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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	according_a	church_n	doctrine_n	2,019	5	6.0761	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33210	A discourse concerning the pretended Sacrament of extreme unction with an account of the occasions and beginnings of it in the Western church : in three parts : with a letter to the vindicator of the Bishop of Condom.	Clagett, William, 1646-1688.	1687 (1687)	Wing C4383; ESTC R10964	96,073	154

blotted out by contrition who knows not that it ought to be so vehement pungent and intense that the bitterness of the grief may equal the greatness of the sins But because very few would reach this degree therefore the number of those that could hope for the pardon of their sins this way must have been exceeding small Whence it was necessary that our most merciful Lord should provide for the common Salvation of men by an easier method as he has done with admirable wisdom in delivering to the Church the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven For according to the Doctrine of the Catholick Faith all are to believe and constantly to affirm that whoever is so disposed as to be sorry for the sins he has done and withal to purpose with himself that he will sin no more although he is not affected with that grief which may be sufficient to obtain his pardon yet when he has duly confessed his sins to a Priest all his sins are pardoned and forgiven him by the power of the Keys This is the Doctrine of their Famous Catechism and thus far sufficient care is taken for mortal sins by the Sacrament of Penance that they shall be blotted out upon easie terms if a man does but Grieve and can hold his intention to amend but so long till he receives Absolution Now this Sacrament being (m) Ibid. de Extr. Unct. Sect. 23. to go before Extreme Vnction lest the conscience of some mortal sin should hinder the effect of it the greater sins are therefore all done away not long before the hour of death And then for the (n) Ibid. Sect. 27. lesser sins and (o) Conc. Trid. Sess xiv de Extr. Unct. cap. 2. any sins that remain yet to be expiated and the Reliques of sin they are forgiven and wiped away by Extreme Vnction Now if this be true he must be a very wretch indeed that can desire a milder Gospel than a Gospel which comes so low as to take some grief and a good resolution for the forgiveness of all that is past For who is so bad as not to be sorry at certain times and to intend a new life for the future especially under the fear of death But tho he should afterwards take leave to retain his sins yet the Priest it seems had power to remit them before and he has power to remit them so plentifully at last that no Reliques of sin shall remain behind since the Sacrament of Extreme Vnction is that which compleats and (p) Ibid Doctr de Sacr. Ext. Unct. consummates the Sacrament of Penance And thus 't is left to the choice of their people whether they will live according to that Truth which the Ch. of Rome holds with us or according to those Doctrines which they maintain and we reject to their choice I say for any reason that they have to be afraid of going to Hell if they have but the benefit of the power of the Keys and the virtue of that Churches Sacraments I know indeed that some good things are said by the Council in behalf of reformation of life particularly in the place last cited they say that (q) Ibid. the whole Christian life ought to be a perpetual Penance they meant I hope a state of Amendment But 't is a very unlikely matter that men should be perswaded to a holy life when by those Assurances that the Church has given them they can so easily perswade themselves that they may be saved without it Nor is it very likely that many Confessors should withhold either the saving use of the Keys or the comfort of that use of them from wicked persons when they cannot do it without mending the Doctrine of their Church And if any should be so honest there are yet others to be had together with the word of the Church to warrant the effect of the Sacraments against the word of a single Priest to the contrary Against such abuses as these we not only may but ought to protest if we ought to be concerned for the honour of God and the souls of men that we may warn all those of our own Communion not to fall from their stedfastness and if possible recover those that are led away into these dangerous errors or have been educated in the belief of them SECT V. The Church of England and other Protestant Churches justified in not anointing the Sick at all IF it be laid to our charge that we have no Unction of the Sick we are very sure that whatever Unction of the Sick the Church of Rome can tax us for wanting excepting her own the charge will fall as heavy upon her self We do not anoint the Sick as they did in the Primitive Church because we pretend not to the Supernatural Gift of Healing and they anoint the Sick for this purpose in the Church of Rome no more than we We do not anoint the Sick as they began to do in the Seventh Age when all sick persons were anointed in order to bodily Cures but not to prepare their souls for death No more do they of the Church of Rome We do not anoint neither with Extreme Vnction as they indeed do But the business of this Discourse has been to shew that they ought to do it no more than we But the account we have to give of this matter is very plain and such as will bear us out to any man that asketh us