# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Juni 1858_S166
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

166 Martin Chemnitz on Extreme Unction.

...death is Christ, our life. He offers himself to us in the word of the
Gospel and imparts himself to us with all his good gifts, and he is not
only received through faith, but also dwells in our hearts, Eph. 3:17.
But the Gospel is not only in the bare promise, but also in those
sacraments to which the promise of grace has been attached by divine
voice and institution. And amid the terrors of death, that application
and sealing of grace which is extended to each individual believer in
the use of the sacrament is exceedingly necessary for the strengthening
of faith. Thus baptism, once received, gives comfort in death itself.
For this is also why some were once baptized for the dead, 1 Cor. 15:29,
and 1 Pet. 1:3-5: He has begotten us again unto a living hope, unto an
incorruptible inheritance reserved in heaven, we who through faith are
kept by the power of God unto salvation. Paul describes in Eph. 6:14ff.
the whole armor of God, that we may withstand the crafty assaults of
the devil on every evil day — namely, truth, righteousness, the Gospel,
faith, salvation, the word of God, prayer and supplication. And in
1 Thess. 5:8-10 he says that the benefit of that armor is that, whether
we wake or sleep, we live together with him. In Phil. 1:19-20 he joins
to this the common prayer of the church.

To this is added also the custom of the ancient church, which reminded
the sick of sin and of God's wrath, comforted them with the word of the
Gospel, and prayed for their salvation; it also set before them the
absolution through the voice of the Gospel and administered it to them,
as well as the communion of the body and blood of Christ; for in this
way, according to Scripture, the promise of grace, the forgiveness of
sins, of salvation, and of eternal life are, through the working of the
Son of God, applied and sealed to each individual believer, for the
support and strengthening of faith against all temptations.

Thus Dionysius of Corinth says, in Eusebius, book 6, chapter 44, that he
had commanded that even in the case of the lapsed, if they asked for it,
those means should be applied to them in dying by which they might
depart this life with good hope. And he names forgiveness, or
absolution, and the communion of the body and blood of Christ.

The Nicene canon says: "As concerning those who are departing, the old
prescribed rule is to be observed, that when anyone is departing, he
shall not be deprived of the necessary and last viaticum. But the
fourth Council of Carthage explains this, saying: If it is thought that
someone is about to die, let him be reconciled by the laying on of
hands, and let the Eucharist be poured into him." The canon of Orange
says that communion was fittingly called the viaticum among those who
are leaving the world.

These means, at the moment of death, have God's command and