It was said that such expressions of religious faith as those of Dr. Johnson and his namesake were still frequent in the eighteenth century, and still to some extent formal. There is an interesting commentary on this in the will of the Rev2. Philip Doddridge, D.D., the famous writer and divine. His will is dated June 11, 1741, and was proved with a codicil4 on the 31st of December, 1751. “Whereas it is customary on these occasions to begin with recommending the soul into the hands of God thro’ Christ, I do it not in mere5 form but with sincerity6 and joy, esteeming8 it my greatest happiness that I am taught and encouraged to do it by that glorious Gospel, which having most assuredly believed I have spent my life in preaching to others, and esteem7 an infinitely9 [Pg 114] greater treasure than all my little worldly store, or possessions ten thousand times greater than mine.”
In his will dated 13th of May, 1751, and proved in December the same year, another divine, the Rev. Obadiah Hughes, D.D., recommends his soul to God in a peculiarly touching11 dedication12. We cannot but believe in its sincerity and strength. “In the name of God, Amen. I Obadiah Hughes, of Aldermanbury, London, Minister of the Gospel and Doctor in Divinity, (being sensible of the frailty13 and uncertainty14 of life, and reckoning it a duty of very great importance incumbent15 upon every man to set his house in order, as well as his heart, before he dies,) do make this my last will and testament16 in manner following. I recommend my soul into the hands of God, to whom I am humbly17 bold thro’ Jesus Christ to claim a relation as my God and my Father; and though conscious to myself of great unworthiness, yet I hope to be accepted in the beloved Son of God, and for His sake to obtain mercy and pardon and life eternal. This Jesus I have endeavoured to serve in the Gospel, with great sincerity, I trust, tho’ with many infirmities and too much remissness18; with Him I have long ago lodged19 my everlasting20 concerns, and I do now most solemnly in the views and expectation of another world declare that I receive Christ Jesus by faith as my Lord, and repose21 an unshaken confidence in Him as my all-sufficient Saviour22; and [Pg 115] according to the constitution of the Covenant23 of Grace, as a penitent24 returning believing sinner, I hope for Christ’s sake to be made a partaker of an inheritance with the Saints in light, at that awful season when my soul and body shall by death be parted. And in those regions of immortal25 bliss26 I hope with inconceivable joy to meet the departed spirit of my late most dearly beloved wife, which I doubt not has safely reached its heavenly home upon its dislodgment from the body—Lord Jesus Christ, let not this hope leave me ashamed, nor my soul finally miscarry.”
Truly in wills we are delighted with intimacies27 that elsewhere are seldom seen. Here, again, is a familiar touch in one of Dean Cheyney’s many codicils28, already quoted in part: “Hond. Madam, As I have by will given the greatest part of my estate entirely29 unto your disposal (being desirous you should enjoy it and be made as happy as possible whilst in this world), I make no doubt but, if you survive me, you will as well out of regard to justice as my request, immediately after my death make a will, and therein take effectual care of what I here recommend to you.... This I have writ3 in haste to supply the defects of my will now made, in case I die before I make a new one; which I intend in a few months when my affairs will be better settled, if it please God to spare me so long. I have nothing to add but that I shall with my last and earnest prayers commend you to the providence30 of God, hoping that [Pg 116] He will, in such way as He knows best, supply the loss of friends and have you always in His holy keeping, and conduct you in His own appointed time to those happy mansions31 where all tears will be wiped away from your eyes. If you fix your thoughts here, (as you ought,) you will soon learn to despise the world and all its uncertain goods. Have no thought of me, but if any let it be that I am taken out of a very miserable32 life, and wish me not out of that happiness everlasting which through the merits of Christ Jesus I hope to be made partaker of in another world. Adieu! Your dutiful son, Thomas Cheyney. Nov. 3rd, 1724.”
