Page:Delineation of Roman Catholicism.djvu/445

 H&P. XI�.] EXTftH. E ufaTm. 4,99 miy subject, by which our faith and practice are to be regulated. The words of the supposed institution of this sacrament axe, in our transla- tion, as follows: "Is any sick among you ? let hir 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 8ave the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed 8ins, they 8hall be f'orgiven him," James v, 14, 15. Here we certainly have cAff and sending for the elders, or priests, as the Douay version has it. We ha'e also, Prafing over tAe sick person, and anointirg Aim witA oil, and ,av/ng/rim, and raising idm up, and lving Ida sins forgiven. Taking these expressions in this detached manner, the Church of Rome would seem to have more foundation for this sacrament than for most of her errors, and yet the arguments deduced from them have no more weight than that used by an intemperate person, who would plead for drunk- enness and its concosnitauta the following passage: "Drink ye, and be drunken, and spuc, and fall, and rise no more," Jer. xxv, 27. (2.) Anointing with oil was a ceremony in common use among the Jews. It was diinely appointed to be applied to persons who were set apart for certain offices, and the application of it was often attended with a change of relation or character. Such examples are furnished in the cases of Saul and Jehu. The sign was a common one among the Jews. This appeared by what the apostles did, when Christ first sent them out to preach the gospel.. Hence, though our Lord only commissioned his disciples to heal the sick, (Matt. x, 8; Luke ix, 2,) yet St. Mark informs us, that they added their usual ceremonies in doing this, for "they anointed many that were sick with oil, and healed them," Mark vi, 13. Accordingly St. James, speaking to the elders of the Jews, bids them use this form in the name of the Lord. (3.) The power of casting ont devils, and healing the sick, and even raising the dead, was continued to the apostles after Christ had gone to heaven; and there were others admitted to a participation, at least, of some of these powers. Persons thus endowed would become, ot course, by the choice of their brethren, elders of churches. (4.) Among the extraordinary gifts bestowed on the preachers of the gospel, or the ru/ers or elders of the churches, was the girl offaltA, as in these words, to another the gift of faltA by the same Spirit, (1 Cot. xii, 9,) that is, by a strong impulse of the Spirit, persuading them that God would enable them to do this or that. Hence faith sometimes signifies the spiritual gifts in general, Rein. xii, 3; and sometimes the gift of working miracles, 1 Cot. xii, 9; xiii, 2; and sometimes the gift of healing diseases miraculously. This seems to be that faith which is styled faith o God, to which is ascribed the power of removing .,/ mountains. The gift of working miracles was called faitA, because they were made in consequence of an impression on the mind per- suading, or producing faith in the mind of the individual, that God would, by him, work this miracle. W.herefore, the prayer offaltA, spoken of by St. James, is a prayer which the elder, moved by the Spirit of God, was to make for the recovery of the sick, in the full persuasion that the Lord would raise him up; for a,.,e, will save, is the same witIt , he ,viii raise him up; and, therefore, unless in the Church of Rome the priest, as often as he administers extreme unc- tion, acts and prays by immediate inspiration, his prayers are not the 1

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