JAMES.

JAMES i. 1.

Luther rejected the Epistle of St. James as inconsistent with the doctrine of St. Paul, in relation to justification; he also set aside the Apocalypse; both of which are now received as canonical in the Lutheran Church.

See Mosheim and Encyc. Britann.

JAMES ii. 19.

(UNITARIANISM.)

"Thou believest that God is One-thou doest well; the demons* also believe and tremble.”—Unitarian Version.

"The demons-Human ghosts. Mr. Farmer supposes an allusion to Job xxvi. 5, which he renders, the giants, or the ghosts of the dead, tremble under the waters together with their hosts.' He adds, that St. James doth not appear to be delivering any new doctrine concerning demons, but rather to be arguing with the persons to whom he writes it,

on their own principles. Farmer on Demoniacs, p. 211-216.

First edition."

Note to the Unitarian Version.

JAMES ii. 24.

"Works."

(PELAGIUS.)

Pelagius contended, that good works were not merely meritorious, but the only condition of salvation.

The Lampetians asserted, that man ought to perform no action against his free agency, whence all vows were undoubtedly unlawful; in all other respects, this sect professed the doctrines of Arianism. Gregory's Hist. &c.

The Apostolics, (so called from their professing to exhibit in their lives and manners the piety and virtues of the holy Apostles), were a sect of the twelfth century. The chief of their peculiarities holding it unlawful to take an oath."

was,

St. Bernardus, Sermo 65, in Canticum, tom. iv.

This passage is also frequently quoted by the Quakers, as one upon which their practice of declining to take an oath upon any occasion whatever is founded.

Mr. Gurney observes, "that the Greek particle is capable of being rendered not even,' as well as 'nor.' Compare Mark iii. 20."

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Graviter falluntur qui solam a Christo improbari putant consuetudinem jurandi per res alias extra Deum; nam Jacobus, optimus Christi Interpres, ait 'non jurandum, neque per cœlum, neque per terram, neque alia quavis jurandi formula.'

"Imo sensus Christi est, non jurandum; ne quidem per cœlum, per terram, per Hierosolyma, per caput; quod ostendit membrum oppositum, sit autem sermo vester, est, est, non, non.' Grotius."

(See Note on Matt. v. 33.)

No. 1.

JAMES V. 14, 15.

(ROMAN CATHOLICS.)

"Is any sick among you? let him bring in the Priests of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil."

Roman Catholic Version.

The sacrament of extreme unction, to which so much importance is attached by the Church of Rome, derives its origin from these words of St. James.

In the Greek Church the sacrament of the holy oil, or euchelaion, is not confined to persons at the point of death, or dangerously ill, like the extreme unction of the Church of Rome, but is administered, if required, to devout persons upon the slightest malady. This ceremony, or mystery, as they are pleased to call it, is not deemed necessary to salvation; and it is well that it is not; for seven Priests are required to administer it regularly, and it cannot be administered at all by fewer than three. This oil may be consecrated by a Priest; and when consecrated, each Priest, in his turn, takes a twig, and dipping it in the oil, now made holy, anoints the sick person crosswise on the forehead, on the nostrils, on the paps, the mouth, the breast, and both sides of the hands, praying that he may be delivered from the bodily infirmity under which he labours, and be raised up by the grace of Jesus Christ.

This service the Latins consider the same as equivalent to extreme unction; but though the Greek Church reckons it in the number of her mysteries or sacraments, it differs from the Roman sacrament in its not being confined to persons periculose egrotantibus et mortis periculo imminente, and in its adhering more closely to the text on which it is founded, by requiring more Priests than one to administer it.

See la Doctrine Orthodoxe, &c. ou la Theologie Chretienne Abregée, par le trés Rev. Pére Platon (Metropolitan of Moscow,) p. 147.

The ointment for the holy chrism can be consecrated only by a Bishop, and that only once a year, on Thursday in Passion week. The preparation and

consecration of it is likewise confined in Russia to two places; to Moscow for Great Russia, and to Kieff for Little Russia, whence it is distributed to the several churches in each country.

At Moscow, there is a College of the Holy Synod, near the Cathedral Church, on purpose for this preparation, where the vessels and all proper utensils are kept.

See a list of the different ingredients in the composition, which are upwards of twenty, together with the order of preparing it, in Dr. King's Rites and Ceremonies, p. 419, &c.

The ceremony of carrying the Host in procession, to communicate with the sick, appears to have arisen in England at the end of the twelfth century.

Hubert, Archbishop of Canterbury and Legate of Pope Celestine, held a Synod at York, in which he commanded, that when any sick persons were to receive the communion, the Priest should, himself, carry the Host, clothed with his proper garment, and with lights borne before him, suitable to so great a solemnity.

Dr. Jortin ascribes the origin of this ceremony, to the above-mentioned Legate at Cologne, who ordered, that when the sacrament was carried to the sick, the scholar and ringer should go before the Priest, and order the people to worship Jesus Christ in the streets and houses.

See Fortin.