An Abstract of his Faith, and the Principles of his Religion &c., which
begins thus:
Dear Sister; I thank you for putting me in mind to make a declaration of
my faith, and the principles of my religion. I find, as you very well
observe, I have been under some reflections upon that account, and
therefore I think it highly requisite that I set that matter right in the
first place. To begin, therefore, with my faith, in which I intend to be
as short and as comprehensive as I can:
1. I most firmly believe that it was the eternal will of God, and the
result of his infinite wisdom, to create a world, and for the glory of
his majesty to make several sorts of creatures in order and degree one
after another; that is to say, angels, or pure immortal spirits; men,
consisting of immortal spirits and matter, having rational and sensitive
souls; brutes, having mortal and sensitive souls; and mere vegetatives,
such as trees, plants, &c.; and these creatures so made do, as it were,
clasp the higher and lower world together.
2. I believe the holy Scriptures, and everything therein contained, to
be the pure and essential word of God; and that, according to these
sacred writings, man, the lord and prince of the creation, by his
disobedience in Paradise, forfeited his innocence and the dignity of his
nature, and subjected himself and all his posterity to sin and misery.
3. I believe and am fully and entirely satisfied, that God the Father,
out of his infinite goodness and compassion to mankind, was pleased to
send his only Son, the second person in the holy and undivided Trinity,
to meditate for him, and to procure his redemption and eternal salvation.
4. I believe that God the Son, out of his infinite love, and for the
glory of the Deity, was pleased voluntarily and freely to descend from
heaven, and to take our nature upon him, and to lead an exemplary life of
purity, holiness, and perfect obedience, and at last to suffer an
ignominious death upon the cross, for the sins of the whole world, and to
rise again the third day for our justification.
5. I believe that the Holy Ghost out of his infinite goodness was
pleased to undertake the office of sanctifying us with his divine grace,
and thereby assisting us with faith to believe, will to desire, and power
to do all those things that are required of us in this world, in order to
entitle us to the blessings of just men made perfect in the world to
come.
6. I believe that these three persons are of equal power, majesty, and
duration, and that the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost is all one, and that they are equally uncreate, incomprehensible,
eternal, and almighty; and that none is greater or less than the other,
but that every one hath one and the same divine nature and perfections.
These, sister, are the doctrines which have been received and practised
by the best men of every age, from the beginning of the Christian
religion to this day, and it is upon this I ground my faith and hopes of
salvation, not doubting but, if my life and practice have been answerable
to them, that I shall be quickly translated out of this kingdom of
darkness, out of this world of sorrow, vexation and confusion, into that
blessed kingdom, where I shall cease to grieve and to suffer, and shall
be happy to all eternity.
As to my principles in religion, to be as brief as I can, I declare
myself to be a member of Christ's church, which I take to be a universal
society of all Christian people, distributed under lawful governors and
pastors into particular churches, holding communion with each other in
all the essentials of the Christian faith, worship, and discipline; and
among these I look upon the Church of England to be the chief and best
constituted.
The Church of England is doubtless the great bulwark of the ancient
Catholic or Apostolic faith all over the world; a church that has all the
spiritual advantages that the nature of a church is capable of. From the
doctrine and principles of the Church of England, we are taught loyalty
to our prince, fidelity to our country, and justice to all mankind; and
therefore, as I look upon this to be one of the most excellent branches
of the Church Universal, and stands, as it were, between superstition and
hypocrisy, I therefore declare, for the satisfaction of you and your
friends, as I have always lived so I now die, a true and sincere, though
a most unworthy member of it. And as to my discontinuance of my
attendance at the public worship, I refer you to my papers, which I have
left with my worthy friend, Mr. Barlow. And thus, my dear sister, I have
given you a short account of my faith, and the principles of my religion.
I come, in the next place, to lay before you a few meditations and
observations I have at several times collected together, more
particularly those since my retirement to St. Helen's.
Meditations and Observations relating to the Conduct of Human Life in
general.
1. Remember how often you have neglected the great duties of religion
and virtue, and slighted the opportunities that Providence has put into
your hands; and, withal, that you have a set period assigned you for the
management of the affairs of human life; and then reflect seriously that,
unless you resolve immediately to improve the little remains, the whole
must necessarily slip away insensibly, and then you are lost beyond
recovery.
2. Let an unaffected gravity, freedom, justice, and sincerity shine
through all your actions, and let no fancies and chimeras give the least
check to those excellent qualities. This is an easy task, if you will
but suppose everything you do to be your last, and if you can keep your
passions and appetites from crossing your reason. Stand clear of
rashness, and have nothing of insincerity or self-love to infect you.
