c. 12, p. 553, &c. Bingham, Antiquities, book xxiii. c. 3.

b Martene, lib. iii. c. 14,

p. 573, &c. Bingham, ut sup.

See the various orders for burial of the dead in Martene, lib. iii. c. 15. Goar, Rit. Græc. p. 526, &c.

I am the resurrection and the life, saith the Lord; he that believeth on me, though he were dead, yet shall he live and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.

I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God; whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another.

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When the procession has entered the church, the office proceeds with psalmody and reading of Scripture. A similar custom is mentioned by the author called Dionysius, as prevailing in his time in the east and we find frequent mention of the same amongst the oriental fathers. Nearly the same order prevails in the patriarchate of Constantinople, where many anthems aad psalms are sung, and lessons from the Epistles and Gospels are read. In the western churches it seems that the eucharist was celebrated at this time, in which prayers were made for the happiness of the deceased. This was customary in Africa in the fifth century, according to Augustine"; and in Italy in the time of Ambrose ';

d Manuale Sarisb. Vigiliæ Mortuorum, fol. 127.

e Ibid. fol. 106.
f Dionys. Eccl. Hierarch. c.7.
See Goar, Rituale Græc.

p. 526, &c.

h August. Confess. lib. ix.

c. 12.

i Paulin. Vita Ambrosii : "Illucescente die Dominico, cum corpus illius, peractis sacramentis divinis, de ecclesia levaretur, portandum ad Basilicam Ambrosianam," &c.

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