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a crime very unworthy of a philosopher, that of allowing himself to be corrupted by money. It is recorded, that he was condemned by the House of Peers to pay about four hundred thousand livres of our money, and to lose his office. Now the English so reverence his memory, that they will hardly confess that he was guilty. If my opinion were asked, I should make use of a speech which I have heard given to Lord Bolingbroke. Some one, speaking in his presence of the avarice of the Duke of Marlborough, quoted instances of it, for the truth of which he appealed to the testimony of Lord Bolingbroke, who, being of a contrary party, could have mentioned the duke's bad qualities with a good grace. "He was so great a man "answered Lord B. significantly, "I have forgotten his vices." In the like manner, I will confine myself to speaking of that which has gained Chancellor Bacon the esteem of Europe.

The most singular and the best of his works, is that which is at present the least read, and the most useful; I speak of his "Novum Organum Scientiarum." It was the scaffold by means of which experimental philosophy has been built, and now the edifice has been so far raised, the scaffold is no longer useful. Chancellor Bacon did not know nature, but he knew and indicated all the paths which led to her. He despised in good time what was taught by square-capped fools, under the name of philosophy, in houses called colleges; and he did all that depended upon him, whilst these societies, instituted for the acquirement of the perfection of human reason, continued to corrupt it by their quiddities, their horror of a vacuum, their substantial forms, and all those phrases, that ignorance had not only made respectable, but which a ridiculous involvement with religion had rendered sacred.

tacles, gunpowder, &c., had all been pre& viously invented, and a new world had been sought, found, and conquered. Who would not think that these sublime discoveries had been made by great philosophers, and in much more enlightened times than our own? Not at all-it was in times of scholastic barbarity, that these great changes were made on the earth. Chance only has produced almost all these inventions; it is even pretended that what is called chance had a great part in the discovery of America; at least, it has been believed that Christopher Columbus only undertook his voyage on the word of a captain of a ship, whom a tempest had thrown within sight of the Carribee islands. Be that as it may, men knew how to go round the world; they knew how to destroy towns with artificial thunder more terrible than the real; but they knew not the circulation of the blood, the weight of the air, the laws of motion and of light, the number of our planets, &c.—while a man who sustained a thesis on the categories of Aristotle, on the universal á parte rei, or some other folly, was regarded as a prodigy.

The most useful and astonishing inventions are not those which do the most honour to the human mind. It is to a mechanical instinct, possessed by most men, that we owe the greater proportion of the arts, and not to sound philosophy. The discoveries of fire, of the art of making bread, of melting and preparing metals, of building houses, and the invention of the shuttle, are all necessary before printing and the compass, yet all these were discovered by men while still savages. What a prodigious use of the mechanics did the Greeks and Romans make. Yet they believed in their time, that the heavens were of chrystal; and that the stars were little lamps which sometimes fell into the sea: and one of their greatest philosophers, after many researches, discovered that the said stars were flints which had been detached from the

Bacon is the father of experimental philosophy. It is true that, before his time, astonishing secrets had been discovered; the compass, printing, plate-en-earth. graving, oil painting, glass, the art of In a word, before Chancellor Bacon, assisting the sight of aged people by spec- experimental philosophy was not known,

BANISHMENT.

BANISHMENT for a term of years, or for life-a penalty inflicted on delinquents, or on individuals who are wished to be considered as such.

and of all the experiments that have been made since, there is scarcely one which is not indicated in his book. He made several himself. He formed pneumatic machines, by which he divined the elasticity of the air; he has turned out to be Not long ago it was the custom to the discoverer of its gravity. He touched banish from within the limits of the jurisupon it, and the truth was seized by Tor-diction, for petty thefts, forgeries, and ricelli. In a little time after, physical assaults; the result of which was, that experiments suddenly began to be culti-the offender became a great robber, forger, vated in almost all parts of Europe. It was a hidden treasure, which Bacon had suspected, and which all the philosophers, encouraged by his suggestions, endeavoured to dig for. We have seen that he describes, in express terms, the principles of that attraction of which Newton passes for the inventor.

or murderer, in some other jurisdiction. This is like throwing into a neighbour's field the stones that incommode us in our

own.

