|
[Back | Home | Contents | Next]
The Two Babylons
Alexander Hislop
Chapter IV
Section IV
Extreme Unction
The last office which Popery
performs for living men is to give them "extreme unction," to anoint them in
the name of the Lord, after they have been shriven and absolved, and thus to
prepare them for their last and unseen journey. The pretence for this "unction"
of dying men is professedly taken from a command of James in regard to the
visitation of the sick; but when the passage in question is fairly quoted it
will be seen that such a practice could never have arisen from the apostolic
direction--that it must have come from an entirely different source.
"Is any sick among
you?" says James (v 14,15), "let him call for the elders 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, and the Lord shall RAISE HIM UP."
Now, it is evident that this
prayer and anointing were intended for the recovery of the sick.
Apostolic men, for the laying of the foundations of the Christian Church, were,
by their great King and Head, invested with miraculous powers--powers which
were intended only for a time, and were destined, as the apostles themselves
declared, while exercising them, to "vanish away" (1 Cor 13:8). These
powers were every day exercised by the "elders of the Church," when
James wrote his epistle, and that for healing the bodies of men, even as
our Lord Himself did. The "extreme unction" of Rome, as the very expression
itself declares, is not intended for any such purpose. It is not
intended for healing the sick, or "raising them up"; for it is not on any account to be administered till all hope of recovery is gone, and death is visibly at the very doors. As the object of this
anointing is the very opposite of the Scriptural anointing, it must have come
from a quite different quarter. That quarter is the very same from which the
Papacy has imported so much heathenism, as we have seen already, into its own
foul bosom. From the Chaldean Mysteries, extreme unction has obviously come.
Among the many names of the Babylonian god was the name "Beel-samen," "Lord of
Heaven," which is the name of the sun, but also of course of the sun-god. But
Beel-samen also properly signifies "Lord of Oil," and was evidently intended as
a synonym of the Divine name, "The Messiah." In Herodotus we find a statement
made which this name alone can fully explain. There an individual is
represented as having dreamt that the sun had anointed her father. That the sun
should anoint any one is certainly not an idea that could naturally have
presented itself; but when the name "Beel-samen," "Lord of Heaven," is seen
also to signify "Lord of Oil," it is easy to see how that idea would be
suggested. This also accounts for the fact that the body of the Babylonian
Belus was represented as having been preserved in his sepulchre in Babylon till
the time of Xerxes, floating in oil (CLERICUS, Philosoph. Orient.). And
for the same reason, no doubt, it was that at Rome the "statue of Saturn" was
"made hollow, and filled with oil" (SMITH'S Classical
Dictionary).
The olive branch, which we
have already seen to have been one of the symbols of the Chaldean god, had
evidently the same hieroglyphical meaning; for, as the olive was the oil-tree,
so an olive branch emblematically signified a "son of oil," or an
"anointed one" (Zech 4:12-14). Hence the reason that the Greeks, in
coming before their gods in the attitude of suppliants deprecating their wrath
and entreating their favour, came to the temple on many occasions bearing an
olive branch in their hands. As the olive branch was one of the recognised
symbols of their Messiah, whose great mission it was to make peace between God
and man, so, in bearing this branch of the anointed one, they thereby testified
that in the name of that anointed one they came seeking peace. Now, the
worshippers of this Beel-samen, "Lord of Heaven," and "Lord of Oil," were
anointed in the name of their god. It was not enough that they were anointed
with "spittle"; they were also anointed with "magical ointments" of the most
powerful kind; and these ointments were the means of introducing into their
bodily systems such drugs as tended to excite their imaginations and add to the
power of the magical drinks they received, that they might be prepared for the
visions and revelations that were to be made to them in the Mysteries.
These "unctions," says
Salverte, "were exceedingly frequent in the ancient ceremonies...Before
consulting the oracle of Trophonius, they were rubbed with oil over the whole
body. This preparation certainly concurred to produce the desired vision.
Before being admitted to the Mysteries of the Indian sages, Apollonius and his
companion were rubbed with an oil so powerful that they felt as if bathed
with fire." This was professedly an unction in the name of the "Lord of
Heaven," to fit and prepare them for being admitted in vision into his
awful presence. The very same reason that suggested such an unction before
initiation on this present scene of things, would naturally plead more
powerfully still for a special "unction" when the individual was called,
not in vision, but in reality, to face the "Mystery of mysteries," his personal
introduction into the world unseen and eternal. Thus the Pagan system naturally
developed itself into "extreme unction" (Quarterly Journal of Prophecy,
January, 1853). Its votaries were anointed for their last journey, that
by the double influence of superstition and powerful stimulants introduced into
the frame by the only way in which it might then be possible, their minds might
be fortified at once against the sense of guilt and the assaults of the king of
terrors. From this source, and this alone, there can be no doubt came the
"extreme unction" of the Papacy, which was entirely unknown among Christians
till corruption was far advanced in the Church. *
* Bishop
GIBSON says that it was not known in the Church for a thousand years.
(Preservative against Popery)
[Back | Home | Contents | Next]
|
