SECTION IX.
I am thinking with myself every day, (says one of the philosophers) how many things are dear to me; and after I have considered them as temporary and perishable, I prepare myself, from that very minute, to bear the loss of them without weakness.
CLEANTHES.(14)
Page 301*§. 1. WISE is the man, who prepares both for his own death and the death of his friends; who makes use of the Page 302foresight of troubles, so, as to abate the uneasi∣ness of them, and puts in practice this reso∣lution of the philosopher. I thought of this the morning I married the beautiful and ingenious Miss Spence, (as related in the latter end of my eighth section), and deter∣mined if I lost her, to make the great af∣fliction produce the peaceable fruits of righ∣teousness. The man must feel, in such a case; the christian will submit. Before the end of six months, she died, and I mourned the loss with a degree of sorrow due to so much excellence, endearment and delight. My complaint was bitter, in proportion to the desires of nature. But as nature says, let this cup pass: grace says, let thy will be done. If the flower of all my comfort was gone — the glory departed! yet thy glory is, O man, to do the will of God, and bear the burthen Page 303he lays upon thee. Let nature, grace, and time, do their part, to close the wound, and let not ignorance impeach the wisdom of the most high. The cup which my father hath given me: shall I not drink? I will. I will not quarrel with providence. In short, I resigned, and not long after I had buried this admirable woman, (who died at her seat in Westmoreland,) I went into the world again, to relieve my mind, and try my fortune once more. What happened there, I will report, when I have related the extraordinary case of my wife, Miss Spence, and the four phy∣sicians I had to attend her. It is a very cu∣rious thing.
*§. 2. This young lady was seized with that fatal distemper, called a malignant fever: Something foreign to nature got into her blood, by a cold, and other accidents, it may be, and the luctus or strife to get clear thereof became very great. The effervescence or per∣turbation was very soon so violent as to shew, that it not only endangered, but would quickly subvert the animal fabrick, unless the blood was speedily dispersed, and nature got the victory by an exclusion of the noxious shut∣in particles. The thirst, the dry tongue, the coming causus, were terrible, and gave me too much reason to apprehend this charming Page 304woman would sink under the conflict. To save her, if possible, I sent immediately for a great physician, Dr. Sharp, a man who talked with great fluency of medicine and diseases.
This gentleman told me, the Alkaline was the root of fevers, as well as of other distem∣pers, and therefore, to take off the efferves∣cence of the blood in the ebullitions of it, to incide the viscous humour, to drain the tartarous salts from the kidnies, to allay the preternatural ferment, and to brace up the relaxed tones, he ordered orange and vinegar in whey, and prescribed spirit of sulphur, and vitriol, the cream, chrystals, and vitriolate tartar in other vehicles. If any thing can relieve, it must be plenty of acid. In acidis posita est omni curatio. But these things gave no relief to the sufferer.
I sent then in all haste for Dr. Hough, a man of great reputation, and he differed so much in opinion from Sharp, that he called an acid the chief enemy. It keeps up the luctus or struggle, and if not expelled very quickly, will certainly prove fatal. Our sheet anchor then must be the testacea, in vehicles of mineral water, and accordingly he ordered the absorbent powders to conflict with this acidity, the principal cause of all diseases. Pearl and coral, crab's eyes, and crab's claws, he prescribed in diverse forms; Page 305but they were of no use to the sick woman. She became worse every hour.
Dr. Pym was next called in, a great practiti∣oner, and learned man. His notion of a fever was quite different from the opinions of Sharp and Hough. He maintained that a fever was a poi∣sonous ferment or venom, which seized on the animal spirits: it breaks and smites them; and unless by alexipharmics the spirits can be ena∣bled to gain a victory in a day or two, this ferment will bring on what the Greeks call a synochus, that is, a continual fever. In that state, the venom holds fast the animal spirits, will not let them expand, or disengage them∣selves, and then they grow enraged, and tu∣multuating, are hurried into a state of explo∣sion, and blow up the fabric. Hence the inflammatory fever, according to the diverse indoles of the venom; and when the contagious miasms arrive at their highest degree, the ma∣lignant fever ariseth. The spirits are then knocked down, and the marks of the enemies weapons, the spots, &c. appear. This (the Doctor continued) is the case of your lady, and therefore the thing to be done is, to make the malignant tack about to the mild, and produce an extinction of the ferment, and relief of the symptoms. This I endeavour to do by alexipharmics and vesicatories, and by subduing the poison by the bark and the warmer antidotes. Thus did my Doctor mar∣shal Page 306shal his animal spirits, fight them against the enemy venom, to great disadvantage. If his talk was not romance, it was plain his spirits were routed, and venom was getting the day. His alexipharmics and warm antidotes, were good for nothing. The malady encreased.