The Dean seems to have lived in constant apprehension33 of death: in April, 1724, he was “labouring under great bodily infirmities which daily call upon me to remember my latter end”; but he lived till 1759, being in that year “of sound mind and not forgetful of my mortality.” Twice in his testamentary papers he commends his soul to God in prayer. “And so I once more commend myself to Thee, O Father of Spirits, professing34 myself to die, however wickedly and unprofitably I have lived, in the Christian35 religion as taught in the Church of England, lamenting36 her divisions and disputes about obscure and unnecessary things, being in peace and charity with all the world.” (1735.) “And first I recommend into Thy hands, Almighty37 and Everlasting God, my immortal soul, beseeching38 Thee in all changes to keep it close unto Thyself, and that I may in the day of Judgment39 find such mercy as I [Pg 117] shall stand in need of through the merits of a blessed Redeemer.” Wills sometimes begin or break out thus in prayer. “Good God direct me in this and all other good things which I shall go about,” cries Phillippa Jones in 1768, and Samuel Gillam in 1787: “O Lord, Thou art great and good, but I am a vile40 sinner; give me all the mercies I stand in need of for time and for eternity41, for the sake of Jesus Christ; and through Him accept all my thankgivings for whatever I have and hope for: To the Father Son and Holy Spirit be eternal glory, Amen.” The Rev. Richard Forster (1728) most humbly commends his soul “into the hand of God the faithful Creator, most earnestly beseeching Him that through the merits and mediation42 of the merciful Redeemer who purchased it by His blood, being purged43 and cleansed44 from all the defilement45 contracted in this miserable and naughty world, the lusts46 of the flesh, or the wiles47 of Satan, and being sanctified by the Holy Ghost, it may be precious in the sight of the glorious Trinity, and be presented without spot in the presence of the Divine Majesty48.”
Of peculiar10 interest, again, are some of the wills of French Protestants in this century. Two may be quoted as differing types, which yet help to illustrate49 one another as well as the times they represent. The first is that of John Lacombe, translated (indifferently) from the French and proved on May 4, 1702. “In the name of the Father of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, Amen. I John Lacombe [Pg 118] underwritten, born in the city of St. Hipolite, ... having settled my house and lived the greatest part of my time in the city of Paris, after having received so many graces and favours from the mercy of God in all the course of my life, and chiefly in this time of affliction and grief for His Church in which so many persons do sigh after the liberty of serving Him purely50 according to the motives51 of their conscience, I render Him my most humble52 actions of grace, and desire that one may know after me that I do bless Him eternally from the profoundest of my heart, for the kindness which He hath done me for conducting me through His providence in this city wherein I find the pureness of His service, and the means to render Him my adorations, in mind and truth according to His word. I am come into it with the five children which it hath pleased God to leave me of a greater number which He had given me. I have still in France Elizabeth Beauchamp my wife, their mother. I hope that God shall grant me grace to see her in this country to end together the few days which remain to us: to live and to die in it in peace and tranquillity53, that is the prayer which I make daily to God. And as I am advanced in years, being in my seventy fifth year, very infirm of body, but of sound mind and understanding by the grace of God, and that the hour of my death is as much uncertain as it is sure, I am upon the watch expecting the time of my going off. I [Pg 119] beg instantly to my God the forgiveness of my sins, and to grant me mercy for the sake and through the merits and intercession of our Lord Jesus Christ, my only Redeemer. I invoke54 all the adorable Trinity, one only God, eternally blessed. And desiring to live and die in the profession of the reformed religion, I pray God when my time shall be come to receive me in His rest.”
The will of Isaac Rigoullott (1720), translated out of Dutch, is more truculent55. “In the Name of God, Amen. Because death is certain and the hour thereof uncertain, after having recommended my body and soul to God by Jesus Christ our Lord through His Holy Spirit, and being come out of France by reason of the persecution56 against our holy Christian religion, forcing us to worship the Bread and Wine as being the flesh and bone of our Lord Jesus Christ, making us to believe in the invocation of Saints, the imaginary fire of Purgatory57, and other falsehoods inspired by the spirit of the Devil, to worship the true God in spirit and in truth as He hath commanded us in His holy word in the Old and New Testament, I Isaac Rigoullott ... give,” &c.
