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. By INCREASE MATHER

 

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.

By INCREASE MATHER &

 

Sentiments on the Small Pox

Inoculated.

By COTTON MATHER

 

Reprinted from the original folio single

sheet printed at Bofton in I 72 I. With an

Introduction by George Lyman Kittredge

 

 

CLEVELAND

Printed far Private Diftribution

1921

 

Several REASONS

Proving that Inoculating or Tranfplanting

the Small Pox, is a Lawful Practice,

and that it has been Bleffed by GOD

for the Saving of many a Life.

By Increafe Mather, D.D.

 

Exod. XX. 1 3. Thou shalt not kill .

Gal. I. 1 o. Do I seek to pleafe Men? if I pleafe Men,

I should not be a Servant of CHRIST.

 

It has been Queftioned, Whether Inoculating the Small Pox be a Lawful Practice. I incline to the Affirmative, for thefe Reafons.

 

I. BEcaufe I have read, that in Smyrna, Conflantinople,

and other Places, Thoufands of Lives have been faved by Inoculation, and not one of Thoufands has mifcarried by it. This is related by Wife & Learned Men who would not have impofed on the World a falfe Narrative. Which alfo has been publifhed by the Royal Society; therefore a great Regard is due to it.

II. WE hear that feveral Phyficians have Recommended the Practice hereof to His Majefty, as a Means to preferve the Lives of his Subjects, and that His Wife and Excellent Majefty King GEORGE, as alfo his Royal Highnefs

the Prince have approved hereof, and that it is now coming into practice in the Nation. In one of the Publick Prints are thefe Words, "Inoculating the Small Pox is a [aft and univerfally" Ufeful Experiment. Several Worthy Perfons

lately arrived from England inform us, that it is a fuccefsful Practice there: If Wife & Learned Men in England, declare their Approbation of this Practice, for us to declare our Difapprobation will not be for our Honour.

III. GOD has gracioufiy owned the Praftice of Inoculation, among us in Bofton, where fome Scores, yea above an hundred have been Inoculated, & not one mifcarried ; but they Blefs GOD, for His difcovering 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 neareft Relations declare that she received no hurt by Inoculation, but was by a fright put into Fits that caufed her Death. It is then a wonderful Providence of GOD, that all that were Inoculated fuould have their Lives preferved; fo that the Safety and Ufefulnefs of this Experiment is confirmed to us by Ocular Demonftration: I confefs I am afraid, that the Difcouraging of this Practice, may caufe many a Life to be loft, which for my own part, I fhould be loth to have any hand in, becaufe of the Sixth Commandment.

IV. IT cannot be denied but that fome Wife and Judicious Perfons among us, approve of Inoculation, both Magiftrates and Minifters; Among Minifters I am One, who have been a poor Preacher of the Gof pel in Bofton above Threefcore Years, and am the moft Aged, Weak and unworthy Minuter now in New-England. My Sentiments, and my Son's alfo, about this Matter are well known. Alfo we hear that the Reverend and Learned Mr. Solomon Stoddard of Northampton concurs with us; fo doth the Reverend

Mr. Wife of Ipfwich, and many other younger Divines, not only in Bofton, but in the Country, joyn with their Fathers. Furthermore, I have made fome Enquiry, Whether there are many Perfons of a Prophane Life and Converfation, that do Approve and Defend Inoculation, and I have been anfwered, that they know but of very few fuch. This is to me a weighty Confideration. But on the other hand, tho' there are fome Worthy Perfons, that are not clear about it; neverthelefs, it cannot be denied, but that the known Children of the

Wicked one, are generally fierce Enemies to Inoculation. It is a grave faying of Old Seneca, Pefftmi Argumentum Turba eft. For my part I fhould be afhamed to joyn with fuch Perfons; O my Soul come not thou into their Secret, unto their Aflembly be not thou United. I am far from reflecting upon all that are againft Inoculation. I know there are very worthy Perfons (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 againft a doubting Confcience; yet it may be fome of them might change their minds, if they would advife with thofe who are beft able to afford them Scripture Light in this as well as in other Cafes of Confcience.

Novemb. 20. 1721.

 

That the Caufa may have Two Witneffes, here are fubjoyned the Sentiments of another, well known in our Churches, of which I declare my hearty Approbation.

 

Sentiments on the Small Pox Inoculated.

Amoft Succefsful, and Allowable Method of

preventing Death, and many other grievous Miferies, by the Small Pox, is not only Lawful but a Duty, to be ufed by thofe 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 moft succefsful and allowable Method of preventing Death, and many other grievous Miferies by this dreadful Diftemper. Therefore, 'tis not only Lawful, but alfo a Duty to make ufe of it. None but very foolifh, and very wicked People will deny the Proposition in this Argument; The Affumption is all that is difputed. But now, That this is a moft Succefsful Method we have all the Evidence that Humane Reafon can ask for. 

