ings are concerned. We must be careful not so to familiarize the rite by frequency, as to lose all reverence for it, by performing it unprepared, with a mind engaged in the occupations of the world, and little attentive to the importance of the solemnity. "Divines of all ages of the Church, except in the first, and part of the second century, seem inclined to abate of frequency rather than of the strictness of preparation or qualification*." The want of preparation is the only allowable impediment to frequency of communion; but this is an impediment which every man, unless under very peculiar circumstances, may remove.

Strictness of examination is required, yet this is not to be pleaded as an excuse, " either for a total, a frequent, or a long neglect of it. A man may say, that he comes not to the table, because he is not prepared, and so far he assigns a good reason; but if he should be farther asked, why he is not prepared, he can only make some trifling insufficient excuse, or remain speechless."

When we consider the frailty of man, and the brevity of life, it must be deemed presumption ever to continue long unprepared for the sacrament; because, at the same time, we must be unprepared to die. If we keep our minds in a constant state of preparation, it will certainly be right to communi

* Waterland.

cate, not only at all the great Festivals of the Church, but whenever opportunity offers, and no reasonable cause urges us to postpone it. Precise rules cannot be given; neither would they be followed.

One admonition, however, of universal importance may be offered; which is, that though, with respect to frequency of communion, much is left to the discretion of the Church, and much to the pri vate judgment of individual Christians; yet the omission must never be the effect of contempt, or even of negligence. It must arise from unavoidable or reasonable impediments.

SECTION XXII.

Of administering the Sacrament to the Sick and Dying.

THAT present remission of sins 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 Apostle's and the Nicene Creeds. It was the doctrine of the primitive churches, even of the churches over which St. Paul presided; it is the express language of Scripture; St. Paul and his converts actually did obtain

present pardon; it is implied in the notion of justification; it is supposed in the daily use of the Lord's Prayer; it is expressly the annexed benefit of one Sacrament, thus to wash for the present remission of sins; and therefore, if in the other, we drink blood shed for the remission of sins, we do in that also receive this same benefit*.

Taking it now therefore for granted, that remission of sins is annexed to the Sacrament, I venture to affirm that, when it is administered in order to afford comfort and hope to the sick and dying, the Penitent participants are not deceived, and the rite is applied with peculiar propriety. They want spiritual as well as bodily comfort; and nothing, they themselves declare, can give it them, but the Sacrament. They trust in this holy rite, when they can trust in nothing else; and shall a cavilling theologist, in opposition to the Church, whose authority he has bound himself to obey, and in opposition to Scripture, on which the Church has founded its authority, refuse this last solace to the poor sufferer who implores it? Forbid it Christian charity and common humanity!

"But it is objected," says Bishop Cleaver, "that the Lord's Supper, thus understood, may, if

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

administered on a death bed, deceive the commu nicant, and encourage by-standers to defer their repentance, in hopes of cancelling all accounts of sin, by one single act of devotion. It may be so; but this abuse is no way chargeable on the doctrine itself. If the sick be not really penitent, so far as may appear to human judgment, they are to blame, who in such circumstances administer the Sacrament. If the case be doubtful, the propriety of it will be doubtful; or, if the communicant be in a disposition only to repent, the delay of this rite should be the measure first suggested; or, if in extreme cases it be administered, the hopes of pardon should be held out in proportion to the apparent penitence; and, in truth, where the feeble promise of amendment is offered only in circumstances, which too probably may preclude the means of fulfilling that promise, the value of every religious pledge will be at least but suspicious; and it belongs to an omniscient Judge only to appreciate that to which he alone can apportion the just degree of retribution. But these and many other cases of discretion must be settled by the doctrine itself, well considered, not the doctrine made to yield to the abuses, which may occasionally 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 support my opinions by those of a learned prelate, who appears

to have studied the subject with great attention, and has written upon it with great ability.

But I have no reluctance in declaring it my full conviction, that when a poor dying mortal, humbly and heartily desires to receive the Holy Sacrament, the minister may administer it without scruple or strictness of examination, (which time and circumstances will hardly admit,) and if he is in error, he will be pardoned by the God of mercy. How must it aggravate the sufferings of a sick and dying man, stretched on the bed of pain, and distressed in mind, to be told, on his expressing his earnest desire of the Sacrament, that he is not fit for it, and that it cannot be administered to him! To the minister's discretion it must be left to converse with the suf ferer in such manner, and on such topics, as circumstances may indicate and allow; and if, after all proper explanations, the sufferer continues to desire the Eucharist, I should think it a want of Christian charity to refuse it. A mistake of this kind, committed through tenderness and compassion, though it may be severely censured at the tribunal of human criticism, will be viewed with indulgence at the throne of supreme wisdom and mercy.

Be it ever remembered, that in extreme cases, like that which I now suppose," the hopes of pardon are to be held out in proportion to the apparent penitence;" so says the judicious prelate above cited; but he does not say, nor will any man of a feel

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