We are sometimes surprised, considering their characters, with the lack of this or that feature in the wills of well-known men; but it would, indeed, have been a surprise and a disappointment if Alexander Cruden, the writer of the famous “Concordance,” had not expressed in his will something, at least, of his doctrinal views and pious58 soul. Written with his own hand, and signed and sealed at Aberdeen, April 10, 1770, [Pg 120] his will thus begins: “In the name of God, Amen. I Alexander Cruden, late a citizen and stationer of London, now living at Aberdeen, being through the goodness of God sound in body and mind, do make and ordain59 this to be my last will and testament. I acknowledge that I am a miserable sinner by nature and life, being descended60 from the first Adam, who by his fall in sinning against God hath involved himself and his posterity61 in sin and misery62. And I desire grace at all times, by a true and saving faith, to look for redemption and salvation63 through the blood and righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ, the second Adam and God Man Mediator64, who by His wonderful incarnation obedience65 and death hath satisfied divine justice, and purchased salvation for all who are enabled truly to believe in this all sufficient and suitable Saviour, and to receive Him as their Prophet Priest and King, and to rest and rely upon Christ and His Righteousness alone for pardon and eternal Salvation. And I desire that my body may be decently buried in the Church yard of Aberdeen, where my pious father and his family are interred66.”
These are elaborate instances of piety67 in the eighteenth century; short and general phrases as “I resign my soul into the hands of my Almighty Creator, in the hopes of a glorious resurrection through the merits and mediation of His blessed Son Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Redeemer, [Pg 121]” contained in the will of John Pybus (1789), are frequently to be found. More uncommon68 is the confession69 of George Baker70 (1770), considering the usual tone of contrition71 and penitence72 in wills. “In the Name of the Eternal and Everlasting God the great Creator and Disposer of all things, Whose divine law has been my study and His sacred paths my supreme73 delight, I George Baker, of the Inner Temple, London, Esquire, do make this my last will and testament.”
In Mrs. Gaskell’s “Sylvia’s Lovers” is the following passage: “Has thee put that I’m in my sound mind and seven senses? Then make the sign of the Trinity, and write ‘In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.’” “Is that the right way o’ beginning a will?” said Coulson, a little startled. “My father and my father’s father, and my husband had it atop of theirs, and I’m noane going for to cease fra’ following after them, for they were godly men, though my husband were o’ t’ episcopal persuasion74.” It would be necessary to remember how largely tradition and custom count, if we were to examine wills carefully and thoroughly75 for the purpose of studying the piety of this or that period of English life. Yet it can be seen how valuable these prefaces are. Elaborate or simple, there is much to learn and mark in them. But it is curious to observe that George Herbert (to leave the eighteenth century for a moment), and William Law, two of the most pious souls of their periods, use very few words in their religious [Pg 122] dedications76. The first says simply: “I George Herbert, recommending my soul and body to Almighty God that made them, do thus dispose of my goods.” William Law, in terms only a little more elaborate, thus begins: “I William Law, of Kings Cliffe, in the County of Northampton, Clerk, being I bless God in good health of body and soundness of mind, do make this my last will and testament in manner and form following, that is to say: Imprimis: I humbly recommend my soul to the mercies of God in Christ Jesus, and my body I commit to the earth to be interred in the Church yard of Kings Cliffe aforesaid, at the discretion77 of my executrix.”