3. Manage all your thoughts and actions with such prudence and
circumspection as if you were sensible you were just going to step into
the grave. A little thinking will show a man the vanity and uncertainty
of all sublunary things, and enable him to examine maturely the manner of
dying; which, if duly abstracted from the terror of the idea, will appear
nothing more than an unavoidable appendix of life itself, and a pure
natural action.
4. Consider that ill-usage from some sort of people is in a manner
necessary, and therefore do not be disquieted about it, but rather
conclude that you and your enemy are both marching off the stage
together, and that in a little time your very memories will be
extinguished.
5. Among your principal observations upon human life, let it be always
one to take notice what a great deal both of time and ease that man gains
who is not troubled with the spirit of curiosity, who lets his
neighbours' affairs alone, and confines his inspections to himself, and
only takes care of honesty and a good conscience.
6. If you would live at your ease, and as much as possible be free from
the incumbrances of life, manage but a few things at once, and let those,
too, be such as are absolutely necessary. By this rule you will draw the
bulk of your business into a narrow compass, and have the double pleasure
of making your actions good, and few into the bargain.
7. He that torments himself because things do not happen just as he
would have them, is but a sort of ulcer in the world; and he that is
selfish, narrow-souled, and sets up for a separate interest, is a kind of
voluntary outlaw, and disincorporates himself from mankind.
8. Never think anything below you which reason and your own
circumstances require, and never suffer yourself to be deterred by the
ill-grounded notions of censure and reproach; but when honesty and
conscience prompt you to say or do anything, do it boldly; never balk
your resolution or start at the consequence.
9. If a man does me an injury, what is that to me? It is his own
action, and let him account for it. As for me, I am in my proper
station, and only doing the business that Providence has allotted; and
withal, I ought to consider that the best way to revenge, is not to
imitate the injury.
10. When you happen to be ruffled and put out of humour by any cross
accident, retire immediately into your reason, and do not suffer your
passion to overrule you a moment; for the sooner you recover yourself
now, the better you will be able to guard yourself for the future.
11. Do not be like those ill-natured people that, though they do not
love to give a good word to their contemporaries, yet are mighty fond of
their own commendations. This argues a perverse and unjust temper, and
often exposes the authors to scorn and contempt.
12. If any one convinces you of an error, change your opinion and thank
him for it: truth and information are your business, and can never hurt
anybody. On the contrary, he that is proud and stubborn, and wilfully
continues in a mistake, it is he that receives the mischief.
13. Because you see a thing difficult, do not instantly conclude it to
be impossible to master it. Diligence and industry are seldom defeated.
Look, therefore, narrowly into the thing itself, and what you observe
proper and practicable in another, conclude likewise within your own
power.
14. The principal business of human life is run through within the short
compass of twenty-four hours; and when you have taken a deliberate view
of the present age, you have seen as much as if you had begun with the
world, the rest being nothing else but an endless round of the same thing
over and over again.
15. Bring your will to your fate, and suit your mind to your
circumstances. Love your friends and forgive your enemies, and do
justice to all mankind, and you will be secure to make your passage easy,
and enjoy most of the comforts human life is capable to afford you.
16. When you have a mind to entertain yourself in your retirements, let
it be with the good qualifications of your friends and acquaintance.
Think with pleasure and satisfaction upon the honour and bravery of one,
the modesty of another, the generosity of a third, and so on; there being
nothing more pleasant and diverting than the lively images and the
advantages of those we love and converse with.
17. As nothing can deprive you of the privileges of your nature, or
compel you to act counter to your reason, so nothing can happen to you
but what comes from Providence, and consists with the interest of the
universe.
18. Let people's tongues and actions be what they will, your business is
to have honour and honesty in your view. Let them rail, revile, censure,
and condemn, or make you the subject of their scorn and ridicule, what
does it all signify? You have one certain remedy against all their
malice and folly, and that is, to live so that nobody shall believe them.
19. Alas, poor mortals! did we rightly consider our own state and
condition, we should find it would not be long before we have forgot all
the world, and to be even, that all the world will have forgot us
likewise.
20. He that would recommend himself to the public, let him do it by the
candour and modesty of his behaviour, and by a generous indifference to
external advantages. Let him love mankind, and resign to Providence, and
then his works will follow him, and his good actions will praise him in
the gate.
21. When you hear a discourse, let your understanding, as far as
possible, keep pace with it, and lead you forward to those things which
fall most within the compass of your own observations.
