thy sight. Wash it, we pray thee, in the blood of that immaculate Lamb, that was slain to take away the sins of the world; that whatsoever defilements it may have contracted in the midst of this miserable and naughty world, through the lusts of the flesh, or the wiles of Satan, being purged and done away, it may be presented pure and without spot before thee. And teach us who survive, in this and other like daily spectacles of mortality, to see how frail and uncertain our own condition is; and so to number our days, that we may seriously apply our hearts to that holy and heavenly wisdom, whilst we live here, which may in the end bring us to life everlasting, through the merits of Jesus Christ thine only Son our Lord. Amen. A Prayer for persons troubled in mind or n conscience. For the prayer for those troubled in mind, see 2 Cor. i. 3; Job xiii. Ps. lxxxviii. 3-7; Rom. xv. 4; God of all comforts; We Rom. ii. 6-10; 1 Cor. xi. 31; Heb. O blessed Lord, the Fa- beseech thee, look down in pity and compassion X. 35, 36; 2 Cor. xii. 9; Heb. ii. 18; upon this thy afflicted Matt. xii. 20; Ps. li. 8, 17; Ps. lxiv. 1; servant. Thou writest bitter things against him, Rom. v. I. and makest him to possess his former iniquities; thy wrath lieth hard upon him, and his soul is full of trouble: But, O merciful God, who hast written thy holy Word for our learning, that we, through patience and comfort of thy holy Scriptures, might have hope; give him a right understanding of himself, and of thy threats and promises; that he may neither cast away his confidence in thee, nor place it any where but in thee. Give him strength against all his temptations, and heal all his distempers. Break not the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax. Shut not up thy tender mercies in displeasure; but make him to hear of joy and gladness, that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Deliver him from fear of the enemy, and lift up the light of thy countenance upon him, and give him peace, through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. SECTION III. THE COMMUNION OF THE SICK. Forasmuch as all mor IT has ever been the practice of the tal men be subject to Church Catholic to administer the Holy many sudden perils, diseases, and sicknesses, Communion to the sick. and ever uncertain what time they shall whensoever it shall There were two methods practised-I. The Reservadepart out of this life; tion of the Elements. II. Private Celetherefore, to the intent they may be always in brations. The first of these is mentioned a readiness to die, by Justin Martyr, and was ordered in the please Almighty God to Book of 1549, as the usual and primitive call them, the Curates method of proceeding; while private time to time (but espe- celebrations were made exceptional. cially in the time of pestilence, or other in- Paulina, Bishop of Nola, and S. Am shall diligently from their Parishioners to fectious sickness) exhort brose, had private celebrations, which, the often receiving of in 1552, became the rule of our Church. the holy Communion of Still, reservation has been occasionally the Body and Blood of our Saviour Christ, practised; and the late Archbishop lickly administered in Longley, when appealed to on this subthe Church; that so ject, during the cholera outbreak at of sudden visitation, Leeds, said, "that while he could not have the less cause to be authorize reservation, he did not feel disquieted for lack of when it shall be pub doing, they may, in case to come to the Church, gency." the same. But if the justified in forbidding it in that emersick person be not able "All things necessary," mean and yet is desirous to that proper vessels should be used, and in his house; then he proper vestments worn by the priest. receive the Communion must give timely notice to the Curate, signifying also how many there are to communicate with him, (which shall be three, or two at the least,) and 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, beginning with the Collect, Epistle, and Gospel, here following. The Collect. Almighty, everliving God, Maker of mankind, who dost correct those whom The Collect, Epistle, and Gospel were appointed in 1552. For the Collect see Heb. xii. 5, 6; Ps. lxxxvi. 15, 16; Ps. xxxii. 1 Pet. v. 6; Ps. xxxix. 13; dost receive; We beseech Eph. v. 25-27; Jude 24, 25. The this thy servant visited Church, in the Rubric concerning spiriwith thine hand, and to tual communion, follows the spirit of the thou dost love, and chastise every one whom thou thee to have mercy upon grant that he may take his The Epistle. Heb. xii. 5. 4; 66 sickness patiently, and re- Sarum Manual.