the Soul obtains the recovery of his Bodily Health But then as to the Persons who are designed whether to receive or to administer this Sacrament this also is delivered and that not obscurely in the foregoing Words For it is there shewn that the proper Ministers of this Sacrament are the Presbyters of the Church by which Word here we are not to understand the more Aged or Honourable amongst the People but either Bishops or Priests c. It is declared also that this Unction is to be ministred to the Sick but to those especially who are so dangerously ill that they seem to be past Recovery whence it is also called the †Sacramentum excuntium Sacrament of the Dying If the sick Persons recover after having received this Unction they may again be relieved by it when the like danger of Death happens Wherefore they are by no means to be hearkened to who against the manifest and clear Sense of the Apostle James teach either that this Unction is a device of Men or a Rite received from the Fathers that has neither a Divine Command nor a Promise of Grace and who assert that it is of no longer use as having been applied in the Primitive Church to the Gift of Healing only or who say that the Rite and Usage of the Holy Roman Church in the Administration of this Sacrament is repugnant to the Sense of St. James and therefore to be altered Lastly who affirm that this Extreme Unction may without Sin be contemn'd by the Faithful For all these things are most evidently contrary to the perspicuous Words of so great an Apostle c. So that in the Church of Rome Extreme Unction is a Sacrament administred to dying Persons the proper Effect whereof is the cleansing of them from the Remains of Sin by the Grace of the Holy Ghost and as appears by the Form of Words used in the Administration it is applied in order to the forgiveness of all Sins that have been committed by means of any of the Senses That Authority which they pretend for this Sacrament is indeed the highest for they say it was instituted by Christ The proof which they produce for this Institution is that it was insinuated by St. Mark and publish'd by St. James That the Evangelist did insinuate it and the other Apostle publish it we have the Word and Authority of the Council of Trent But I will be bold to say that if Men are not content to rely upon the Authority of the Council but will examine its proofs they may easily be convinced that neither did St. James publish nor St. Mark insinuate any such Doctrine or Practice as it has established And therefore the wisest Passage in the Declaration of the Council concerning this matter is that they are by no means to be hearkened unto who teach otherwise than it teaches For if we can but persuade Men to give us the hearing or the reading we are very confident to make it plain that not our Objections against this pretended Sacrament but their Pleas for it are most evidently contrary to the perspicuous Words both of the Evangelist who is said to insinuate it and of the Apostle who is said to publish it §. 2. That Extreme Unction can by no means be proved from St. James chap. v. 14 15. THE clearest proof they have for this pretended Sacrament are doubtless those Words of St. James ch v. 14 15. Is any sick among you let him call for the Elders of the Church and let them pray over him anointing him with Oil in the Name of the Lord And the Prayer of Faith shall save the Sick and the Lord shall raise him up and if he have committed Sins they shall be forgiven him Now supposing that the Institution of a Sacrament were implied in these Words and that the outward Sign thereof were anointing with Oil yet this could not by any means be the Sacrament of Extreme Vnction in the Church of Rome For according to St. James the Sick Person was to be anointed in order to the raising of him up or his Recovery from Sickness But the Sick are anointed in that Church for purging away the remains of their Sins when they seem to be past hopes of Recovery And tho perhaps one or other may recover afterward yet this is meerly accidental and besides the intention of administring their Sacrament which they therefore call the Sacrament of the Dying Nay the Sick Person in St. James was not to be anointed only in order to his Recovery but his Recovery was certainly to follow for 't is said the Prayer of Faith shall save the Sick and the Lord shall raise him up Which one Observation is sufficient to overthrow all the hope they have in this Text. For St. James does indeed advise anointing with Oil but 't is in such a Case when most assuredly the sick Person should not die The Church of Rome also does require the same but 't is when nothing can be well expected but the Death of the Patient Now which way they can gather a Sacrament of Extreme Vnction from an Authority that requires an Vnction which is not Extreme how they can prove a Sacrament which they pretend to be proper for dying Persons from those Words of Scripture that mention a Rite never used upon dying Persons a Man must have a great deal of Wit or rather a good share of the contrary to be able to imagine Which one thing seems to have been so well considered by †Bellar. de Extr. Unct. c. 3. Dico secundo illa verba duo c. Bellarmin and others after him that they found it necessary to interpret these Words The Prayer of Faith shall save the Sick and the Lord shall raise him up not so much of restoring Health to the Body as of cleansing forgiving and quieting the Soul And so they have made St. James to use Expressions in such a Sense as never Man of Understanding did either before or after him till the Cause of the Church of Rome made it necessary for these Men to interpret Words against all Rules of Speaking For according to the perpetual use of Words what is it to save the Sick but to save him from his Sickness What is it to raise up a sick Man but to restore him to Health And who would interpret these Expressions otherwise but they whose Cause is desperate if they be not otherwise interpreted But if it be asked what Grounds they pretend for this Liberty of Interpretation you must know that the Word saving indifferently refers to the healing of the Body or to the restoring of the Soul and the Word raising tho properly used of something that belongs to the Body yet by a Metaphor frequently used in Scripture signifies also to drive away sadness and dulness from the Mind Which is true indeed but nothing to the purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For tho these Words saving and raising may have
assist by a Sacrament there is I am sure nothing in the nature of the thing to hinder but that he may assist by the reception of the Eucharist at the hour of death though it be not a Sacrament proper to the Dying And if this be true there is nothing in the Argument why God must needs have appointed Extreme Vnction for the Dying but that the Number Three ought go round for the pleasing of their Imaginations who are entertained to their liking more with regular Figures and Analogies than with substantial and useful Truth I confess I am not very much concerned to see men take these pretty congruities and make them reasons for what they do themselves provided they will rest there and not make them Rules for what God Almighty does When (h) Arcud ubi supra cap. 3 Simeon Thessalonicensis tells us why in the Greek Church there are Seven Priests to anoint the Sick viz. because of all the Sevens that he could readily think of I am very well content for it being indifferent whether there were Seven Priests or not an indifferent reason I thought would serve the turn one way or other But it is not to be endured to put these petty Arguings upon the Infinite Wisdom of God by obliging him to appoint Sacraments for the sake of fanciful and neat Analogies 2. To make this Analogy hold the Cardinal did not think fit to mention some of the Sacraments of his Church some of those I mean that are for the aiding of us in our progress after Baptism as they hold for in this whole Chapter he mentions none of these but the Eucharist Now with them there are Seven in all i. e. Five between the first and the last from which Five indeed he might well have excepted Holy Matrimony and Holy Orders because according to them these two can never meet to the assistance of the same persons in their progress through the World and because they are not necessary to all But the Sacraments of Confirmation and Penance being added to the Eucharist do certainly make Three for our progress in the Church Nor can I imagin why those two were not remembred but for fear of spoiling the handsomeness of the Analogy and of raising an expectation of more than one Sacrament proper for us in our Egress out of the Militant Church especially since our dangers are said to be then greater and our strength to encounter them less than in the whole course of our life besides The truth is if the Institution of Sacraments must be thought to go by such Congruities as these it would be impossible for men to agree about the number and the use of Sacraments till they all agree in the same Phansies of Congruity And yet nothing in the World seems to have greater variety than Phansy has 3. If there were some colour of Agrument in a handsom Congruity yet in one that is strain'd and forced there is none at all For such is the congruity of being furnish'd with a Sacrament for our going out as we are with a Sacrament for our entring into the Church If the opposition had been natural either Baptism must have received us into the life of this World as Extreme Vnction is intended so secure our passage out of it or Extreme Vnction must send us out of the Church as Baptism does enter us into it No man will say the former nor Bellarmin the latter and therefore he was fain to add the consideration of the Churches Militancy in this life to save himself from the absurdity of making Extreme Vnction the Sacrament of our going out of the Church as Baptism is the Sacrament of our entrance into it But then this spoils the congruity of the opposition for he that is baptized does thereby become a Member of that Church part whereof is in Heaven but he that is anointed with Extreme Vnction does not thereby no not when he dies cease to be a member of that Church part whereof is upon Earth if he dies in the Lord. And therefore it cannot be said that he goes out of the Church by death as he entred into it by Baptism For by death it self he makes a farther progress in it Besides the effect of Baptism is this That thereby we were actually admitted into the Church But is it the effect of Extreme Vnction to pass us out of the Militant Church 'T is the Sacrament of the Dying they say but what effect has it if the sick person happens to recover after anointing Did his anointing assist him in his passage out of this World though he tarried in it still Or is it only a Sacrament that confers the Grace proper to it and is good for its end if there be occasion for it Or a Sacrament by it self that when it happens to do no good will be sure to do no harm It is a dangerous thing to lay any great weight upon these slender congruities And therefore dismissing the Analogy of Extreme Vnction to Baptism and the Eucharist and the congruity of providing a Sacrament for our Egress to answer the Sacraments of Ingress and Progress we have nothing to consider but the single congruity of providing sufficent assistance for the Faithful in so dangerous an hour as the hour of death But to this also I have spoken already and shall now add 1. That we do not in the least doubt but as God is present with his faithful Servants in all conditions of life to deliver them out of Temptation so he will not forsake them in the hour of death nor then suffer them to be tempted above what they are able but we say that this does not infer any the least need or even congruity that he should therefore institute a Sacrament proper for the comfort and assistance of the Dying since if he is pleased upon our Prayer to give the assistance of his Holy Spirit in that case without such a Sacrament our needs in that time of danger are as effectually supplied as if such a Sacrament had been added And therefore Chemnitius did well to say That other guards and defences are not to be sought for the dying than those that are provided for the living viz. the Word of God the remembrance of Baptism and the reception of the Eucharist which are all profitable to the dying And (h) Ubi supra Cap. V. Bellarmin did very ill to answer that at this rate there would be no need of the Eucharist after Baptism For in order to the receiving of Divine Grace we must observe Divine Institutions God was not bound to institute Sacraments for us and I think no man will deny but if he had pleased he could have saved us without them but when he has once instituted them we are bound to observe them if we expect Grace to help us in the time of our need 2. If it were true that a sufficient aid could not be provided in the dangerous hour of death but by
the End of his Epistle Pag. 36 § 7. Objections against our Interpretation answered Pag. 41 § 8. That St. James 's Text affords useful Admonitions though it is far from establishing a Sacrament of Extreme Vnction Pag. 45 PART II. That 't is a late Innovation and has no ground in Antiquity Sect. 1. What Anointings were used in the antient Church Pag. 49 § 2. That the Vnction of the Sick in the Antient Church confirms our Interpretation of St. Mark and St. James Pag. 54 § 3. That Extreme Vnction has not the Testimony of any Antient Pope Pag. 54 § 4. Nor of any Antient Council Pag. 73 § 5. Nor of any Antient Father Pag. 79 § 6. That the Silence of Antiquity and the Circumstances with which it is to be taken are a positive Proof that Extreme Vnction has not the Tradition of the Antients but is a notorious Innovation Pag. 87 § 7. Of the Occasions and Beginnings of Extreme Vnction How vast a Change it made from the Primitive Vnction and by what Degrees it was made Pag. 94 § 8. That this Innovation was not Vniversal the Vnction of the Greek Church at this day being not Extreme Vnction but that of the Antients Pag. 108 PART III. That the Appeal to Reason in behalf of this pretended Sacrament is altogether vain Sect. 1. THat the pretence to prove any thing to be a Sacrament by mere Reason is an absurd Presumption Pag. 110 § 2. That the Reason brought to prove that Extreme Vnction was fit to be instituted has not so much as any probability Pag. 116 § 3. That more congruous Reasoning may be offered against it than for it Pag. 123 § 4. An Apology for this Controversy about Extreme Vnction from the great moment of it Pag. 125 § 5. The Church of England and other Protestant Churches justified in not anointing the Sick at all Pag. 130 § 6. An Address to the Laity of the Roman Communion Pag. 134 ERRATA Pag. 96. line 10. for Sacred r. Second Pag. 103. for § ix r. § viii OF Extreme Unction PART I. That the places of Scripture produced for it are against it §. I. What the Doctrine of the Roman Church is concerning Extreme Unction HOW well soever they may agree in the practice of Extreme Vnction in the Roman Church yet as to the Doctrine of it their most celebrated Writers have (a) Vid. Dalleum de Extr. Unct. c. 2. fall'n so foully one against another that to know what it is from them would cost more pains than the Thing is worth And therefore we will be content and surely our Adversaries will be so too to take it as it is laid down by the Council of Trent Which Council has given too much advantage for us to desire any more from the Sentiments of private Authors which as they without cause complain we so often combat while we pretend all along to attaque the Established Doctrine of the Church But if the Reasons upon which the Council proceeded in its Decrees were not so convincing as to satisfy all of that Communion but very great Men amongst themselves have been of contrary Opinions concerning them this we have no Obligation upon us to dissemble how unwilling soever they may be to hear of it I know well enough that an undue Advantage may be made of the Testimonies of Authors and of the Concessions of Adversaries which are sometimes used to underprop a Cause that wants Truth at the bottom and has therefore no Foundation of its own But so long as the Arguments and the Answers which we produce in this Cause are good ones I hope they will not be thought worse of if some of them seemed good also to some Men of no mean Figure in the Church of Rome And now let us see in the First place what the Doctrine of the Church of Rome is concerning this pretended Sacrament The Council of Trent (b) Sess 14. has delivered it in this manner First of all concerning the Institution of this Sacrament the Holy Synod declares and teaches that our most gracious Redeemer who would have his Servants at all times provided with Saving Remedies and Defences against all the Weapons of all their Enemies as he has by other Sacraments supplied Christians with those mighty Aids by which they may in the Course of their Life keep themselves unhurt by all the greater Mischiefs that can happen to their Souls so by the Sacrament of Extreme Vnction he has set a most sure Guard about them to make good the end of their Life For tho our Adversary does all our Life long seek and catch at every occasion by any means to devour our Souls yet there is no time when he strains more vehemently to exert the utmost of his Craft to ruine us utterly and if he can possibly to bereave us of all Trust in the Mercy of God then when he perceives the end of our Life to be at hand But this Holy Vnction of the Sick was Instituted by our Lord Christ as a Sacrament of the New Testament truly and properly so called Insinuated indeed by St. Mark but recommended and published to the Faithful by St. James the Apostle and Brother of our Lord. Says he Is any one Sick c. In which Words as the Church has learned by Apostolical Tradition delivered from hand to hand he teaches the Matter the Form the proper Minister and Effect of this Saving Sacrament For the Church has understood the Matter thereof to be Oil Blessed by a Bishop For this Vnction does most fitly represent the Grace of the Holy Ghost by which the Soul of the sick Person is invisibly annointed And that the Form thereof is this By this Holy Vnction and by his most Holy Mercy God forgive thee whatsoever Sin thou hast committed by seeing by hearing by tasting by smelling and by touching Amen Which Form is repeated severally in anointing the seat of each Sense and according to the (c) Decret Eugenii IV. in Conc. Florent Catech. ad Paroc de Extr. U. §. 