T. p. 342. forgive them; and the Brethren are bound to ask it of God for them, and to Pray for their Forgiveness and their life Eternal; which is St. John's Do&trine alfo, and the very fame with St. James his here, mutual Confeffion and mutual Prayer. The Prayer of Faith fhall fave the Sick. It is amazing to fee how Bellarmine trifles in expounding of this (of which more prelently) to Magnify the Anointing, as being, with him, as much or more Efficacious then the Prayers for the Patients Forgiveness and fpiritual Cure. Whereas it is most evident that Anointing is here prefcribed as a means to be ufed in the first Cafe only, in order to the Bodily Cure: If it had been thus worded, Is any Sick, Pray over him; but if the Sick Man hath Sinned, Anoint him with Oyl in the name of the Lord, and he shall be Forgiven, there had been fome Colour for making the outward Anointing with Oyl, a Pledge of the inward Anointing of the Spirit; but it is quite otherwife; Pray over the Sick Anointing him, but if it happens that he is a Sinner, the Prayer of Faith aalone, (not the Anointing) hall fave him; and he shall be Forgiven. Prayer takes in both Cafes, for I cannot fee how we can pray for the Sick Man's recovery, without Praying for the Pardon of his Sius. Prayers in the first Cafe are for Forgiveness of Sins in General; but in the fecond Cafe they are particularly applied to thofe Special Sins, of which the poor Patient Confeffeth himself to be Guilty. Indeed the Popish Anointing may fignify fomething as much towards his Forgiveness, as that dull faint Form, (or rather Charm) Indulgeat tibi Deus, may God Pardon you, mumbled or whispered in Latin by a fingle Pricft into the Ears of a fenfeless Creature: the Prayers of Faith here meant, are the Active, Fervent, inwardly affecting Prayers of the whole Faithfull Company then prefent, éregyuevos, Enlivened and Spirited, or raised, by the Paffionate confeffion of the Sorrowful! Penitent; every one being inwardly Touched, and making his Cafe their own; 2 Cor. 11. 19. with the Weak, becoming Weak, pitying them and fympathizing with them. Thefe Prayers will indeed avail much with God; but the Anointing as to the Cure of his Soul, fignified no more then the Pharifees washing of the outfides of their Cups, did to the cleansing of them from their Extortion Tuyμy. Mark, and Excess; or the Turks Abdeft, (which they learned from them) their Wafbing before they Pray, doth to the Purifying of their Hearts and Confciences. Mat. 23. 25. 7.3. T. p. 343. Jam. 2. 5, 6, 9, 15, 16. Anno m. 5455 P. 509. But I have thus far Examin'd the prefent Practice of the Latins, and compared it with the Prescription of St. James; which, I muft ftill fay, feems to me, every way more fully and plainly to agree with the Conftitution of our Church, then with theirs; that is without any Myftical or Superftitious Formalities, it directs only a plain and charitable Vifitation of the Sick, to Help and Comfort them, as I have faid, both as to their Body and their Soul. Is any Sick, Old or Young, High or Low, Poor or Rich, Brother or Sifter, deftitute of daily Food, or wanting Medicine or Relief Bodily or Spiritual, let the good Neighbours, (especially the Pricft and Minifters, if they may be had, or other Grave, Serious, and Pious Chriftians, be call'd to their Help. And I am the more confirmed in this my Opinion, because I find it the common Practice of all the present Jews where ever I came, to this very day. When any one is Sick, their Friends and Relations and good Neighbours Vifit them; and if it is in Cities or great Places where they have a Synagogue, and there are any learned Rabbi's or Chacams, Wife men amongst them, fome of these are called, or go unto them of their own accords. There they ufe Prayers for God's Mercy to all their Brethren, (who are in Want, or Trouble, and Distress, or Sick, &c.) in general; and then particularly for the Cafe of the prefent Patient before them. They have fet Forms of Confeffion for the Sick Person to make; as I have them all in their Rituals which I have gotten at Conftantinople and elsewhere; you may fee a Confeffion, in their Order, (as they call it) lately Printed at Amfterdam by David Tartas. This Practice might be first taken Lev. 6. 2. 