676 Remarks on the pofitive rejection of them by all the members of parliament who saw them, ftopped his hand? In this dilemma what could the doctor do? He must wait for a time of national confufion, when a spirit is to arife which cannot be refifted, which will bear down every obftacle in the way, he fays, of an open and impartial inquiry; but the people fired with refentment by public writers, do not always wait for an open and impartial inquiry. A recent inftance of this might be produced. The addrefs therefore can be confidered only as inflammatory fuel, thrown into that fire which already blazes too high in this nation, breaking its repofe, and threatening its deftruction. The Lay Citizen's Reply to T. G. of I S your answer to a letter which Allent to the Magazine for July laft, has not altered my ideas of the fubject; a regard to truth calls upon me to declare as much, left filence fhould be taken for an affent to propofitions that appear to me indefenfible. I therefore afk, can you poffibly mean, that man has an arbitrary power over language, to make ufe of words at his own pleasure in order to exprefs his ideas? In terms you feem to affert as much, and yet the propofition appears to me to contradict itfelf by the requirement of intelligibility; which can by no means be preferved, but in the ufe of fuch words as cuftom hath made expreffive of thofe ideas. For what though the affociation of ideas and founds was at first arbitrary? cuftom has most certainly acquired the force of law, not to be difpenied with, but by univerfal confent or allowance, as long as intelligibility is effential to the end of language. To inftance as you do, with the matter before us:, Whoever ufes the words, fief and bones, to describe an aerial body, cannot be intelligible, unless fuch idea be connected with thole words in the minds of the hear ers; either by ufage; or by a previous declaration of the fpeaker, that it was his defire fo to be understood. Thus much you grant, when you propole to fupport fuch application of the Afcenfion Body: App. words flesh and bones in our Lord's address, Luke xxiv. 39. "by fhewing in what two fenfes the words fiet and bones, when applied to a buman bo dy, may be, and in fcripture are used." A very rational way of proceeding. Inftances are now to be expected. Allow me to cite you in continuation. "This may be done by obferving, that these words may either be so used, as to have a reference to a frail mortal body that is fubject to decay and diffolution, or to a body which tho' organized after the fame manner, compofed of the fame fyftem of cor poreal parts, and confifting of the fame matter, is yet divested of the qualities of gravitation, fermentation, corruption, putrefaction, and is no impediment to any spiritual operation or motion of the foul." Does this fhew in what two fenfes the words may be and in fcripture are used? The may be, you would fupport by a may be; which is not fufficient to our purpose. Fats, you produce none; confequently defert your own plan; though at the fame time, (as if you had established your point beyond a doubt) you go on to afk," May not our Saviour and St. Paul be hereby plainly acquitted of the charge of contradicting each other?" I cannot put a stronger negative upon your question, than you yourself have done, by requiring fcripture prece dents, and bringing in their ftead, a mere philofophic (I had almost said philofophic) nicety. Let any one read but these three quotations (which you will allow are fairly made) without having any regard to my obfervations; and I think he muft be convinced that they illuftrate nothing, unless it be the liablenefs of a man to impofe upon himfelf. But I pafs on, becaufe, in your favour, I am willing to fuppofe, you can produce as many inftances from fcripture of the words flesh and blood being applied to the incorruptible immortal body, as they are to the frail and mortal. Be it fo, nevertheless, in this place, the fpesker has effectually cut off fuch application, by the appeal he makes to the fenfes of his hearers; more efpecially to that fenfe which is adapted to difcriminate bodies, an ́ dle me and jee. I fay, if there are two fenies of the word flesh, we are pof 1769. Remarks on the Afcenfion-Body tively directed in which fenfe to take it here, unless the body you above defcribe, and which you elfewhere call an aerial body, and refined flesh, does yet retain the folidity of grofs flesh; yea, and of bones too! But again, your refined flesh, you suppose to be fuch as may be fometimes affumed by a fpirit, or phantom: whereas Jefus peremptorily fays, a fpirit hath not Alef and bones as ye fee me bave. Therefore though we should grant you, that departed Ipirits may occupy a body of flesh and bones, it cannot be that kind of flesh and bones which conftituted the rifen body of our Lord, if any regard is to be had to his own declaration. In