21. Florentine Fathers in anointing the Feet also for the Sins of walking and the Reins for the Sensuality that reigned there Moreover the thing signified and the effect of this Sacrament is explained in these Words And the Prayer of Faith shall save the Sick and the Lord shall raise him up and if he have committed Sins they shall be forgiven him For the thing here signified is the Grace of the Holy Ghost whose anointing cleanseth from Transgressions if any yet remain to be expiated and from the Reliques of Sin and easeth and strengthneth the Soul of the sick Person by exciting in him a great confidence in the Divine Mercy whereby he is in that manner supported that the Trouble and Pain which he sustains by his Sickness becomes more tolerable and he resists more easily the Temptations of the Devil now closely lying in wait for him and sometimes when it is expedient for the Welfare of
set a most sure Guard about Christians to make good the end of their Life For what reason therefore does the same Council tell us that the sick Person having been anointed does sometimes when it is expedient for the welfare of the Soul obtain the Recovery of his Bodily Health Why I say do they in the Doctrine of this their Sacrament mention an accident so impertinent to the Nature and Design of it as the Recovery of Bodily Health I answer because they are driven to it by an extreme necessity of feigning some resemblance between the use of their Vnction and of that in St. James For 't is so plain that St. James promises bodily Health upon what he prescribes to be done that the Wit of Man is not able to disguise it And therefore it was absolutely necessary to give some hint of the same thing in their Doctrine about Extreme Vnction tho he must either have no Eyes or wink hard who sees not that 't is thrust in most impertinently and against the whole tenour of their Doctrine and Practice which plainly shew that 't is not administred by them for the prolonging of Life but for the Assistence of the Soul at the Hour of Death Which these Men are so sensible of that they dare not venture their Cause upon this weak Attempt of bending their Sacrament to the Text by pretending some regard in their Unction to the Recovery of Bodily Health but find themselves obliged also to bend the Text as unreasonably to their Sacrament by pretending that St. James does not speak of restoring Health only in those Words of saving the Sick and raising him up but of cleansing and strengthning the Soul too as Bellarmin and Estius would make us believe By which Artifice they have not done their Cause so much Service as they have discovered good will to it since we cannot but observe that themselves were conscious how impossible it is to make the Text and their Sacrament meet without forcing both the one and the other by an unnatural Representation And yet even thus much violence will never bring them together so long as 't is manifest that to the use of this Rite of Anointing in St. James as it is by him required the Recovery of Bodily Health is absolutely promised which they can with no Face pretend to be the constant or even frequent effect of their Extreme Unction since their Doctrine and Practice proclaim it to be the Sacrament of the Dying As for the forgiveness of Sins mentioned in the following Words of St. James it was promised upon a supposition that the sick Person had committed Sins And if he had committed Sins they shall be forgiven him Which plainly seems to be the supposition of a Case that was not common to all that were healed upon receiving the Vnction mentioned by the Apostle And that even this Promise does not afford the least ground for the Vnction of the Roman Church will appear when I come to explain the several Expressions in the Text. In the mean time to shew that the Power of Truth does sometimes prevail upon Men of the best note in the Church of Rome I shall close this Point with the Confession of no meaner a Man than Cardinal Cajetan who determines thus upon this place of St. James It neither appears by the Words nor by the Effect that he speaks of the Sacrament of Extreme Vnction but rather of that Vnction which our Lord appointed in the Gospel to be used upon sick Persons by his Disciples For the Text does not say Is any Man sick unto Death but absolutely Is any Man sick And it makes the effect to be the recovery of the Sick and speaks but conditionally of the forgiveness of Sins Whereas Extreme Vnction is not given but when a Man is almost at the point of Death and as the Form of Words then used sufficiently shews it tends directly to the forgiveness of Sins This was said like an honest Man and if all Men of sense would say what they think this Controversy with many more would soon be at an end §. 3. The true Interpretation of St. James 's Words THO what hath been said is enough to deprive the Roman Vnction of all relief and support from this place of Scripture yet for the benefit of those who possibly have not well considered the Text of which we have been speaking I shall first offter the plain meaning of it and shew for what end and purpose anointing with Oil was prescribed by St. James and then confirm the Interpretation by those Arguments that led me to it and by such Answers as may be sufficient to remove our Adversaries Objections against it We say then that several extraordinary Gifts were by the Spirit dispersed amongst the first Believers for the establishing of Christianity in the World and that one kind of these were the (g) 1 Cor. xii 9 28 30. Gifts of Healing That they who had this Power were directed by the Impulse of the Spirit when or upon what Persons to exert it That being thus directed they called upon the Name of the Lord with assurance of the Event and the Sick were accordingly restored to their Health That sometimes they did in this manner heal the Sick upon whom Diseases had been inflicted as a Punishment for some Sins they had been guilty of That in this Direction of St. James Is any Man sick c. he refers to these extraordinary Gifts of Healing and that he prescribes Anointing the sick Person with Oil in that case only when the Elders knew by the Spirit that the Gift of Healing was to be shewn and that the Lord would raise him up So that in case of Sickness St. James directs the sick Person to send for the Elders of the Church and adds a particular motive so to do from the Gift of Healing which then flourished in the Church viz. that if it seemed good to God which the Elders would assuredly know by the Instruction of the Spirit he should by their praying over him be restored to his Health In which case to signify the Supernatural Gift of God in raising him up they were accordsng to Custom to anoint him with Oil. Whereupon the Event would shew that their Prayer was not the Prayer of vain Confidence but of Faith and that they had not in vain anointed the Sick with Oil in testimony of their assurance of his Recovery for as he says the Prayer of Faith shall save the Sick and the Lord shall raise him up And to advise the sick Man more effectually to take this Religious Course he adds another Motive that if that Sickness were sent to punish him for some Sins that he had committed even that should not hinder his Recovery any more than if it had been inflicted only for the trial of his Faith and Patience for his Sins should be forgiven him In which Interpretation the main point of Controversy that remains between us and
sure the Stream runs on this Side I shall need to do no more than to produce that Famous Passage in the Council of Trent concerning this matter which Soave has given us an account of We have already observed that part of the Doctrine of the Council concerning Extreme Unction was this that it was instituted by our Lord Christ as a Sacrament of the New Testament truly and properly so called INSINVATED by St. Mark and published to the Faithful by St. James Now says the Historian if any marvel why it is said in the first Head of the Doctrine that this Sacrament is insinuated by Christ our Lord in St. Mark and published in St. James tho the Reason of what goes before and of that which follows does require that it should not be said INSINVATED but INSTITVTED he may know that it was first written so History of the Council of Trent p. 351. But a Divine having observed that the Apostles who anointed the Sick of whom St. Mark speaketh were not Priests because the Church of Rome holdeth that Priesthood was conferred upon them not till the last Supper it seemed a Contradiction to affirm that the Unction which they gave was a Sacrament and that Priests only are Ministers of it Whereunto some who held it to be a Sacrament and at that time instituted by Christ did answer that Christ commanding them to minister the Unction made them Priests concerning that action only yet it was thought too dangerous to affirm it absolutely Therefore instead of the Word Institutum they put Insinuatum Which Word what it may signify in such a matter every one may judg who understandeth what Insinuare is and doth apply it to that which the Apostles then did and to that which was commanded by St. James and to the Determination made by this Council I am far from thinking that Divine's Reason against St. Mark 's speaking of a Sacramental Unction to be the very best that the Case affords However we see that tho the Council had a good mind to build their Doctrine upon St. Mark 's Text they yet distructed the Foundation and could not heartily venture upon it and therefore they durst not say their Sacrament was here Instituted But on the other hand they were loth to lose the Countenance of a Text in a Cause wherein they needed it so very much and therefore they were content to say modestly that it was Insinuated there A hard Case indeed that the Holy Synod should have so little Judgment as to say Instituted at first and so little honesty as to put Insinuated afterward instead of Instituted For I think no other account can be given of this but that themselves would fain insinuate what they durst not say that the Words of St. Mark did after a sort contain an Institution of their Sacrament tho their shifting plainly shewed that they were convinced of the contrary But that place belonging quite to another matter i. e. to the Gift of Healing and all reason requiring that St. James's Words be interpreted to the same Sence with St. Mark 's this alone is enough to overthrow their Pretence of proving Extreme Unction from St. James And here it may be observed that the Power of Truth has extorted from some or other of our Adversaries the Confession of both the Premises which infer our Conclusion That Vnction which St. James prescribes is the very same with that which is mentioned by St. Mark For this we have Maldonate and some few others with him But St. Mark does not speak of Extreme or of Sacramental Vnction For this we have Bellarmin and a great many more The Conclusion is evident Therefore neither does St. James prescribe any such thing And thus much for the first way of finding out the use and meaning of this Ceremony whereof St. James speaks viz. by comparing him with St. Mark §. 5. What is meant by the Prayer of Faith and by having committed Sins which shall be forgiven THE second way I propounded was to consider the meaning of that place where St. James mentions Anointing the Sick with Oil. I have already shewn that those Expressions of saving the Sick and the Lord 's raising him up cannot without extravagant Liberty be understood of any thing else but the Recovery of Bodily Health § 2. and I have laid down that Interpretation of the whole Text which this Supposition requires § 3. and shewn that the Unction there spoken of must therefore have been the Ceremony of a miraculous Cure Now there are but two passages there that seem to require any farther Illustration which I shall now consider more particularly and then leave the Reader to give his Judgment The one is the Prayer of Faith the other If he has committed Sins they shall be forgiven him Now 1. By the Prayer of Faith we must necessarily understand Prayer accompanied with a persuasion wrought by the Impulse of the Spirit that God would raise up the Sick not with that Faith only which is a persuasion of the general Promises of God made to the whole Church since there is no such absolute Promise in the Gospel that God will grant Health to the Sick upon our Prayer But St. James affirms that the Prayer of Faith shall save the Sick and the Lord shall raise him up Which makes it plain that the Faith here mentioned was the persuasion of the Elders that it was God's pleasure that at that time the Gift of Healing should take place For as I said before Prayer grounded upon the belief of the Promises of the New Covenant or upon that Faith only which is common to all Christians cannot warrant the obtaining of Health or of any other Temporal Blessing in particular Nor is this the only place where Faith is taken for a persuasion that God will do a Miracle For thus we are to understand it in that Saying of St. Paul (s) 1 Cor. xiii 2. Though I have all Faith so that I could remove Mountains and have no Charity I am nothing In which he seemed to refer to that Saying of our Saviour to his Disciples (t) Mat. xvii 20. If ye have Faith as a grain of Mustard-seed ye shall say unto this Mountain Remove hence to yonder place and it shall remove and nothing shall be impossible unto you And it is very evident that our Saviour spake of the Prayer of such Faith as this in that Promise to his Disciples (u) Joh. xiv 13.12 Whatsoever ye shall ask in my Name that will I do that the Father may be glorified in the Son If ye shall ask any thing in my Name I will do it i. e. Upon their Prayer God would glorify himself and the Gospel of his Son by the Testimony of Miracles For these Words are a Continuation of the Promise made in the foregoing Verse He that believeth on me the Works that I do shall he do also and greater Works than these he shall do because