This being the case, I sent again in haste for a fourth doctor, a man of greater learn∣ing than the other three, and therefore, in opinion, opposite, and against their manage∣ment of the fever. This great man was Dr. Frost. He was a mechanician, and af∣firmed that, the solid parts of the human body are subjected to the rules of geometry, and the fluids to the hydrostatics; and there∣fore, to keep the machine in right order, that is, in a state of health, an aequilibrium must be maintained, or restored, if destroyed. The balance must not turn to one side or the other. To restore sanity in acute cases, and in chronic too, our business is to prevent the vessels being elevated or deprest beyond the standard of nature: when either happens, the division of the blood is increased, the motion is augmented, and so beget a fever. There cannot be an inordinate elevation of the oily or fiery parts of the blood, till the vessels vibrate above the standard of nature.
In a slight fever, the blood increases but little above the balance; but if more than one day; turns to a synochus, which is but the same Page 307fever augmented beyond the balance of nature. This turns to a putrid synochus, and this to a causus. This is the case of your lady. From an elevated contraction (the Doctor conti∣tinued, to my amazement,) her blood obtains a greater force and motion; hence greater division, hence an increase of quantity and fluidity: and thus from greater division, mo∣tion and quantity increased, arises that heat and thirst, with the other concomitant symp∣toms of her fever; for the blood dividing faster than it can be detached through the perspirastory emunctories of the skin, is the immediate cause of the heart's preternatural beating: And this preternatural division of the blood arises from the additional quantity of obstructed perspirable matter, added to the natural quantity of the blood.
Things being so, (the Doctor went on) and the fever rising by the blood's dividing faster than can be detached by the several emunc∣tories; and this from an elevation of the solids bove the balance, we must then strive to take off the tension of the solids, and subtract the cause. This makes me begin in a manner quite contrary to the other phy∣sicians, and I doubt not but I shall soon get the better of the fury and orgasm, make an al∣teration in the black scabrous tongue, and by according with the modus of nature, throw forth the matter of the disease. I will ena∣ble Page 308nature to extricate herself. I hope to disentangle her from the weight.
Thus did this very learned man enlarge; and while he talked of doing wonders, the dry and parched skin, the black and brushy tongue, the crusty fur upon the teeth, and all the signals of an incendium within, de∣clared her dissolution very near. As the serum diminished fast, and the intestine motion of the crassamentum increased, nature was brought to her last struggles. All the dismal harbin∣gers of a general wreck appeared, to give the by-standers notice of approaching death. She died the ninth day, by the ignorance of four learned Physicians. — Had these Gentlemen confidered the fever no otherwise than as a dis∣ease arising from some unusual ferment, stirred up among the humours of the blood, disturb∣ing both those natural motions and functions of the body, hindering perspiration, and there∣by giving quick and large accession to such parts of the aliment or liquors taken down, as are disposed to ferment; and there is al∣ways a strong disposition that way; for the blood has a three-fold motion,—fluidity, com∣mon to all liquors,—protrusive, from the im∣pulse of the heart and arteries,—and fermen∣tative, that is, a motion throughout of all its parts, which quality is owing to the dissimi∣lar parts of the blood; — for being a com∣pound of various particles, there must be a Page 309colluctation when they occur, and of conse∣quence, a continual fermentation: As this is just and moderate, it is for the good of the animal, and purifies the blood: if it is too much, it tends to a fever; — if it still increa∣ses, it produces the burning causus: Hard is the struggle then, and if nature cannot dis∣pume, even helped by art, the patient has no hazard for life: Hence it is, that we are so subject to fevers, — and that it carries away more people than all the rest of the diseases: Out of every forty-two that have it; twenty-five generally die. It was so in the time of Hippocrates, 430 years before Christ: And so Dr. Sydenham and Dr. Friend found it, in their practice:
