T. p. 352. 249. A. 217. 863. 249. Ven. 302. G. 703. Ven. 313. T. p. 353. his Infirmities both of Body and Soul; Release him from his Sins, and from all his Afflictions occafion'd by them; Deliver thy Servant from every Temptation, and from every Affault of the Enemy; and raise him from the Bed of Sickness, and restore him to thy Holy Church found, both in Soul and Body, and improving in good Words and Works, &c. And if the Priest will Anoint him as being in Bed, or otherwife; There are two Prayers there to confecrate the Oil, one of which you have had above; the latter is in my Copy but with fome Variation; it is thus in Goar, Ὁ πολὺς ἐν ἐλές και πλούσιος ἐν ἀγα Jóтп, O much in Mercy, and rich in Goodness, Father of Compaffions, and God of all Confolation Who haft taught us by the Holy Apostles, that the Elders of the Church by Oil with Prayer should cure Infirmities, Thou O Lord even fanctify this Oil, that it may be to all who shall be Anointed with it, to the cure of every Distemper and bodily Difeafe, and filthiness both of Flesh and Spirit; that even now Thy most holy Name may be glorified; for to Thee, O our God, it belongs to have Mercy and to Save. Why fhould not this devout Prayer as fully confecrate the Oil, as that other above. There is a very fpecial Prayer for the Sick and Reftlefs, which they ftile inlà Taidan, of the feven holy Children, or Sleepers at Ephefus. It hath in it the Names of at least thirty Saints, fome of them very obfcure ones; I never could learn that it is often ufed now, though the Story of the Seven Sleepers is told as a very current Truth amongst them; especially at Ephefus, where I faw the Cave in which they fay they flept; and they are commemorated every year Aug. 4. in their Menology. But there is a very folemn Office for the Confolation of Infirm People Goar. 714. troubled with or by impure and mischievous Spirits. There is, after fome of the ufual Præfatory Verficles and fome certain Pfalms, a Supplicatory Canon to Chrift, the Virgin Mary, the Angels, and all the Saints, which being ended, The Priest taking a Lamp (with the lighted Wick in it) Anoints the infirma Perfon with the Oil, and fays the very fame Prayer over him, which the Seven Priests say when they Anoint their Penitent in the Prayer-Oil foreGoar. p. 417. going. Пampane, O Holy Father, Phyfitian of Souls. There is this Variation in it (I think for the better) after those words, From the Infirmity of Body and Soul which now afflict him, follows, By the Grace of thy Chrift, and quicken him, then is added, According to thy good Pleafure, that be may fully perform the Thankfulness and Adoration which is due to Thee, by his good Deeds; through the Interceffions of the Allover blessed Virgin, and all thy Saints; (without naming one of them particularly) For Thou art the Fountain, &c. P. 728. §. 5. b. C. σπ. 753. §. 14. This feems to me (to all the Intents and Purposes of the Latins) a far more fuitable Sacrament for them, then the Prayer - Oil foregoing. For here all along, one fingle Priest doth All, as the Latins would have it; but there Seven, or at least Three are required to do it. Next it is not common Oil (as Goar calls it,) for it is at least the Oil of the Lamp, burning before the Lord; which Symeon The tells us (as here a little before) is thereby, yoμever, P.201.17. Sanctified; And the People to this day, fo count the Water wherein the mock Goar. p. 750. Difciples Feet have been washt, μézar anaouor, a mighty Sanctification. μέγαν ἁγιασμόν, But it cannot, I think, be doubted, but that the Prieft here, when he puts Oil into his Lamp and lighted his Wick, did alfo fay that very Prayer of Confecration above named, Kúgie o iné, O Lord, who in thy Mercy; or the lat ter of these two in Goar mention'd just now. For why may not any one Priest in the Greek Church confecrate the Oil by any of thefe Prayers or Forms? 436. 22. b. Goar allows it, and faith, fince their Prelate connives at it, all is well; 437-39. b. nay, the very Pope it feems permits this. Then after this comes this Prayer, Táпρ ane, O Holy Father, which Goar and the rest of the Latins make the 1. 5. c. 5. very Form of the Sacrament. And Arcudius much commends this fhort Form as being forfooth moft Essential; and withal it is more plain, and perhaps P. 249. Goar. 413. 