3.4.c. Num taken up amongst them from fome places in the Law which prefcribe Confession T. p. 343. fecret Trefpaffes and Sins. This old laudable Custom being brought down to, and Practifed in, St. James his days, he might rightly Chriftianize it, 5. 6. 7. Joi. and prescribe it in a Perfecter way, and make it thus more fuitable to the Primi- 7 19. tive Conftitution of his Profelites. Many ufages which were any ways Spiritual and good amongst the Jews, were profitably new Modell'd and retain'd by the Apostle, and improved to the Promoting of the ends of the Gofpel. I must be more Pofitive in this my Affertion; this Cuftom of Vifiting the Sick amongst the Antient Jews, being clearly fet down by the Learned Lightfoot. They came and Anointed them and Pray'd over them; Hor. Heb. in bur at laft they had corrupted the first good and pious Practice, and turn'd it P. 162. v. 2. into a kind of Magical Charm. They Anointed the Sick Man's Head, and Harm. Anno only Mutter'd over him fome odd Form of Words. He inftances in fome of 63. Chrifti. them. Now St. James corrects this abufe; he retains and prefcribes the Nero. 9. Po charitable Vifitation; allowing Anointing and the ufe of ordinary Medicines and outward means; but instead of their wicked or fuperftitious Muttering or Whispering over them, he appoints the Prayers of Faithfull Chriftians to be added to their other Applications for their Cure. The prefent Jews have left off this Corruption, of muttering over the Sick; and the Latins have taken it up. any Mat. 6. 17. 333. v. 1. 485. B. The Sick therefore amongst them were thus to be Vifited and Anointed, (after their old Cuftom) in order to their Recovery and not in order to their Dying. Bellarmine as he will not allow this Text to be meant of a natural or . c. 3. p. common Cure only thus Sanctified by the Prayer of Faith; fo he strenuoufly 484. F. G. denies fuch Miraculous Cure to be here intended as was done by the Apoftles, who had the Gift of Healing; and therefore he interprets this place only of a Sacramental Cure. Unctio fanat Animum & aliquando Corpus virtute Sacramentali, the Anointing, faith he, heals the Soul and fometimes the Body by its Sacramental virtue; Anointing then, according to him, is defigned only as a Sacrament to the Soul, but the Body may also fometimes by chance be a little benefited by it. But first the Cardinal seems here not very Consistent with himself; he argued before that no Miracle is meant here or to be expected; yet afterwards he p. 485. F. gives this reafon for Anointing, femimortuos, Men half Dead, quærenda funt remedia Supernaturalia quando nulla fpes amplius eft in Naturalibus; Supernatural remedies must be fought for, when there is no hopes at all left in those that are Natural. If the Remedies and Cure be Supernatural at any time, I should think it is a Miracle, call it Sacramental or what you pleafe; as if Anointing prefently recovers a Man half Dead, quite fenfelefs, and as it were at the laft Gafp; or if he that Anoints him, looks for fuch a Cure; furely he expects a Miracle, and I must think and call it fo, if it comes to pafs. T. p. 344. De Sacram. l. But fince after all this, the Latins will have Extream Unction to be a Sacrament. Let us now Examine their Practice by St. James his words, and fee if they can make it out fo to be. I fuppofe none can be fo void of Senfe as to fay that it is a Sacrament to the Visitors or Standers by, and I believe it will appear to be as little, or rather lefs fuch to the Sick Person himself, being in fuch a Condition as the Latins fuppofe him. It is the common Opinion of the Cardinal and his Brethren, that Faith is necessarily required in every one of Riper years, or of Age of Discretion, not as an efficient Caufe of a Sacrament, 2. c. 1. p. 54° but as a right Difpofition in him that receives it; for the want of that alone binders any Sacrament from taking its Effect, and fo it proves to the Receiver abfolutely Fruitless. St. James calls it, the Prayer of Faith, because it requires Faith in the Receiver, and without Faith it is invalid, A Lapide in loand of no Effect. Now they Adminifter this pretended Sacrament only, Semi-cum. p. 171. mortuis, to Men half Dead, in extremis, at the very point of Death, animâque ipsâ, when the Soul it felf (they are Goar's own words) is interdict-p. 433; b. B. C. D. ed T. p. 344. ed and