assist by a Sacrament there is I am sure nothing in the nature of the thing to hinder but that he may assist by the reception of the Eucharist at the hour of death though it be not a Sacrament proper to the Dying And if this be true there is nothing in the Argument why God must needs have appointed Extreme Vnction for the Dying but that the Number Three ought go round for the pleasing of their Imaginations who are entertained to their liking more with regular Figures and Analogies than with substantial and useful Truth I confess I am not very much concerned to see men take these pretty congruities and make them reasons for what they do themselves provided they will rest there and not make them Rules for what God Almighty does When (h) Arcud ubi supra cap. 3 Simeon Thessalonicensis tells us why in the Greek Church there are Seven Priests to anoint the Sick viz. because of all the Sevens that he could readily think of I am very well content for it being indifferent whether there were Seven Priests or not an indifferent reason I thought would serve the turn one way or other But it is not to be endured to put these petty Arguings upon the Infinite Wisdom of God by obliging him to appoint Sacraments for the sake of fanciful and neat Analogies 2. To make this Analogy hold the Cardinal did not think fit to mention some of the Sacraments of his Church some of those I mean that are for the aiding of us in our progress after Baptism as they hold for in this whole Chapter he mentions none of these but the Eucharist Now with them there are Seven in all i. e. Five between the first and the last from which Five indeed he might well have excepted Holy Matrimony and Holy Orders because according to them these two can never meet to the assistance of the same persons in their progress through the World and because they are not necessary to all But the Sacraments of Confirmation and Penance being added to the Eucharist do certainly make Three for our progress in the Church Nor can I imagin why those two were not remembred but for fear of spoiling the handsomeness of the Analogy and of raising an expectation of more than one Sacrament proper for us in our Egress out of the Militant Church especially since our dangers are said to be then greater and our strength to encounter them less than in the whole course of our life besides The truth is if the Institution of Sacraments must be thought to go by such Congruities as these it would be impossible for men to agree about the number and the use of Sacraments till they all agree in the same Phansies of Congruity And yet nothing in the World seems to have greater variety than Phansy has 3. If there were some colour of Agrument in a handsom Congruity yet in one that is strain'd and forced there is none at all For such is the congruity of being furnish'd with a Sacrament for our going out as we are with a Sacrament for our entring into the Church If the opposition had been natural either Baptism must have received us into the life of this World as Extreme Vnction is intended so secure our passage out of it or Extreme Vnction must send us out of the Church as Baptism does enter us into it No man will say the former nor Bellarmin the latter and therefore he was fain to add the consideration of the Churches Militancy in this life to save himself from the absurdity of making Extreme Vnction the Sacrament of our going out of the Church as Baptism is the Sacrament of our entrance into it But then this spoils the congruity of the opposition for he that is baptized does thereby become a Member of that Church part whereof is in Heaven but he that is anointed with Extreme Vnction does not thereby no not when he dies cease to be a member of that Church part whereof is upon Earth if he dies in the Lord. And therefore it cannot be said that he goes out of the Church by death as he entred into it by Baptism For by death it self he makes a farther progress in it Besides the effect of Baptism is this That thereby we were actually admitted into the Church But is it the effect of Extreme Vnction to pass us out of the Militant Church 'T is the Sacrament of the Dying they say but what effect has it if the sick person happens to recover after anointing Did his anointing assist him in his passage out of this World though he tarried in it still Or is it only a Sacrament that confers the Grace proper to it and is good for its end if there be occasion for it Or a Sacrament by it self that when it happens to do no good will be sure to do no harm It is a dangerous thing to lay any great weight upon these slender congruities And therefore dismissing the Analogy of Extreme Vnction to Baptism and the Eucharist and the congruity of providing a Sacrament for our Egress to answer the Sacraments of Ingress and Progress we have nothing to consider but the single congruity of providing sufficent assistance for the Faithful in so dangerous an hour as the hour of death But to this also I have spoken already and shall now add 1. That we do not in the least doubt but as God is present with his faithful Servants in all conditions of life to deliver them out of Temptation so he will not forsake them in the hour of death nor then suffer them to be tempted above what they are able but we say that this does not infer any the least need or even congruity that he should therefore institute a Sacrament proper for the comfort and assistance of the Dying since if he is pleased upon our Prayer to give the assistance of his Holy Spirit in that case without such a Sacrament our needs in that time of danger are as effectually supplied as if such a Sacrament had been added And therefore Chemnitius did well to say That other guards and defences are not to be sought for the dying than those that are provided for the living viz. the Word of God the remembrance of Baptism and the reception of the Eucharist which are all profitable to the dying And (h) Ubi supra Cap. V. Bellarmin did very ill to answer that at this rate there would be no need of the Eucharist after Baptism For in order to the receiving of Divine Grace we must observe Divine Institutions God was not bound to institute Sacraments for us and I think no man will deny but if he had pleased he could have saved us without them but when he has once instituted them we are bound to observe them if we expect Grace to help us in the time of our need 2. If it were true that a sufficient aid could not be provided in the dangerous hour of death but by
