He was treated with particular kindness and respect by Charles II., as well as by the two great ministers Southampton and Clarendon. By the latter he was solicited to enter into orders; for his distinguished learning and unblemished reputation induced Lord Clarendon to think that so very respectable a personage would do great honor to the clergy. Boyle considered the proposal with due attention. He reflected that, in his present situation of life, whatever he wrote with respect to religion, would have greater weight, as coming from a layman; for he well knew that the irreligious fortified themselves against all that the clergy could offer, by supposing and saying that it was their trade, and that they were paid for it. He considered, likewise, that, in point of fortune and character, he needed no accessions; and, indeed, his desire for these was always very limited. But Bishop Burnet, to whom Boyle had communicated memorandums concerning his life, tells us that what had the greatest weight in determining his judgment, was, “the not feeling within himself any motion or tendency of mind which he could safely esteem a call from the Holy [pg 414] Spirit, and so not venturing to take holy orders, lest he should be found to have lied unto it.”
Bishop Burnet, who was Boyle's particular friend, and who, during an acquaintance of twenty-nine years, had spent many happy hours in conversation with him, gives a full account of his genuine piety and virtue, and of his zeal for the Christian religion. “This zeal,” he says, “was unmixed with narrow notions, or a bigoted heat in favor of a particular sect; it was that spirit which is the ornament of a true Christian.” Burnet mentions, as a proof of this, his noble foundation for lectures in defence of the gospel, against infidels of all sorts; the effects of which have been very conspicuous, in the many volumes of excellent discourses, which have been published in consequence of that laudable and pious design.
The great object of his philosophical pursuits was to promote the cause of religion, and to discountenance atheism and infidelity. His intimate friend Bishop Burnet makes the following observations on this point:—“It appeared to those who conversed with him on his inquiries into nature, that his main design (on which as he had his own eye constantly fixed, so he took care to put others often in mind of it) was to raise in himself and others more exalted sentiments of the greatness and glory, the wisdom and goodness, of God. This design was so deeply impressed on his mind, that he concludes the article of his will, which relates to the Royal Society, in these words:—‘I wish them a happy success in their attempts to discover the true nature of the works of God; and I pray that they, and all searchers into physical truths, may cordially refer their attainments to the glory of the great Author of nature, and to the comfort of mankind.’ ”
On another occasion, the same person speaks of him thus—“He had the most profound veneration for the great God of heaven and earth that I ever observed in any man. The very name of God was never mentioned by him without a pause and observable stop in his discourse.” So brightly did the example of this great and good man shine, through his whole course, that Bishop Burnet, on reviewing it, in a [pg 415] moment of pious exultation thus expressed himself:—“I might challenge the whole tribe of libertines to come and view the usefulness, as well as the excellence, of the Christian religion, in a life that was entirely dedicated to it.”
John Locke.
A very celebrated philosopher, and one of the greatest men that England ever produced, born in the year 1632. He was well educated; and, applying himself with vigor to his studies, his mind became enlarged, and stored with much useful knowledge. He went abroad as secretary to the English ambassador at several of the German courts, and afterwards had the offer of being made envoy at the court of the emperor, or of any other that he chose; but he declined the proposal, on account of the infirm state of his health. He was a commissioner of trade and plantations, in which station he very honorably distinguished himself. Notwithstanding his public employments, he found leisure to write much for the benefit of mankind. His “Essay on Human Understanding,” his “Discourses on Government,” and his “Letters on Toleration,” are justly held in the highest esteem.
This enlightened man and profound reasoner was most firmly attached to the Christian religion. His zeal to promote it appeared, first, in his middle age, by publishing a discourse to demonstrate the reasonableness of believing Jesus to be the promised Messiah; and, afterwards, in the latter part of his life, by a Commentary on several of the Epistles of the apostle Paul. The sacred Scriptures are every where mentioned by him with the greatest reverence; and he exhorts Christians “to betake themselves in earnest to the study of the way to salvation, in those holy writings, wherein God has revealed it from heaven, and proposed it to the world; seeking our religion where we are sure it is in truth to be found, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.”
In a letter written the year before his death, to one who asked this question, “What is the shortest and surest way [pg 416] for a young man to attain the true knowledge of the Christian religion?” he says, “Let him study the holy Scriptures, especially the New Testament: therein are contained the words of eternal life. It has God for its author; salvation for its end; and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter.” This advice was conformable to his own practice. “For fourteen or fifteen years, he applied himself in an especial manner to the study of the Scriptures, and employed the last years of his life hardly in any thing else. He was never weary of admiring the great views of that sacred book, and the just relation of all its parts: he every day made discoveries in it that gave him fresh cause of admiration.”
The consolation which he derived from divine revelation is forcibly expressed in these words:—“I gratefully receive and rejoice in the light of revelation, which has set me at rest in many things, the manner whereof my poor reason can by no means make out to me.”