deprived of all its Acts or Faculties. But what Faith can they imagine in one that is without any perception and perfectly Senseless? Who can neither feel the Priest's thumb dabbing him with Oyl, nor hear him mutter his Charm over him, nor can mind or fee either the Crofs or the Priest that offers it to him to kifs? but lies immoveable like a meer Block or a Stone ? §. Infirmities. §. fi vero. But their Rubrick feems cunningly to anticipate and cautiously anfwers this Objection. This Sacrament may be given to thofe, who when they had a found Mind, and their perfect Senfes, have defired it, or very likely would have given figns of Contrition, although afterwards they should have loft their Speech, or be light Headed, or Rave, or are Senfeless. So then their former Faith will ferve, though now in the prefent Administration of the Sacrament, they have Actually nothing of it, being paft all Senfe and understanding. But if only fuch previous Faith will do, I fee no reason but it may be as effectual if they were Anointed and received this Sacrament when they were quite Dead. And there will be no need of that Rubrick, that the Priest, if the Man dies under the operation, Ahould leave off; for he might as lafely and Effectually go on, (nay, perform it all from the very beginning) to a really Dead Man, as to one who to all Senfe and Knowledge is as utterly Dead already. I have heard of fome Sick Man amongst them, who being asked if he would receive the Extream Unction, cryed out, why, I hope in God it is not come to that yet, is it? I find this their common delay and thus putA Lapid. in ting it off complain'd of by a great Man; I cannot tell what Faith fuch a one locum. p. 172. might then have, but when his Senfes and all Perception had left him, I believe but little then did actually remain in him. Without doubt the Reward of a Christian's steady Faith follows him into the other World, but I cannot conceive that it Acts at all in him, in Extremis, or, Semimortuo, when he is Senfelefs and paft Thinking or Feeling; he is thus Dead perhaps fome hours, before he is, as we fay, ftark Dead. I remember the Famous Borri, when I Vifited him in the Caftle of St. Angelo at Rome, told me that the French Embassador had lain fo, many many hours, (without any Senfe, without any perT. p. 345. ceptable Pulfe, Chap-fallen, and with open Mouth,) before he received the Priest's Unction or Borri's drops by which he was recovered. I therefore cannot but stand amazed, when I read, that all the other Sacraments confer Grace, per Accidens, by Accident or Chance; but this doth it, per fe, by it felf; or by its own Effential Power. Alafs! What Grace can it confer to a fenfeless Carcafe, which at that time knows nothing of the matter. All their other Sacraments are very forry ones, if this, as they make it, be the chief. A. 1: c. 9. P. 489. C. 1. 1. Rubr. §. ha beat. Bellarmine condemns the Valentinians for Anointing the Dead; I would gladly know the difference between them and the Latins, between Anointing a dead Man, and Anointing a Man juft dying. As to the effect upon the Body there may be fome very very little difference, because we fay, as long as there is Life there is Hope. But a Man juft dead is as capable of this pretended Sacrament to all intents and purposes of his Soul as he was before, when once he was paft all Perception. But he faith, the Valentinians Anointed with Oyl and Water mixt; firft then surely it was a custom to use Oyl at least either alone or mixt; and fo the Latins themfelves oft make a mixture, when the Confecrated Oyl grows scarce, they mix Unconfecrated Oyl with it. Then laftly the Latins ufe not Vulgar words, but fuch as to most are unintelligible, as I have noted before; fo that in the whole as to the substantial part of the Practice I think the Valentinians and the Latins do exactly agree. Tertullian tells us that one Proculus a Chriftian cured the Emperor Severus Ad Scapulum with Oyl; but first that cannot be counted a Sacrament because it was done to a Heathen; next it is not recorded by him as a Miracle, but, inter beneficia Chriftianorum, only as an Instance of the universal Charity and good Deeds of Chriftians towards all Men; he Anointed the Emperor (as was cuftomary,) but but without doubt he Pray'd to his own true God for his