Several REASONS Proving that Inoculating or Transplanting the Small Pox, is a Lawful Practice, and that it has been Blessed by GOD for the Saving of many a Life.
Thou shalt not kill.
Do I seek to please Men? if I please Men, I should not be a Servant of CHRIST.
It has been Questioned, Whether Inoculating the Small Pox be a Lawful Practice. I incline to the Affirmative, for these Reasons.
1. BEcause I have read, that in Smyrna, Constantinople, and other Places, Thousands of Lives have been saved by Inoculation, and not one of Thousands has miscarried by it. This is related by Wise & Learned Men who would not have imposed on the World a false Narrative. Which also has been published by the Royal Society; therefore a great Regard is due to it.
II. WE hear that several Physicians have Recommended the Practice hereof to His Majesty, as a Means to preserve the Lives of his Subjects, and that His Wise and Excellent Majesty King GEORGE, as also his Royal Highness the Prince have approved hereof, and that it is now coming into practice in the Nation. In one of the Publick Prints are these Words, ‘Inoculating the Small Pox is a safe and universally Useful Experiment.’ Several Worthy Persons lately arrived from England inform us, that it is a successful Practice there: If Wise & Learned Men in England, declare their Approbation of this Practice, for us to declare our Disapprobation will not be for our Honour.
III. GOD has graciously owned the Practice of Inoculation, among us in Boston, where some Scores, yea above an hundred have been Inoculated, & not one miscarried: but they Bless GOD, for His discovering this Experiment to them. It has been objected, that one that was Inoculated, died, viz. Mrs. D—ll: but she had the Small Pox, in the common way before, & her Friends and nearest Relations declare that she received no hurt by Inoculation, but was by a fright put into Fits that caused her Death. It is then a wonderful Providence of GOD, that all that were Inoculated should have their Lives preserved; so that the Safety and Usefulness of this Experiment is confirmed to us by Ocular Demonstration: I confess I am afraid, that the Discouraging of this Practice, may cause many a Life to be lost, which for my own part, I should be loth to have any hand in, because of the Sixth Commandment.
IV. IT cannot be denied but that some Wise and Judicious Persons among us, approve of Inoculation, both Magistrates and Ministers; Among Ministers I am One, who have been a poor Preacher of the Gospel in Boston above Threescore Years, and am the most Aged, Weak and unworthy Minister now in New-England. My Sentiments, and my Son's also, about this Matter are well known. Also we hear that the Reverend and Learned Mr. Solomon Stoddard of Northampton concuts with us; so doth the Reverend Mr. Wise of Ipswich, and many other younger Divines, not only in Boston, but in the Country, joyn with their Fathers. Furthermore, I have made some Enquiry, Whether there are many Persons of a Prophane Life and Conversation, that do Approve and Defend Inoculation, and I have been answered, that they know but of very few such. This is to me a weighty Consideration. But on the other hand, tho' there are some Worthy Persons, that are not clear about it; nevertheless, it cannot be denied, but that the known Children of the Wicked one, are generally fierce Enemies to Inoculation. It is a grave saying of Old Seneca, Pessimi Argumentum Turba est. For my part I should be ashamed to joyn with such Persons; O my Soul come not thou into their Secret, unto their Assembly be not thou United. I am far from reflecting upon all that are against Inoculation. I know there are very worthy Persons (with whom I desire to Live and Die) that are not clear in their Judgments for it, and they are greatly to be commended and honoured in that they will not act against a doubting Conscience; yet it may be some of them might change their minds, if they would advise with those who are best able to afford them Scripture Light in this as well as in other Cases of Conscience.
Novemb. 20. 1721.
That the Cause may have Two Witnesses, here are subjoyned the Sentiments of another, well known in our Churches, of which I declare my hearty Approbation.
Sentiments on the Small Pox Inoculated.
A most Successful, and Allowable Method of preventing Death, and many other grievous Miseries, by the Small Pox, is not only Lawful but a Duty, to be used by those who apprehend their Lives immediately endanger'd by the terrible Distemper.
But the Method of managing and governing the Small Pox in the way of Inoculation, is a most successful and allowable Method of preventing Death, and many other grievous Miseries by this dreadful Distemper. Therefore, 'tis not only Lawful, but also [Page 2] a Duty to make use of it. None but very foolish, and very wicked People will deny the Proposition in this Argument; The Assumption is all that is disputed. But now, That this is a most Successful Method we have all the Evidence that Humane Reason can ask for.