an infinitely better work than to recover the sick tho by the Gift of Healing which of it self extendeth no farther than to a temporal benefit For he that brings a Sinner to repentance is a means to save that Mans Soul and shall himself find mercy from God for this Charity to his Brother more than if he had wrought never so many miraculous Cures upon the Bodies of the sick And thus I have shewn That the parallel place in St. Mark that the Text it self and the Context do all of them lead to one and the same interpretation of St. James's Unction viz. That it was a Ceremony of the Gift of Healing which is sufficient to overthrow all pretence for establishing a Sacrament of Extreme Unction upon the Authority of the Scripture SECT VII Objections against our Interpretation answered WE may now allow our Adversaries to please themselves with fansying that they find * Hic habemâ—â— omnia c. Bell. de Extr. Unct. cap. 11. all that belongs to a Sacrament in the words of St. James so long as it appears that his Unction was a Rite of the Gift of Healing Nor will any Man be in danger of believing that here is an Institution of a Rite to be used in all Ages of the Church because as Bellarmine argues 't is said Is any sick among you From whence he concludes that 't is to continue in the Church as long as sick persons are to be found in it For still there must be another thing found in the Church too viz. the supernatural Gift of Healing the sick or else the reason of St. James's Unction does not continue And yet if that Gift were still continued the Rite of it would be no Sacrament neither because Sacraments do properly and in their own nature refer to the Soul and but by accident to the Body Nothing therefore remains for the clearing of our Interpretation but to consider those Objections against it which have not yet been answered 1. Bell. de Extr. Unct. cap. iii. §. Quod autem c. 'T is said that if miraculous Cures were here intended St. James had consulted not only for the sick but for the blind also the deaf and the lame who need Cure though they are not in danger of death To which I answer that the * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Infirmatur quis in vobis Greek word and their own Vulgar Latin too is of latitude enough to take in all sorts of Bodily Infirmities But if there are probable reasons and particularly the expression ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in St. Mark to restrain the word to sickness I would gladly know why St. James must necessarily advise the blind and the lame because he advises the sick to be anointed with Oil in the name of the Lord. 1 Cor. xii 9 10. St. Paul distinguishes between the Gifts of Healing and between the working of miracles the latter seeming to signify the Curing of the blind and the lame and the raising of the Dead as the former signifies recovering the sick And what necessity is there that St. James when he speaks of one Case must speak of the other too Or that he must speak of both or neither Why the one needs Cure as well as the other Well but what if the Apostle does not speak of all that need Cure but only of some that is of the sick So that this objection comes to nothing unless it were an unreasonable thing to give proper advice to those who by reason of sickness are in some danger of Death which also is a very ordinary Case though such advice should not be altogether so proper for those few in comparison who being lame or blind need Cure indeed but are not in that danger 2. It is also objected Bellar. c. iii. §. Secundo Inducat c. that if the miraculous Gift of Healing were here intended St. James had required the sick to call for those that were endued with that Gift rather than for the Elders since others would serve for this purpose no less than they To which it is sufficient to say That if this Gift was no less amongst the Elders than amongst Lay-Christians it was reasonably advised to send for the Elders who had the Gift which others had and that Authority which others had not and withal some degree of knowledge in spiritual things which was not common to all 3. It is again objected That if the miraculous Ibid. §. Tertio Orent c. Gift were here to be understood Oil had not been prescribed because the power of miracles was exerted freely and not tied to any such condition as that Ans We say also that it was not tied to it it being certain that the Apostles healed some without it But it was a sufficient ground for St. James to direct anointing in this place that it was the usual Rite that went along with the Exercise of the Gift of Healing as St. Mark 's Text strongly intimates § 4. And because the Gift was sometimes exerted without the Ceremony we have reason to think that St. James does not prescribe the Ceremony as a thing necessary but rather mentions it as a thing customary not as that upon which the Healing depended but with which when it was convenient it was wont to be grac'd 4. Ibid. Sexto Omnia alia c. We are told that since all other directions in this Epistle belong to us no less than to the faithful in the Apostles days therefore this must do so too and therefore it is not to be understood of the Gift of Healing which is of long discontinuance but of a Sacrament that is to continue always in the Church Which is as much as to say That because the main design of the Apostolical Epistles was to inculcate duties to which the Church is equally obliged in all Ages therefore they never laid down any Rules peculiar to the State of the Church in their own times when it flourished with supernatural Gifts Which is so gross a falshood that because those of our Communion read the Scriptures they cannot be imposed upon by it I know no other Objections but what have been answered in some part of the foregoing Discourse Unless this be one That the Fathers of Trent have thought fit to fix an Anathema upon all that dissent from them in this Point For how short soever they were in proving their Doctrine yet they have been very careful and particular in Cursing those that gain-say it as these Canons will witness for them I. Sess 14. If any one shall say that Extreme Unction is not truly and properly a Sacrament instituted by our Lord Christ and published by the Blessed Apostle St. James but only a Rite received from the Fathers or an Human Invention let him be Anathema II. If any one shall say that the Sacred Unction of the sick does not confer Grace nor remit Sins nor comfort the
sick but has now ceased as if heretofore it were only the Gift of Healing let him be Anathema III. If any one shall say that the Rite and Usage of Extreme Unction which the Holy Roman Church observes is repugnant to the sense of St. James the Apostle and is therefore to be changed and may justly and without sin be contemned by Christians let him be Anathema But after all this Cursing if their arguing for Extreme Unction may be contemned without sin so may their Anathema's too and we may comfort our selves with David's Prayer Let them Curse but Bless thou SECT VIII That St. James 's Text affords useful admonitions though it is far from establishing a Sacrament of Extreme Vnction ONE of Bellarmine's Objections was this That according to our Interpretation of the Text in St. James it belongs not to us he meant That it would be impertinent in us to anoint the sick with Oil because the Gift of supernatural Healing is hardly to be found But his expression was a little too large in saying That these things therefore would not belong to us For those things may be said to belong to us from whence we may reap very good Instruction as certainly we may from these This passage concerning so notable a Gift as that of Healing was is one of those that make up the Testimony which God gave to the Christian Religion in the early days of the Church and it belongs to us to take notice of them all for the strengthning of our Faith And there are many good instructions besides which this place affords that will be useful to the Worlds end And therefore I shall close this part with representing what they are 1. Is any Man sick he ought to take his sickness as coming from the hand of God though perhaps not so immediately as sickness was sometimes inflicted upon Christians in the Primitive Church He should consider with himself that this is one of the ordinary trials of a Mans Faith and Patience and that he is therefore exceedingly to blame if he does not bear it as a Christian ought to do Or he is to reflect whether it be not for some sin yet unrepented of that God in his goodness hath thought fit to give him this warning that he may make his sickness the beginning of his repentance 2. As a Member of the Church which is the Body of Christ he is also to send for Gods Minister in the Church that he may receive the benefit of his instructions To which end the best course he can take is to confess his fault and to lay open the grief of his mind since the Minister will thereby be better enabled to make such applications to his Case as may be effectual to procure his amendment for the future and his comfort at present and the sick person be in less danger of letting himself loose to self-flattery and presumption or of being over-whelmed with too much Grief It is not to be thought that the Elders were sent for in the Primitive Church merely for the Gift of Healing for that did not always take place but for the benefit also of spiritual instruction and consolation which always did 3. As a means for the recovery of his Health the sick person is to desire the Prayers of the Minister For tho we cannot with any modesty pretend to the Prayer of Faith here mentioned that is of a certain persuasion that the person for whom we pray shall be raised up yet we ought to pray in this Faith that it is pleasing to God when we express our dependence upon him * Phil. iv 6. by asking those things which we need that every good thing comes from him and therefore health and deliverance from Death that tho he does not always give that particular thing which we ask yet 't is sometimes denied because we do not ask and that as he never gives the greatest blessings of all which are those of a good mind but in answer to Prayers so sometimes he does not send bodily good things because he is not prayed to for them Finally That there is no less reason for Prayer when God raiseth up the sick by blessing ordinary means than when it was done by a supernatural Gift The discontinuance of the Gift of Healing has not so altered the Case but that God as truly forgives the sins of the penitent sick Man in restoring him to health now as he did then when a Miracle was seen in the recovery and the Prayers of the Elders of the Church are now to be desired for the one no less than they were heretofore for the other especially since even in those times they did not always pray one for another with assurance to obtain the thing they asked and the event was to declare whether God saw it expedient to grant their requests But 4. In this Case Men are not to do according to the common Custom of not calling for the Priest till there is little or no hope of Life left and when his Prayers for the recovery of the Patient are almost as insignificant as it would be to anoint him with Oil in the Name of the Lord when he is drawing on to the last gasp and nothing indeed but a Miracle can raise him up The Apostle does not say Is any Man sick unto Death but is any man sick which seems to imply an advice to call for the Elders of the Church before the Disease was grown desperate according to the natural course of things and not to trust to be Cured by a Miracle at last when it was apparent that nothing but a Miracle could do it It is now much more requisite that the Priest should be called for when the danger first begins to appear because Miracles are ceas'd And as for them that try the Physician till he gives them over and never till then seek the Prayers of the Church they have but little reason to hope for help from God to whom they have no recourse till they are driven by the last extremity For they shew that if they could have had relief without him they cared not to be beholden to him for it In which Case it is just with God to suffer the sickness to be mortal which perhaps had not been so if applications had been made to him with the first by calling for the Elders by confessing their sins by promising repentance and by Prayers for good things requisite as well for the Body as the Soul Such admonitions as these we may gather from this place of Scripture tho we do neither suppose it pertinent to anoint sick persons with Oil as they did in the Apostolical times unless we had the Gift of Healing which flourished in those times nor account it any part of our duty to anoint dying persons with Oil as they now do in the Church of Rome unless we believed what they say they believe That it was a Sacrament instituted by Christ
the Lord as (m) Apolog. c. 42. Tertullian told the Heathens The Counterfeit (n) De Hier. Eccles cap. vii Dionysius speaks of it as of a general practice he tells us how the Priest having received the dead Body from the nearest Relations does all holy Rites that are Customary about those that die in the Lord that at length he salutes him that is dead and that after him the rest do so too that then he pours Oil upon him and after Prayers for All that the Body is buried But this I think makes nothing at all for the Roman Sacrament though we should take in that signification or instruction by which the last named Writer made this Unction of the Dead a kind of a Mystery (o) Ibid. §. 8. Remember says he in the holy Regeneration by which one is Born of God that before the Divine Baptism the first participation of that Holy Rite viz. the anointing with Oil is given to him that is initiated after he has quite put off his former garment But now at the end of all he that is departed this Life is anointed with Oil. Then indeed before Baptism the anointing with Oil called forth him that was initiated to a Holy Warfare but now that he is dead the Oil that is poured upon him shews him that is departed out of this life to have fought in this warfare to the end Now I grant this to be Extreme Unction but then 't is neither the Unction of the Dying nor of the Sick but of the Dead And if the pretended Catholicks will conform to the Custom of the Church in this Writers time their Unction will not be so much as Extreme Unction because this is to come after it And Bellarmin's reason why their Unction is called Extreme because 't is the last of all Unctions will be quite out of Doors since the Unction of the Dead and not of the Dying must be last of all 'T is true that this Dionysius mentions one Unction before Death but 't is as wide from the business of the Roman Sacrament as that after it for the Roman Sacrament is administred only to Baptized Persons but the Unction he speaks of which goes before death goes before Baptism too and is that which we have spoken of already So much for the Antient Unctions of the Church what they were and that they do not make for our Adversaries Let us consider a little whether some of them do not favour us SECT II. That the Vnction of the sick in the Antient Church confirms our Interpretation of St. Mark and St. James THE first which I shall resume is the Antient practice of anointing the sick in the Ages next after the Apostles which seems to be a Good Evidence of the Truth of that Interpretation of St. James which makes his Unction of the Sick a Rite of miraculous Healing For this practice does of it self shew That in all probability the ancient Christians thus understood it because they applied Unction to the sick in order to the recovery of their health by supernatural means For the forsaid Cures are all of them related as miraculous Cures And therefore Chemnitius had reason to say That the progress of this Vnction clearly shews it to be no Sacrament For first says he the Apostles anointed the sick with common Oil to heal them then others began to add Benediction and to