But (I say) had my four Doctors consi∣dered the fever as I have plainly stated it, without vainly pretending to be so wise as to know the essential causes of it; and in the beginning of it, before the terrible appear∣ances, the vigil, delirium, subsultus, the dry black tongue, the furred teeth, and the pale, unconcocted urine, had caused a depletion by large bleeding, had opened the pores by a mild sudorific, had then given a vomit, Rad. Ipecacuanha in small sack-whey or chicken-water, and let the sufferer indulge in that thin diluting liquor, an emulsion of the seeds and almonds in barley water, and if the patient required it, a draught of table-beer with a Page 310toast, between whiles; had this been done very soon, there might be relief as quickly; or if the fever still run high, to bleed again, and wash down some proper alexipharmic powder with a proper cordial julap, it is pos∣sible nature would have been able to accom∣plish the work, and health had been again restored. I use the word proper alexiphar∣mic, and proper cordial julap, because the Theriaca and Mithridatium of the shops, which are commonly, almost always ordered as an alexipharmic bole, are rather poisons than use∣ful in a fever; and because the tincture and syrup of saffron, the treacle-water, or any other distilled compound, are not fit cordials in the case; but it should be the conserva lujulae in an emulsion ex sem. fr. cum amygd. in aq. hor∣dei. This is the true alexipharmic,—and the only cordial, to be given in a fever. — But it was the destructive alexipharmics and cordials of the shops they forced down Maria's throat, and this, with the other bad prescriptions and management, killed one of the finest and most excellent women that ever lived.
And now to give the world a better idea of this admirable woman than any descrip∣tion of mine can exhibit, I shall here place a few religious little Pieces, which she writ, while Miss Spence, and which I found among her papers.
MORAL THOUGHTS: Written by Miss SPENCE.
MORALITY.
ABSTRACT, mathematical, or physical truth, may be above the reach of the bulk and community of mankind. They have neither the leisure, nor the necessary helps and advantages to acquire the natural knowledge of arts and sciences. The many calls and importunities of the animal kind, take up the greatest part of their time, thoughts, and labor, so that the more abstract speculations, and experimental disquisitions of philosophy, are placed by providence quite out of their reach, and beyond their sphere of action.
On the contrary, moral truth, right and wrong, good and evil, the doing as we would be done by, and acting towards all men as they really are, and stand related in society; these things are as evident to the understand∣ing, as light and colors are to the eye, and may be called the intellectual, moral sense. Here needs no deep learning, or trouble and ex∣pence of education, but the same truths are as evident, and as much seen and felt by the learned and unlearned, the gentleman and Page 312the ploughman, the savage or wild Indian, as by the best instructed philosopher. The divine perfections shine through all nature, and the goodness and bounty of the Creator to all his creatures, impress the obligation of imitating this wisest and best of Beings upon every man's heart and conscience.
But notwithstanding the maxims of mora∣lity are thus solidly established, and adapted to all capacities; and though every man has a happiness to seek, and a main end to secure, which must be infinitely preferable to any concerns of life, yet here it is we find, that mankind in general have been most lost and bewildered, as if providence had placed their own happiness, and the way to it, more out of their power than any thing else. How this should happen, might seem unaccount∣able at first sight, and yet it can be no'great mystery to any man tolerably acquainted with the world and human nature. It is no diffi∣cult matter to discover the reasons hereof, and it is withal highly useful to give them their due considerarion.
1. The principal cause I take to be the pre∣vailing strength and bias of private, corrupt, animal affection, and desires. Reason is silenced and borne down by brutal appetite and pas∣sion. They resolve to gratify their sensual appetites and desires, and will therefore never taste or try the superior pleasures and enjoy∣ments Page 313of reason and virtue. But such men as these having declared open war against their own reason and conscience, and being resolved at all risks to maintain the combat, must be self-condemned, and cannot plead ignorance, or error of judgment in the case.