Those who have written on the laws of nations, have tormented themselves greatly to determine, whether a man who has been banished from his country can justly be said still to belong to that country. It might almost as well be asked whether a gambler, who has been driven away from a gaming table, is still one of the players at that table.

If by the law of nature a man is permitted to choose his country, still more is the man who has lost the rights of a citizen, at liberty to choose himself a new

This precursor of philosophy has also been an elegant writer, an historian, and a wit. His Moral Essays are much esteemed, but they are more instructive than amusing, and not being a satire on human nature, like the Maxims of Rochefoucault, nor of the school of scepticism, like those of Montaigne, they are less read than his greater works. His life of Henry VII. has passed for a master-country. May he bear arms against his piece; but how is it that some persons dare compare so small a work with the history of our illustrious De Thou? In speaking of the famous impostor Perkin, the son of a converted Jew, who, encouraged by the Duchess of Burgundy, so boldly took the name of Richard IV. and disputed the crown with Henry VII., Chancellor Bacon thus expresses himself:-" About this time King Henry was beset by malicious spirits, raised by the magic of the Duchess of Burgundy, who conjured up from hell the shade of Edward IV., to come and torment King Henry. When the Duchess had instructed Perkin, she began to deliberate in which region of heaven this comet should appear, and resolved that it should first illuminate the horizon of Ireland." It seems to me, that De Thou deals but little in this style of bombast, which was formerly mistaken for the sublime, but which is now rightly denominated jargon,

former fellow-citizens? Of this we have a thousand examples. How many French protestants, naturalised in England, Holland, or Germany, have served, not only against France, but against armies in which their relatives, their own brothers, have fought? The Greeks in the armies of the King of Persia fought against the Greeks their old fellow-countrymen. The Swiss in the service of Holland have fired upon the Swiss in the service of France. This is even worse than fighting against those who have banished you; for, after all, drawing the sword in revenge does not seem so bad as drawing it for hire.

BAPTISM.

A Greek word, signifying Immersion.

SECTION I.

We do not speak of baptism as theologians; we are but poor men of letters, who shall never enter the sanctuary.

The Indians plunge, and have from

time immemorial, plunged into the Ganges. Mankind, always guided by their senses, easily imagined that what purified the body likewise purified the soul. In the subterraneous apartments under the Egyptian temples, there were large tubs for the priests and the initiated.

O nimiùm faciles qui tristia crimina caedis Flumineà tolli posse putatis aquà! Old Baudier, when he was eighty, made the following comic translation of these lines:

C'est une drole de maxime,

Qu'une lessive efface un crime.
One can t but think it somewhat droll

Pump-water thus should cleanse a soul.

Every sign being of itself indifferent, God vouchsafed to consecrate this custom amongst the Hebrew people. All foreigners that came to settle in Palestine were baptized: they were called domiciliary proselytes.

They were not forced to receive circumcision, but only to embrace the seven precepts of the Noachides, and to sacrifice to no strange god. The proselytes of justice were circumcised and baptised: the female proselytes were also baptised, quite naked, in the presence of three

men.

The most devout among the Jews went and received baptism from the hands of the prophets most venerated by the people. Hence it was that they flocked to St. John, who baptised in the Jordan.

Jesus Christ himself, who never baptised any one, deigned to receive baptism from St. John. This custom, which had long been an accessory of the Jewish religion, received new dignity, new value from our Saviour, and became the chief rite, the principal seal of Christianity. However, the first fifteen bishops of Jerusalem were Jews. The Christians of Palestine long continued to circumcise. St. John's Christians never received baptism from Christ.

