440 ZxT,,B UNCTOS. (BooE II. son of which St. James spotks, nor are they directed to the same end. (5.) As to the ? committed, and the .forgwmess of them, we re- mark, that the sins committed seem to be such as God was pleased to visit with some bodily disease; as in the case of the Corinthians, some of whom, for disorderly celebrating the Lord's supper, were wea? ?/c?, and were therefore c/tastened, 1 Cor. xi, 30, 32: and where the sickness is by way of chastisement, the healing is a testimony that God forgave it. Hence, ray r/? be.forg/ven, is our Lord'8 usual ex* pression when he healed the sick. Matt. ix, 2, 6, 7. So the prophet says, "The inhabitants 8hall not say they are sick, the people shall be forgiven their iniquity," Isa. xxxiii, 24. Hence it is evident there is no foundation for extreme unct?ioo, which i8 administered for the purgation of sins, when the persons concerned seem to be past reco* very. For how can they gather a sacrament of e?trzm? unction from an unction which is not extreme; or a perpetual ordinance from one that was extraordinary and miraculous, and that has long since ceased ? How can they prove that which was proper to dying persons from a rite used only upon persons who were not to die, but to be raised up from sickness ? Or promise to him forgiveness of sins to whom they cannot promise that recovery which was the token of it ? (6.) That the anoiming recommended by St. James cannot be such as the Romish Church proscribes, is evident from the following con- siderations: 1. St. James instructs the sick person .to be anointed in reference to his cure; but they anoint him while iu the agonies of death, when there is no prospect of recovery, and they never adminis- ter this unction while there is any hope of life. 2. The apostle orders this anointing for the cure of the bod?/; but they apply it principally for the cure of the soul, concerning which St. James gives no direc* tiens: and what is said of the forgiveness of sins is to be referred to faith and prayer, and not to anointi?g; for these are often the means of restoring lost health, and of preventing premature death, when all natural means have failed. 3. The anointing which St. James recom- mends was only applied in some cases, perhaps very few; but the Church of Rome uses it in all cases, therefore St. James' unction and extreme unction are very different. (7.) From the foregoing it is evident, that the anointing of the sick with oil, and the praying for their recovery, were not appointed as a per- manent office in the church, which every priest may perform, and every professing Christian who is sick may demand. These rites were peculiar to the first ages, being appointed not for the procuring pardon of sin to the sick; but for a miraculous recovery from some mortal disease which had been inflicted on them as the temporal punishment of their sins; and no person could minister these rites with efficacy, except those who had the gift of healing diseases miraculously. The ?lirections, therefore, which the apostles have given concerning these rites, were not intended for the instruction of the minisiota of religion in every age, but merely to teach those who in the first ages were en- dowed with the gift of healing diseases miraculously. 5. There exists an extraordinary discrepanc? between the Romish and the Scriptural accounts of anointing the sick. Not inferring , however, that they are similar institutions, for nothing can be more l
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