Selected quad for the lemma: prayer_n
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A32761
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A discourse concerning unction and washing of feet proving that they be not instituted sacraments or ordinances in the churches by Isaac Chauncy ...
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Chauncy, Isaac, 1632-1712.
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1697
(1697)
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Wing C3747; ESTC R6226
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14,849
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32
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in Faith ver 15. in respect of outward or spiritual Wants ver 14. This Duty is first generally recommended as a great and special means by way of Duty to betake our selves unto and most suitable to the Day of Affliction as Singing forth God's Praises is most suitable to the Day of prosperous Enlargements 2. That in Cases of greater Distress especially in such of bodily Distempers when we lie under Pains and Languishments of Body and Spirits from which also arise much darkness and disquietments of Heart and Conscience as also from many Temptations of the evil One as to our Spiritual State insomuch that the poor Decumbent saith when those about him press the Duty here exhorted to in general that he should betake himself to Prayer I cannot Pray by reason of my great Pain or by reason of Unbelief c. you must Pray with me and for me Pray one for another v. 16. I confess I have been a sinful unbelieving hypocritical Wretch if God mark Iniquity all this and much more is less than I deserve and I have now many Fears and Doubts lie upon me If he have sinned i. e. Supposing that he labours under distress of Conscience for Sin in general or for any Sin in particular then saith the Apostle in this case call in the best help you can its not said as is suggested by our Author if his Disease be incurable and he be near Death then it s too late but let the Sickness be what it will curable or incurable threatning approaching Death or not in this and such like Distresses send for the Elders of the Church as well as for the Physician which you are ready to do that they may counsel comfort and Pray with and for the poor Patient with this Caution not to neglect the use of lawful and ordinary Medicinal Means Anointing him one Remedy is here specified by a Synechdoche usual in Scripture of a part for the whole for you should not use Medicines as Asa did trusting to the Physician more than to God nor use them in a heathenish manner without a Solemn Application to the God of Health and Sickness the Father of Spirits that casteth down and raiseth up that killeth and maketh alive therefore use your Remedies in the Name of the Lord according to Col. 3.17 In Obedience to for the Honour of and in the Fear of our Lord Jesus Christ waiting patiently on his Will and Pleasure in the use of all spiritual and lawful outward Means for a Blessing upon them The Motives that the Apostle useth to press this Duty N. B. are laid upon the account of Prayer not upon the account of Anointing as the express end of the Patient 's sending for the Elders is to Pray with him Is any of you sick what should he do should he send for the Physician Yes Or use any Physick Yes But let him in the chief place go unto God send for the Elders rather in the first place not in the last when the Case is past Remedy and hopeless as is usual that they may pray with the Decumbent for a Blessing upon means then use the Physician 's Remedies anoint him if he have a Palsie and weak Limbs or if the Case be otherwise give a Vomit a Purge a Cordial c. in the Name of the Lord And this is to use Physick as Christians ought to do and then he saith not send to the Elders to anoint him or to give him Physick though it may be they did and it s very probable but to Pray with him and so Anoint him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Anointing him or applying suitable Remedies in the Name of the Lord. So that the Application of Remedies whether by themselves or others is spoken of but as subordinate Means to be used but not to be depended upon as any way effectual to answer the Decumbents ends without the Blessing of God § 6. Now for the Motives they are annexed to the use of Prayer all along not to the use of Oil I shall but briefly name them 1. The great prevalency of Prayer ordinarily made in Faith to recover a sick Person he lays not the Efficacy upon Oil or the Remedy but saith the Lord being called upon He shall raise him up 2. The prevalency of the Prayer of Faith to bring into the Soul the light of Pardon and Forgiveness and of Spiritual Peace and Comfort 3. Of all means it doth upon Experience prevail most it is most Effectual when performed in Faith with great Fervency and Affection by or for a poor broken-hearted humble and afflicted Believer by the Elders or Brethren ver 16. 4. And lastly He useth the instance of Elias who was so eminently prevailing with God in Prayer for great things of a Temporal Nature on the behalf of others who lay under a Judgment for the reverse of the said Judgment and Salvation from it which prevalency he doth not ascribe to Unction nor seems so much to ascribe to his extraordinary Prophetick Spirit as to the Prayer of Faith therefore fetcheth an Argument there-from to provoke and incite them to Pray for one another or send to the Elders to Pray with such as were in Affliction § 7. The Second Argument to prove that the Apostle had no intent to Ordain any Sacramental Rite or Church Ordinance is this If it had been so he would not have changed the Elementary Ceremony from what Christ had first Ordained to be used after his Resurrection Mark 16.18 where it was Laying on of hands Which Ceremony we read of to be twice used in Recovery of the Sick once in Curing Paul's Blindness by Ananias and another time by Paul in Curing the Father of Publius of a Fever and Bloody Flux Acts 28.8 Now seeing all the Apostles stood by the Elementary Part of Christ's Institution which He Ordained both in Baptism and the Lord's Supper it is not in the least probable that the Apostle James would make any such alteration in a Sacramental Institution nor was led by the Holy Ghost so to do so as to change the Elementary Part from one kind to another from Laying on of Hands to Anointing with Oil. Obj. The Twelve Apostles used Anointing with Oil in miraculous Curing therefore Instituted by Christ Mark 6.13 Ans We find not that that particular Ceremony is there or any where else enjoyned or recommended to them by Christ neither is there ground enough to think that of Laying on of Hands was so Mark 16.18 The words there are a Promise of miraculous Gifts some of which for instance are enumerated as Casting out Devils speaking with new Tongues taking up Serpents without hurt and if they should drink Poison it should not hurt or if they did but lay their Hands on the Sick they should recover Our Author is right in this that the working by extraordinary Gifts was not confined to the use of any one Rite or Ceremony or to some indefinitely for sometimes those miraculous