22. When vice and treachery shall be rewarded, and virtue and ability
slighted and discountenanced; when ministers of state shall rather fear
man than God, and to screen themselves run into parties and factions;
when noise and clamour, and scandalous reports shall carry everything
before them, it is natural to conclude that a nation in such a state of
infatuation stands upon the brink of destruction, and without the
intervention of some unforeseen accident, must be inevitably ruined.
23. When a prince is guarded by wise and honest men, and when all public
officers are sure to be rewarded if they do well, and punished if they do
evil, the consequence is plain; justice and honesty will flourish, and
men will be always contriving, not for themselves, but for the honour and
interest of their king and country.
24. Wicked men may sometimes go unpunished in this world, but wicked
nations never do; because this world is the only place of punishment of
wicked nations, though not for private and particular persons.
25. An administration that is merely founded upon human policy must be
always subject to human chance; but that which is founded on the divine
wisdom can no more miscarry than the government of heaven. To govern by
parties and factions is the advice of an atheist, and sets up a
government by the spirit of Satan. In such a government the prince can
never be secure under the greatest promises, since, as men's interest
changes, so will their duty and affections likewise.
26. It is a very ancient observation, and a very true one, that people
generally despise where they flatter, and cringe to those they design to
betray; so that truth and ceremony are, and always will be, two distinct
things.
27. When you find your friend in an error, undeceive him with secrecy
and civility, and let him see his oversight first by hints and glances;
and if you cannot convince him, leave him with respect, and lay the fault
upon your own management.
28. When you are under the greatest vexations, then consider that human
life lasts but for a moment; and do not forget but that you are like the
rest of the world, and faulty yourself in many instances; and withal,
remember that anger and impatience often prove more mischievous than the
provocation.
29. Gentleness and good humour are invincible, provided they are without
hypocrisy and design; they disarm the most barbarous and savage tempers,
and make even malice ashamed of itself.
30. In all the actions of life let it be your first and principal care
to guard against anger on the one hand, and flattery on the other, for
they are both unserviceable qualities, and do a great deal of mischief in
the government of human life.
31. When a man turns knave or libertine, and gives way to fear,
jealousy, and fits of the spleen; when his mind complains of his fortune,
and he quits the station in which Providence has placed him, he acts
perfectly counter to humanity, deserts his own nature, and, as it were,
runs away from himself.
32. Be not heavy in business, disturbed in conversation, nor impertinent
in your thoughts. Let your judgment be right, your actions friendly, and
your mind contented; let them curse you, threaten you, or despise you;
let them go on; they can never injure your reason or your virtue, and
then all the rest that they can do to you signifies nothing.
33. The only pleasure of human life is doing the business of the
creation; and which way is that to be compassed very easily? Most
certainly by the practice of general kindness, by rejecting the
importunity of our senses, by distinguishing truth from falsehood, and by
contemplating the works of the Almighty.
34. Be sure to mind that which lies before you, whether it be thought,
word, or action; and never postpone an opportunity, or make virtue wait
for you till to-morrow.
35. Whatever tends neither to the improvement of your reason nor the
benefit of society, think it below you; and when you have done any
considerable service to mankind, do not lessen it by your folly in gaping
after reputation and requital.
36. When you find yourself sleepy in a morning, rouse yourself, and
consider that you are born to business, and that in doing good in your
generation, you answer your character and act like a man; whereas sleep
and idleness do but degrade you, and sink you down to a brute.
37. A mind that has nothing of hope, or fear, or aversion, or desire, to
weaken and disturb it, is the most impregnable security. Hither we may
with safety retire and defy our enemies; and he that sees not this
advantage must be extremely ignorant, and he that forgets it unhappy.
38. Do not disturb yourself about the faults of other people, but let
everybody's crimes be at their own door. Have always this great maxim in
your remembrance, that to play the knave is to rebel against religion;
all sorts of injustice being no less than high treason against Heaven
itself.
39. Do not contemn death, but meet it with a decent and religious
fortitude, and look upon it as one of those things which Providence has
ordered. If you want a cordial to make the apprehensions of dying go
down a little the more easily, consider what sort of world and what sort
of company you will part with. To conclude, do but look seriously into
the world, and there you will see multitudes of people preparing for
funerals, and mourning for their friends and acquaintances; and look out
again a little afterwards, and you will see others doing the very same
thing for them.
40. In short, men are but poor transitory things. To-day they are busy
and harassed with the affairs of human life; and to-morrow life itself is
taken from them, and they are returned to their original dust and ashes.