2. Another fundamental cause of moral error, is the prejudice and prepossession of a wrong education. False principles and ab∣surd notions of God and religion, wrought early into the tender, unexperienced mind, and there radicated and confirmed from time to time, from youth to riper age, by parents, teachers, our most intimate friends and ac∣quaintance, and such as we have the best opinion of, and confide most in; such causes make such strong impressions, that the grossest errors, thus rivetted and fixed, are with the greatest difficulty ever conquered or cleared off. In this case, men turn out well-grounded believers, and are well-armed against convic∣tion. Circumcision or baptism fixes their religion in their infancy, and their church is as natural to them as their country. Free enquiry is with them an apostasy from the orthodox party, and as the great and sure tryal of their faith and fortitude, they will hear no reasonings about the holy religion they have taken upon trust.
3. Then the few, who have applied them∣selves to the study of morality, have done it Page 314for the most part in a manner confused; and superficial enough: and often so, as even to build upon principles either entirely false, or obscure and uncertain; either foreign to its proper business, or mixt up with gross errors, and absurdities. From whence it comes to pass, that in all languages, the terms of mo∣rality, both in common discourse, and in the writings of the learned, are such as have the most obscure, confused, indetermined, and unfixed ideas, of any other terms whatever; men for the most part despising the things which are plain and ordinary, to run after such as are extraordinary and mysterious; and that they either will not know, or reject even truth itself, unless she brings some charm with her, to raise their curiosity, and gratify their passion for what is marvellous and un∣common.
In sum, the prejudices of the understand∣ing, the illusions of the heart, and the ty∣ranny established in the world with relation to opinions, form a grand obstacle to the se∣rious study of morality; and to the attain∣ment of a more exact knowledge of our duty. Nor is it to be expected that any will very much apply themselves to make discoveries in these matters, whilst the desire of esteem, riches, or power, makes men espouse the well-endowed opinions in fashion, and then seek arguments either to make good Page 315their beauty, or varnish over and cover their deformity.—Whilst the parties of men, cram their tenets down all men's throats, whom they can get into their power, without per∣mitting them to examine their truth and falsehood; and will not let truth have fair play in the world, nor men the liberty to search after it; what improvements can be expected of this kind? What greater light can be hoped for in the moral sciences? The subject part of mankind in most places might, instead thereof, with Egyptian bondage, ex∣pect Egyptian darkness, were not the candle of the Lord set up by himself in men's minds, which it is impossible for the breath of man wholly to extinguish; how much soever the infallible guides of one church, and the or∣thodox rulers of another, may scheme and la∣bour to subject conscience to human jurisdic∣tion, and bring the inward principle and mo∣tive of action within the cognizance of their political theocracy, or theocratic policy.
After all this, is it to be wondered at, that such, whose occupations and distractions of life, or want of genius and outward helps, do not allow them to engage in long and pro∣found meditations, are found to have gene∣rally understandings so short and narrow, and ideas so false or confused, in matters of mo∣rality.
Page 316 And since this is the case of the greatest part of mankind, it has no doubt been always God's will, that they, who had the greatest light, and whom his providence had furnished with the greatest helps, should communicate their knowledge to such, as were not able of themselves to acquire it so easily, or in so great a degree.
RELIGION.
What is Religion? The true, eternal, im∣mutable religion of God and nature, consists, as I opine, in the filial love and fear of God, and the brotherly love of mankind; in the practice of all those moral duties of truth and righteousness, which result from it, under a fiducial trust in, and dependence on God, and the constant sense of his power and presence in all our actions, as the rewarder of good and punisher of bad men. This is the reli∣gion founded in nature and reason, and which must be at all times and every where the same. As this religion was in a great measure lost, and neglected, amidst the general ignorance, superstition, and idolatry of the world, it was the great business and design of revelation to restore it, and set moral truth and reason in its original light, by bringing mankind to Page 317the right use of their reason and understand∣ing in such matters.
After Epicurus and Zeno,* there were no new succeeding schemes of morality, but each man betook himself to that sect, where he found what most suited his own senti∣ments.
In the reign of Augustus, Potamo of Alex∣andria, introduced a manner of philosophising, which was called the Eclectic, because it consisted in collecting from all the tenets of preceding philosophers, such as appeared most reasonable; out of which they formed each man his own system of philosophy.—It ap∣pears from Cicero's works, that he was an Eclectic.