Rome retains almost all Ordinances only she hath perverted them as she hath perverted this from being an Ordinance of restoring Health and forgiving temporary Guilt of particular Sins to become a Sacrament of Justification and Forgiveness of all Sins and so a Seal of the Covenant of Grace and that not for the Sick but for all dying Persons when past Recovery in which case it should not be used Repl. 1. Though the Church of Rome make an Image of every Ordinance of Christ it cannot be said to retain all Christ's Ordinances and its retaining some argues not that all their Ordinances are Christ's 2. If the Church of Rome use Unction to a sick Person though in articulo mortis how doth she pervert it for there 's nothing in the Text that excludes any sick Person from the use of it And if the said Person may be Prayed with and for why not Anointed too For how many of such as are apprehended to be in a dying condition do recover notwithstanding And how much the rather should Vnction be used to such if one end be for the removal of temporary Guilt that the Decumbent may not depart under it 3. How come Sacraments for Forgiveness of Sins to be of two kinds some for Forgiveness of all Sins and some for Forgiveness of some only Where there is a Sacrament for Forgiveness of all there needs none for Forgiveness of some if Christ in his Wisdom had Ordained so no doubt but He would have Ordained the Repetition of Baptism as Temporary Guilt should be contracted 4. If the Forgiveness here spoken of be Soul-saving from Guilt it must belong to the Covenant of Grace and the Papists must be right in making it a Sacrament of Justification and must be of special use in articulo mortis allowing it to be instituted for the above-said end and purpose 5. Who knows when a sick Person is past Recovery If he be so 1. Is he not to be prayed for and with by the Elders 2. May not he be under Temporary Guilt And is there not need enough of Forgiveness to him in that respect 3. And why should not all means be used for Recovery especially by an Ordinance whilest there 's Life there 's hope 4. It s becoming extream Unction is praeter intentionem Agentis some as is here granted do die and so far the Unction Administred by Protestants must be extream Unction 6. There will need in this case a Directory with a double Catalogue of Diseases to tell in which Unction should be applied and in what Cases not as it may be Queried whether it s to be used in Acute Diseases only or in Chronical also especially such as are known to be incurable for the most part as in Pthisis Gout Stone Dropsie c. And whether if used it may be repeated often while the Patient is long under a lingering languishing condition Whether so often as the Elders pray with the Patient they may anoint Whether if the Physician pronounce the Disease Mortal any Unction at all ought to be applied What should be done in cases of Diliriums and Distractions In case also of Lameness Dumbness Wounds c. there will a hundred Queries arise necessary to be resolved when to Anoint and when not if it may not be used in all Cases of Sickness Ans 2. The Reformed Churches seeing that such a Sacrament could not be and this must needs be a perversion of it did justly reject it as they used it only in rejecting it they went too far as in some other things even denying it to have that use of restoring the Sick as a Seal of the Promise and an indefinite means to convey that Blessing which God in Mercy hath appointed it to be Repl. What is here acknowledged to be done by the Reformed Churches in rejecting Unction as a Sacrament upon all accounts is most Justifiable neither have they gone too far herein nor in laying aside Four more of the Popish pretended Sacraments neither doth it appear by all that hath been said that Unction hath now any Sacramental use in restoring of Health or that any Promise here or in the Scripture is any more of Health than of Food and Raiment c. or hath any Seal annexed to it any more than Promises of outward Good have their respective Seals Neither is there any real Forgiveness of Sin Temporal or Eternal but what belongs to and is bestowed by that Covenant of Grace therefore there can be no Seals of it but what are Seals of that Covenant and if Anointing be a Seal of a Promise that belongs not to the Covenant of Grace it must be a Seal of a Promise made in the Covenant of Works or else quite out of Doors § 4. The Apostle James in this Chapter from ver 7. Exhorting and directing Christians to a holy and exact Conversation in all sorts of external Conditions Prosperity and Adversity the things that he is particular in especially are 1. Patience in Suffering 2. A due Reverence of the Great Name of GOD in our ordinary Conversation ver 12. where he doth not forbid all kind of Swearing but Swearing by any Creature and Swearing in common Discourse according to the Words and Sense of our Lord Jesus Christ Mat. 5.34 3. He shews what Duty is most suitable to an afflicted Condition viz. Prayer to a prosperous Condition Singing of Psalms and insists more largely upon the former of these two viz. betaking our selves to Prayer in Affliction of any sort or kind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth any among you suffer evil It s to be understood of afflictive Evils of any sort and because we are so incident to Sicknesses and bodily Infirmities which do most commonly of all others unfit and indispose us to Pray he exhorts Christians as follows either to send for the Elders of the Church to Pray with the Sick ver 14. or Pray one for another ver 16. Whence the Apostle's direction is 1. General in case of any Affliction to Pray 2. Particular in case of Affliction by Sickness that a Person is indisposed and unfitted to Pray to send for the Elders to pray with him or to get other Christians to pray with him in case Elders be not to be had for the fervent Prayer saith he of any holy Man prevails much And this he saith lest we should think that he laid all the stress of obtaining the sick Man's Benefit upon the Eldership he saith no for a Holy Christians Prayer prevails much for his Brother or Neighbour and in the same way and kind as the Elders both in respect of Healing and Forgiveness ver 16. § 5. Now from the Text it doth appear That the Apostle James intends not an Institution of any Sacramental Ordinance in the Church 1. From the manifest design of the Apostle appearing from the Text and Context which is to recommend to Christians the use of Prayer in the Day of Affliction performed by our selves or others for us