Consecrate the Oil but yet they used it to the same end for which the Apostles used it before viz. To Cure the sick miraculously as it appears by the Miracles said to be done with holy Oil by St. Martin and many others c. But when at length Miracles were quite ceased the Ceremony of anointing still went on In short he makes the Sacrament of Extreme Unction to have grown from the continuance of the Rite after the reason of it was at an end and miraculous Cures were no longer done For which conclusion we shall see a great deal of reason hereafter But in the mean time we will consider Bellarmin's notable conjecture on the other side concerning the miraculous Cures that were done with Oil. (p) De Extr. Unct. cap. 6. §. Quod vero c. But says he That the Ceremony of anointing the sick in the way of a Sacrament arose out of that Vnction which operated in the way of a Miracle Chemnitius proves no otherwise than that himself so thinks But we on the contrary do conjecture that this progress of Oil came about another way that is to say because in the Sacrament of Extreme Vnction it often happen'd that people were healed some holy men began upon that occasion to use Oil out of the Sacrament not that Oil which was blessed by the Bishop in order to a Sacrament but Oil sanctified by themselves simply with the sign of the Cross to heal Diseases Thus the Cardinal argues Now if his conjecture be a good one then by his own Confession those frequent Relations which we meet with in the Ancients of miraculous Cures by Oil do acquaint us with an Unction very different from Bellarmin's Sacramental Unction as of necessity it must be if the Sacramental Unction was the Mother of that And by consequence unless they can produce other testimonies from Antiquity for their Sacrament they must not think to find it in the instances of those that were miraculously healed by Oil since these are not instances of Extreme Unction nor will any Man say they are unless he be furnished with as bold a Face as * Not. in Iren. lib. 1. c. 18. Fevardentius had who without any scruple makes Hilarion's Unctions to be Extreme and the Miracles reported to follow thereupon to be the effects of Extreme Unction and like an honest Man tells us That St. Hierom says so But for Bellarmin's conjecture it self which he opposes to that of Chemnitius 't is no better than excess of confidence opposed to plain reason For this was Chemnitius's ground that all the Unction of the sick which we meet with in the Antients was for bodily Cures and that Extreme Unction was never heard of till of late which if it be true makes it highly reasonable to conclude That Extreme Unction grew out of the miraculous one and very absurd to say that this grew from that unless we could fansy the Daughter to be born before the Mother As for the like Case which Bellarmin produces in favour of his Conjecture I can hardly grant him what he seems to allow to Chemnitius that he thought himself to be in the right After this manner says he we see it was done in Water Ibid. Because in Baptism men were sometimes healed of their Bodily Infirmities as Augustin testifies and gives some Examples of the same From thence many began to use water blessed out of Baptism for the Cure of Diseases Now indeed if there had been as frequent and as early mention of this Extreme Unction in the Writings of the Antient
at all the word Sacrament at which elsewhere he is so ready to take advantage being not so much as here mentioned Moreover that Unction of which this Synod spake was for healing the distempers of the Body and therefore very different from the Roman Unction which is principally for those that are drawing on to the last gasp And as for the diseases of the Soul which it was said to heal too there is no reason that the Synod should be interpreted otherwise than according to the Text which they cited where 't is said If he hath committed sins they shall be forgiven him that is to say that the first and constant intention in Unction of the Sick was to relieve their Bodies and in some cases it would also be beneficial to their Souls But by this time I grant there was a certain custom of anointing the Sick slipt into the Church something different from the judgment and practice of more antient times but withal a great deal more different from the modern doctrine and practice of the Church of Rome This I shall shew more particularly in its proper place and that although thus much Antiquity comes too late to conclude us in points wherein it was singular yet it does effectually condemn the Roman Church in points wherein it was not so because it shews the lateness of their Innovations As for the Synod of Worms held in the year 868 which he next mentions he confesses that the Canon he refers to renews the Decree of Innocentius The truth is that Canon does word for word repeat all that passage in the Epistle of Innocentius Can. 72. which we have considered before and this without the least Preface to it or Note upon it This therefore instead of being a Testimony to Extreme Unction is a good Argument that those Fathers knew no more of it than the Bishops of Rome and Eugubium did above 400 years before He cites also a Canon of a Synod at Meaux out of Burchardus commanding that upon Good-Friday Eve the Rectors of Parishes should receive a Glass of holy Oyl from the Bishop for the anointing of the Sick according to Apostolical Tradition Now whether there ever was such a Canon made at Meaux or not 't is all one to us for that it was now the custom to anoint all Sick persons we readily grant but that it was either Extreme or Sacramental Unction we flatly deny nor is there a word to that purpose in the Canon now cited The next is the second Synod of Aken (e) Aquisgr 2. Cap. 2. §. 1. Can. 8. which requires that once a Year the Bishops in all Cities do not neglect the Benediction of Holy Oil †In quo salvatio infirmorum creditur wherein the relief of sick Persons is believed to be What says Bellarmin upon this The Canon says he requires that this Sacrament be not neglected in which the Salvation of the Sick is contained But does it speak of Extreme Vnction or of Sacramental Vnction Yes they will say for it speaks of that Vnction in which the Salvation of the Sick is contained But the Canon does not say as Bellarmin does but that the Health or Salvation of the Sick is believed to be in that Unction which is as much as to say that their Unction was believed to be very profitable towards the recovery of a sick Mans Health And that this was the meaning of the Fathers appears from their instructions to the Presbyters concerning the care they ought to have of the Sick which is expressed in these words (f) Ibid. §. 2â— Can. 5. But if he his Parishioner be grieved with Sickness let him not by his the Presbyters negligence want Confession and the Prayer of the Priest or the Anointing of holy Oil. Lastly If he perceives his end approaching let him commend the Christian Soul as a Priest should do to the Lord his God with the reception of the Holy Communion and his Body to be buried in a Christian manner By which you see there are two states of the sick Person considered one when he is deprest by sickness the other when he is drawing to his end And that the Anointing with Oil is prescribed as proper to the former viz. while good hope of life lasted not to the latter as 't is now in the Church of Rome when he seemed to be near his end For in that case they prescribed the Administration of the Communion Which shews that by believing the Salvation or Health of the Sick to be in Unction which they had observed not long before they meant the common belief of the profitableness of Unction to raise up the Sick and to restore him to Health For if they had taken Unction to be the Sacrament of the dying according to the new Divinity of the Trent-Synod they also would have prescribed Unction in that case wherein 't is plain they did not prescribe it viz. * Si finem urgentem perspexerit when it was perceived that Death was at hand To conclude whereas the Cardinal affirms That the Council of Mentz under Rabanus affirms like things I do acknowledge that in this he says the truth for they require (g) Mog I. Can. 26. that according to the decrees of the Fathers the Sick should be heartned with Prayers Consolations and holy Vnction and refreshed with the Communion where 't is again observable that the Unction is to go before and then the Communion to follow which later that they required in case of such a prospect of death as the Synod of Aken speaks of is plain from their calling the Communion the Viaticum or * Communione Viatici reficiantur the Food for their passage out of this into the other World But if they had dreamt of the Extreme Vnction of the Church of Rome that and not the Eucharist had been prescribed in the last place to fortifie the Soul in her last conflicts And now the summ of his Testimonies for Extreme Vnction out of Ancient Councils comes to this That he has not one genuine Canon of a Council to pretend till the Ninth Age and there is not one that he appeals to in that Age neither but all things considered it rather makâ—â—gainst him than for him And so much for Ancient Councils SECT V. That Extreme Unction has not the Testimony of any Ancient Father HE pretends that they (h) Ubi supra §. Jam vero ex patribus c. have two kinds of Testimonies from the Fathers One of those who indeed do not expresly say that this is one of the Sacraments but yet they expresly say That the words of S. James belong to us and that the Presbyters ought now and in all times to do that which S. James describes Now if he had such Testimonies as these to produce they would not in the least affect our Cause since we also say that this place of S. James belongs to us as I have already
shewn P. 1. § 8. and that it prescribes some things which there will be occasion for in all Ages of the Church and nothing but what is very fit to be done when there is the same occasion for it that there was at first But leâ— us however consider the Testimonies themselves The first he refers to is Origen's second Homily upon Leviticus where there are seven ways laid down of obtaining remission of sins the seventh being expressed in that passage which the Cardinal meant The words are these (i) Ultra med There is yet a seventh way though it be hard and painful when the sinner washes his Bed with tears and tears are his meat day and night and when he is not ashamed to show his sin to the Priest of the Lord and to seek for Healing according to him who saith I said I will confess against my self my transgressions unto the Lord and thou forgavest the ungodliness of my heart In which also is fulfilled that which the Apostle saith Is any man sick let him call for the Elders of the Church and let them lay their hands upon him anointing him with Oil in the Name of the Lord and the Prayer c. Now here indeed Origen says that in the Penitence which he described in order to the remission of sins that Text of S. James was fulfilled Which is so far from being an Argument that he understood the Text of Extreme Vnction that 't is a good Argument of the quite contrary for 't is manifest that he does not apply the Text to the case of a dying or so much as a sick Person but in general to the case of a sinner that anxiously seeks for Pardon and is willing to undergo that hard and painful Penitence which he described If therefore the Cardinal's meaning by this Testimony was to prove that Origen believed all was to be done in every Age which S. James directs and in particular the anointing with Oil then he must needs suppose that in Origen's opinion S. James directed the anointing of Penitents without any regard at all to a state of Health or Sickness But if Origen had thought so I dare say that he whatever the Cardinal might haâ—â— done would not have called this Unction either the Sacrament of the dying or Extreme Unction or so much as the Unction of the Sick Could any thing be more absurd than to pretend that this great Man produced S. James's Text in favour of Extreme Vnction which is always of the sick or the dying when the Persons to whom he applied it and who were to be anointed if he speaks of any that were to be so might every one of them be in good and perfect Health Only Bellarmin of all Men should not have dealt in this fashion because he says expresly afterward That (k) Ubi supra Cap. VII §. Tertio nota this Sacrament is as it were a kind of Penance of the Sick who cannot do works of Penance But 't is plain that those Persons to whom Origen applied the Text of S. James were those that did works of Penance and that a hard and laborious Penance too It is not for nothing that the Cardinal does so often refer his Reader to Authorities without producing the words themselves So that this Authority is grosly impertinent to the purpose for which 't is brought and though (l) Orig. Paris Genebrard had some colour to make this place speak of Sacramental Confession yet there is none in the World to produce it in favour of Extreme Vnction But then what was Origen's meaning to say that in the Penitence of a sinner and God's Mercy to him that was fulfilled which S. James said Is any man sick c I Answer First That although this Text was produced yet it may be reasonably supposed that Origen did not mean all was fulfilled that is there said but only some part of it viz. That which concerned calling for the Presbyter and desiring his Prayers and obtaining Remission of Sins to which we are to add Confessing of Faults though he did not cite the Text so far For that all should be fulfilled in the proper sense by doing what he prescribed is unconceivable for to weep and to confess c. is not to be anointed with Oil. I say therefore Origen might reser to some special passages in that Text viz. those which might be well accommodated to his presont purpose Or Secondly According to the ingenious conjecture of Mr. Daillé Origen allegorized this place after his manner making the sick Man the Type of the sinner (m) Ubi supra §. 93. As in S. James the sick calls for the Presbyters so here the sinner goes to the same There the sick is anointed with Oil. Here the sinner is besmear'd with his own Tears and as it were with the Vnction of Penitence There the sick Man is healed here also the sinner is restored And therefore Origen affirms that to be fulfilled in the one which S. James affirmed properly and literally of the other For every one knows that as often as that is done which was expressed by a Type so often the Type is said to be fulfilled Which supposition is the more probable because in this Homily that great Man's hand was in at Allegorizing for there the Reader may find that he discovered his seven ways of coming to Forgiveness in the Sacrifices of the Law But whatever his meaning was one thing is certain that he did not mean Extreme Vnction And that is all we need to be sure of at present To the same purpose is (n) De Sacerdotio L. III. c. 6. S. Chrysostom quoted in the next place but not a word produced that he says For indeed he brings in the Text of S. James as an instance of that Priestly Dignity and Power which he was speaking of how available it is to obtain forgiveness of sins for us not only in Baptism at first but afterward by Discipline Instruction and Prayers But of the case of a dying or sick Person he says not one word which shews plainly enough that he produced the whole Text for the sake only of the latter part of it which expresseth forgiveness of sins and that he thought this part of the Text might be understood of the power of the Keys which was the subject of his discourse both before and after the mentioning of this Text. As little to the purpose is it either that he found this Text quoted in S. Austin's (o) Tom. III. Speculum for no interpretation of it is given there or that as he observes Sâ—â—ustin lays down those passages only of the Scripture which are useful to us at all times as if this place of Scripture were of no use to us now unless the Doctrine and use of Extreme Vnction might be concluded from it the vanity of which conceit we have already touched more than once (p) Vid. Dallaeum de Extr. Unct. p. 108 113.