And why should it not be good in religion, as well as in philosophy? I own I am an Eclectic in divinis. And the sum of my religion is, without regard to modes or par∣ties,—so to live to the glory of the Father,—without attachment to the creature,—for the sanctification and happiness of mankind; that when this fleeting scene of sin and sorrow shall vanish, and pass away from sight, the angels of God may give my soul a safe transition to that heavenly happiness, which no thought can lay hold on, and which no art can de∣scribe.
Page 318*The practice of reason and truth is the rule of action to God himself, and the foun∣dation of all true religion. It is the first and highest obligation of all rational beings, and our divine Lord came down from heaven to earth to teach it to mankind. Christ preached a plain doctrine to men, fitted to reform their hearts and lives—intended to make them per∣fect in self-denial, humility, love, goodness, and innocence; and to enoble them, with hearts raised above the world, to worship the Father in spirit and in truth.
But this glorious religion the Romish priests have perverted into a system of mysteries, and staring contradictions, the better to support the worst and most deplorable purposes of temporal wealth, power, pride, malice, and cruelty. In direct opposition to reason and common sense, we must commence generous believers in an ecclesiastical christianity, and confess the symbol of their holy Athanasius, though it be no more, or better, than the ef∣fects of a luxuriant fancy, without likeness and correspondency, in the real nature and reason of things; 17, 4, and 19 are 41, says convocation to his believers, and your reli∣gion, my brethren, is all a tremendous my∣stery: You must adore as such, what the In∣fidels renounce as a contradiction.
Thus shamefully do these priests sink the credibility of our gospel, and impose upon the Page 319silly people, a ball of wax for the religion of Jesus; making them believe contrary to knowledge, and prefer a system that is a lye against the light of nature, and the gospel.
But the chief end, duty, happiness, and highest perfection that man can arrive at, consists, and is found, in a perfect exercise of human reason.
We read in Chronicles,* that Hezekiah be∣gan his good reign with the revival of reli∣gion, which had long suffered by the neg∣lect and profanation, or through the neglect and omission of his predecessors. To this purpose he opened the doors of the house of the Lord, and issued a decree, that all Israel should come to keep the passover, which they had not done of a long time. But as the legal cleansing and purifying, could not be performed by great numbers that did eat the passover, by the appointed time, on account of many things, and particularly the force of long interval and disuse; there∣fore this irregularity employed the devotion of the good king, as the canon of the pass∣over, under the strictest prohibition, and the severest penalty, forbid any one to eat, that did not come with outward and legal purity, No unclean person shall eat of it; and he prayed for the people, saying, The good Lord pardon every one that prepareth his heart to seek God, Page 320the Lord God of their fathers, though he be not cleansed according to the purification of the sanctuary; and the Lord hearkened unto Hezekiah, says the next verse, and healed the people, that is, took off the penalties of the canon, and gave them the benefit of the rite. From hence it follows, that, however defec∣tive we may be in outward rites and cere∣monies of a church, yet inward truth and purity will be accepted in default of outward things. Inward disposition is the substance of religion, and may compound for the want of outward matters; but outward service can never be accepted instead of inward pu∣rification.
And it farther follows, if the outward so∣lemnities of religion cannot be obtained upon lawful terms, (which is the case of many, in respect of Popery and Athanasian worship,) then will the good Lord pardon and be pro∣pitious to those who prepare their heart to seek him, though they be not cleansed ac∣cording to the solemn institution, and ritual purification.
This text is in the vulgar Latin, Dominus bonus propitiabitur cunctis qui in toto corde requirunt Dominum, Deum patrum suorum, et non imputabit eis quod minus sanctificati sunt.—The good Lord will be propitious to all those, who in their whole heart seek the Lord God of their fathers, and will not im∣pute Page 321to them their being less sanctified than they ought.
