Life And Adventures Of Peter Wilkins, Vol. I. (of II.)
Page 27
CHAPTER XXIII.
The religion of the author's family.
Youwarkee and I having fixed ourselves, by degrees, into a settled rotaof action, began to live like Christians, having so great a quantity ofmost sorts of necessaries about us. But I say we lived like Christianson another account, for you must not think, after what I have saidbefore, that I and my family lived like heathens; no, I will assureyou, they by degrees knew all I knew, and that, with a little artificialimprovement, and a well-regulated disposition, I hoped, and did notdoubt, would carry them all to heaven. I would many a time have givenall my interest in the ship's cargo for a Bible; and a hundred timesgrieved that I was not master of a pocket one, which I might havecarried everywhere about me. I never imagined there was one aboard, andif there were, and You-warkee should find it, I supposed it would be inPortuguese, which I knew little of, so it would be of small service tome if I had it.
Since I am on the topic of religion, it may not be amiss, once for all,to give you a small sketch of my religious proceedings after coming intomy new dominions. I have already told you that from my first stop at therock I had prayed constantly morning and evening, but I cannot say I didit always with the same efficacy. However, my imperfect devotions werenot without good effect; and I am confident, wherever this course ispursued with a right view, sooner or later the issue will prove thesame to others as I found it to myself; I mean, that mercies will beremembered with more gratitude, and evils be more disregarded, andbecome less burdensome; and surely the person whose case this is, mustnecessarily enjoy the truest relish of life. As daily prayer was mypractice, in answer to it I obtained the greatest blessing and comfortmy solitude was capable of receiving; I mean my wife, whose character Ineed not farther attempt to blazon in any faint colours of my own afterwhat has been already said, her acts having spoken her virtues beyondall verbal description.
After we were married, as I call it--that is, after we had agreed tobecome man and wife--I frequently prayed before her, and with her (forby this time she understood a good deal of my language); at which,though contrary to my expectation, she did not seem surprised, butreadily kneeled by and joined with me. This I liked very well; and uponmy asking her one day after prayer if she understood what I had beendoing (for I had a notion she did not)--"Yes, verily," says she, "youhave been making petitions to the image of the great Collwar."*--"Pray,"says I (willing gently to lead her into a just sense of a SupremeBeing), "who is this Collwar? and where does He dwell?"--"He it is,"says she, "that does all good and evil to us."--"Right," says I, "itis in some measure so; but He cannot of Himself do evil, absolutely andproperly, as His own act"--"Yes," says she, "He can; for He can do allthat can be done; and as evil can be done, He can do it."--So quick areply startled me. Thinks I, she will run me aground presently; and frombeing a doctor, as I fancied myself, I shall become but a pupil to myown scholar. I then asked her where the great Collwar dwelt? She toldme in heaven, in a charming place.--"And can He know what we do?" saysI.--"Yes," replied she, "His image tells Him everything; and I haveprayed to His image, which I have often seen, and it is filled with somuch virtue that it is His second self; for there is only one of themin the world who is so good: He gives several virtues to other imagesof Himself, which are brought to Him, and put into His arms to breatheupon; and the only thing I have ever regretted since I knew you is, thatI have not one of them here to comfort and bless us and our children."
* God.
Though I was sorry for the oddity of her conceptions, I was almost gladto find her so ignorant, and pleased myself with thinking that as shehad already a confused notion of a Supreme Power, I should soon have thesatisfaction of bringing her to a more rational knowledge of Him.
"Pray, Youwee," says I, "what is your God made of?"--"Why of clay," saysshe, "finely painted, and looks so terrible he would make you tremble tobehold him."--"Do you think," says I, "that is the true Collwar's realshape, if you could see Himself?" She told me yes, for that some of Hisbest servants had seen him, and took the representation from Himself."And pray, do you think He loves His best servants, as you call them,and is kind to them?"--"You need not doubt it," says she.--"Why, then,"replied I, "how came He to look so terrible upon them when they saw Him,as you say they did? for I can see no reason, how terrible soever Helooks to others, why He should show Himself so to those He loves. Ishould rather think, as you say He is kind to them, that He should havetwo images, a placid one for His good, and a terrible one for His badservants; or else, who by seeing Him can tell whether He is pleased orangry? for even you yourself, Youwee, when anything pleases you, have adifferent look from that you have when you are angry, and little Pedrocan tell whether he does well or ill by your countenance; whereas,if you made no distinction, but looked with the same face on all hisactions, he would as readily think he did well as ill in committinga bad action." Youwarkee could not tell what to say to this, the factseeming against her.
I then asked her if she thought the image itself could hear herpetitions. She replied, "Yes."--"And can he," says I, "return you ananswer?"--She told me he only did that to his best servants.--"Did youever hear him do it?" says I. "For unless he can speak too, I shouldmuch suspect his hearing; and you being one of his best servants, seeingyou love him, and pray heartily to him, why should you not hear him assoon as others?"--"No," says she, "there are a great number of glummson purpose to serve him, pray for us to him, and receive hisanswers."--"But to what purpose then," says I, "is your praying to him,if their prayers will serve your turn?"--"Oh," says she, "the imagehears them sooner than us, and sends the petitions up to the greatCollwar, and lets Him know who makes them, and desires Him to let themhave what they want."--"But suppose," says I, for argument sake, "thatyou could see the great Collwar, or know where He was, and should prayto Himself, without going about to His image first, do you think Hecould not hear you?"--"I cannot tell that," says she.--"But how then,"says I, "can He tell what (if it could speak) His image says, which isas far from Him and then her own zealous application, with God's grace,soon brought her to a firm belief in it, and a suitable temper andconduct with respect to God and man."
After I had begun with my children, I frequently referred their furtherinstruction to their mother; for I have always experienced that asuperficial knowledge, with a desire of becoming a teacher, is in somemeasure equivalent to better knowledge; for it not only excites everyprinciple one has to the utmost, but makes matters more clear andconspicuous even to one's self.
By these means, and the Divine blessing thereon, in a few years, I mayfairly say, I had a little Christian church in my own house, and in aflourishing way too, without a schismatic or heretic amongst us.