As for the 215 Sermon De Tempore which comes next 't is none of S. Austin's but taken out of a Book written above 200 Years after his Death And yet that which the Cardinal aims at here does him not the least service For though S. James's Text is produced yet 't is to exhort the sick to anoint his own Body with Oil that the Church was to furnish them withal instead of going to Inchanters Wizards Soothsayers and using Devillish arts to recover his Health He must be a cunning Man indeed that can from hence make out either Extreme Vnction for the Soul or a Priest to Administer it But his next step is to the Treatise of the Visitation of the sick And now we are gotten the Lord knows where For Bellarmin himself confesseth That it seems to be falsly attributed to S. Austin only he adds It cannot be denied to be an ancient and good Book That 's hard indeed But yet Erasmus denied it who could judge of an Author as well as another Body and calls (q) Censura in Visit Infirm this Author a prating fellow neither Learned nor Eloquent And in truth 't is such a sensless Book that he had reason to be angry at the impudence or ignorance of those that obtrude such Writings upon us under the name of S. Austin And yet Bellarmin upon second thoughts could not find in his heart to let this Book go for one that seems to be none of S. Augustin's but afterward chose to say (r) De Scriptor Eccles p. 171. Lugd. that he had nothing certain about it For why there is good evidence in it for worshipping Crosses and Images and for Auricular Confession besides the small touch concerning the Spiritual signification of External Unction Such Books as these they give up as unwillingly as a Man parts with a dying Friend and seem to have no regret all the while for sacrificing the reputation of the Fathers to the service of their Cause Bede is mentioned next who in his Notes upon James V. speaking of the Unction there hath these words And we read in the Gospel that the Apostle also did this and now the custom of the Church is that the Sick should be anointed with consecrated Oyl by the Bishops and be healed thereby together with Prayer Nor is it only lawful for Presbyters but as Pope Innocentius writeth for all Christians also to anoint themselves or their friends with it in their need So that Bede makes the Unction of S. James to be the same with that of S. Mark and that of the Church the same with both the recovery of bodily health being the end of all three than which there could not be expected a better Testimony against Etreme Unction But by this time we are so well used to the Cardinals Authorities that we ought to wonder at nothing As for Theophylact in the eleventh Age the Cardinal sends us to his Notes upon S. Mark where indeed he takes occasion also to repeat the place of S. James and from thence to shew the several significations of anointing with Oyl but of Extreme Unction no nor so much as of anointing the Sick he saith not a word Lastly Oecumenius upon the Vth. of S. James tells us That whilest our Lord conversed with Men the Apostles did the same thing anointing the Sick with Oyl and healing them And therefore according to Oecumenius 't is impossible to prove Extreme Vnction from S. James which is not a Rite of healing the Sick but the Sacrament of the Dying Commend me to these Men for doing their work by Authorities of the Fathers and Traditions of the Antients The second sett of Bellarmin's Fathers are those that (s) Ubi supra §. Habemus deinde alios c. expresly number this Vnction amongst the Sacraments that is to say they call the Vnction of the Sick a Sacrament to which I have already said that if every Rite and Ceremony to which Antient Writers have given the name of a Sacrament must go for a Sacrament properly so called the Church of Rome must mend her Councils and Catechisms and multiply Sacraments exceedingly But who are those Fathers The most antient that he names is Alcuinus who lived in the later end of the 8th Age and the beginning of the 9th He was Scholar to Venerable Bede and if in this matter he learned of his Master we are secure enough that his Authority will do us no harm But whether it would or not we shall never learn from that †De divinis Officiis cap. 47.49 Book to which Bellarmin refers us because it was none of his but the work of a much later Writer as Quercetanus has shewn in the Preface to the Edition of Alcuinus But what is worst of all the testimony of this Author whoever he was though it proves Vnction of the Sick to be customary in his days yet proves as clearly that Extreme Unction was not For he distinguishes between the Sick and the Dying shewing that the Sick indeed were anointed but not those that were in extremedanger of Death for which there was very good reason since even in those days Unction was used in order to bodily health but not as a Sacrament to fortifie the Soul in her passage out of this Life For a more particular account of this Authority I refer the Reader to (t) Ubi supra p. 119. c. Mr. Daille's exquisite Discourse upon it Amalarius comes next whose judgment concerning the use and end of that Unction which S. James mentions we have already seen P. 1. § 5. and that in the very * De Offic. Eccl. lib. 1. cap. 12. place to which the Cardinal refers us This Writer does accordingly make the Unction of his time to be a Remedy of sickness and therefore they may as well make Life and Death to be one and the same thing as have the confidence to make the Unction of Amalarius Extreme Unction And now we are brought to the borders of the Twelfth Age for his next Father is Cardinal Damiani who is yet far enough from acknowledging this Sacrament of Extreme Unction For though he ascribes spiritual effects to that Unction mentioned by S. James yet he says health is restored by it and though he calls it a Sacrament yet he makes it to be a †Unde Sancti Patres hanc Unctionem Sacramentum esse sanxerunt Sacrament established by the Fathers i.e. a Rite which the Fathers thought deserved the name of a Sacrament no less than many others which yet were not of Divine Institution or universal and necessary obligation And that this was his meaning cannot I think reasonably be denied by our Adversaries since he makes Vnction of the Sick not to be one of Seven but of Twelve Sacraments which he reckons up in that place But to make sure of some body Bellarmin goes on to S. Bernard Father Hugo de Sancto Victore and Father Lombard who I
c. things that are generally known and daily practised do not use to be written But if this will do 't is impossible these men should ever be convinced For when we charge them with Innovation in any matters of Doctrine and Practice if they can shew that those things are Written in the Antients we are certainly gone that way for this proves that to have been well known and commonly practised in the primitive times which we pretend was but of yesterday But if we can shew that they were not written we get nothing by it at all for it seems the reason why they were not written is because they were generally known and daily practised If indeed there had been as pregnant testimonies to the use of Extreme Unction as there are for instance to the anointing of the Baptized with Chrism one might have wondered that there should be no mention of any one person in the Antient Church anointed in his extremes but he could not from thence reasonably conclude that there was no such Unction because there is other kind of written testimony for it But the Chrism after Baptism though of less moment than Extreme Unction is plentifully attested as I have shewn § 1. but Extreme Unction not at all and therefore to answer the Objection from want of any one example of this kind in Antiquity by saying That those things were not written because they were perfectly known is not to reason with an Adversary but to face him down Nor does he mend the matter by supposing that Bernard would not have omitted this Sacrament although it is not written in his Life that he received it For it appears by other testimonies of that Age that Extreme Unction then began to be in use and therefore we do not deny that S. Bernard was anointed in his Extremes because Malachias said nothing of it But that the lives of so many antient Christians should be written and the manner of their dying punctually described and not one of them said to be anointed this we think makes it very reasonable to conclude that Extreme Unction had no being in those days and impossible for a reasonable man to deny it if upon no occasion whatsoever there is any mention of it even where there was all imaginable reason to mention it excepting this only that there was no such thing to be mentioned If to save the Cardinals sincerity it be said that he had before proved the Doctrine of Extreme Unction by other testimonies of Antiquity I grant that he had done his best towards it but whether to his own satisfaction or not whether to warrant his putting off the want of so much as one example by pretending that known things are not written I shall leave the Reader to judge upon this observation When he had produced and amplified the testimony of Innocentius he concludes thus (u) Cap. IV. §. Ex hoc etiam c. From this Testimony we gather why there are not many testimonies of this kind i.e. so antient and so express viz. because they had no occasion of writing about this matter For neither had Innocentius written upon it if the Bishop of Eugubium had not doubted whether a Bishop might give the Sacrament of Extreme Vnction Now let us lay these things together When he excuses himself from producing Examples he tells us that things perfectly known and daily practised are not wont to be written Well! admitting this for the present how shall we come to know that Extreme Unction was a thing perfectly known to Antiquity and daily practised Without all doubt by clear and unquestionable testimonys of another sort and such as will more than ballance the want of Examples And therefore it is to be hoped that we shall not be put off with excuses when those testimonies are desired But alas he begs our pardon here too for as things perfectly known are not written so likewise we have not many testimonies so antient and so express because there was no occasion for them So that there are no antient examples of Extreme Unction written because it was perfectly known nor many Testimonies for it so ancient and so express for want of occasion Did ever Man talk in this fashion that thought his Cause was honest And now at last the Testimony of Innocentius had need be a thundring Testimony because we have not many so ancient and so express And yet neither is his Testimony so ancient being no older than the Fifth Age nor is it so express unless because 't is expresly against Extreme Vnction as I have manifestly shewn the Reason of that Testimony to be though Extreme Vnction be not named there After all 't is notoriously false that things perfectly known and daily used are not written which is evident from this very instance that since Extreme Vnction came in fashion they seldom or never describe the circumstances of their Peoples dying but they observe how they departed with this their Sacrament †Ubi supra p. 70 c. of which Mr. Daillé has given great plenty of instances The Promisses are so clear and full that without repeating them I shall take leave to conclude that they have not only no Tradition for their pretended Sacrament of Extreme Vnction but that the Tradition of the Ancients is as plainly against it as Tradition can be against an Innovation he must be a very unreasonable Man that desires better evidence of this kind for a Negative SECT VII Of the occasions and beginnings of Extreme Unction how vast a change it made from the Primitive Vnction and by what degrees it was made AND now it is easie from what hath been already produced in this Controversie to gather how and when this Mystery of Extreme Vnction gained footing in the Roman Communion For it already appears that there are three Unctions of the Sick to be distinguished one from the other 1. The Unction of the Sick that were miraculously cured and of them only 2. The Unction of all sick Persons whatsoever but this in order to Bodily health 3. The Unction not of all sick Persons but of the desperately sick or the dying and this to take away the Reliques of sin and to fortifie their Souls against the Agonies of Death which is the Extreme Vnction of the Roman Church Now these three kinds of anointing the Sick being duly considered will naturally guide us to the occasions and degrees by which the last came to take place and to the Age in which it began For the first Unction in process of time grew into the second and the second at last into the third 1. The first is not only an ancient Unction but was from the beginning viz. the anointing of those that were healed by a Supernatural Gift Which Gift continued in the Church more or less for six Ages after Christ and was not quite worn out in the seventh if we believe our Country-man Bede § 1. about which time it was that the
