SECTION XXV.

Of adminiftering the Sacrament to the Sick and Dying.

IN

one of thofe little cheap tracts fo often alluded to, which are addressed to the unlearned, in order to disabuse them of their veneration for, and confidence in the Eucharift, the fimple perfon introduced by the Author to receive inftruction afks this queftion among many others: "Are we authorised to confider the celebration of the Lord's Supper, as in any degree an appointed means for procuring the remiffion of our fins ?—The answer is brief and peremptory :-" NO;" and the queftionist is authoritatively informed, (as we have feen in the preceding pages,) that, if ever the Sacrament is adminiftered to the SICK AND DYING, as an appointed means of obtaining the remiffion

remiffion of fins, "the participant is deceived, and the rite mifapplied."

That prefent remiffion of fins is annexed to the Sacrament has, I hope, been already proved. It is the doctrine of our own Church, and of every church which has received the Apostles', and the Nicene Creeds. It was the doctrine of the primitive churches, even of the churches. over which St. Paul prefided; it is the exprefs language of Scripture; St. Paul and his converts actually did obtain prefent pardon; it is implied in the notion of juftification; it is fuppofed in the daily ufe of the Lord's Prayer; it is expressly the annexed benefit of one Sacrament, thus to wash for the prefent remiffion of fins; and therefore, if in the other, we drink blood feed for the remiffion of fins, we do in that alfo receive this fame benefit *.

Taking it now therefore for granted, that remiffion of fins is annexed to the

Thefe points are proved to the fatisfaction of candid minds in the Three Sermons on the Lord's Supper, preached by Bishop Cleaver at Oxford.

Sacrament, I venture to affirm that, when it is administered in order to afford comfort and hope to the fick and dying, the PENITENT participants are not deceived, and the rite is applied with peculiar propriety. They want fpiritual as well as bodily comfort; and nothing, they themfelves declare, can give it them, but the Sacrament. They truft in this holy rire, when they can truft in nothing elfe; and fhall a cavilling theologift, in oppofition to the Church, whofe authority he has bound himself to obey, and in oppofition to Scripture, on which the Church has founded its authority, refuse this last solace to the poor fufferer who implores it? Forbid it Chriftian charity and common. humanity!

"But it is objected," fays Bishop Cleaver," that the Lord's Supper, thus understood, may, if adminiftered on a death-bed, deceive the communicant, and encourage by-ftanders to defer their repentance, in hopes of cancelling all accounts of fin, by one fingle act of devotion. It may be fo; but this abufe is

no

no way chargeable on the doctrine itself. If the fick be not really penitent, fo far as may appear to human judgment, they are to blame, who in fuch circumstances adminifter this Sacrament. If the cafe be doubtful, the propriety of it will be doubtful; or, if the communicant be in a difpofition only to repent, the delay of this rite should be the measure firft fuggefted; or, if in extreme cafes it be adminiftered, the hopes of pardon fhould be held out in proportion to the apparent penitence; and, in truth, where the feeble promise of amendment is offered only in circumftances which too probably may preclude the means of fulfilling that promife, the value of every religious pledge will be at best but fufpicious; and it belongs to an omnifcient Judge only to appreciate that, to which he alone can apportion the just degree of retribution. But these

and many other cafes of difcretion muft be fettled by the doctrine itself well confidered, not the doctrine made to yield to the abufes, which may occafionally creep

into the practice of this or any other Church."

As this matter is of great importance and very delicate, I have thought it right to fupport my opinions by thofe of a learned prelate, who appears to have ftudied the fubject with great attention, and has written upon it with great ability.

But I have no reluctance in declaring it my full convicton, that when a poor dying mortal humbly and heartily defires to receive the Holy Sacrament, the minifter may adminifter it without fcruple or Strictness of examination, (which time and circumftances will hardly admit,) and if he is in error, he will be pardoned by the God of mercy. How muft it aggravate the fufferings of a fick and dying man, ftretched on the bed of pain, and diftreffed in mind, to be told, on his expreffing his earneft defire of the Sacrament, that he is not fit for it, and that it cannot be administered to him! To the minifter's difcretion it must be left to converfe with the fufferer in fuch manner and on fuch