** Histories in all ages the full of the en∣croachments of the clergy, yet they all omit one of the most successful stratagems to in∣gross money. We are indebted to our sta∣tute-book for informing us of one of the most notorious pieces of priestcraft that ever was practised. Would one believe, that there is a country, and in Europe too, where the clergy gained such an ascendant over the minds of the people, as tamely to suffer the moveable estate of every man who died in∣testate, to be swallowed up by them; yet so prevalent was superstition in our country, that it produced a law preferring the Bishop to the next of kin; and in its extension excluding the children, the wife, and the relations of the deceased, nay the creditor; and giving all to the Bishop per aversionem. Such was the shameful rapacity of the clergy here for ages. Such a monstrous practice was esta∣blished upon this foundation, that the move∣able effects of every deceased person, his own appointment failing, ought to be laid out for promoting the good of his soul; and so the ORDINARY took possession, without deign∣ing to account with any mortal.—This began Page 322temp. Hen. I. when the ORDINARY, for the good of the soul of the deceased, obtained a directing power, and was in the nature of an overseer, and somewhat more. In the time of King John, the ORDINARY drew blood, as Bacon well expresses it*; for tho' the possession was as formerly, yet the divi∣dend must be in the view of the church, and by which means, the dividers were but mere instruments, and the right was vanished into the clouds. But temp. Hen. III. it was settled, the ORDINARY had not only gotten the game, but gorged it. Both right and possession were now become the clergy's: the ORDINARY was to distribute it according to pious uses: and no use so pious as to appoint to himself and his brethren.
The 1st statute that limited the power of the ORDINARY was 13th Ed. I. c. 19. By this the ORDINARY was obliged to satisfy the intestate's death so far as the goods ex∣tended.—And 31st Ed. III. cap. 2. the ac∣tual possession was taken from the ORDINA∣RY, by obliging him to give a deputation to the next and most lawful friends of the in∣testate, for administrating his goods. But this statute proved but a weak check to the avarice of the clergy. Means were fallen upon to elude it, by preferring such of the intestate's relations, who were willing to offer the best terms: this corrupt practice was suf∣fered Page 325in the days of Hen. VIII. when the clergy losing ground, the statute 21 Hen. VIII. was enacted, bearing, "That in case any person die intestate, or the executors re∣fuse to prove the testament, the Ordinary shall grant administration to the widow, or to the next of kin, or to both, taking surety for true administration."
This statute, as it points out the particular persons who are intitled to letters of admini∣stration, without leaving any choice to the Ordinary, was certainly intended to cut him out of all hope of making gain of the effects of persons dying intestate. But the church does not easily quit its hold. Means were fallen upon to elude this law also. Though the possession given by this statute was wrested out of the hands of the Ordinary, yet his preten∣sions subsisted intire, of calling the admini∣strator to account, and obliging him or her to distribute the effects to pious uses. This was an admirable engine in the hands of a churchman for squeezing money. An ad∣ministrator who gave any considerable share to the Bishop, to be laid out by him, with∣out doubt, in pious uses, would not find much difficulty in making his accompt. This rank abuse moved the judges solemnly to resolve, that the Ordinary, after administration granted by him, cannot compel the administrator to make distribution*. And at last, the right Page 324of the next of kin was fully established by statute 22 and 23 Car. II. cap. 10. This. cuts out the Ordinary intirely.
*If I thought the Athanasian creed was a part of the religion of Jesus, I should be indu∣ced to entertain a hard thought of Christianity. I should think it enjoined a slavish submission to the dictates of designing men; and instead of a reasonable service, required us to re∣nounce our understandings, to apostatize from humanity, and degenerate into brutes, by giving up our reason, which alone distin∣guishes us from them. Most unjust charge upon our holy religion! A religion, which enlarges our rational faculties, filling the mind with an astonishing idea of an eternal duration, and thereby giving us a contempt of the mean, transient pleasures of this life, and which we and the brutes enjoy in com∣mon: A religion that requires only the highest degree of reverence towards the MOST HIGH, the most refined purity of heart and mind, and the most noble and diffusive charity to∣wards all mankind: In short, that establishes righteousness upon earth, and intire obedi∣ence to the will of God; that so having put the oyl into our lamp, according to the gospel parable, it may not only measure the course of time, but light us beyond it, to the coming of the bridegroom, and the morning of eternity.