863. P. 455. b. much much more Antient, without the Addition of the Baptift, and the other Apo- T. p. 353. cryphal Saints with which it is ftuft. Here then is a Single Prieft, here is the Matter and the Form according to the Latins: But this is apply'd by the Greeks to Men in their perfect Senfes, and for the most part bodily Sound; but by the Latins to meer fenfelefs Carcafes; and all Goar's fhuffling cannot make the Greeks Prayer-Oyl better, or fo well, agree with the Latins extreme Vnction, as this Office would, which he rejects, as not Sacramental, but indeed I fhall, by and by, fhew the Error and Abufe of both Churches herein, P. 728. 5. There is a common general Office of Supplication and Vigils for every fad Goar. 766. publick Calamity which may befall them, as War, Plague, or Epidemical Difcafes, Famine, Earthquakes, and the like; and there are little Forms of Prayer for every one of these in Particular; which are, as any publick Occafion requires, to be inferted in this General Office: But any particular Priest when he is called upon, may in private, use any of thefe Prayers as occafion is given, Goar. 767. and as the Perfon defires according to his prefent Condition. Ven. 347. The Greeks for Sick and Infirm Men have many other Religious (fhall I fay, or Superftitious) Obfervances, which they count as beneficial to them as the, ano enor, Holy Oyl it felf, and Goar owns that they therefore call them fo by that very Name, as being (as it were) vicarious Anointings. Not. 902. Thus Flowers or Branches stuck about their facred Pictures (or any thing hang'd up to their Honour, (either by them, or before them) as Lamps, and T. p. 354. especially the Oyl in them, apply'd to any infirm Perfon, or to any afflicted Part, are thought in a manner miraculous Helps; for many of thefe Pictures are peculiarly Bleft, or Confecrated by the Prelate to every devout Votaries Goar. 854 divine Affiftance who fhall pray before it. So for one who hath newly received the Eucharist to breath upon a Wound, or lame Part, is efteemed a Sovereign Remedy. To drink Common Water out of the Holy Chalice, is accounted as much as being anointed with Mugor, the Chrifm, or Holy Ointment it felf. So croffing any part of the Body, that is in Pain, with the Holy Lance, and faying thofe certain Words prefcribed in their Eucholog, is Ven. 437. thought a present Relief. Thus to partake of the five Loaves offer'd at the Goar. 902. Vefpers, in a particular Rubrick at the end of the Office, it is faid to be a Goar. 45. Remedy in divers Evils; and in Goar's Various Lections we are told, That 46. nos, ✪• it ceafes Fevers, and mixt with Water and drank it drives away the cold Fit; Nay, it is faid, To chafe away all Infects from Sprouts, or Buds, or Bloffoms. I fuppofe it is not by being drank, but by being strew'd upon them. Goar. 855. Ven. 412. Ven. 414. • 39.56. I fhall add one Office more, It is a general or common Supplication for all that are Infirm in Body and Mind; it is performed by one fingle Prieft for one, or more Infirm Perfons with Prayers and Unction. After fome fhort G. 856. Præfatory Collects follows a Canon (as they call it) to the Virgin Mary; G.862. which is fervent enough, and had it been made to God himself, it had been a very excellent Piece of Devotion. There is a Gospel order'd in the common Luc. 1. Form, and there is another different one in Goar's fecond Copy annext. Then Luc. 10. 38. follows in the fecond Copy a very devout Prayer for the Forgivenets of the In- ad fin. firm Perfon's Sins, being made but for one updλ8 08 Tue, For this thy Servant; It begins, Atorola nueie inou xeste, O Lord, Lord Jefus Chrift; which you shall have by and by at length. After this Prayer, The Priest quoints him (or them) faying, xáтpane, O holy Father, which is exactly (almost word for word) the very fame with that before mentioned in the Supplication for Comforting Perfons bewitched, or troubled by impure Spirits. Here Goar feems much more Perplext then before. He is (as I took notice p. 863. above) very loath to rob the Greeks of a Sacrament, and yet this Office and the Prayer-Oyl being fo very different, he doth not know which to chuse, or whether indeed either of them may be own'd as a Sacrament. Deficit P. 428. F. 438.37. T. p. 354. enim Ecclefiæ Græcæ, it is not, faith