- Brother, in this case cover his bodily health, (if it be thy gracious will) thy true faith and good will sufficeth and whensoever his soul thee; believe only, and thou hast eaten " shall depart from the body, it may be without (tantum crede et manducasti.) Egbert, spot presented unto thee; Archbishop of York, in the 8th century, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. says, "That if a man dies without the Eucharist, we cannot think otherwise than that it is a matter for God to judge, since it was in God's providence that he did so die." God is infinitely merciful and gracious, and if a man offers his body a living sacrifice-if he pleads the One Sacrifice of the Cross, and trusts to Christ alone for pardon and peace, He will accept his earnest longing and desire to communicate, when the actual power to do so is taken from him. As Archbishop Egbert says, "It is in God's providence that the power to communicate is taken from him, and to God's providence we trust him, for Christ's sake, Who died for him. After which the Priest shall proceed according to the form before prescribed for the Holy Communion, beginning at these words [Ye that do truly, &c.] At the time of the distribution of the holy Sacrament, the Priest shall first receive the Communion himself, and after minister unto them that are appointed to communicate with the sick, and last of all to the sick person. But if 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 Curate shall instruct him, that if he do truly repent him of his sins, and stedfastly believe that Jesus Christ 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 Christ profitably to his Soul's health, although he do not receive the Sacrament with his mouth. When the sick person is visited, and receiveth the holy Communion all at one time, then the Priest, for more expedition, shall cut off the form of the Visitation at the Psalm [In thee, O Lord, have I put my trust, &c.] and go straight to the Communion. In the time of the Plague, Sweat, or such other like contagious times of sickness or diseases, when none of the Parish or neighbours can be gotten to communicate with the sick in their houses, for fear of the infection, upon special request of the diseased, the Minister may only communicate with him. 266 CHAPTER XIII. THE BURIAL OF THE DEAD. SECTION I. THE OPENING that the Office ensuing RUBRICS. THIS Office is intended to be used over Here is to be noted, Christians, therefore the unbaptized and is not to be used for the excommunicate cannot be buried with any that die unbaptized, or excommuni- it. The excommunication here referred to cate, or have laid is the greater excommunication, passed violent hands upon themselves. by an ecclesiastical Ordinary. Suicides also cannot have Christian burial, ex cept in manifest cases of insanity. A clergyman is not bound to abide by the verdict, "temporary insanity," which a jury so often give, out of charity to the living; for this would be throwing the discipline and authority of the Church into the hands of a secular court. The coroner's warrant for burial is a simple discharge of the body from crown custody, and does not force interment with the Church Service. The coroner gives the verdict of the State, while the priest gives the verdict for the Church; though he is bound to give all due weight and consideration to the verdict of the State (cf. Blunt on Church Law, p. 180.) This Office is manifestly unfit to be used over a person who has died in the commission of actual sin; and in such cases it is well to use a Collect and Penitential Psalm, applicable to the living bystanders, if the Priest feels it advisable to avoid a silent committal to the grave. The Priest and Clerks The priest, in infectious or other cases, meeting the Corpse at may use his discretion, and read the the entrance of the whole service at the grave, without going into the church. The presence of the clerks or choir show that provision is made for choral funerals. Church-yard, and going before it, either into the Church, or towards the Grave, shall say, or sing, SECTION II. THE BURIAL OFFICE. I am the resurrection and the life, saith the Lord: THE first two of these Processional he that believeth in me, Anthems are from the Sarum use. They though he were dead, yet ever liveth and believeth shall he live: and whoso are taken from John xi. 25, 26; Job xix. in me shall never die. St. 25-27; 1 Tim. vi. 7; Job i. 21. John xi. 25, 26. 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. Job xix. 25, 26, 27. We brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the Name of the Lord. 1 Tim. vi. 7. Job. i. 21. These Psalms were inserted here in 1661; the Psalms of 1549 having been omitted in 1552. The Lesson, I Cor. xv., has been in use from primitive times, we find it in the Lectionary of S. Jerome. If the Holy Communion be celebrated at a funeral, in accordance with primitive custom, it should follow here. former Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians. When they come to the grave, while the Corpse 1 Cor. xv. 20. The first part of the Anthem is taken is made ready to be laid from Job xiv. 1, 2. The Dirge, "Media into the earth, the Vita," (In the midst of life, &c.) was Priests and Clerks shall used as an antiphon to the Nunc sing: Dimittis in Lent. Its author was Priest shall say, or the |