of wood may be used at the time of each anointing, and these must afterwards be burned. As for the wiping off of the anointed organs, the pastorale prescribes-that the minister or priest, after each unction, must wipe the anointed parts with a fresh wad of silk or tow, and deposit them in a clean vessel, and burn them; but if there is no fire ready, the burning is entrusted to the servants. The five unctions of the five senses are alone essential. The anointing of the breast or feet is not essential; so that the Mechlin pastoral directory teaches, that when the five former have been applied, the mind of the priest may be easy, as the sick man has now received the sacrament." (No. 4.)

The form of the sacrament of Extreme Unction is given in the decree of the Council of Florence.

"Is the distinct expression of the sight and the other senses essential? The affirmative answer is probable: hence, if the priest should say whatever thou hast sinned by means of the senses, the sacrament would be doubtful; just as it would be improper to administer baptism in this form: I baptize thee in the name of the most Holy Trinity. The following form, however, will be sufficient, in case of necessity: Through this holy unction, and his own most gracious mercy, may the Lord pardon thee whatsoever thou hast done amiss by sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch." The proper subject for extreme unction is a sick person who has attained to years of discretion, and who has been baptized, and sacramentally absolved.

The effects of this sacrament are-1. Sanctifying grace. 2. Sacramental or actual graces. 3. The wiping off of the remains of sins, and comfort of mind, by exciting in the sick man great confidence in the divine mercy. 4. Remission of sins. 5. Healing of the body. This latter effect is merely secondary, and the impediments to its taking place are- -1. "The indisposition of the recipient. 2. The want of faith or confidence in the recipient. 3. The want of faith in the minister. 4. The too great progress of the disease, so that health could not be restored except by a manifest miracle, and against nature; for although the healing of the body through this sacrament is performed by supernatural efficacy, yet it ought not to be called miraculous, because it is effected by an ordinary and mild operation, in a mode of

operation similar to that of corporeal medicines. 5. The ordinance of divine providence and justice otherwise disposing."

Extreme Unction may be repeated as often as any one falls into a deadly sickness, but not in one and the same danger of death: i. e. the sickness must be at different times. The priest is the proper minister of this sacrament, and is bound under pain of grievous sin to administer it to the sick of his parish.

The sacrament of extreme unction, is an extreme absurdity. The practice of anointing with oil in the Jewish Church, was a common sign by which an extraordinary influence was designated. When Christ first sent out the apostles to preach the gospel, we learn from the divine record, that he gave them power to cast out unclean spirits, and to heal the sick, and this latter faculty was connected with anointing of oil. "They cast out many devils, and anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed them." Mark vi. 13. What connection there was between the anointing and the healing, we cannot pretend to determine; but it was manifestly significant, and was probably intended to illustrate a part of the Jewish ritual. This power was continued to the apostles after the Saviour's ascension; and they had not only received the heavenly unction of the Holy Ghost, but they could impart his influence to others, on whom they laid hands for that purpose; and in this manner, elders of churches were appointed. The Apostle James wrote his epistle to the Christian converts from Judaism, and he informs them that the divine influence, with which some of their nation had been favoured, from the institution of the Jewish Church, was still continued in the overseers of the Church, who were endowed with certain miraculous powers, and that the exercise of these powers, was accompanied by the familiar sign of anointing with oil. This ceremony, to the mind of a Jew, would be important and significant, though it might not be to us. The converts then are exhorted to avail themselves of this extraordinary power, whilst it was continued among them; and are directed to use it in sickness, that they might be healed. The saving of the sick, according to James, evidently means their restoration to health, for it is immediately added, the Lord shall raise him up. Here then is the vast and irreconcileable discrepancy between the ceremony described by the apostle, and the Romish sacrament of extreme unction. The apostolic rite was performed with a view to the restoration or healing of the sick; the popish sacrament is administered to those only who are in danger of

death; and as Peter Dens informs us, with a view to their restoration to health, although in consequence of divers impediments, this latter object is usually not attained. In the apostolic practice, the anointing of oil never failed in connection with the prayer of faith, to raise up the sick. James speaks of sickness in connection with sins, and in the primitive church, such expressions of divine displeasure were not uncommon, as we see from the history of the Church at Corinth; 1 Cor. xi. 30. This power of healing diseases, with which Christ himself uniformly connected the forgiveness of sins, was a fulfilment of the Saviour's promise. "These signs shall follow them that believe: in my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." These miraculous endowments were to be conferred on those that shall believe, not on the apostles alone; they were gifts which belonged to the Church in that age, and were given for her establishment. If the priests have this power, let them show it. They will not taste a poisoned wafer after its consecration, nor will they drink wine in which poison has been mixed, although the ancient promise, upon part of which they have based the sacrament of extreme unction, assures them that believe, that "if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them." If the priests can cast out devils, (and I know any one of them professes to be a match for a whole legion of them, when he is armed with a pot of holy water), and handle serpents, and drink poison without being hurt, and heal the sick by laying hands on them, they may then with propriety, employ the significant sign of the anointing with oil; but if they can not perform these miracles, the ceremony of the unction becomes extreme mummery!

