תמונות בעמוד
PDF
ePub
[ocr errors]

but barren speculation was not her forte-she was evidently gifted for the consolation of the afflicted-for the restoration of peace and composure to the distracted-she was endowed with a talent of discernment, by which she discovered the wants and temptations of her fellowcreatures and by the same spirit which conferred this gift, she was made the instrument of relieving those wants, and of removing those temptations; and in many cases of restoring persons to health, whose disorders had baffled the ordinary methods of physic

1

She was favoured to attain to that state, wherein no gift or honour could elevate her-nothing could move her to injustice, nor could any misfortune depress her-(Was this person a subject for Plato's ridicule?)-ber state and character (after she had passed forty if not before it,) comprehended the perfections of the apostolic, the christian, and the philosophic life but did all these things secure her from persecution---by no means--her country like that in which I was born, was too generally dark and superstitious-neither her piety, her usefulness, nor her rank which was considerable in the world, could move the monster of persecution with awe or pity---she was cast into prison, and from the confines of the Bastile, her evangelical tenets found their way into most parts of the civilized world---and even the Bastile was an asylum of charity, when compared with the rude insults of a drunken and prejudiced multitude, with which she was frequently molested, while consuming her time, her substance, and her talents, in the service of mankind-she never judged of characters by accidental

1

circumstances, nor external appearances--- Heaven had given her a clue to discover the internal state; the prominent principles and motives of action---and from thence she formed her estimate of the character---it is a little remarkable that (like her divine Lord) she felt tenderness toward the weak and the despised; but toward persons who derived consequence, from a notion of their own righteousness, or from the mistaken opinion of their fellowmortals; her conduct was by no means flattering-she knew that all good in man was a free gift, and that humility, or a due sense of his dependence and demerits, was the best disposition to receive it her message was particularly to the meek and humble, and to those in deep suffering and affliction, so that it might be said in truth, that she was sent to "heal the broken heartedto preach deliverance to the captives, and to set at liberty them that were bruised"—and now, having passed through a sea of affliction and trouble herself, in the arduous and exalted race of serving her neighbour; there is no doubt but she reaps the reward of her active and passive obedience to the divine will; in that eternal union, after which her soul thirsted in the troubles of mortality I shall wind up this conclusion of her character, in the words and exhortation of Mr. Brooke"She had the disadvantages of title and rank, beauty and fortune and the embarrassments of husband, children, and high relations; yet her soul gloriously surmounted all-Reader, be roused by her example, and encouraged by her victory-God is the same God, yesterday to day and for ever-what he gave her, he can bestow upon thee-Go thou and do likewise"

THE INTERNAL EVIDENCE

OF THE

CHRISTIAN Religion infERRED,

PROM THE SUPERIOR EXCELLENCE EXPECTED OF ITS PROFESSORS.

What a singular compliment do infidels pay christianity, in the angelic perfection, that they require of its professors-if they did not take it for granted-or in other words if the Christian religion did not carry with it, internal evidence of its divine origin; why should its pro- . fessors be reproached with the failures of their lives, more than the followers of Mohammed or Confucius→→→→ Infidelity offers many apologies for the principles and practices of these sons of nature, (which I am not at all surprized at, considering them so amusing and gratifying to the senses) but that it should be so inconsistent with itself, as to require the strictest justice, the tenderest compassion, invariable truth, and unsullied chastity, from christian professors, while it labors to prove their religion an imposture, is a paradox not easily solved-In fact I cannot perceive any mode of removing the difficultythat is of reconciling the purity and justice of the christian religion, with a denial of its divine origin; but by admitting that its founder and propagators, were the sublimest philosophers and most heroic men, the world ever saw-and were so extremely attached to the interests of

mankind, or such friends of moral and social order, as to preach up the heavenly origin of their well spun system, in order to obtain for it a more devout reception and observance (as the great conqueror Alexander, gave out that he was the son of Jupiter Ammon, to facilitate his conquest of Asia)—and that these men endured the utmost opposition, and the worst of treatment, in the prosecution of their benevolent design; and at length sealed their doctrines with their blood, from mere motives of philanthropy; with a certainty of reaping no other harvest to themselves, than whippings, revilings, imprisonments and death-and to wind up the whole-that these eminent philosophers, who by birth and education, belonged to that class of the community which many would denominate the rabble; attained to the art of working miracles, or at least succeeded in persuading the spectators, that they restored sight to the blind, soundness to the impotent, and even life to the dead-I apprehend that if characters sprung from the rabble in these modern days, invested with such powers, and practising such precepts as those exhibited in the gospel, that it would make even infidels stare; but when human nature stands forth the advocate of its own inclinations, what absurdities is it not capable of uttering-for who that has the smallest degree of penetration, but must perceive, that the apologies of these philosophers for the gratifying systems of false religion; or for the habits and customs of unenlightened nations, are the efforts of nature to throw off the salutary restraints of Christianity-and that their opposition to the latter, has its origin in those

restraints, and in that "death unto sin, and new birth unto righteousness," which it insists upon, as necessary to qualify man for union with God-and because this is a doctrine that robs man of his glory, and renders him a mere pensioner of heaven, the gospel must be invented by priests and kings, to keep the multitude in awe-that it has this tendency is not denied; but that it is not the production of either kingly or priestly craft, is evident, from its uniform rejection of human glory; and from the requisition of such humility and disinterestedness in its ministers, as robs it of all suspicion of being the offspring of tyranny and fraud.

I have sometimes compared the persons who misapply their abilities, in attacking christianity through the weaknesses of its professors, to the vanguard of the enemy, which not being sufficiently in force to attack the citadel itself; slays without mercy the weak or wandering soldier, that it finds without the walls-These advocates of human nature do not seem to consider, that Christians partake with them of its frailties, and they studiously pass over the virtues of those individuals and communities, whose lives are most conformed to the precepts

*

I should be glad to know what free-thinker's life, is fit to be compared for a moment, in point of utility, with Baxter, Penn, or Wesley's; or what community of Deists has ever appeared, that has rendered such service to the human species, as the Quakers, the Methodists, or the Dunkards of Pennsylvania, an innocent people that resist no evil-that will not even go to law with you for their own property- What occasion had Voltaire to go to the Hottentots to look for quiet simplicity of manners-he could have found it in Pennsylvania, united with neither filth nor stupidity-but with all the active virtues of a busy and useful lifeIs the christian world so destitute of saga

« הקודםהמשך »