he, the use or Intention of the Greek Church, that by this kind of Unction even with Prayer adjoin'd, the Sacrament should be conferr'd, by reason that other Circumstances are wanting. He there tells us what thefe Deficiencies are, it is not done according to the Rite and Mind of the Latin Church; and therefore the Greeks Practice is only, a fimple and Ceremonial Unction of the Sick, but not a Sacrament. And thus after the Prayer-Oyl and the Unctions in thefe two general Supplications, notwithstanding his Pity or Complement to the Greeks, he hath fairly left them without this. He faith that Leo Allatius denied the Greeks to have Extream Unction, and he tells us that he himself was once inclinable to the fame Opinion; And truly after all his fhuffling and turning matters to and fro (now quarrelling with Arcudius and Excufing the Greeks; now foftning Matters and pleading for them,) you will find him plainly in the fame Judgment at last, or fo abfolutely coufounded, as to leave the Greeks Practice in a quite different Nature and defign from that of the Latins. Thofe have feven Priefts, or at least three; thefe admit but of one. There Seven Prieft's Confecrate the Oyl, here only one, and he a Bishop; there feven Anoint the Patient in three places, here only one dabs him in fix or feven; there seven Pray the fame Prayers, one after another, and ufe the fame Matter and Form (as they call it,) that is, make feven Sacraments of one; here one Priest doth all. And Goar's notion of the feven agreeing and Confederating in the Action, every one Intentionally performing but a feventh part of it, is a meer piece of Sophiftry; their Sacrament muft lie depending from the first Prieft's beginning till the laft Prieft hath finished his Unction. Again, there are seven Epistles and feven Gospels read, here none at all. And (what many of the Latins themselves condemn in both Practices, and what I think is difference enough,) there it is done to Men in their perfect Senfes, here to Men three quarters dead. Goar and Arcudius allow of neither Practice in their full extent, but both vehemently declaim against them in feveral particulars; Let neither Greek nor Latin then quote St. James his Text to Authorize their Practice, for it is directly against them both. As to the first, is any Infirm or Sick, faith the Apostle, let him call for the Elders of the Church; certainly thefe words cannot be Intended for Men fo strong and in fuch health as to be able to come to Church, Gear 431.§.3.and to lie there fometimes for feveral days and nights continually; or to stay there during a whole fervice of feveral hours, containing above twenty fides of their Prayer Book in quarto; and hearing feven Epiftles and as many Gospels read upon their Head, and to attend all the other tedious Ceremonies, Is this St. James his Infirm Man who must call for help from the Presbyters or Elders who are to go to him? As for the Latins I think I have fhewn above that St. James his words will. as little juftify what they do. T. p. 355. P. 428. b. Still I am more confirm'd in my Opinion that St. James meant only a plain Vifitation; and hence comes fo many various Prayers, and fuch fancifull Practices for the Cure of the Sick and Infirm. Some Prayers are very Devout, and I am perfwaded are very Antient, as I will fhew prefently. Some of their old Wives Customs above mention'd might be taken up in the dark times of Superftition, and being never reprehended nor reformed, are still Practifed by the Ignorant Votaries; and at laft as the Latins minced and curtail'd the primitive Vifitation into an unintelligible Sacrament; fo the Greeks framed several myfterious Unctions and Offices. And I fee no reafon but that all thefe Offices, especially these three, the Prayer Oyl, that against impure Spirits, and the general Confolation; as they are diftinct Offices, fo they may as well by them be called diftinct Myfteries; and every one of them may be better maintain'd to be a Sacrament, then the Latins Extream Unction; and Goar hath unawares own'd my conceit as an abfolute Truth; when I read, faith he, several Prayers ufed with Unctions for the Sick in their Rituals, I without farther doubt concluded, that, fince neither Chrift nor St. James have left us any any Special Determinations, about these things; The