Men of Honour, and Learning, and Inconteftible Veracity, not one or two, but a confiderable Number of them, agree in the Relation they give us, of its being ztfed with conftant Succefs in the Levant.

It has been ufed upon vaft Multitudes, even many Thousands, and for Some Scores of Years: And when regularly ufed, it yet appears not, that ever one Perfon mifcarried of it, or had the Small Pox after it. We have fufficient Proofs that it is a growing Practice in thofe Countries. If it had been unfuccefsful, or been attended with bad Confequences, it muff needs have been put out of Countenance, and have ceafed long ago. Such Teftimonies on the other fide, as our People have been frighted withal, are not worth a Straw. No Man of fenfe that Confiders them can lay weight upon them: Ask us not, why we fay fo!

And we have an Army of Africans among our selves, who have themfelves been under it, and given us all the Affurance, which a Rational Mind can defire, that it has long been ufed with the like Succefs in Africa. Yea, Behold, ye yourfelves have feen it. The Operation has been performed on an Hundred & more, in the Town of Bofton: And not one of them has mifcarried: 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 fuffer the Small Pox as People ordinarily fuffer it in the common way of Infection. The Story of one Dying after it, is 'trump'd up with fo much folly and falfhood, that it is unworthy to have any Anfwer 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; Becaufe there can be no Objection broutht againft it, but what will alfo lie againft the ufe of almoft all the preventing Phyfick, that is ufed in the World. The Objector muft maintain, That it is unlawful for a Man, who would preferve his Life and Health, to make himfelf Sick in a way that conftantly tends to Prefervation. But a very Familiar Café will fo illuftrate the Matter, as to put it beyond all Difpute. Suppofe, 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 perifh by it in a Month. A Phyfician is Mafter of a Purge; which whofoever takes it, is in an ordinary way, delivered from the danger of that Mortal Diftemper. An Artificial Purge feasfonably taken faves him from Death by the Natural Purge, which he is expofed unto. Will any fcruple the taking of this Artificial Purge? Surely, None but fuch as want a Purge of Hellebore. Here the Man makes Himfelf Sick, while He is well: and thinks that he is not the whole who has no need of a Phyfician, while he has the Humours in him which render him obnoxious to a Deadly Sicknefs. He won't think it his Duty to ftay till God fend the Sicknefs in another way upon him; when it will be too late far him to feek relief; But he will give Thanks to GOD for teaching him, how to make hlmfelf Sick, in a way that will fave his Life. He moft properly takes GOD's Time to fall Sick: He does it feafonably, and in the Time when GOD has commanded him to do it.

Many Good People, who are fenfible how weak their own Judgments are, will far a Cafe of Confcience be much affifted by the Judgments of the moft able Divines in the Country. Now every Body knows how they concur in their approbation of this Practice.

The Defign and the Spirit, (evidently of no good Original) with which the fierce oppofition to this Practice is carried on will alfo go a great way towards determining of Good People in Favour of it. The Conclufion will be Victorious; That when People have their Lives endangered by the Small Pox hovering about them, they not only may ufe the Method of Inoculation, to fave 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.

I N FE R E N CE S.

 

I.HEnce the Phyficians may do well to beware, of going too far, and of taking wrong fteps, far the frighting of People from this Practice, left they Unawares have more to anfwer for than Men of their Profeffion fhould be willing to.

II. Hence, the Parents, and Mafters, and Husbands and Wives, whofe Relatives have beg'd as far their Lives, that they might have leave to fave their Lives, by this Method, fhould not by their obftinate Violence hinder them from it, leaft on the Lofs of their Lives they have fad matter of Reflection left unto them.

III. Hence, a People will do well, not to be too hafty in Refolves, that fhould forbid their Neighbours, to do what God has made their Duty far the Prefervation of their Lives in this Method; left they do in Effeclforbid Obedience to the Sixth Commandment. Efpecially, when the Bugbear of the Peftilential Confeqt1ences, is a Falfhood, that has not the leaft fhadow of Reafon far it, and has the Experience of all the Countries under Heaven, where they ufe the Inoculation, to confute it. Nor has it ever been known of Later Ages, that the Plague ever began any where but in the Eaft Indies, from whence it has always been brought unto the Weftern World. And when the King, and Prince, and moft Eminent Phyficians in London and Dublin, and elfewhere, have declared their Approbation of it; it feems not much far our Honour, to declare that we difapprove it.

IV. Hence to Rave, and Rail with fuch bitter Execrations, as are too commonly ufed, againft the Minifters, and other ferious Chriftians, 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 fhocking Blafphemy; and 1nuchmore likely to bring the Plague among us, than the Practice, which they fo ignorantly and malicioufly do charge with fuch Imaginary Confequences.

FINIS. 

BOSTON: Printed by S. Kneeland for J. Edwards at his Shop in King-Street. 1721