second Unction of all sick Persons whatsoever took place The chief inducement to which seemed to be the observation of those Cures by anointing that were wrought by such as had the Gift of Healing and the reports of miraculous Cures that were done also by the Sacraments of (a) Aug. de Civ D. lib. 22. c. 8. Baptism and (b) Naz. Orat. 11. p. 187. the Eucharist and (c) Theod. Hist c. 21. by Water blessed out of Baptism and by the (d) Chrys in Matth. Hom. 33. Oyl of the Church-Lamps contributed not a little to the bringing in of the custom of anointing all sick Persons indifferently We have already observed some beginnings of it in the Fifth Age in the Epistle of Innocentius by which it appears that one of Decentius his Questions was this Whether Chrism or the holy Oyl that was reserved in Churches might be applied to the Faithful in their sickness which Innocentius resolved in the Affirmative And no wonder that in an Age or two more the custom of anointing all sick Persons in order to their recovery was grown general since very small inducements are sufficient to dispose Men to seek for Temporal and Bodily relief from things that are consecrated to the uses of Religion especially when there are some notable examples of success For as yet miraculous Healing by Oyl was not quite ceased and by consecrated Oyl other wonderful things were said to be done besides Healing the sick such for instance as (e) Hist Angl. lib. III. cap. 15. Bede relates concerning the Voyage of Vtta a Presbyter who came to Aidan and desired his Prayers for a prosperous passage and return Aidan gave him holy Oyl telling him that he knew a Tempest would overtake him and charged him that when it began he should throw that into the Sea for then all would be quiet again as it happened For such reasons as these Christians in their distress were disposed to seek for relief and recovery rather by holy Oyl than by any other sacred matter especially since the Text of S. James lay before them and could be easily applied to this practice So far at least as to create some good hope of benefit To all which we must add That the great appearance of Piety that that practice made being an expression of reposing greater confidence in God than in the force of natural Remedies made it pass without opposition And so entred 2. The sacred Unction of the Sick into the Church not now of those only who were cured by the Prayer of Faith but of all sick Persons whatsoever in hope of receiving bodily relief by it Which beginning at the Seventh Age went on through the Eighth Ninth Tenth and Eleventh Ages to the beginning of the Twelfth 'T is of this Unction that the Liber Sacramentorum said to be Pope Gregory's gives a full account in the Office of Visiting the Sick where 't is very plain that the Prayers upon that occasion shew the principal end of Unction to be the recovery of the (f) See Defence of Exposition of the Order of the Church of England p. 45 c. sick Persons health I confess if that Book as it is now published were all of it used in Pope Gregory I. his time it would be an argument that in the Church of Rome at least this practice of anointing all the Sick had obtained in the Sixth Age and perhaps Decentius his Letter to Innocentius I. had given a start to it there sooner than it had in any other of the great Churches But whether this Office for Visiting the Sick was composed at the latter end of the Sixth Age or afterwards this one thing I am sure of that the Unction there referred to was altogether accommodated as by the Prayers it manifestly appears to the raising up of the sick Person and the recovery of his health Of this Unction it is that Bede Alcuinus Amalarius the Synods of Challon Aken and Mentz and Peter Damiani himself spake as any one may see by what has been said Now this Unction was antient indeed but yet a great way off from the beginning It agreed with the Primitive Unction in this that the professed and direct design of it was the recovery of bodily health but in this it differ'd from it that now all sick persons were anointed whereas at first those only were so for whom the supernatural Gist was exerted They anointed before for bodily health and did not fail of the end because they anointed as they were guided by a supernatural impulse But now they anointed for the same end but must necessarily fail very often because they anointed in course and it was grown a settled Office in the Church For which reason it is something to be wondred at that this kind of Unction should last so long as it did in the West and yet more that it should continue in the Greek Church to this very day of which more in its place For it must needs seem no little disparagement to the Ceremony and to the Office belonging to it that so little fruit of it should appear and that the experience of one Age after another plainly shew'd that the virtue and power that used to accompany it in the Primitive Church was now to be seen no more But I believe the casual cures which had happened without any Unction at all were constantly made use of to support the Reputation of this Rite to which not only the influence which the Priests had upon the People and that reigning Opinion of those Ages that nothing guarded Religion more than the Amusement of many Mysteries but likewise the Zeal of pious and devout Christians contributed very great assistance Thus I say this Practice might come to be supported so long together that is to say by Policy on the one side and credulity on the other and no great harm was there in all this till at last it brought forth Extream Vnction in these parts of Christendom For the same Policy that had kept up the Rite of Anointing the sick upon the foundation of believing that it was good for their bodies would when that could hold no longer lay another viz. That at least it was very good for their Souls and that when it did not recover the Health of the Sick yet at least it had a wonderful Virtue to save the Soul of the Dying which pretence had some advantages to keep up the Ceremony of Anointing the Sick that the former had not and all that it had Here was enough to entertain the Zeal of well meaning People and which was something more here was new comfort too for the slothful and licentious And in an Age so ignorant and barbarons as the Eleventh and Twelfth Ages were it was easy to make this persuasion go down And though Unction did not save the Soul yet if the Priest said it did he was not so liable to be confuted as when they said it was good for
restoring Health tho' the Patient died of his Disease presently after But another thing which made the entrance of extreme Unction more easy and unsuspected was the advantage of time and the notable preparations that made way for it to come in gradually and insensibly and without the noise that violent and sudden alterations make By the forms of Unction that obtained in the Tenth Age it appears that they applied it to the Eyes the Ears the Nostrils the Lips the Breast and this with reference to the sins that had been committed by seeing hearing c. * Menardi Notae in Sacram Greg. pag. 337. Thus in Ratoldus his Form I anoint thy Eyes with sanctified Oyl that whatever sin thou hast committed by unlawful seeing may be expiated by the anointing of this Oyl the intention of which kind of forms is sufficiently explained by that which follows †Ibid. p. 338. I anoint thee c. that by the Operation of this Mystery and the Vnction of this Holy Oyl and our prayer thou being relieved and cherished mayest through the power of the Holy Spirit be so happy as to obtain thy former and better Health By which it is highly reasonable to say that the anointing the Senses and the several remarkable parts of the Body with reference to the sins of the sick person did it self refer to the recovery of his Health and that the sickness being supposed to be sent for the punishment of some sin or other they made sure to deprecare all they could think of that the sin being forgiven the sickness might be removed This Form as * Praef Menardi in Sac. Gr. Menardus shews was written in the Tenth Age as that which was taken out of Tilius his Library was in the Eleventh and that of the Monastery of St. Remigius between the Tenth and Eleventh †Men. Notae p. 140. 334 c. They are all of the same strain and that which I note from them is this That the plentiful care that is taken in them for the deprecation of the Guilt of all kind of sins made the whole Ceremony look something like anointing for the cleansing of the Soul rather than the recovering of the Body though this was the direct intention of the whole and so it was not not so dangerous a leap in the next Age to forget or at least to take very little notice of the bodily effect which was design'd by Unction and to turn the whole Mystery into a proper Sacrament for the good of the Soul especially since there were many more words used to express the deprecation of Guilt then in the Prayer for recovery of Health tho' the former was in order to the later To this I add also that in all likelihood this solemn particular and circumstantial Unction of the several parts of the body and deprecation of the Guilt contracted by them was it self by degrees brought in to save the credit of Unction under which the Sick died or recovered I suppose as certainly as they would have done without it For that care that was taken to anoint them so formally for those sins which were presumed to have brought that sickness made the whole business look as if it were good for the Soul at least whatever became of the Body And thus 3. About the Twelfth Age came Extreme Vnction into the World for we can hear no tidings of it from any of the former And it is therefore no Primitive practice as the First Unction of the Sick was nor Antient practice as the Second was but an Innovation that crept in when the middle Ages of the Church were now advancing apace to the last It was begotten in that thick Night of Ignorance and Barbarism that shuffled this and some other Children of Darkness into the Western Church It was licked into some shape and brought to a Form of Doctrine by the Schoolmen and being almost grown to what it now is it was publickly owned by Eugenius IV. at the close of the Florentine Synod in the year 1438. to be the Fifth Sacrament and in the next Age came to be established under Anathemas by the Fathers of Trent And now if we compare these Three several Vnctions of the Sick one with another the Differences will appear to be these The Antient Unction did indeed agree with the Primitive one in this that both were applied for the Recovery of bodily Health But then in this they differed as we observed before that the Primitive Unction was applied but to some sick persons and that by the direction and impulse of the Holy Spirit but the Ancient Unction was applied to all the sick and grew to be a settled Office in the Church and therefore there was this difference also that by the Primitive Unction all were restor'd to Health who were anointed not so by the Antient one and if a man may freely speak his mind it had just such a supernatural effect upon the Bodies of the Sick as the New Unction of the Roman Church has upon the Souls of the Dying that is none at all This new Unction which they call Extreme is vastly different from the Antient one in many points some of which I shall briefly represent in that Order wherein ‖ Ubi supra Cap. 18. Mr. Daille has more largely considered them 1. The end of the Ancient Unction was the recovery of bodily Health but the end of Extreme Unction is to prepare the Soul for its passage into the other life This was one of the antient Forms of Unction (f) Vide Menardi Not. in Sacram. Greg. p 341. Vide etiam Vetustiores Formulas in Cassandr Schol. in Hymn Eccl. p. 288. I anoint thee with Holy Oyl in the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost that by the Operation of this Mystery being cherished thou maiest be so happy as to obtain thy former and better Health But in the Roman Church this is all By this Holy Vnction and by his most Holy Mercy God forgive thee whatsoever sin thou hast committed by Seeing Hearing Tasting Smelling and Touching Amen 2. There is a great difference also touching the persons anointed which according to the Roman Unction are those only who are baptized and amongst these none but the sick and of these only the adult and such as are in all appearance dying persons But it was quite otherwise in the antient Church For they anointed those that were (g) Innoc. III. ubi supra preparing for Baptism they anointed those that were (h) Beda in Jac. v. possessed they anointed (i) Cassand Schol. in Hymn Eccl. p. 289. Infants and which is the most remarkable difference of all they anointed not dying persons but the sick of whose recovery they had reasonable hopes as we have proved before The antient Unction in all these respects being suitable to the end of it which was bodily Health as the Roman Unction is in every one of them
Greek Church is 'T is a Corruption that came into these parts of the World but lately in comparison and as it has no Antiquity so it never had Universality and by the Grace of God we hope it never shall PART III. That the Appeal to Reason in behalf of this pretended Sacrament is altogether vain SECT I. That the pretence to prove any thing to be a Sacrament by mere Reason is an absurd Presumption LAstly It is proved by Reason that Extreme Vnction is a Sacrament And this proof is a Reason taken from Divine Providence which as the Cardinal notes the Council of Trent used before him He argues thus (a) Bell. ubi supra Cap. V. Sect. Accedit ultimo c. Since our Lord instituted Sacraments by which as by Divine Aids we should be assisted in our entrance into the Church and in our Progress in it surely it is by no means to be believed that his Divine Providence has been wanting in our going out and passing from this temporal Militant Church to the other that is Everlasting especially since a man is never in greater want of help and defence than in the Article of Death as the Fathers teach every where c. For then our Adversaries assail us more powerfully because they see their time is short and man himself is never more unfit to make resistance by reason of the greatness of his Pains and Sickness For if this corruptible Body is a burden to the Soul even in its best estate of Health surely in the very Act of Corruption it will be the heaviest weight of all and experience it self shews that the Sick who are dying can hardly so much as lift up their minds to God He had tried the Scripture before he had also tried Antiquity and now at last he comes with an Argument distinct from all Testimony which he calls Reason and which is therefore mere Reason because 't is opposed to all Testimony Now to this Arguing I have two things to say 1. That to pretend the proof of a Sacrament by meer Reason is it self a most unreasonable thing 2. That if this way were allowable yet the Reasoning insinuated by the Council and more distinctly explain'd by the Cardinal is weak and trifling First That to pretend the proof of a Sacrament by mere Reason is a most unreasonable pretence For Sacraments cannot otherwise be proved than by Testimonies of Divine Revelation because they depend upon Institution The Definition of a Sacrament in the Catechism of the Council of Trent is this (b) Catech. ad Paroc part 11. Sect. 1. n. 10. A Sacrament is a thing subject to the Senses which by the INSTITVTION OF GOD has the power both to signifie and to effect Holiness and Righteousness This Definition is (c) De Sacram in genere lib. 1. cap. xi Sect. Quinta definitio c. praised by the Cardinal and that for comprehending in few words those eight Points which himself had shewed before to belong to the nature of a Sacrament (d) Ibid. cap. ix Sect. Tertium est ut hoc c. One of those Points was this that a Sacrament is a voluntary or given Sign depending upon Institution And this he affirmed to be a Point which no one Person contradicts and that the thing loudly speaks it self Now I would know how 't is possible to prove by meer Reason that God has instituted any thing which to institute or not to institute depended upon his own Pleasure Those things indeed which to do or not to do is inconsistent with the Nature of God we may know by mere natural Reason But that such Reason can find out those things of God which depended upon his Will and Pleasure or that Reason should be able to prove them otherwise than by Testimonies of Revelation is a discovery that I believe was never heard of before St. Paul I am sure was quite of another mind (e) 1 Cor. ii 11. For says he what man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of man which is in him Even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God Which Maxim the Apostle used in a Discourse against the Greek Philosophers and therefore could not be thought to support the credit of it by his Authority but to lay it down as a point Point evident to common Reason Since therefore Sacraments properly so called do by the Confession of the Church of Rome stand upon Institution and did depend upon the free Will and Pleasure of God the very pretence to prove Extreme Vnction to be a Sacrament by Reason abstracted from Divine Testimonies must needs be absurd if absurd it be to go about a thing that is impossible to be done even by that mans Principles who pretends to do it especially if those Principles are so clear and evident that no one Person contradicts them But this pretence of the Cardinal might be easily forgiven if it were not as arrogant and presumptuous as 't is absurd For to conclude that in matters depending upon the Pleasure of God he hath done that which seemeth best to our Reason is to suppose that in these things we know what is best no less than God doth that we have weighed all the Conveniences and Inconveniences of either side the Advantages and Disadvantages of every thing that lies before us the Arguments for and the Objections against this or that with the same exactness wherein they are comprehended in his infinite Understanding The Cardinal might as well have said in plain terms God ought to have instituted the Sacrament of Extreme Vnction and therefore he has done it For he tells us (f) Certe nullo modo credendum est defuisse Divinam ejus Providentiam c. That it is by no means to be believed that his Divine Providence has been wanting in our going out of this Militant Church c. If therefore God has not instituted the Sacrament of Extreme Vnction to convey us safely out of this World it is to be believed that he hath been wanting to his Church but it is not to be believed that he hath been wanting because he ought not so to be and therefore he hath instituted that Sacrament Which arguing has not the least appearance of Sense without the help of another Proposition which gives it more than the appearance of Blasphemy That it is by no means to be believed that God is wiser than a Cardinal or a Council Indeed when once the Institutions of God are revealed and testified to us we must not only conclude that they are Wise and Good because they are his but we ought also to take notice of those footsteps of Divine Wisdom and Goodness which are discernable in them And the more that a wise man considers and understands their ends and usefulness the more worthy of their Author he will find them to be But their congruity to our Reason is not the proof of their Divine Institution
