Thirtieth Rule. going exhor to be all one visit. These exhortations are not all of them to be urged at one time, as well because such The forea course would weary the sick, as because it fations not is meet that the Curate should bring forth urged during something new as often as he visits the person labouring under indisposition, lest he should seem to be always dwelling upon the same thing, and be accused of a want of knowledge by those who hear him, as if through ignorance he knew not how to vary his discourse. Rule. The Curate, prayers being ended, and Thirty-first having brought his exhortations to a close, pravers and may kindly inquire of the sick person con cerning his bodily health, and in a friendly manner converse with him as to the remedies exhortations being ended, the Curate may enter into friendly converse with the sick his bodily health. to which he has had recourse, and if he be respecting skilled in medicine he may (unless a medical man be present) give him his advice; for by this method he will render himself welcome. Thirty-second Rule. course the The Curate at length being about to depart, should advise the sick person privately to What dismeditate on those things he has heard from Curate him, and should move him to follow his ad- departing monitions, pray for his health, and beseech person's should use at from the sick presence. First Rule. The Curate should request the assistance of attend upon those who the sick. in which he should address them. God that the sick person may, by the help of his grace, be both able and desirous of carrying himself suitable to the circumstances in which he is placed. Rules belonging to the Third Division. Not unfrequently is it meet that the Curate should have the assistance of the attendants of the sick person, for the furtherance of his eternal salvation; for he may prevail much with the sick if he can bring those to help him in earnest who are related to the sick person, either by consanguinity or friendship. The manner To them, therefore, in private, he may speak in the following manner:-" Right and praiseworthy is the care you are bestowing upon this your sick friend; add, I implore you, to the care for his body, a care also for his soul; for that is by far the most excellent part of man, and deserving of greater concern; by so much the more, therefore, principally attend to this, in order that his soul may be healthful; you may in this way most season ably, and to him, without all doubt, most serviceably declare your real affection for him; and warn him, in the first place, that his mind be not called off from serious subjects, either by vain discourse, or the disorderly converse of visitors; cherish in him, as much as you are able, those pious thoughts which I have excited in his mind; read to him, when there shall be opportunity, clearly and distinctly, some catalogue of sins, and in reading dwell long time upon those to which you know your friend, either by nature or depraved habit, is most prone; read also to him on other occasions penitential psalms, and those selections of Holy Writ which you deem at such a time most profitable to him; read also to him in due course some little portion of other books; for in proportion as you do these things it will, I judge, be advantageous to him. I will frequently come to visit your friend, but as I cannot constantly be with him, it will be your part to supply my place by the friendly offices I have mentioned: acts of this kind you will yourselves expect Second Rule. They who wait upon the sick should be advised to compose their grief. Third Rule. In what manner he should prepare them against the decease of from others, at what time (and far distant may that time be!) your lives shall be in jeopardy by reason of some heavy disease with which you shall be seized: what, therefore, you would wish others to do to you, never be unwilling to do to others." They who wait upon the sick should also be advised, when occasion requires, to compose their grief, and should be taught that their sorrow is in vain, and therefore opposed to reason, and that it will be impious and displeasing to God, if they too much indulge in it; for although pardon may be obtained from God, when it takes them by surprise, yet it cannot be cherished without offending the highest authority of God, and therefore they are to be admonished that they diligently direct their endeavours to this end, that they conform their own wills in all things to the divine. They should further be prepared against the decease of the dangerously sick; and to this end should be instructed, that since the life we lead here is perishable and uncertain, that event it would be unjust to deny him that lot which the sick, if must be borne by all, or to shun one's own seem near. death, or to grieve excessively over that of others, since we all entered the world under this condition-that we should depart hence at the command of God; but if he is dead whom they now uselessly deplore, that they shall all soon follow him and dwell together in eternity, unless on account of different moral conduct different abodes should be assigned them; they should be told, lastly, that their He should love towards the dead may much more rightly teach them how they may best evince their love for the and usefully be expressed by a faithful execution of those things which their dying friend dead. committed to their care, and by a due care of those who survive, than by vain tears and useless lamentation. And if by this mode of speech the Curate cannot so far prevail as to induce the attendants of the sick to lay aside their grief or greatly lessen it, he may not- They should withstanding admonish them that they at least ed at any rate conceal the same as often as they come into their excesthe presence of the sick, lest by untimely from the sick. sorrow they disturb his mind, and render him be admonish to conceal sive grief |