Greek Church is 'T is a Corruption that came into these parts of the World but lately in comparison and as it has no Antiquity so it never had Universality and by the Grace of God we hope it never shall PART III. That the Appeal to Reason in behalf of this pretended Sacrament is altogether vain SECT I. That the pretence to prove any thing to be a Sacrament by mere Reason is an absurd Presumption LAstly It is proved by Reason that Extreme Vnction is a Sacrament And this proof is a Reason taken from Divine Providence which as the Cardinal notes the Council of Trent used before him He argues thus (a) Bell. ubi supra Cap. V. Sect. Accedit ultimo c. Since our Lord instituted Sacraments by which as by Divine Aids we should be assisted in our entrance into the Church and in our Progress in it surely it is by no means to be believed that his Divine Providence has been wanting in our going out and passing from this temporal Militant Church to the other that is Everlasting especially since a man is never in greater want of help and defence than in the Article of Death as the Fathers teach every where c. For then our Adversaries assail us more powerfully because they see their time is short and man himself is never more unfit to make resistance by reason of the greatness of his Pains and Sickness For if this corruptible Body is a burden to the Soul even in its best estate of Health surely in the very Act of Corruption it will be the heaviest weight of all and experience it self shews that the Sick who are dying can hardly so much as lift up their minds to God He had tried the Scripture before he had also tried Antiquity and now at last he comes with an Argument distinct from all Testimony which he calls Reason and which is therefore mere Reason because 't is opposed to all Testimony Now to this Arguing I have two things to say 1. That to pretend the proof of a Sacrament by meer Reason is it self a most unreasonable thing 2. That if this way were allowable yet the Reasoning insinuated by the Council and more distinctly explain'd by the Cardinal is weak and trifling First That to pretend the proof of a Sacrament by mere Reason is a most unreasonable pretence For Sacraments cannot otherwise be proved than by Testimonies of Divine Revelation because they depend upon Institution The Definition of a Sacrament in the Catechism of the Council of Trent is this (b) Catech. ad Paroc part 11. Sect. 1. n. 10. A Sacrament is a thing subject to the Senses which by the INSTITVTION OF GOD has the power both to signifie and to effect Holiness and Righteousness This Definition is (c) De Sacram in genere lib. 1. cap. xi Sect. Quinta definitio c. praised by the Cardinal and that for comprehending in few words those eight Points which himself had shewed before to belong to the nature of a Sacrament (d) Ibid. cap. ix Sect. Tertium est ut hoc c. One of those Points was this that a Sacrament is a voluntary or given Sign depending upon Institution And this he affirmed to be a Point which no one Person contradicts and that the thing loudly speaks it self Now I would know how 't is possible to prove by meer Reason that God has instituted any thing which to institute or not to institute depended upon his own Pleasure Those things indeed which to do or not to do is inconsistent with the Nature of God we may know by mere natural Reason But that such Reason can find out those things of God which depended upon his Will and Pleasure or that Reason should be able to prove them otherwise than by Testimonies of Revelation is a discovery that I believe was never heard of before St. Paul I am sure was quite of another mind (e) 1 Cor. ii 11. For says he what man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of man which is in him Even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God Which Maxim the Apostle used in a Discourse against the Greek Philosophers and therefore could not be thought to support the credit of it by his Authority but to lay it down as a point Point evident to common Reason Since therefore Sacraments properly so called do by the Confession of the Church of Rome stand upon Institution and did depend upon the free Will and Pleasure of God the very pretence to prove Extreme Vnction to be a Sacrament by Reason abstracted from Divine Testimonies must needs be absurd if absurd it be to go about a thing that is impossible to be done even by that mans Principles who pretends to do it especially if those Principles are so clear and evident that no one Person contradicts them But this pretence of the Cardinal might be easily forgiven if it were not as arrogant and presumptuous as 't is absurd For to conclude that in matters depending upon the Pleasure of God he hath done that which seemeth best to our Reason is to suppose that in these things we know what is best no less than God doth that we have weighed all the Conveniences and Inconveniences of either side the Advantages and Disadvantages of every thing that lies before us the Arguments for and the Objections against this or that with the same exactness wherein they are comprehended in his infinite Understanding The Cardinal might as well have said in plain terms God ought to have instituted the Sacrament of Extreme Vnction and therefore he has done it For he tells us (f) Certe nullo modo credendum est defuisse Divinam ejus Providentiam c. That it is by no means to be believed that his Divine Providence has been wanting in our going out of this Militant Church c. If therefore God has not instituted the Sacrament of Extreme Vnction to convey us safely out of this World it is to be believed that he hath been wanting to his Church but it is not to be believed that he hath been wanting because he ought not so to be and therefore he hath instituted that Sacrament Which arguing has not the least appearance of Sense without the help of another Proposition which gives it more than the appearance of Blasphemy That it is by no means to be believed that God is wiser than a Cardinal or a Council Indeed when once the Institutions of God are revealed and testified to us we must not only conclude that they are Wise and Good because they are his but we ought also to take notice of those footsteps of Divine Wisdom and Goodness which are discernable in them And the more that a wise man considers and understands their ends and usefulness the more worthy of their Author he will find them to be But their congruity to our Reason is not the proof of their Divine Institution
