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cannot dissolve the Communion of Saints, which subsists in our Church, nor prevent an intercourse of kind, and often beneficial offices, between us and our departed friends. Oftentimes we can help them more effectually, in the other world, by our prayers, our sacrifices, and our alms-deeds, than we could in this by any temporary benefits we could bestow upon them. Hence we are instructed to celebrate the obsequies of the dead by all such good works; and, accordingly, our funeral service consists of psalms and prayers, offered up for their repose and eternal felicity. These acts of devotion pious Catholics perform for the deceased, who were near and dear to them, and indeed for the dead in general, every day, but particularly on the respective anniversaries of the deceased. Such benefits, we are assured, will be paid with rich interest, by those souls, when they attain to that bliss, to which we shall have contributed: and if they should not be in a condition to help us, the God of mercy at least will abundantly reward our charity. On the other hand, what a comfort and support must it be to our minds, when our turn comes to descend into the grave, to reflect that we shall continue to live in the constant thoughts and daily devotions of our Catholic relatives and friends!

I am, &c.

J. M.

LETTER XLIV.

To the Rev. ROBERT CLAYTON, M. A.

EXTREME UNCTION.

REVEREND SIR,

THE Council of Trent terms the Sacrament of Extreme Unction, the Consummation of Pen

ance; and, therefore, as Bishop Porteus makes this the subject of a charge against our Church, here is the proper place for me to answer it. His Lordship writes a long chapter upon it, because his business is to gloss over the clear testimony, which the Apostle St. James bears to the reality of this Sacrament: in return, I shall write a short letter in refutation of his chapter, because I have little more to do, than to cite that testimony, as it stands in the New Testament. It is as follows: Is any man sick among you, let him bring in the Priests 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 man; and the Lord shall raise him up: and if he be in sins, they shall be forgiven him, James, v. 14, 15. Here we see all that is requisite, according to the English Protestant Catechism, to constitute a Sacrament: (1) for there is an outward visible sign,' namely the anointing with oil; there is an inward spirit"ual grace, given unto us,' namely the saving of the sick, and the forgiveness of his sins. Lastly, there is the ordination of Christ, as the means by which the same is received;' unless the Bishop chooses to allege, that the Holy Apostle fabricated a Sacrament, or means of grace, without any authority for this purpose from his heavenly Master. What then does his Lordship say, in opposition to this divine warrant for our Sacrament? He says, that the anointing of the sick by Elders or old men, was the appointed method of miraculously curing them in primitive times, which would imply, that no Christian died in those times, except when either oil or old men were not to be met with! He adds, that the forgiveness of the sick man's sins, means the cure of his corporal diseases! (2) And after all this, he boasts of building his religion on mere Scripture, in its

(1) In the Book of Common Prayer

(2 P. 59.

plain, unglossed meaning! (1) In reading this, I own I cannot help revolving in my mind the above-quoted profane parody of Luther, on the first words of Scripture, in which he ridicules the distortion of it by many Protestants of his time. (2) With the same confidence his Lordship adds, 'Our laying aside a ceremony (the anoint'ing) which has long been useless, &c. can be no 'loss, while every thing that is truly valuable in 'St. James's direction is preserved in our office 'for visiting the sick.' (3) Exactly in this manner our friends, the Quakers, undertake to prove that, in laying aside the ceremony of washing catechumens with water, they have preserved every thing that is truly valuable' in the Sacrament of Baptism! (4) But where shall we find an end of the inconsistencies and impieties of deluded Christians, who refuse to hear that Church which Christ has appointed to explain to them the truths of Religion?

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There is not more truth in the Prelate's assertion, that there is no mention of anointing with oil, among the primitive Christians, except in miraculous cures, during the first 600 years: for the celebrated Origen, who was born in the age next to that of the Apostles, after speaking of an humble confession of sins, as a means of obtaining their pardon, adds to it, the anointing with oil, prescribed by St. James. (5). St Chrysostom, who lived in the fourth century, speaking of the power of the priests, in remitting sins, says, they exert it when they are called in to perform the rite, mentioned by St. James, &c. (6) The testimony of Pope Innocent I. in the same age, is so express, as to warrant for this Sacrament, the mat

(1) P. 69.

(2) In principio Deus creavit cœlum et terram: In the beginning the cuckoo devoured the sparrow and its feathers,'

(3) P. 61.

(5) Hom. ii. in Levit,

(4) Barclay's Apology, Prop. 12.
(6) De Sacerd. I. iii.

ter, the minister, and the subjects of it, (1) that though the Bishop alluded to that testimony, he durst not grapple with it, or even quote it. (2) I pass over the irrefragable authorities of St. Cyril of Alexandria, Victor of Antioch, St. Gregory the Great, and our Venerable Bede, in order to recur to that short and convincing proof, which I have already adduced on other contested points, that the Catholic Church has not invented those Sacraments and doctrines in latter ages. Let it then be remembered, that the Nestorians broke off from the communion of the Church in 431, and the Eutychians in 451; that these rival sects exist, in numerous congregations, throughout the East, at the present day; and that they as well as the Greeks, Armenians, &c. maintain, in belief and practice, Extreme Unction, as one of the seven Sacraments. Nothing can so satisfactorily vindicate our Church from the charge of imposition or innovation, in the particulars mentioned, as these facts do. How much more consistently has the impious Friar, Martin Luther acted, in denying, at once, the authority of St. James's Epistle, and condemning it as 'a chaffy composition, and unworthy an Apostle,' (3) than Bp. Porteus and his confederates do, who attempt to explain away the clear proofs of Extreme Unction, contained in it! In the mean time, in spite of every insult offered to the divine institutions, and every uncharitable reflection cast on themselves or their religious practices, pious Catholics will continue to receive, in the time of man's greatest need, that inestimable consolation and grace, which this, and the other helps of their Church, were provided by our Saviour Jesus Christ to impart.

(1) Epist. ad Decent. Eugub.

I am, &c.

(2) P. 61.

J. M.

(B) Straminosa. Prefat. in Ep. Jac. Jena de Captiv. Babyl.

424

LETTER XLV.

To the Rev. ROBERT CLAYTON, M.A.

WHETHER THE POPE BE ANTICHRIST.

REV. SIR,

THERE remains but one more question of doctrine to be discussed between me and your favourite controvertist, Bishop Porteus, which is concerning the character and power of the Pope; and this he compresses into a narrow compass, amongst a variety of miscellaneous matters, in the latter part of his book. However, as it is a doctrine of first-rate importance, against which I make no doubt, but several of your Salopian Society have been early and bitterly prejudiced, I propose to treat it at some length, and in a regular way. To do this, I must begin with the inquiry, whether the Pope be really and truly, The Man of Sin, and the Son of Perdition, described by St. Paul, 2 Thess. ii. 1, 10; in short, the Antichrist spoken of by St. John, 1 John ii. 18, and called by him, A beast with seven heads and ten horns, Revel. xiii. 1, whose See, or Church, is the great harlot, the mother of the fornications and abominations of the earth. Ibid. xvii. 5. I shudder to repeat these blasphemies, and I blush to hear them uttered by my fellow christians and countrymen, who derive their Liturgy, their Ministry, their Christianity, and civilization from the Pope and the Church of Rome; but they have been too generally taught by the learned, and believed by the ignorant, for me to pass them by in silence on this occasion. One of Bishop Porteus's colleagues, Bishop Halifax, speaks of this doctrine concerning the Pope and Rome, as long being the common symbol of Protestantism.' (1) Certain it (1) Sermons by Bishop Halifax, preached at the Lecture founded by the late Bishop Warburton, to prove the apostacy of Papal Rome, p. 27.

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