a reason whoever he be For of those Three Unctions there is no colour to charge us with blame in omitting any of them excepting the second which had the Authority of the middle Ages from the Seventh to the Twelfth But that we are under no colour of Obligation to be determined by that Authority is plain to us from these three Considerations That it was neither Primitive nor has at any time been Vniversal nor had they who began it any good reason for what they did but were themselves to blame for beginning it 1. It was not Primitive since by anointing all the Sick for the recovery of their Health the Seventh Age departed from the example of the Six foregoing Ages which are and ought to be of greater Authority than those that followed They had no standing Offices for Unction of the Sick nor knew of any other but that mentioned by St. James when a Miraculous Cure followed The Religion of being anointed for Health by those that had not the Gift of Healing was so unknown a thing to Primitive Antiquity that a Bishop of the Fifth Age wrote to the Pope of Rome about something like it as men use to do of things that had never been heard of before Those fancies of receiving Health by the use of Chrism began but then to stir which afterwards setled into Rules and Offices for anointing all the sick with Oyl for the Curing of their Diseases At first in imitation of the Primitive way not only Priests but all Christians might anoint for

that purpose But at length none but Priests must do it and as Customs that are meerly of human Original do commonly begin with a rude and light draught and in process of time are filled up with artificial and regular Forms so this Innovation which was at first begotten by Questions concerning the use of Chrism in the time of Innocentius grew in two or three Ages more into all its shapes and became a setled mystery But though in respect of us it be indeed an Antient Innovation yet an Innovation it was and a late one too in respect of the truly Primitive Church 2. It was never Vniversally practised for besides the Christians of St. Thomas in East-India who had no use of Oyl at all in their Holy things the Aethiopian Church useth no Unction of the sick tho they have their (r) Ludolf Lib. III. Cap. 6. N. 31. Holy Oyl wherewith they anoint persons to be Baptized and so when the Missionaries from Rome came thither they found these Christians (s) Ibid. Cap. V. N. 44. utterly ignorant of Extreme Vnction which by the way is a good evidence if there were no other that even the Unction which was not Extreme was an Innovation For (t) Ibid. Cap. VI. N. 14 15. no people are more tenacious than they of Antient Customs insomuch that the most Antient Ceremonies of the Old Church that are obsolete elsewhere and now hardly known are seen to continue amongst them so that their Rites being well considered in Baptism the Eucharist Love-Feasts c. one would think he saw a kind of Image of the Primitive Church as we are told in the best account that was ever yet given of the state of that Church 3. They that began this kind of Unction had no good Reason for what they did and it is much easier to defend our selves in refusing to follow that example than them for setting it It may indeed be excused by a Pious intention of seeking Health this way from God and refering it all to him but thus may many other things be excused which yet ought not to be imitated Here was inded the Primitive Rite of Unction used and that also for the same general end for which it was used in the Primitive Church viz. The Raising up of the Sick but it was far from having the same ground and reason because it could be of no effect the Gift of healing being discontinued Which in truth made it look as untowardly as if to recover any one to hearing and speech they had ordered the Priest to put his Finger into the Ears and to touch the Tongue of the Patient because (u) Mark vii our Lord did with such signs recover one that was deaf and had an impediment in his Speech or that when the Priest could not himself go to pray over a sick person he should send him a Handkerchief or an Apron from his Body because (w) Acts xx 12. such things being carried to the sick from the Body of St. Paul their Diseases departed from them For the reason of the thing seems to be much the same in all the three cases It is not very discreet nor for the Honour of Religion to make any shew of a Miracle when none is like to follow nor to use a Religious Rite for healing the Sick which promises extraordinary matters and yet People die as they did before which experience was in all probability the reason of changing the middle Age Vnction into Extreme Vnction they were ashamed and weary of anointing for the Body and so fell to anoint for the Soul The Greek Church indeed still retains that Unction for Health but how unable she is to defend it may be observed from (x) De Extr. U. Lib. V. p. 466 c. Arcudius who brings in Simeon Thessalonicensis pleading against the Unction of the Latins himself doing what he can to defend it against the Greeks The case in short is this That they are both right one against the other as it must needs be when Two notable Antagonists do each of them maintaintain a different error Simeon as well he might condemn'd the Latins for anointing dying persons contrary to St. James Arcudius as well he may does almost laugh at Simeon and his Greeks for their anointing in order to bodily Health as if they thought to make men Immortal and not suffer death