Several other Christian societies applied a cautery to the baptised, with a red-hot iron, being determined to the performance of this extraordinary operation by the words of St. John the Baptist,

related by St. Luke "I baptise yor with water; but he that cometh after me shall baptise you with fire."

This was practised by the Seleucians, the Herminians, and some others. The words "he shall baptise you with fire,” have never been explained. There are several opinions concerning the baptism by fire, which is mentioned by St. Luke and St. Matthew. Perhaps the most likely opinion is, that it was an allusion to the ancient custom of the devotees to the Syrian goddess, who, after plunging into water, imprinted characters on their bodies with a hot iron. With miserable man, all was superstition; but Jesus substituted for these ridiculous superstitions, a sacred ceremony-a divine and efficacious symbol.

In the first ages of Christianity, nothing was more common than to postpone the receiving of baptism until the last agony. Of this the example of the emperor Constantine is a very strong proof. St. Andrew had not been baptised when he was made bishop of Milan. The custom of deferring the use of the sacred bath until the hour of death, was soon abolished.

Baptism of the Dead.

This

The dead also were baptised. is established by the passage of St. Paul to the Corinthians:-"If we rise not again, what shall they do that receive baptism from the dead?" Here is a point of fact. Either the dead themselves were baptised, or baptism was received in their names, as indulgences have since been received for the deliverance of the souls of friends and relatives out of pur{gatory.

St. Epiphanius and St. Chrysostom inform us, that it was a custom in some Christian societies, and principally among the Marcionites, to put a living man under the dead man's bed; he was then asked, if he would be baptised; the living man answered, yes; and the corpse was taken and plunged into a tub of water. {This custom was soon condemned. St. Paul mentions it but he does not con

demn it; on the contrary, he cites it as an

difference between Christian baptism and invincible argument to prove resurrection. ¿ the Greek, Syrian, Egyptian, and Roman

Baptism by Aspersion.

The Greeks always retained baptism by immersion. The Latins, about the close of the eighth century, having extended their religion into Gaul and Germany, and seeing that immersion might be fatal to infants in cold countries, substituted simple aspersion, and thus drew upon themselves frequent anathemas from the Greek church.

ceremonies, was the difference between truth and falsehood. Jesus Christ was the high-priest of the new law.

In the second century, infants began to be baptised: it was natural that the Christians should desire their children, who would have been damned without this sacrament, to be provided with it. It was at length concluded that they must receive it at the expiration of eight days, because that was the period at which, among the Jews, they were circumcised. In the Greek church, this is still the custom.

St. Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, was asked, if those were really baptised who had only had their bodies sprinkled all over. He answers, in his seventy-sixth Such as died in the first week were letter, that several churches did not be- damned, according to the most rigorous lieve the sprinkled to be Christian; that, § Fathers of the Church, But Peter Chryfor his own part, he believes that they are sologos, in the fifth century, imagined so, but that they have infinitely less grace limbo, a sort of mitigated hell, or properly than those who have been thrice dipped, the border, the outskirt of hell, whither according to custom. all infants dying without baptism go, and where the patriarchs remained until Jesus Christ's descent into hell. So that the opinion that Jesus Christ descended into limbo, and not into hell, has since then prevailed.

A person was initiated among the Christians as soon as he was dipped; until then he was only a catechumen. To be initiated, it was necessary to have sponsors, to answer to the Church for the fidelity of the new Christians, and that It was agitated, whether a Christian, the mysteries should not be divulged. in the desarts of Arabia, might be bapHence it was, that in the first ages, thetised with sand; this was answered in Gentiles had, in general, as little knowledge of the Christian mysteries as the Christians had of the mysteries of Isis and the Eleusinian Ceres.

the negative. It was asked if rose-water might be used; it was decided that pure water would be necessary, but that muddy water might be made use of. It is evident that all this discipline depended on the discretion of the first pastors who es