bleffing upon it; this T. p. 345was the common Vifitation of Chriftians one to another, yet Proculus might Charitably use the common outward means, (which he knew were proper,) to a Heathen; nay, and might justly and Dutifully pray for the Emperor's recovery too, who we find was very kind to him. pide in locum. The Prayer of Faith fhall fave the Sick. It is then plainly Prayer not Anointing, that fave the Sick, be it in his Body or in his Soul or both. But if this Prayer and Unction be a Sacrament, it must be so to the Faithfull Vifitors, who in the Adminiftration can pray with Faith and Understanding; but it cannot be so to the Sick Perfon, who is then perfectly Senfeless and can then neither Pray, nor Believe, nor think any thing; as Goar himfelf in another p. 742. §. 1. place plainly Confeffeth, of him that, in extremis laborat, lies at the point of Death. But here we meet with a nice point of Jefuitifm indeed; It is here! 1. c. 3. p. called the Prayer of Faith, non quæ requirat neceffario fidem Miniftri, fed 486. A. Laquia eft oratio dictata a Fide, & folâ Fide intelligitur; not that which necef. p. 171.. farily requires the Faith of the Minifter, but because it is a Prayer dictated by Faith, and is by only Faith understood. So then the Pricft need not, (and be fure the poor fenfelefs Creature, cannot,) believe, when the Prayer is faid; this makes their Sacrament a perfect Charm indeed. The Priest mutters certain Words which he thinks may perhaps do fome good, as a common Conjurer may think that the hanging Abracadabra about a Man's neck will cure him T. P. 346. of an Ague; but the Priest may no more believe in Chrift, then the Conjurer believes in Apollo. A Chriftian may have made their Form, and fo it was at first, dictata a Fide, dictated by Faith, or first taught by fome Believer, as Abracadabra was first made by fome Worfhipper of Apollo; and this is enough, according to thefe Men, to make it a Prayer of Faith. Though the Priest be a Beast, or in this Point a meer Infidel, opus operatum, the bare Deed being done compleats their Sacrament; which is directly against St. James his DoArine, the fervent Prayer of a Righteous Man availeth much; there must then be, Fides orantis, Faith in him that Prayeth and Holiness too, be must be a Righteous Man, otherwise his Prayer will not avail much. The Cardinal quotes a Paffage out of St. Auguftin to establish this wild notion, which to me perfectly makes against it. Speaking of Baptifm, he faith, accedit verbum ad Elementum & fit Sacramentum; Non quia dicitur, fed quia creditur; nam & in ipfo verbo aliud eft fonus tranfiens, aliud virtus manens; The Word is added to the Element and the Sacrament is made; not because the Word is spoken but because it is believed; for in the very Word the tranfient found is one thing, the Virtue which remains (and is excrted by Faith) is another. He applies all this to Prayer quite a contrary way; the Prayer avails, quia dicitur, because it is spoken, (mumbled over by the Priest) not, quia creditur, because it is believed, either by him or the Sick Man either, for their Faith is not required or concern'd in the bufinefs. Whereas St. Auguftine lays all the ftrefs upon Faith alone, and explains himself by that of St. Rom. 10. 8. Paul. The word of Faith which we Preach, (that is, the Faith of the Gofpel) is not what is spoken or confeft by the Mouth alone, but what is believed in the Heart; for with the Heart Man believeth unto Righteouf ness, and by that of St. Peter, Purifying the Heart by Faith, not by Words Act. 15. 9. only;) and again, Baptifm fave us, not by putting away the filth of the Flesh, but by a good Confcience; fo no more can Anointing the Body and Prayer fignify any thing without Faith and Holiness; by the word of Faith then nothing else is meant but true belief of the Gospel; and in this manner St. Auguftin goes on faying, that the Church, Credentem, Offcrentem, Benedicentem, Tingentem, Believing (this word of Faith) and (upon its Authority) Offering, Bleffing and Baptizing an Infant, can cleanfe him although as yet he hath in himself no Faith. But when he comes to years of Difcretion, without Faith and Righteousness, his Baptism will condemn him rather then do him any Good. If the Cardinal aim'd at any thing to his purpofe by Tract (in Joh. cap. 15.) 