Page 325 But this will not do for the Doctors, they must have established CREDENDA for judg∣ments of all sizes—they must have a formu∣lary of dogmatic theology — an ATHANA∣SIAN JUMBLE, to support the HOLY CHURCH; though their creed burlesques mathematical certainty, and renders their ecclesiastical chri∣stianity inferior to the antient pagan religion. A trinity is the ecclesiastical God; but whether three distinct conscious beings of co-ordinate pow∣er, equal independency, and unorigination, and so THREE proper deities;—or, only three symbols of natural powers—In this the Doctors are not agreed; but the majority are for the THREE proper Deities: this heresy of three Gods we must subscribe to, or the priests will number us with the infidels, and do us all the mischief they can.—Hence it comes to pass, that humanity, sweetness of temper, and moderation, are banished from society; reli∣gion, like a cloak, is made use of to autho∣rise hatred, violence, and injustice; and the christian religion, as the priests have forged it, and shew it off, that is, upon its present foot∣ing, as an establishment, is pernicious to mankind, and ought to go, that the people may be restored again to Christ's religion, and be led to attend to the command of God; which is to believe in the name of his son Je∣sus Christ, and to love one another.
FAITH.
"Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen;" (Heb. xi. 1.) that is, faith is such a firm persuasion as gives, as it were, a substance or present existence to the good things which we hope for, and which are not yet in being, and as engages us to depend upon the truth of unseen things, as really, as upon ocular demonstration.
—"He endured, as seeing him who is in∣visible;" (ver. 27.) that is, Moses as really be∣lieved the being and attributes of the invi∣sible God, as if he had seen him with his eyes; and fully depended upon his conduct and assistance.
The better thing provided for Christians.
"And these all having obtained a good re∣port through faith, received not the promise, God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made per∣fect;" (Heb. xi. 39, 40.) that is,—Though the upright under the law have a good cha∣racter in Scripture, and of consequence were accepted of God upon the account of their faith in the divine power and goodness, yet they received not the promised reward of an∣other life, immediately on their leaving this Page 327world: God provided this better thing for us Christians, that we should be made happy immediately, as soon as we leave this world, that so they might not be made happy in heaven, till Christianity commenced, and Christians should be there received to happi∣ness with them.
Note 1. It is plain from what the Apostle says before, that the thing promised is the better and more enduring substance in heaven.
2. The better thing provided for Christians, cannot be the resurrection from the dead, and the being, after that, received into the hea∣venly Jerusalem; since herein we shall have nothing better than the good people who lived under the law: therefore, better things can only mean our enjoyment of God im∣mediately upon our leaving this world.
It is strange then that Bishop Fell, and Whitby say, the better thing means the Mes∣sias, or the heavenly country to be fully pos∣sessed at the end of the world.
Of the same opinion is Pyle.—He says, our pious ancestors under the law, though in a state of rest and happiness, after death, yet received not the full and complete enjoyment of celestial glory, that being deferred till the last and great dispensation of the Messiah be Page 328past, that so they and sincere Christians, may be all rewarded and crowned together, with the happiness both of body and soul, at the final day of judgment: But if so, tell me Mr. Pyle, where is the better thing provided for us Christians?
3. Besides, if the Apostle may be his own interpreter, the word perfect means the in∣termediate state of good souls in paradise, and not the complete state after the resur∣rection. In the next chapter, he speaks of the spirits of the just made perfect, by which he means undoubtedly the separate souls now in glory.
In a word, the design of the Apostle was to prove that, since God has provided some better thing for us, we appear to be more in his favour; and therefore the argument from their being justified to our being justified by faith, is stronger, that is, such a faith as has an operative influence, by rendering our lives a comment upon the blessed nature of God.
And that this was the meaning of the Apostle in the something better provided for us Christians, appears yet plainer from the consequence drawn by the inspired writer, to wit, that we ought with the greater pati∣ence and courage to endure persecution, since God has provided something better for us Page 329than for them. If the ancient believers held out, who expected but a state of sleep, till the time of the general resurrection: much more should we patiently suffer affliction, and even death itfelf, for the sake of truth, and of the gospel, when we know, that God has promised us something better; to wit, that we shall be conducted to paradise imme∣diately after death, and be there spirits of just men made perfect, and be with Christ, which is far better than either to sleep after death, or to live longer in this world.