Cyril of Alexandria, in his writing against the Emperor Julian, expresses himself thus-"I would speak of bap-tablished it. tism, but that I fear my words would reach them who are not initiated." At that time there was no worship without its mysteries, its associations, its catechumens, its initiated, and its professed. Each sect required new virtues, and recommended to its penitents & new life❝initium novæ vitæ,"-whence the word initiation. The initiation of Christians, whether male or female, consisted in their being plunged quite naked into a tub of cold water, to which sign was attached the remission of all their sins. But the

The anabaptists, and some other communions out of the pale, have thought that no one should be baptised without a thorough knowledge of the merits of the case. You require, say they, a promise to be of the Christian society; but a child can make no engagement. You give it a sponsor; but this is an abuse of an ancient custom. The precaution was requisite in the first establishment. When strangers, adult men and women, came and presented themselves to be received into the society and share in the alms,

SECTION II.

Baptism, immersion in water, abstersion, purification by water, is of the highest antiquity. To be cleanly, was to be pure before the Gods. No priest ever dared to approach the altar with a soil upon his body. The natural inclination to transfer to the soul that which appertains to the body, led to the belief that

there was need of a guarantee to answer for their fidelity; it was necessary to make sare of them; they swore they would be Jews; but an infant is in a diametrically opposite case. It has often happened that a child baptised by Greeks at Constantinople, has afterwards been circumcised by Turks: a Christian at eight days old, and a Mussulman at thirty years, he has betrayed the oaths of his godfather. This is one reason which the anabap-lustrations and ablutions took away the tists might allege; it would hold good in Turkey, but it has never been admitted in Christian countries, where baptism ensures a citizen's condition. We must conform to the rights and laws of our country.

The Greeks re-baptise such of the Latins as pass from one of our Latin communions to the Greek communion. In the last century, it was the custom for these catechumens to pronounce the following words "I spit upon my father aud my mother, who had me ill baptised." This custom still exists, and will, perhaps, long continue to exist in the pro

vinces.

Notions of rigid Unitarians concerning

Baptism.

stains of the soul as they removed those of the garments, and that washing the body washed the soul also. Hence the aucient custom of bathing in the Ganges, the waters of which were thought to be sacred; hence the lustrations so frequent among every people. The Oriental nations, inhabiting hot countries, were the most religiously attached to these customs.

The Jews were obliged to bathe after any pollution-after touching an unclean animal, touching a corpse, and on many other occasions.

When the Jews received among them a stranger converted to their religion, they baptised, after circumcising him; and if it was a woman, she was simply baptised—that is, dipped in water in the presence of three witnesses. This im"It is evident, to whosoever is willingmersion was reputed to give the persons to reason without prejudice, that baptism is neither a mark of grace conferred, nor a seal of alliance, but simply a mark of profession.

"That baptism is not necessary, neither by necessity of precept, nor by necessity

baptised a new birth, a new life: they became, at once, Jewish and pure. Children born before this baptisin had no share in the inheritance of their brethren, born after them of a regenerated father and mother. So that, with the Jews, to be baptised and to be born again were "That it was not instituted by Christ; the same thing; and this idea has reand that it may be omitted by the Chris-mained attached to baptism down to the tian, without his suffering any inconvenience therefrom.

of means.

"That baptism should be administered neither to children, nor to adults, nor, in general, to any individual whatsoever.

"That baptism might be of service in the early infancy of Christianity, to those who quitted paganism, in order to make their profession of faith public, and give an authentic mark of it: but that now it is absolutely useless and altogether indifferent."

present day. Thus, when John the fore-
runner began to baptise in the Jordan,
he did but follow an immemorial usage.
The priests of the law did not call him
to account for this baptising as for any
thing new; but they accused him of ar-
rogating to himself a right which be-
longed exelusively to them-as Roman
catholic priests would have a right to
complain, if a layman took upon himself
John was doing a lawful
to say mass.
thing, but was doing it unlawfully.

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