Men of Honour, and Learning, and Incontestible Veracity, not one or two, but a considerable Number of them, agree in the Relation they give us, of it's being used with constant Success in the Levant. It has been used upon vast Multitudes, even many Thousands, and for some Scores of Years: And when regularly used, it yet appears not, that ever one Person miscarried of it, or had the Small Pox after it. We have sufficient Proofs that it is a growing Practice in those Countries. If it had been unsuccessful, or been attended with bad Consequences, it must needs have been put out of Countenance, and have ceased long ago. Such Testimonies on the other side, as our People have been frighted withal, are not worth a Strate. No Man of sense that considers them can lay weight upon them: Ask us not, why we say so!
And we have an Army of Africans among our selves, who have themselves been under it, and given us all the Assurance, which a Rational Mind can desire, that it has long been used with the like Success in Africa. Yea, Behold, ye yourselves have seen it. The Operation has been performed on an Hundred & more, in the Town of Boston: And not one of them has miscarried: They have every one of them hitherto done well. They all give Thanks to our Merciful Redeemer for leading them into it. They would every one of them rather undergo it again, and many times over, than suffer the Small Pox as People ordinarily suffer it in the common way of Infection. The Story of one Dying after it, is trump'd up with so much folly and falshood, that it is unworthy to have any Answer given to it. In fine; Experience has declared, that there never was a more unfailing Remedy employed among the Children of Men.
That this is an Allowable Method, is plain; Because there can be no Objection brought against it, but what will also lie against the use of almost all the preventing Physick, that is used in the World. The Objector must maintain, That it is unlawful for a Man, who would preserve his Life and Health, to make himself Sick in a way that constantly tends to Preservation. But a very Familiar Case will so illustrate the Matter, as to put it beyond all Dispute. Suppose, There is a Bloody Flux prevailing in the Town where I live, which proves Mortal to a great part of them that have it; many more than Four Hundred perish by it in a Month. A Physician is Master of a Purge; which whosoever takes it, is in an ordinary way, delivered from the danger of that Mortal Distemper. An Artificial Purge seasonably taken saves him from Death by the Natural Purge, which he is exposed unto. Will any scruple the taking of this Artificial Purge? Surely, None but such as want a Purge of Hellebore Here the Man makes Himself Sick, while He is well: and thinks that he is not the whole who has no need of a Physician, while he has the Humours in him which render him obnoxious to a Deadly Sickness. He won't think it his Duty to stay till God send the Sickness in another way upon him; when it will be too late for him to seek relief; But he will give Thanks to GOD for teaching him, how to make himself Sick, in a way that will save his Life, He most properly takes GOD's Time to fall Sick: He does it seasonably, and in the Time when GOD has commanded him to do it.
Many Good People, who are sensible how weak their own Iudgments are, will for a Case of Conscience be much assisted by the Judgments of the most able Divines in the Country. Now every Body knows how they concur in their approbation of this Practice.
The Design and the Spirit, (evidently of no good Original) with which the fierce opposition to this Practice is carried on will also go a great way towards determining of Good People in Favour of it. The Conclusion will be Victorious; That when People have their Lives endangered by the Small Pox hovering about them, they not only may use the Method of Inoculation, to save their Lives, but they even ought to do it, if they can. They keep not in good Terms with the Sixth Commandment, if they do it not.
INFERENCES.
I. HEnce the Physicians may do well to beware, of going too far, and of taking wrong steps, for the frighting of People from this Practice, lest they Unawares have more to answer for than Men of their Profession should be willing to.
II. Hence, the Parents, and Masters, and Husbands and Wives, whose Relatives have beg'd as for their Lives, that they might have leave to save their Lives, by this Method, should not by their obstinate Violence hinder them from it, least on the Loss of their Lives they have sad matter of Reflection left unto them.
III. Hence, a People will do well, not to be too hasty in Resolves, that should forbid their Neighbours, to do what God has made their Duty for the Preservation of their Lives in this Method; lest they do in Effect forbid Obedience to the Sixth Commandment. Especially, when the Bugbear of the Pestilential Consequences, is a Falshood, that has not the least shadow of Reason for it, and has the Experience of all the Countries under Heaven, where they use the Inoculation, to confute it. Nor has it ever been known of Later Ages, that the Plague ever began any where but in the East-Indies, from whence it has always been brought unto the Western World. And when the King, and Prince, and most Eminent Physicians in London and Dublin, and elsewhere, have declared their Approbation of it; it seems not much for our Honour, to declare that we disapprove it.
IV. Hence to Rave, and Rail with such bitter Execrations, as are too commonly used, against the Ministers, and other serious Christians, who favour this Practice, is a very crying Iniquity; and to call it a Work of the Devil, and a going to the Devil, is a shocking Blasphemy; and much more likely to bring the Plague among us, than the Practice, which they so ignorantly and maliciously do charge with such Imaginary Consequences.
BOSTON. Printed by S. Kneeland for J. Edwards at his Shop in King-Street. 1721.