80 16. T. p. 346. by this quotation it must be this, that as the Church and her Minifters, by Mark. 9. 37. Faith in the Gospel, Receiving, Bleffing and in Baptifm dedicating an Innoc.10. 14, 15, cent Babe to Chrift, may fave himself (if he then dies) without his own particular Faith; fo a Latin Priest mumbling over a Prayer, or rather a Form of certain Words over a Guilty Sinner, (who knows nothing of it) at the minute of his Death, may fave him without either the Sinners actual Faith or his own. It is own'd plainly that the Pricft in the Action needs not any, and it is as plain that the fenfelefs Sinner then cannot have any. These cafes thus fairly put, are vaftly diftant from one another; Baptifm is a moft manifest Inftitution of Chrift himself, and was ever from the very beginning of the Gospel own'd and practifed all over the univerfal Church as fuch, which the Latins can never prove of this their Sacrament; much lefs as it is now prefcribed by them. p. m. 91. A&t. 28. 8. Our Visitation of the Sick is (according to Catholick ufage) perform'd whilst T. p. 347, they have their Senfes and Understanding; and we exhort them and farther treat them as fuch. We pray to God to give them fure Confidence in him. and to firengthen their Faith, which (as the ground of all) they profefs and we hope is then in them; we pray for God's Mercy to them, and for their Pardon and Forgiveness; and in order to that we pray for their Repentance and ftedfaft Faith; and at the point of their departure, we faithfully commend their Souls into the Hands of God; and all this is done without any new Stipulation or Federal contract with God, which only makes a Sacrament truly fo called, and it must be confirmed by his own plain appointment in the Gospel. When the Latins were difpofed to make a Sacrament for the Sick, I wonder they did not rather pitch upon that other Rite, in Vifitatione Infirmorum, in their Office of Vifiting the Sick or Infirm. After the Penitential Pfalms (or fome of them) and feveral Suffrages and Prayers and four Gospels are read, follows this Rubrick, "Let the Prieft lay his right Hand upon the Head of the Sick and fay, they shall lay Hands on the Sick and they shall recover; Jefus, the Son of Mary, the fafety of the World, and Lord, by the Merits and Interceffions of his holy Apoftles Peter and Paul and all the Saints, be Mercifull and Favourable unto thee. First there is Christ's command for this, and alfo St. Paul's example. Next for the Form (as they call Mark. 16. 18.it) of this Sacrament they had the Words of Chrift, to which is attacked a Prayer to Jefus; which (as it is very likely) was at firft fincere without the addition of that opprobrious Patch, by the Merits and Interceffion of the Saints. As for the Matter they could as cafily have found it out for this Sacrament as they have done it for fome of their other; or the bare Impofition of the Hand (being the outward Sign) might have past here for the Matter, as well as (with many of them) it hath done in Ordination. But then, this Sacrament, would have had this grand Preeminence above their Extream Unction; whereas that is adminiftred to fenfeless Creatures, this is to Men in their perfect Senfes; who are capable of Confolation, Exhortation, and Advice (about fettling their affairs both Temporal and Eternal,) and are able to attend to the Pfalms and Prayers and other parts of the Office; Goar thought it great Pity that the Church of the Greeks fhould be deprived of one of their Sacraments, but if the Latins are fo fond of Extream Unction, as not to part with it; this might very well fupply its place, or with a little pains, might, by the prime Wits amongst their Modern Schoolmen, be very plaufibly made an eighth Sacrament amongst them. Nay, I will venture to lay, that the Holy Kifs, (which I have mention'd above) amongst the Greeks, (efpecially at Eafter with thofe words xgços aven, Chrift is rifen,) is in all refpects a more fubftantial Sacrament, then the Latins Extream Unction. They are both alike in being neither of them plainly Instituted by Chrift himself; yet the Kifs hath thefe manifeft advantages; doubt but it was confirm'd by Chrift's own Example, it being the ordinary Luk. 7.45 Symbol or mark of mutual Kindness when they met, or entered into one anothers 428 a. |