Church, pro jure fuo, T. p. 355. by her Right might in latter Times fit them up for this Sacrament. Nay, rather they fitted them up for feveral Purpofes or Ends, as they now stand, and are used amongst them. For I cannot believe that thefe three Offices laft mention'd were made together, but that they were contrived and patcht up as the feveral Occafions were offered. And every Grand Leading Minister or Prelate within his own Bounds or Goverment altered them, and added to them as they thought expedient; and hence comes that strange Variety in their feveral Copies. For it is plain Demonstration, that they had no fettled, ftanding, uniform Method amongst them; which, as I muft fay, plainly fhews either the Carele ffness, or the Confufion that hath in Thefe, as well as in most other of their Practices, been ever amongst them. As to the Prayer Oyl give me leave here very freely, but withall fubmiffion to the Judgements of my Readers, to tell you my Opinion of it. Publick Penitentiaries were forbid by Nectarius and his Succeffor J. Chryfoftom; and Publick Penance was never enjoyn'd after thofe Days, or any expofed to publick Shame but for Publick or Notorius Offences. For as to those who came voluntarily in private to fome holy Man to Confefs and tell their Condition; they were not put to open Penance, but were directed to fome other ways and means of Repentance (as I have proved above,) and for their amendement of Life. Now after Publick Penance for private Sins was not used or was lay'd afide, a way was wifely thought of to obtain from God the Effect of it, yet concealing the Shame of the Penitent from Man. Thus this Office was first contrived to be folemnly used (as it is now) upon Holy Thursday, rather as a publick Humiliation then any thing else; T. p. 356. at which the Bishop himself, or the Prieft prefiding in that Church where it was celebrated, was Anointed first, and after him every one present strove to be Anointed too; counting themfelves thereby fanctified in Order to the Communion at Easter following. For they thought then, and they do so now, that the Oyl thus publickly confecrated, and the devout Prayers made with it, were of an admirable Virtue for the Cure of both the Bodies and the Souls of all that did partake of it. Afterwards it was procured oftentimes at the Charge of devout Penitents, as it is alfo to this Day: and it was and now is lookt upon by the People, only as a voluntarily Act of Publick Generofity, Charity, and Devotion; and not at all as any enjoyn'd Penance or Punishment for Sin. Yet when Confeffors directed their Penitents, how to fteer their future Lives, under the Head of Alms (which I have reckon'd up as one fort of their Penances now in use,) it is commonly enjoin'd as one to thofe who are rich and able to pay for it. But none of the People know it, or ever take it or speak of it as being any otherwife then a Publick Charity. And Goar, as well as p. 678.. my Canonaria, owns this very thing, that it is often prefcribed as a Penance to those who are Rich. And as I have told you before, there are many wealthy Perfons amongst them, who, either out of real Devotion, as a true Fruit of their Repentance, or elfe out of vain Glory, or a Defire of Purchasing a great Vogue and Reputation amongst the People, (for the antient Pride ftill domineers there too much, notwithstanding their Slavery,) will procure this Prayer-Oyl to be performed at their own Expence, for no publick Act could oblige the poor vulgar Sinners more then this; for it is amazing to fee how every one will strive to partake of it. But he that But he that procures it may himself in any wife count it as fome fhew at least, if not as a real Fruit, of his Repentance. And therefore, as I have faid above, He is called by Sym. Theffal. μetaroa, the Penitent. p. 204. 1. And thus in order to work a true Repentance in him, and in all the rest of the then prefent Partakers, they have fitted up the several Prayers, which favour of the true antient Spirit of Greek Devotion; and I therefore believe might at first have been made to be ufed at what I call St. James his Vifitation; but now they are changed covertly, to this way of a voluntary Publick Penance for the Procurer, and of a kind of Expiation to all the reft that partake of it. We are p. 257. T. p. 356. c. once. 1. P. 205. 