to reign amongst them any more Our Church is to be praised for not being led away by a colour of Antiquity to expose her self in this Fashion And it is the glory of a Church that she is able to defend not only the bare lawfulness but the prudence and expedience also of her Constitutions In short the Unction of the middle Ages has neither Authority great enough nor reason good enough to recommend it And the Church of England is therefore by no means to blame for not taking up that Unction when she laid down the other that is incomparably worse SECT VI. An Address to the Laity of the Roman Communion AND now in the Close of all I would fain address my self to the Gentlemen of the Church of Rome in such manner as might incline them to consider what has been said As for those of them that are in Orders it belongs to them particularly to consider it and I have no other application to make to them but that if I have gone upon mistakes they would imploy some charitable hand to shew me where they lye But in the mean time I hope the following Address to the Laity of that Communion will not be thought unreasonable Brethren we are sensible at what disadvantage we endeavour to lay the Truth before you we know that the prejudices which have been infused into you against all that we can say are very great but we would fain hope that they are not invincible What is it I beseech you in those Guides you follow to make you depend altogether upon their Authority What is it in us that should make every thing we say suspected and slighted We do not love to enter into comparison but we can see no good reason for so great a difference If you say that they can teach nothing but truth in delivering the Doctrine of your Church certainly it ought to be a very strong Reason that can support such a perswasion a perswasion that whatsoever they say against us is True in General against a terrible evidence that 't is all False in the Particulars Especially when we produce such Evidence from those Authorities upon which the General perswasion is said to be built i.e. from Scripture and Antiquity For Antiquity many of you at least must rely upon the skill and fidelity of others and for our parts we desire to be trusted but as we deserve We think the clearness of the Testimonies we produce the manner of our citing Authors and the connexion with which we take their periods may induce a prudent person who himself is unacquainted with the Fathers to believe that we are fair Representers of Antiquity For Scripture that indeed is a Rule which you may but will not use for let us produce places of Holy Writ never so many or so clear you refer the Interpretation of them to those Guides against whom they are produced So that still they are believed upon their own Testimony Is it because you take their Skill and Learning to be greater than ours But how can you be sure of that without examining the different appearance which that difference would make in the management of these Controversies Or do you believe us to be Hypocrites and that sincerity is to be met with no where but in the Guides of your Communion We are Ministers of Christ and Stewards of the Mysteries of God no less than they and we know that it is requir'd of Stewards that a man be found faithful Consider us Brethren that neither our Doctrine nor our Conversation in the World carry the marks of Hypocrisy Had we any other Interest to serve but that of Truth we also should contend for Mysteries by which the People get Ease and Liberty and the Priest Power We tax not your Priests of Insincerity nor enquire why they teach certain Doctrines and administer those Sacraments which they do and which we do not administer We leave them to give an account of their ends and motives at the Day of Judgment when the secrets of all Hearts shall be disclosed But for our selves we must needs say That if we were disposed to bend Religion to Worldly Interest we should maintain another part than what we are now concern'd for To make the most of our Orders we are very sure that you ought to depend upon us for forgiveness of your sins while you live and when you are dying and yet not so to be forgiven but that there should be a reckoning of Temporal punishment behind which would make us necessary for you when you are dead Though you still purpose Reformation of Life without performance we would have Sacraments to save you from Hell but a life of strict Piety and Virtue tho' crowned with Extreme Vnction should not excuse you from Purgatory without a farther favour of the Church that should not be easily obtained neither You cannot conclude that we are Insincere but at the same time you must take us for the veryest Fools alive to stand as we do in our own Light and to prefer a Heresie that does us no manner of Service before that Truth which would bring all to depend upon us Think upon this and consider at least that you have no Reason to suspect us of not believing our selves what we profess or of consulting our secular Interest when we intreat you for the love of God and for the sake of your own Souls to weigh impartially what we say which if you would do we doubt not in the least but you would find our Cause to be as good as our meaning Only let not prejudice extinguish the very desire of knowing better things nor an † Pontif Rom. Ordo ad Reconc Apost c. Oath to yield to no manner of Argument prevail against that Obligation to follow God and Truth which all the Oaths in the World can never dissolve THE END