Jam. V. 16. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
PRAYER and intercession are generally consi- dered as duties : but, if viewed aright, they would rather be regarded as privileges: seeing that they are the means of obtaining- for ourselves and others those blessings which no created Being can bestow. In this point of view, the passage before us, together with the preceding context, affords us the greatest possible encouragement. It is to be regretted, how- ever, that instead of making a due improvement of these gracious declarations, the Papists have made use of them chiefly, if not solely, to advance the temporal interests of their Clergy, at the expence of the eternal welfare of the Laity.
On the direction given to '* pray over a sick per- son, and to anoint him with oil in order to his re^ covery^^' they have founded an ordinance, to be ob- served when a man is absolutely past recovery : and that which was designed of God as emblematic only of a miraculous poiuer, given at that time for the resto- ration of bodily health, they have established as the essential means in all ages of saving the immortal soul.
Again ; Because the saints are encouraged to *' con- fess their faults one to another," with a view to the augmenting of their mutual sympathy, and the di- recting of them in their mutual intercessions '', these deceivers have required the Laity to confess their sins to the Clergy, in order to their obtaining of the forgiveness of them at the hands of God : whereas, according to St. James, there is no such deference due to any particular order of men ; but the confession is
as
" ver. 14, 15. The forgiveness of sin here mentioned refers only to the removal of any particular judgment that had been inflicted on ac- count of sin. See John v. U. & I Cor. xi. 30.
»• ver. 16.