Table of Contents
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)