is still retained at the end of the service. At the Savoy Conference, the dissenters objected to an ordinance, which 'either enforced all such as were unfit for the sacrament to forbear marriage, contrary to Scripture, which approves the marriage of all men; or else compelled all that should marry to come to the Lord's table, though never so unprepared.' And they added, that marriage-festivals are too often. accompanied with such divertisements as are unsuitable to those Christian duties which ought to be before and follow after the receiving of that holy Sacrament.' In compliance with these not unreasonable scruples, the reception of the Sacrament was no longer made compulsory, but was recommended by the present rubric at the end of the office.

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The benediction Almighty God,' &c. is as follows in the Sarum Manual:

Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, qui primos parentes nostros Adam et Evam sua virtute creavit, et in sua sanctificatione copulavit, ipse corda et corpora vestra sanctificet et benedicat, atque in societate et amore veræ dilectionis conjungat. Per &c.

IT

SECTION IV.

VISITATION OF THE SICK.

was customary in former times for the

presbyters of the Church to visit the sick,

to anoint them with oil, in compliance with the James v. 14. Words of the apostle St James, and to convey to them from the church a portion of the consecrated elements. The office for the Visitation of the Sick, as it now stands in the Prayer Book, is but slightly altered from the ancient formularies of the Church. The practice of anointing the sick with oil has been discontinued, because the original object of it was to save,' that is, to procure a miraculous recovery of the sick person, and such cures have long ceased in the Church'. The Church of Rome continued to anoint the sick with oil, not for the recovery of their bodily health, but to cleanse the soul from its sins, and to prepare it for the next life; and with this view the oil was applied to those who were at the point of Extreme departure. Hence arose the rite of extreme unction, which in the twelfth century was regarded as the fifth sacrament, and by the Council of Trent was formally established under

unction.

1 Palmer.

the usual anathema. The custom of reserving a portion of the Eucharist, and carrying it from the church to the houses of the sick, was in process of time abused to superstitious purposes, and therefore, though retained in the Prayer Book of 1549, it was omitted at the revision in 1552, and censured, as not according to Christ's ordinance, by the Articles of Art. xxviii. religion published in the same year.

The prayer Hear us, Almighty' &c. originally contained the following clause, 'Visit him, O Lord, as thou didst visit Peter's wife's mother, and the captain's servant. And as thou preservedst Tobie and Sarah by thy angel from danger.' The latter part was omitted in 1552, because it had reference to an apocryphal writing; and the former part in 1662, because it was an invocation of miraculous aid, which we have no authority to ask, and no reason to expect.

confession

The Church of Rome insists that confession The special of sins to a priest, commonly called auricular of sins. confession,' and the absolution of the priest, are necessary to salvation. Our Church only orders the sick person to be moved to confession, if he feel his conscience troubled with any weighty matter,' and passes no opinion on his eternal state, if he declines to make such

The Absolution,

confession. It cannot be doubted that there are many cases in which the confession of special sins to the minister may be the means of quieting the sick man's conscience, and also of assisting him in obtaining God's pardon. But we do not hold it to be necessary. If a man confess his sins to God alone with true penitence of heart, it is sufficient. And this is agreeable to the teaching of the ancient Church. For to take one passage out of many, St Chrysostom says, 'God does not compel us to come forward and speak out our transgressions, but bids us plead before him alone, and confess to him'.'

The absolution, 'Our Lord Jesus Christ,' &c. is at first sight open to the objection that it seems to convey to the sick man the absolute and unconditional remission of his sins; 'by his authority committed to me, I absolve thee from all thy sins.' In this respect it differs materially from the form of absolution used at the beginning of Morning and Evening Prayer, and from that in the Communion-service, the former of which is declaratory of God's forgiveness to those who are penitent, and the latter is precatory. But an important condition

1 See Bingham, Ant. XVIII. 3, 2, and Library of the Fathers, Tertullian, p. 380.

though not expressed, is to be understood in

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this absolution; namely this, if thou art truly penitent.' It is certain, that unless the sick man is truly penitent, he cannot be forgiven; and whether he is penitent or not, the minister cannot tell; God only knows, who sees the heart, The minister pronounces the absolution, in the hope and belief that the previous profession of penitence is sincere. But he is not certain that this belief is well founded; and therefore he can neither possess nor give any assurance that the absolution which he pronounces will be ratified by God's final judg

ment.

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The words by his authority committed to me,' refer to the authority which the priest receives at his ordination, conveyed to him in the words of our Lord at John xx. 23.

By a rubric in the first Prayer Book of Edward VI. this form of absolution was appointed to be used in all private confessions;' it was therefore the form contemplated in the exhortation to the Communion, which directed persons who were troubled in conscience to apply to God's minister for ghostly comfort and absolution. The omission of this order in 1552 denoted that the form to be used in private confessions was thenceforth left to the