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1
maker
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| n.制造者，制造商 | |
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rev
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| v.发动机旋转，加快速度 | |
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writ
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| n.命令状，书面命令 | |
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codicil
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| n.遗嘱的附录 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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sincerity
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| n.真诚，诚意；真实 | |
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esteem
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| n.尊敬，尊重；vt.尊重，敬重；把…看作 | |
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esteeming
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| v.尊敬( esteem的现在分词 )；敬重；认为；以为 | |
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infinitely
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| adv.无限地，无穷地 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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dedication
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| n.奉献，献身，致力，题献，献辞 | |
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frailty
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| n.脆弱；意志薄弱 | |
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uncertainty
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| n.易变，靠不住，不确知，不确定的事物 | |
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incumbent
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| adj.成为责任的，有义务的；现任的，在职的 | |
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testament
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| n.遗嘱；证明 | |
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humbly
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| adv. 恭顺地，谦卑地 | |
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remissness
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| n.玩忽职守；马虎；怠慢；不小心 | |
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lodged
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| v.存放( lodge的过去式和过去分词 )；暂住；埋入；（权利、权威等）归属 | |
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everlasting
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| adj.永恒的，持久的，无止境的 | |
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repose
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| v.(使)休息；n.安息 | |
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saviour
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| n.拯救者，救星 | |
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covenant
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| n.盟约，契约；v.订盟约 | |
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penitent
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| adj.后悔的；n.后悔者；忏悔者 | |
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immortal
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| adj.不朽的；永生的，不死的；神的 | |
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bliss
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| n.狂喜，福佑，天赐的福 | |
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intimacies
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| 亲密( intimacy的名词复数 )； 密切； 亲昵的言行； 性行为 | |
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codicils
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| n.遗嘱的附件( codicil的名词复数 ) | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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providence
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| n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝 | |
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mansions
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| n.宅第，公馆，大厦( mansion的名词复数 ) | |
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miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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apprehension
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| n.理解，领悟；逮捕，拘捕；忧虑 | |
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professing
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| 声称( profess的现在分词 )； 宣称； 公开表明； 信奉 | |
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Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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lamenting
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| adj.悲伤的，悲哀的v.（为…）哀悼，痛哭，悲伤( lament的现在分词 ) | |
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almighty
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| adj.全能的，万能的；很大的，很强的 | |
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beseeching
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| adj.恳求似的v.恳求，乞求（某事物）( beseech的现在分词 ) | |
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judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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vile
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| adj.卑鄙的，可耻的，邪恶的；坏透的 | |
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eternity
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| n.不朽，来世；永恒，无穷 | |
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mediation
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| n.调解 | |
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purged
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| 清除（政敌等）( purge的过去式和过去分词 )； 涤除（罪恶等）； 净化（心灵、风气等）； 消除（错事等）的不良影响 | |
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cleansed
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| 弄干净，清洗( cleanse的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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defilement
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| n.弄脏，污辱，污秽 | |
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lusts
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| 贪求（lust的第三人称单数形式） | |
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wiles
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| n.（旨在欺骗或吸引人的）诡计，花招；欺骗，欺诈( wile的名词复数 ) | |
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majesty
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| n.雄伟，壮丽，庄严，威严；最高权威，王权 | |
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illustrate
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| v.举例说明，阐明；图解，加插图 | |
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purely
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| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
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motives
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| n.动机，目的( motive的名词复数 ) | |
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52
humble
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| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
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tranquillity
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| n. 平静, 安静 | |
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54
invoke
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| v.求助于(神、法律)；恳求，乞求 | |
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55
truculent
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| adj.野蛮的，粗野的 | |
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56
persecution
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| n. 迫害,烦扰 | |
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purgatory
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| n.炼狱；苦难；adj.净化的，清洗的 | |
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pious
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| adj.虔诚的；道貌岸然的 | |
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ordain
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| vi.颁发命令；vt.命令，授以圣职，注定，任命 | |
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60
descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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posterity
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| n.后裔，子孙，后代 | |
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misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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salvation
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| n.（尤指基督）救世，超度，拯救，解困 | |
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mediator
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| n.调解人，中介人 | |
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obedience
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| n.服从，顺从 | |
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interred
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| v.埋，葬( inter的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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piety
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| n.虔诚，虔敬 | |
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uncommon
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| adj.罕见的，非凡的，不平常的 | |
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confession
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| n.自白，供认，承认 | |
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baker
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| n.面包师 | |
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contrition
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| n.悔罪，痛悔 | |
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penitence
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| n.忏悔，赎罪；悔过 | |
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supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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persuasion
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| n.劝说；说服；持有某种信仰的宗派 | |
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thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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dedications
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| 奉献( dedication的名词复数 )； 献身精神； 教堂的)献堂礼； （书等作品上的）题词 | |
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discretion
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| n.谨慎；随意处理 | |
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