blotted out by contrition who knows not that it ought to be so vehement pungent and intense that the bitterness of the grief may equal the greatness of the sins But because very few would reach this degree therefore the number of those that could hope for the pardon of their sins this way must have been exceeding small Whence it was necessary that our most merciful Lord should provide for the common Salvation of men by an easier method as he has done with admirable wisdom in delivering to the Church the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven For according to the Doctrine of the Catholick Faith all are to believe and constantly to affirm that whoever is so disposed as to be sorry for the sins he has done and withal to purpose with himself that he will sin no more although he is not affected with that grief which may be sufficient to obtain his pardon yet when he has duly confessed his sins to a Priest all his sins are pardoned and forgiven him by the power of the Keys This is the Doctrine of their Famous Catechism and thus far sufficient care is taken for mortal sins by the Sacrament of Penance that they shall be blotted out upon easie terms if a man does but Grieve and can hold his intention to amend but so long till he receives Absolution Now this Sacrament being (m) Ibid. de Extr. Unct. Sect. 23. to go before Extreme Vnction lest the conscience of some mortal sin should hinder the effect of it the greater sins are therefore all done away not long before the hour of death And then for the (n) Ibid. Sect. 27. lesser sins and (o) Conc. Trid. Sess xiv de Extr. Unct. cap. 2. any sins that remain yet to be expiated and the Reliques of sin they are forgiven and wiped away by Extreme Vnction Now if this be true he must be a very wretch indeed that can desire a milder Gospel than a Gospel which comes so low as to take some grief and a good resolution for the forgiveness of all that is past For who is so bad as not to be sorry at certain times and to intend a new life for the future especially under the fear of death But tho he should afterwards take leave to retain his sins yet the Priest it seems had power to remit them before and he has power to remit them so plentifully at last that no Reliques of sin shall remain behind since the Sacrament of Extreme Vnction is that which compleats and (p) Ibid Doctr de Sacr. Ext. Unct. consummates the Sacrament of Penance And thus 't is left to the choice of their people whether they will live according to that Truth which the Ch. of Rome holds with us or according to those Doctrines which they maintain and we reject to their choice I say for any reason that they have to be afraid of going to Hell if they have but the benefit of the power of the Keys and the virtue of that Churches Sacraments I know indeed that some good things are said by the Council in behalf of reformation of life particularly in the place last cited they say that (q) Ibid. the whole Christian life ought to be a perpetual Penance they meant I hope a state of Amendment But 't is a very unlikely matter that men should be perswaded to a holy life when by those Assurances that the Church has given them they can so easily perswade themselves that they may be saved without it Nor is it very likely that many Confessors should withhold either the saving use of the Keys or the comfort of that use of them from wicked persons when they cannot do it without mending the Doctrine of their Church And if any should be so honest there are yet others to be had together with the word of the Church to warrant the effect of the Sacraments against the word of a single Priest to the contrary Against such abuses as these we not only may but ought to protest if we ought to be concerned for the honour of God and the souls of men that we may warn all those of our own Communion not to fall from their stedfastness and if possible recover those that are led away into these dangerous errors or have been educated in the belief of them SECT V. The Church of England and other Protestant Churches justified in not anointing the Sick at all IF it be laid to our charge that we have no Unction of the Sick we are very sure that whatever Unction of the Sick the Church of Rome can tax us for wanting excepting her own the charge will fall as heavy upon her self We do not anoint the Sick as they did in the Primitive Church because we pretend not to the Supernatural Gift of Healing and they anoint the Sick for this purpose in the Church of Rome no more than we We do not anoint the Sick as they began to do in the Seventh Age when all sick persons were anointed in order to bodily Cures but not to prepare their souls for death No more do they of the Church of Rome We do not anoint neither with Extreme Vnction as they indeed do But the business of this Discourse has been to shew that they ought to do it no more than we But the account we have to give of this matter is very plain and such as will bear us out to any man that asketh us a reason whoever he be For of those Three Unctions there is no colour to charge us with blame in omitting any of them excepting the second which had the Authority of the middle Ages from the Seventh to the Twelfth But that we are under no colour of Obligation to be determined by that Authority is plain to us from these three Considerations That it was neither Primitive nor has at any time been Vniversal nor had they who began it any good reason for what they did but were themselves to blame for beginning it 1. It was not Primitive since by anointing all the Sick for the recovery of their Health the Seventh Age departed from the example of the Six foregoing Ages which are and ought to be of greater Authority than those that followed They had no standing Offices for Unction of the Sick nor knew of any other but that mentioned by St. James when a Miraculous Cure followed The Religion of being anointed for Health by those that had not the Gift of Healing was so unknown a thing to Primitive Antiquity that a Bishop of the Fifth Age wrote to the Pope of Rome about something like it as men use to do of things that had never been heard of before Those fancies of receiving Health by the use of Chrism began but then to stir which afterwards setled into Rules and Offices for anointing all the sick with Oyl for the Curing of their Diseases At first in imitation of the Primitive way not only Priests but all Christians might anoint for
that purpose But at length none but Priests must do it and as Customs that are meerly of human Original do commonly begin with a rude and light draught and in process of time are filled up with artificial and regular Forms so this Innovation which was at first begotten by Questions concerning the use of Chrism in the time of Innocentius grew in two or three Ages more into all its shapes and became a setled mystery But though in respect of us it be indeed an Antient Innovation yet an Innovation it was and a late one too in respect of the truly Primitive Church 2. It was never Vniversally practised for besides the Christians of St. Thomas in East-India who had no use of Oyl at all in their Holy things the Aethiopian Church useth no Unction of the sick tho they have their (r) Ludolf Lib. III. Cap. 6. N. 31. Holy Oyl wherewith they anoint persons to be Baptized and so when the Missionaries from Rome came thither they found these Christians (s) Ibid. Cap. V. N. 44. utterly ignorant of Extreme Vnction which by the way is a good evidence if there were no other that even the Unction which was not Extreme was an Innovation For (t) Ibid. Cap. VI. N. 14 15. no people are more tenacious than they of Antient Customs insomuch that the most Antient Ceremonies of the Old Church that are obsolete elsewhere and now hardly known are seen to continue amongst them so that their Rites being well considered in Baptism the Eucharist Love-Feasts c. one would think he saw a kind of Image of the Primitive Church as we are told in the best account that was ever yet given of the state of that Church 3. They that began this kind of Unction had no good Reason for what they did and it is much easier to defend our selves in refusing to follow that example than them for setting it It may indeed be excused by a Pious intention of seeking Health this way from God and refering it all to him but thus may many other things be excused which yet ought not to be imitated Here was inded the Primitive Rite of Unction used and that also for the same general end for which it was used in the Primitive Church viz. The Raising up of the Sick but it was far from having the same ground and reason because it could be of no effect the Gift of healing being discontinued Which in truth made it look as untowardly as if to recover any one to hearing and speech they had ordered the Priest to put his Finger into the Ears and to touch the Tongue of the Patient because (u) Mark vii our Lord did with such signs recover one that was deaf and had an impediment in his Speech or that when the Priest could not himself go to pray over a sick person he should send him a Handkerchief or an Apron from his Body because (w) Acts xx 12. such things being carried to the sick from the Body of St. Paul their Diseases departed from them For the reason of the thing seems to be much the same in all the three cases It is not very discreet nor for the Honour of Religion to make any shew of a Miracle when none is like to follow nor to use a Religious Rite for healing the Sick which promises extraordinary matters and yet People die as they did before which experience was in all probability the reason of changing the middle Age Vnction into Extreme Vnction they were ashamed and weary of anointing for the Body and so fell to anoint for the Soul The Greek Church indeed still retains that Unction for Health but how unable she is to defend it may be observed from (x) De Extr. U. Lib. V. p. 466 c. Arcudius who brings in Simeon Thessalonicensis pleading against the Unction of the Latins himself doing what he can to defend it against the Greeks The case in short is this That they are both right one against the other as it must needs be when Two notable Antagonists do each of them maintaintain a different error Simeon as well he might condemn'd the Latins for anointing dying persons contrary to St. James Arcudius as well he may does almost laugh at Simeon and his Greeks for their anointing in order to bodily Health as if they thought to make men Immortal and not suffer death to reign amongst them any more Our Church is to be praised for not being led away by a colour of Antiquity to expose her self in this Fashion And it is the glory of a Church that she is able to defend not only the bare lawfulness but the prudence and expedience also of her Constitutions In short the Unction of the middle Ages has neither Authority great enough nor reason good enough to recommend it And the Church of England is therefore by no means to blame for not taking up that Unction when she laid down the other that is incomparably worse SECT VI. An Address to the Laity of the Roman Communion AND now in the Close of all I would fain address my self to the Gentlemen of the Church of Rome in such manner as might incline them to consider what has been said As for those of them that are in Orders it belongs to them particularly to consider it and I have no other application to make to them but that if I have gone upon mistakes they would imploy some charitable hand to shew me where they lye But in the mean time I hope the following Address to the Laity of that Communion will not be thought unreasonable Brethren we are sensible at what disadvantage we endeavour to lay the Truth before you we know that the prejudices which have been infused into you against all that we can say are very great but we would fain hope that they are not invincible What is it I beseech you in those Guides you follow to make you depend altogether upon their Authority What is it in us that should make every thing we say suspected and slighted We do not love to enter into comparison but we can see no good reason for so great a difference If you say that they can teach nothing but truth in delivering the Doctrine of your Church certainly it ought to be a very strong Reason that can support such a perswasion a perswasion that whatsoever they say against us is True in General against a terrible evidence that 't is all False in the Particulars Especially when we produce such Evidence from those Authorities upon which the General perswasion is said to be built i.e. from Scripture and Antiquity For Antiquity many of you at least must rely upon the skill and fidelity of others and for our parts we desire to be trusted but as we deserve We think the clearness of the Testimonies we produce the manner of our citing Authors and the connexion with which we take their periods may induce a prudent person who himself is unacquainted with the Fathers to believe that we are fair Representers of Antiquity For Scripture that indeed is a Rule which you may but will not use for let us produce places of Holy Writ never so many or so clear you refer the Interpretation of them to those Guides against whom they are produced So that still they are believed upon their own Testimony Is it because you take their Skill and Learning to be greater than ours But how can you be sure of that without examining the different appearance which that difference would make in the management of these Controversies Or do you believe