Let us lay aside (then) every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set be∣fore us. Let us put away every thing from us, that would hinder us from improving in virtue and goodness; looking to and imitat∣ing Jesus, the leader and captain of the faithful, and an example of spotless virtue and perfect obedience. The love of the world is enmity with God, and to place our affections here, is to vilify that better provision which he has made for us. We are but strangers and pilgrims here. The human state is but a passage, not a place of abode. It is a station of exercise and discipline, and was not designed for the place of enjoyment. That happy country is before us.
AVOIDINGS.
Avoid all indirect arts in the pursuit of a fortune.—All unlawful methods in self-preser∣vation.—And every gratification that militates with reason and benevolence.
The Offices of a Christian.
These are heavenly-mindedness, and con∣tempt of the world, and chusing rather to die than commit a moral evil. Such things, however, are not much esteemed by the generality of Christians: Most people laugh at them, and look upon them as indiscre∣tions; therefore there is but little true chri∣stianity in the world. It has never been my luck to meet with many people that had these three necessary qualifications.—And as for the people, exclusive of their going to church to make a character—or to ogle one another—or out of superstition to perform so much opus operatum, a job of lip-service, which they idly fancy to be religion, they, I mean the great and the small, might as well be Heathens as Christians, for any real chris∣tian purpose they answer, in a strict adher∣ence to the three offices aforementioned. The name of Christian sounds over Europe, and large parts of Asia, Africa, and America:Page 331But if a Christian is what St. Paul defines it, to wit, a man that is heavenly-minded, that contemns the world, and would die ra∣ther than commit a moral evil, then is the number of Christians very small indeed.
The meaning of John vi. 44. No man can come to me, except the Father draw him.
That is,—No one can be a Christian, un∣less his regard for the Deity and natural religion inclines him to receive a more im∣proved scheme of religion.
But Dr. Young, in one of his sermons, ex∣plains this text in the following manner.—No one can live up to the religion of Jesus, and reach Christian perfection, unless the Father enlightens and enables him, by the operative influence of his holy spirit. We can do nothing, in respect of what ought to be done, to be more than nominal Christians, without the inward principle of sanctification.—This I think is mere methodism.
N. B. The excellent Dr. Lardner ex∣pounds the text in the following words:— No man will come to me, and receive my pure, sublime, and spiritual doctrine, unless he have first gained some just apprehensions concerning the general principles of religion. And if a man have some good notions of God, and his perfections, and his will, as Page 332already revealed, he will come unto me. If any man is well disposed: if he has a love of truth, and a desire to advance in virtue, and religious knowledge; he will readily hearken to me, and believe in me. Sermons, Vol. I. p. 303.
Of Baptism, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
What is the meaning of baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost?
It signifies receiving men by baptism to the profession and privileges of that religion, which was taught by the Father, Son, and Spirit, that is, which the Father taught by the Son, in his life-time, and by the Spirit, after his ascension.
Or, to be baptized, is solemnly to profess our resolution to adhere to that holy doctrine, which is the mind and will of God the Fa∣ther, published to the world by his Son, whom he sent from heaven for that purpose, and confirmed by the power of the Holy Ghost.
Note, An able writer, St. Hillary, says (De Trinitate, lib. 2. ad calcem, on Matt. xxviii. 19.) that baptising in the name of the Fa∣ther, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, signifies, — In confession of the author of all Page 333things, and of the only begotten, and of the gift.
Of Christian Idolatry.
What a surprising incident is idolatry in the church of Christ! that after the religion of Jesus had accomplished its glorious design, and subverted idolatry and superstition through∣out the world, it should itself be wounded almost to death, by the enemy it had subdued! This is the case all over the realms of popery. And can they be said to have any true reli∣gion among them, where the theology of Athanasius prevails?
Churchism and Creeds.
I have no very good opinion of creeds. Jesus Christ came with a legatarian power from God, the Supreme Being, to declare his will to mankind; and the great work to be done, (so far as I can find in the gos∣pel,) is, the perfecting our minds in all that is truly excellent; by labouring to excel in all the virtues of the gospel, by loving the whole race of mankind with an universal charity, and striving to add to the satisfaction and happiness of all about us, and with whom we have any connexion.