since there are very many things which to our finite Understandings would appear as useful and as reasonable but which yet God hath not instituted And therefore unless we knew all those Relations of things to one another which God only knows when we consider the Mysteries of Religion we ought to conclude that he hath appointed what is best for us not so much because of that Wisdom and Goodness which we discern in his Institutions though we are able to discover a great deal as because these Institutions are his I am sure that our Lord instituted two Sacraments for his Church Baptism and the Eucharist I see clearly that as they were accommodated to some Customs of the Jewish Church to which the Gospel was first to be Preached so in all respects that I can think of they are wisely contrived for the Christians of the Gentiles too that they signifie the most important duties and motives of the Gospel and that their signification is easie and obvious that they represent the greatest Grace of God towards sinners in this life and this by very lively and instructing signs that they are framed to quicken a reasonable service of God to excite a wise devotion in the people and to command humble reverence from all that there is nothing wanting in them to admonish us of our great obligations and to give comfort where comfort is due by being pledges to us of that Grace which they signifie if we apply our selves to that Duty which they signifie too Lastly that they are accommodated to our imperfect state who are clothed with this flesh and blood and seem to need therefore some sensible and solemn Mysteries to assist that vital and spiritual part of Religion which begins in the soul and runs through the life But yet that they are not so many as to amuse a Christian with an outward pomp or to be an occasion of diverting him from the inward worship of God or of abating the sense of that pure and undefiled Religion before God which consists in a life of charity and purity There are very many advantages and conveniences which I discern in these two Sacraments now that they are established by the Authority of our Lord Jesus But if there had not been good proof of their Institution I trust in God that all the Reasons of convenience which the wit of man could have brought together should never have carried me to this saucy conclusion Therefore God hath appointed these two Rites to be Sacraments in his Church for the signifying and conveying of his Grace to sinners Even where the appointments of God are evident that wisdom and goodness which I can discover in them is not the proper ground of my assurance that he hath established them for that is no other than the evidence of the Institution Nor can that discovery alone give me the least assurance that in making such provision he hath not been wanting to our needs for the Reason of that assurance is this that it is He it is God I say that hath made such provision for us When it once appears what God hath instituted in order to our Salvation and no more we are to conclude that this is enough in its kind because 't is all that God hath done But for that other kind of arguing that God has been wanting to us in his Institutions if he has not instituted Extreme Vnction and therefore he has instituted it I leave it to those whose conclusions need it very much desiring them to consider what a cause that must be which drives them to such bold reasonings as these are (g) 1 Cor. 11.16 For as St. Paul saith who hath known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him But we have the mind of Christ SECT II. That the Reason brought to prove that Extreme Vnction was fit to be instituted has not so much as any probability BUT secondly If it were an allowable way to conclude a Divine Institution from what appears to us fit to have been Instituted yet the reason of this kind used by Bellarmin and the Council of Trent in behalf of Extreme Vnction has not so much as the face of probability It was rather a just indignation than the need of using many words to make the thing plain that held me so long in the former Answer And it is such another excuse that I must make for insisting at all upon this For if it be in it self absurd and a dishonourable reflection upon Almighty God to pretend to prove Sacraments by meer natural reasonings then how plausible soever those reasonings may seem to be they deserve no other answer than silence and contempt But there is this temptation to say something to 'em if it be but to shew that when men will go about to make themselves as these men in effect have done as wise as God they are so far from speaking wisdom that they do but betray their own folly and weakness I shall therefore shew these two things 1. That the Cardinals reasoning for the Institution of Extreme Vnction from the congruity of the thing is mean and trifling 2. That if this point were to go by such arguing there are much more plausible things to be said against it than he has produced for it His reason from the congruity of the thing in short is this That because we have one Sacrament to assist us in our entrance into the Church and some others in our progress in it therefore 't is not to be believed that God should be so wanting to us as not to add yet another to assist us in going out of this Militant Church because then we have the greatest need of a Sacrament But this reasoning is liable to many troublesome Objections 1. Whereas a Reason to prove that God hath instituted a certain Sacrament because otherwise he had been wanting to us in our need when as such a Reason I say ought to be of the plainest and most convincing kind this is very far from it being founded upon a meer Analogy and that a congruity rather of words than things There is one Sacrament to let us in and others to carry us on and therefore there must be yet another to bring us off This is what the Cardinal calls Reason but in truth it looks more like the wantonness of a Fancy that cannot be quiet without two sets of Things to make a handsome Figure one against another that as there is Entring in and Going on and Passing out on the one side so there may be a Figure of three Kinds of Sacraments to answer those three states on the other If it be said that the force of the Argument lies in the great danger we are in when death is at hand I answer That does by no means imply the need of a proper Sacrament to assist in that danger For if God pleases he can then give sufficient assistance without any Sacrament at all or if he intended to