us to be Hypocrites and that sincerity is to be met with no where but in the Guides of your Communion We are Ministers of Christ and Stewards of the Mysteries of God no less than they and we know that it is requir'd of Stewards that a man be found faithful Consider us Brethren that neither our Doctrine nor our Conversation in the World carry the marks of Hypocrisy Had we any other Interest to serve but that of Truth we also should contend for Mysteries by which the People get Ease and Liberty and the Priest Power We tax not your Priests of Insincerity nor enquire why they teach certain Doctrines and administer those Sacraments which they do and which we do not administer We leave them to give an account of their ends and motives at the Day of Judgment when the secrets of all Hearts shall be disclosed But for our selves we must needs say That if we were disposed to bend Religion to Worldly Interest we should maintain another part than what we are now concern'd for To make the most of our Orders we are very sure that you ought to depend upon us for forgiveness of your sins while you live and when you are dying and yet not so to be forgiven but that there should be a reckoning of Temporal punishment behind which would make us necessary for you when you are dead Though you still purpose Reformation of Life without performance we would have Sacraments to save you from Hell but a life of strict Piety and Virtue tho' crowned with Extreme Vnction should not excuse you from Purgatory without a farther favour of the Church that should not be easily obtained neither You cannot conclude that we are Insincere but at the same time you must take us for the veryest Fools alive to stand as we do in our own Light and to prefer a Heresie that does us no manner of Service before that Truth which would bring all to depend upon us Think upon this and consider at least that you have no Reason to suspect us of not believing our selves what we profess or of consulting our secular Interest when we intreat you for the love of God and for the sake of your own Souls to weigh impartially what we say which if you would do we doubt not in the least but you would find our Cause to be as good as our meaning Only let not prejudice extinguish the very desire of knowing better things nor an †Pontif Rom. Ordo ad Reconc Apost c. Oath to yield to no manner of Argument prevail against that Obligation to follow God and Truth which all the Oaths in the World can never dissolve THE END
Extreme Vnction IMPRIMATUR Septemb. 29. 1687. Hic Liber cui Titulus A Discourse of Extreme Unction c. JO. BATTELY A DISCOURSE Concerning the PRETENDED SACRAMENT OF Extreme Vnction With an account of the Occasions and Beginnings of it in the Western Church In Three Parts With a Letter to the Vindicator of the Bishop of Condom LONDON Printed for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-yard MDCLXXXVII To the Reverend Father the Vindicator of the Bishop of Condom's Exposition Reverend Sir THIS Discourse of Extreme Unction had gone into the World without any Preface to the Reader had not your Vindication obliged me to direct one to you who it may be will find your self concerned to peruse the following Papers I could not by any means suffer my self to be diverted from reading your Book that was published last Week and that not meerly for gratifying a more than usual Curiosity to see what you had to say but rather for the informing of my Judgment since I could not easily believe that in saying so much as you have done you should yet say nothing to the purpose And therefore you may be sure I did not fall asleep when I came to the Article of Extreme Unction but gave you full attention there because I had so lately dwelt upon that Argument and was just then publishing my Thoughts about it Shall I speak my Mind freely It was to me indifferent whether I should find my self obliged to retract any thing that I had written or to tell you as I do that you have given me no Reason at all to do so I am as unwilling to anticipate the Defence of that Worthy Person against whom you are engaged as to neglect all notice of your Vindication in a point wherein I am this moment particularly concerned And therefore I shall tell you generally and briefly how the matter stands because there seems to be a fitness in it but without pretending to deserve any Thanks from him or to expect any from you As for what you say upon the Text of St. James the main Question is whether from those Indefinite Words Is any sick among you taken in Connexion with those that follow there be more reason to believe that it was a standing part of the Presbyters Office to anoint any Christian whatsoever in his Sickness for the Forgiveness of his Sins or from those Words The Prayer of Faith shall save the Sick and the Lord shall raise him up To conclude that the Apostle having directed all the Sick to send for the Elders of the Church did immediately take notice of a Case that happened but sometimes viz. that of a miraculous Cure upon the Prayer of Faith in which case the Sick were to be anointed with Oil in the Name of the Lord. Now Sir I beg leave to tell you that tho there are many Inducements to the latter Opinion offered in the First part of this Work which you seem not to have been aware of yet I cannot find any one Exception against that or any Reason for the former Opinion in all your performance which I have not prevented in mine Which will be so evident to those who care to take the pains of comparing you and me together that I need not fear to be suspected of Insincerity Reply p. 190. in desiring you whose Zeal will not suffer you to mitigate the earnest desire you have for the Salvation of your Brethren in desiring you I say to animadvert upon these Papers and that for the Author's sake who is I dare say no less concerned to be saved than you are that he should be so You know the Council of Trent has damn'd us as far as Anathematizing goes for denying your Sacrament of Extreme Unction If you do in good earnest believe there was Cause for it let us see that you do so by sparing a little of your Charity to save us if it may be from this damning Error Certainly I could not desire to meet with a Man more fit for this Undertaking than you would seem to be For you it seems can prove that Extreme Unction is a Practice that came down from the Apostles Reply p. 70 71. and was from Age to Age visibly continued in all Christian Churches both of the East and West for 800 Years How say you did the Greek and Latin Churches for the first 800 Years practise this Unction and do Protestants who pretend to reform according to the Primitive Purity reject it I perceive you are very sure of it pray therefore will you try to make me so too for if you do I promise you to examin all those Reasons from the place over again which led me to an Interpretation of St. James different from yours and that with a double Severity tho you should not think it needful to pass the least Reflection upon them For I assure you it is the practice of the Church for more than 800 Years and especially the practice of the First six Ages as I understand it that induces me not a little to believe our Interpretation of St. James to be the true one which you must not blame me for Reply p. 65. who say that the best way of proving things from Scripture is to shew Antiquity understood it so But if you thought that your Word ought to be taken in so great a Point you should by no means have lessened the Authority of it by telling two excuse me Reverend Father for so it is I say two Tales in the very same Breath wherein you delivered your Oracle about the Antiquity and Universality of Extreme Unction One Tale is and 't is a notable one that the Defender himself confessed this Extreme Unction to be so Ancient and Universal a Practice as you would have it thought to be Surely if you do not make better Proof out of the Fathers than you have done by the Confession of the Defender we must look out for a new Man to prove to us Extreme Unction by the Universal Practice and Tradition of the Church as you speak Def. p. 42 45. I find indeed the Defender confessing that that Interpretation of the Words of St. James which he followed was for 8â—0 Years esteemed the undoubted meaning of them and that the ancient Liturgies of the Church and the publick practice of it do for above 800 Years shew that they esteemed this Unction i. e. St. James 's Unction to belong primarily to bodily Cures and but secondarily only to the Sickness of the Soul Now that he should therefore confess Extreme Unction to have been of so ancient standing is to make him say the quite contrary to what he does say For the Unction of which he spake was not Extreme but brought to shew that Extreme Unction did not in all that time obtain in the Church I pass by your Insinuation that he supposed the Unction mentioned by St. James was practised by the Primitive Church for the
first 800 Years He said no such thing nor supposed any such thing but only that for 800 Years they esteemed St. James's Unction to belong primarily to Bodily Cures which they might do and yet in less time than 800 Years they might bring in an Unction different from that of St. James though both of them were primarily designed for Bodily Cures In the following Discourse I have shewn that they not only might do so but that they did do so But I pass by this till you give further occasion to display the Artifice of these Insinuations which for the present I shall leave to your Reader 's Diligence to gather if he will take the pains to compare you with the Defender in this Article The other Tale is and 't is Brother to the former That Cardinal Cajetan did not positively say as the Defender affirmed he did who affirmed that Cardinal Cajetan freely confessed the Words of St. James could belong to no other than Bodily Cures This Sir quite disheartned me for I took the Cardinal's Confession to be so positive that I translated it out of the Cardinal himself and inserted it into a convenient Place of the following Book ‖ Disc p. 13. where any one may find it and so may judg betwixt you and us in this Matter For I intend not to produce the Place here too and to argue the Point precisely because 't is so clear that there is no need of words to make an honest Man understand it and all the Words in the World will signify nothing if a Man be not so honest as he should be The only Pretence you have that the Cardinal did not positively say what the Defender affirmed him to have said is that the Defender did not give the Cardinal 's own Words but what he conceived to be his Sence For he did not translate him as I have done But Reverend Father it must be such another Man as you seem to be who reads the Cardinal's Words and will not allow him to be as positive for us as the Defender said he was But the worst of all is this that you do upon this very occasion accuse the Defender of Falsification that is of Falsifying Cajetan as you tell us in the Margin I told him said you First that Cardinal Cajetan did not positively say as he affirmed he did So that by your own Confession you told him so in your former Book and therefore this seems to be a very deliberate Business and you stand in it still But then you say what if he had Why truly then the Defender did not falsify Cajetan as you it seems are resolved to say that he does And thus where you accuse the Defender of one Falsification you are your self guilty of two Falsifications in the compass of five Lines one of which is so much the more inexcusable because it consists in accusing another falsly of the same Crime For these Reasons Sir we desire to be excused as to believing that all Antiquity goes this way and that way because you say so But because I would not be thought unreasonable I shall be content if instead of proving Antiquity to be for ye you will answer the Arguments of the Second Part to the contrary Only I desire you not to repeat any thing you have said here which you will find satisfied there For instance that the ancient Prayers made mention of Remission of Sins as well as of Bodily Cures for you will find that * Disc p. 99 100 106. this has been considered to your Hand And that your Work may still be less I think it were good advice if you would spare the Defender's pains too a little that is to say whereas you have solemnly ranged by Pages and Articles his Calumnies Falsifications false Translations Unsincerities uncharitable Accusations wilful Mistakes of your Doctrine affected Misapplications c. False Impositions Authors misapplied and plain Contradictions you would do well to put out an Advertisement signifying and confessing that there is not one Tittle of all this true nor any Colour for any part of this spiteful Charge excepting in the Translation of the 32 Can. of Sess vi of C. Tr. which you note p. 48 of your Reply In which the Defender trusting to one to translate that Canon for him who did not sufficiently remark the pointing of it was led into that Mistake which you there observe and which your self in the same place in good measure acquit him of by confessing that he understood that same Canon aright but in the very next Page And had you only added that he made no use of that Mistake in the management of his Argument from that Canon as in Justice you should have done you would then have exposed only your own Disposition to Cavil but have done as little prejudice by this as you have by all the rest to the Defenders Honesty or Understanding And 't is so very small a matter which here you tax him for and he I assure you has such an untoward business against you in this very place that I cannot afford to abate any thing of the foresaid Advice to confess once for all I know not but he may be perswaded to tarry a Month or thereabouts to see whether you will be thus ingenuous and discreet You may expect to have employment enough besides in vindicating the Doctrine of your Articles for I am told that God willing you will have another Defence in a little time and we are apt to think that it will give you and Monsieur de Meaux another Years work to put Words together I have but one Word more Reply p. 188. p. 173. The Bishop begs of Almighty God in the anguish of his Soul c. you conjure the Defender by all that is Sacred c. by the Eternal God and his Son Christ Jesus c. Reverend Sir Men that are not in earnest may use the most amazing Expressions to make the World believe they are But be not deceived God is not mocked as you will find And in the mean time those that are honest and wise will not so much consider who they are that break forth into the most vehement Exclamations as who they are that bring the clearest Proofs Sir I am Your Friend and Servant c. THE CONTENTS PART I. That the Places of Scripture produced for it are against it Sect. 1. WHAT the Doctrine of the Roman Church is concerning Extreme Vnction Pag. 1 § 2. That Extreme Vnction can by no means be proved from St. James chap. v. 14 15. Pag. 6 § 3. The true Interpretation of St. James 's Words Pag. 13 § 4. What was signified by Anointing with Oil in St. Mark Pag. 16 § 5. What is meant by the Prayer of Faith and by having committed Sins which shall be forgiven Pag. 24 § 6. That our Interpretation of the Vse of Anointing in St. James and not our Adversaries is favoured by the following Passages to