1. Goar.737, T. P. 357. told by Sym. Theffal. what effect the Greeks expect from this Prayer-Oyl, and from thence what efteem they have of it. It behoves faith he, every Chriftian (not onely the really Sick and infirm in Body, much lefs thofe onely who are at the Point of Death) to perform this, and to call together the Priests of God, and to defire them to Pray over him and Anoint him; for, know ye, it procures all thefe great divine Gifts; The Driving away of Difeafes,; The Remiffion of Sins; it produces Sanctification and divine Strength, and at laft the Kingdom of Heaven. And let not any Railer fay, It is Oyl, and what Power, or Virtue, can that have which comes from the Olive? It is Oyl indeed, faith he, but it is, new, bighly Graced or favoured, by the Name of God, ufed or call'd, upon it; for where God is called upon. all things are Divine and have the Power of God in them, When you read this (which is their very Opinion now) you need not wonder at the Penitent, who procures it, nor at the others who ftrive to communicate with him. The Greeks have a peculiar Office, to be faid by a fingle Prieft, es Juppayuva, for a Man juft expiring, a Man would think that if they knew or own'd any thing of the Latins Extreme-Unction, we fhould meet with it or find it here. But it is an Addrefs chiefly to the V. Mary, and it contains nothing but a perfect Description of a Soul going to Judgement, Trembling. Defpairing, and expecting nothing but to be plunged into the bottomless Pit. This I think is as far from the Latins Sacrament as Hell is from Heaven. Yet this may be of older Date then ordinary, and might be (as it feems defigned) to the living Visitors of great ufe, to admonifh them and make them Fear; as our Office at the Grave is only defigned for that purpofe; for as to the P.742. b. dying Man, Goar (as I have above obferved) confeffeth that it fignifies nothing at all, he being abfolutely deprived of all Senfe and Perception. There are two Prayers there immediately following, The first for a Soul going to be Judged, The fecond for a Soul juft departing, which are indeed every&uvou, very Pathetical or Fervent; Intreating God to give their Souls eternal Reft, and to pardon all their Sins; all which is very Proper, as our Prayer for a fick Perfon at the Point of Departure. Now had there been Unction here prefcribed, it had fitted the Latins purpose better then any of the Rest. These Prayers and thofe in the Office of the Prayer Oyl, all agree with St. James's Senors everyouin, The Fervent infpired Prayer. And this will moft fully appear to any one who fhall confult them. Goar himself owns the Prayer of the fifth Priest (at the Prayer Oyl) to have been made by St. Chryfoftom; and the next of the fixth Prieft to be wrote by St. Bafil; but I can never believe that that Office, efpecially as it now ftands, was made in those Days. Arcudius alfo confeffeth that all thefe Prayers and others, most egregiously exprefs in them the Substance of their Sacrament, (that is, the inward Devotion and Petition for Health of Body and Pardon of Sin) as well as that, Пáng äne, O Holy Father, which the Latins make the only Form of it. The Prayer-Oyl amongst the Greeks must not now be performed by lefs then three Priests as my Nomocanon exprefly determine; for if one alone or two dares to do it they are certainly depofed; and Arcudins hath own'd the fame thing; and yet I must say with him, that I cannot fee how well it could ever be done by seven in a private Houfe or a country Village. He must be a rich Man, or of fome Authority, that could procure feven, or indeed three, in a village where there is but one Parish Priest; I must profess that I never knew or heard that it was performed in private all the time I lived amongst them. Neither can I apprehend, (notwithstanding all that Goar fuggefts to the contrary,) how one Priest could sustain all the Parts of that Office, and fay all the Prayers, and do the various Ceremonies, which are there alloted to seven distinct Perfons to do feverally; I am fure I find no Rubrick or Direction for any fuch Practice; and befides a Man that had health enough to appear abroad, he is to come, or is brought, to the Church to receive it. If a Man is, 4226 440. 39. 424, p. 117. 461. b. P. 436. 22. b. in |