"The

The foregoing pages containing Order for the Visitation of the Sick, &c. designed for the Four First Visits, &c." having been favourably received by my clerical brethren, I venture, in a second edition, to add an observation or two, and a form of some subsequent Visits, relative to the administering of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper to the sick person*, after the Minister has finished the preceding Order.

On account of the weak state of the sick person whom he is attending, the Minister may find it inexpedient to finish the foregoing form in so few as four Visits, and therefore necessary to subdivide each part of it, in such manner as his own discretion, and the circumstances of the sick person will best point out to him. And when he has gone through the whole form, he will probably proceed to talk with him

• It is much to be lamented, that opportunities of using the following form do not often occur; for it very frequently happens, that the Minister's attendance is not desired, till the sick person is in the extremest danger, and scarce able to attend to the shortest exhortations and prayers: but when the Minister is called in at the beginning of sickness, or before the sick person is become incapable of attending to them, it is to be hoped that the following, as well as the preceding form, will be found serviceable to both.

about

about receiving the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper.

Here I am sorry to add that he will often, very often, find that this duty has been entirely neglected, not only by the young, but also by those who have lived to a very old age. He will therefore have to examine and inform him (as particularly as the sick man can bear) concerning the meaning of this holy ordinance, and the ends for which it was appointed;what this sacrament obliges christians to, and the benefits they may expect from it; -with what dispositions a Christian should come to it, and the great sin of having despised it *.

And here I fear, that not only young clergymen, but those also who have been in the long practice of parochial duty, often experience much perplexity to the former I beg leave to recommend a method of proceeding, which will, I think, greatly relieve their own minds, and afford no small satisfaction to those whom they are visiting. To the latter I am fearful of even seeming to suggest any method, lest by so doing I should be thought to take too much upon me, and to offer to their consideration what must have already been familiar to them.

Bp. Wilson's Parochialia. Page 58.

I venture

I venture then to recommend to my younger brethren the following method of leading the sick person to a worthy participation of the Lord's Supper, till their own experience shall point out to them a better.

When the Minister has gone through the foregoing Order for the Visitation of the Sick, he may request the sick person to permit him to read to him Bishop Wilson's "Short and plain Introduction to the Lord's Supper," consisting of ten sections: one of which, or part of one, he may read at each Visit, according as the person he is visiting can give his attention; which from the violence of his disorder, or the effects of medicine, may be but for a short time.

It is necessary therefore that the Visits should be frequently repeated. I may say, for some time daily. Nor will this, I hope, deter the young Minister from persevering in his endeavours to bring the sick person to a right understanding of the Lord's Supper.

Having thus gone through this excellent little book, the Minister may leave it with the sick man, requesting him, if he can read, and his disorder will permit him, to read it carefully himself by little and little, or to get some friend to read it so to him.

But

But I think it needless to explain here the remainder of the method I would recommend, as the reader may see it in an exhortation given to a sick person in what is entitled "The Sixth, and some subsequent Visits." I therefore proceed to

The Visit which is to follow the Form before recommended, whether it has been finished in Four Visits, or been subdivided into more, as the Circumstances of the Sick Person would allow.

On coming into the Sick Person's house, the Minister shall say,

Peace be to this house, and to all that dwell in it.

The Minister, having, as at other Visits tenderly and compassionately saluted the Sick Person, may address him in the following, or such like Manner *.

Having, my Christian Brother, in the Visits which I have paid you during

*The reader will observe that this address is adplicable only to those who have never, or but seldom received the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. To such as have been in the habit of receiving it in time of health, the Minister may, I think, propose to administer it, after he has gone through the Form in the Four Visits, having previously put to the Sick Person the questions of the Church Catechism in some such manner as is to be found in Dr. Stonhouse's Sick Man's Friend, as transcribed in Pages 98, 99, and 100, of this book.