ECCLESIASTICAL BURIAL is to be denied according to the Roman ritual, to the following classes of unhappy human beings. To Pagans, Jews, and all infidels, heretics and their abettors, apostates from the Christian faith and schismatics; and some assert that a strong suspicion of heresy or infidelity, is sufficient to exclude from ecclesiastical burial. Those who have been publicly excominunicated by the greater excommunication; so too such as have been by name interdicted; suicides, unless they have given signs of penitence before death; manifest and public sinners, such as usurers, and those who have notoriously failed to receive the sacraments of confession and communion at Easter, and who have departed without any signs of penitence, as well as persons killed in a duel, and infants which have died without baptism, unless still in the womb of the mother, are all excluded from consecrated ground. Whether Catechumens may be ecclesiastically interred, is a controverted question.

CHAPTER XLII.

TREATISE OF THE SACRAMENT OF ORDERS.

Decree of the Council of Florence for the instruction of the Armenians.

"The sixth sacrament is that of orders, whose matter is that by the delivery of which, the order is conferred; as the priesthood is conferred, by the delivery of the cup with the wine, and of the plate with the bread; the deaconship by giving the book of the gospels; the subdeaconship by the delivery of the empty cup with an empty plate put upon it; and likewise of the rest by the indication of the things pertaining to their peculiar ministries. The form of the priesthood is: Receive the power of offering sacrifice in the church for the living and for the dead in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost; and so of the forms of the other orders as it is contained at length in the Roman Pontifical. The ordinary minister of this sacrament is the Bishop. The effect is an increase of grace, so that the person may be a proper minister.

Canons of the Council of Trent concerning Orders.

1. "Whoever shall say that in the New Testament, there is not a visible and external priesthood: or that there is not any power of consecrating and offering the true body and blood of the Lord, and of remitting and retaining sins: but only the office and naked ministry of preaching the gospel; or that they who do not preach are surely not priests; let him be accursed!

2. "Whoever shall say that besides the peiesthood there are not other orders in the Catholic church, both greater and inferior, by which as by certain steps, the priesthood may be attained; let him be accursed!

3. "Whoever shall say that orders, or sacred ordination, is not truly and properly a sacrament instituted by Christ the Lord; or that it is a certain human invention, devised by men ignorant of ecclesiastical things, or that it is only a certain ceremony of choosing the ministers of the word of God and of the sacraments: let him be accursed!

4. "Whoever shall say that by sacred ordination the Holy Spirit is not given, and that therefore the Bishops say in vain, Receive the Holy Ghost or that by it character is not impressed: or that he who has once been a priest may again become a layman: let him be accursed!

5. "Whoever shall say that the sacred unction which the church uses in holy ordination is not only not required but is contemptible and pernicious; likewise also the other ceremonies of orders; let him be accursed!

6. "Whoever shall say that in the Catholic church there is not a hierarchy instituted by divine appointment, which consists of Bishops, priests, and ministers; let him be accursed!

7. "Whoever shall say that Bishops are not superior to priests, or that they have not the power of confirming and ordaining; or that that which they have is common to them with the priests; or that orders conferred by them without the consent or call of the people or the secular power are null and void; or that they who have been neither duly ordained nor sent by ecclesiastical and canonical power, but come from some other source, are lawful ministers of the word and sacraments; let him be accursed!

8. "Whoever shall say that the Bishops who are appointed by the authority of the Roman Pontiff, are not lawful and true Bishops, but a human invention; let him be accursed!"

CHAPTER XLIII.

TREATISE CONCERNING MARRIAGE.

Decree of the Council of Florence for the instruction of the Armenians.

"The seventh is the sacrament of Marriage, which is a sign of the union of Christ and the Church, according to the Apostle, who says, Eph. v. 32, This is a great sacrament; but I speak in Christ and in the church. The efficient cause of marriage usually is the mutual consent expressed by words, &c. A threefold advantage of marriage is assigned. The first is, receiving and educating children for the worship of God; the second is faith, which the one of the married persons should preserve for the other; the third is the indivisibility of