short, no unprejudiced perfon can imagine, you have produced the least degree of evidence to prove, that our Lord and St. Paul did not Speak of one and the fame kind of body, in the texts under confideration, confequently, the difficulty remains for any thing you have done to folve it; and, I humbly apprehend, can only be folved by fuppofing Jefus to have occupied the natural body, till the inftant of his entering the cloud. You, indeed, fay, he was in the fpiritual body, from the time of his refurrection; to reconcile which, with his calling that body flesh and bones, you will have it, that the epithet may be applied to the fpiritual body. This, fir, is the point of difference between us; but it is impoffible I fhould be convinced of error by your reply, fince you have not touched my arguments, nor pointed out any fallacy in my reasoning on the fcripture reprefentation, which, if you had, would have corrected and obliged me. But you only charge me with cutting the knot; and play off a little raillery on a concluding thought, given only as matter of private opinion, and no way affecting the argument, which was carried on, under the vulgar idea of a local remove fignifying the ascension. I have no fcruple to acknowledge that the paragraph referred to, may be more curious than ufeful; as indeed is the whole of this debate, unless it be to the end of reconciling an apparent contradiction upon the face of our divine canon; which always deferves a first attention from the friends of mankind. But, your treatment of the idea has 677 induced me to revolve it again and again; and I am still of opinion, that a change of body, or a dropping the tabernacle of gross flesh, and what St. Paul calls, putting on immortality, or being clothed with an aerial covering, which you call refined flesh; but I, after St. Paul, a fpiritual body. I fay, I am still of opinion, that this is the circumftance, which marks our tranfition, out of one world into another, and that it is not fo aptly figured, or defcribed, by a loca Iremove, asy this change in the tabernacle or clothing of the foul. The fentiment was not delivered with any confined application to Jefus Chrift, but had refpect to every intelligent being leaving earth for heaven. I could refer you to feveral texts, which I imagine are favourable to this idea, but wave it, as having no neceffary connexion with the point before us. I apprehend too, that a philofophical difquifition of the fubject is quite out of our road; and also that the power of the Almighty, to which you appeal, is nothing to the purpose; fince I do not prefume to lay what change God cannot effect on these fleshly bodies; but only that the bodies fo changed as to be divefted of corruptibility, frailty, &c. are no where in fcripture ftiled fl; neither with any propriety of language can they be fo ftiled, becaufe corruptibility and frailty are effential to the nature of flesh. All flesh is grafs, and the glory of man as the Flower of Grass. But you fay, "If the body is fpiritualized, the flesh and blood must be fpiritualized, the matter of both being the fame." As well might you fay that the earth we tread, the bread or vegetables we eat are flesh and blood, on the fuppofition that these contain fome particles, which in the varied tranfmutation of matter have been constituents of a human body. St. Paul very evidently confines the term fleth to a certain con ftruction of the matter of this fyftem, fitted to the purposes of animal life, when he enumerates the various kinds of flesh; as that of men, beasts, fishes, and birds; but he does not add another kind of flesh of angels, or of departed fpirits. He does not fay, there is celeftial flesh, as well as terrestrial flesh; fpiritual flesh, as well as natural flesh but he fays there are celeftial bodies, and bodies terrestrial; a fpi4 R ritual 678 Col. Burgoyne's Speech in the King's-Bench. Your affurance," that had not our Saviour's body been divested of certain qualities and properties, he had not been fo happy with thofe wounds in his hands, feet, and fide, as he plainly appears to have been," is very juft, were we reafoning upon nature, but, you know, we admit fupernatural powerinto this event. Is there, then, any ab furdity in fuppofing the wounds to be miraculously healed, though the apertures remain unclofed; which were neceffary to identify him fenfibly to the witnefles? To fuppofe that power give ing a new courfe to the circulating fluid, not to be interrupted by the perforation of the spear; or even to fuftain bodily life, by fome other means than circulating blood, I apprehend has no abfurdity. We may allow a change in the life principle, i. e. we may fuppofe life fupported by the immediate power of God, or which is the fame in effect, by a power delegated to Je fus, over his own body; but we are under no neceffity of fuppofing the conftruction of it to be any other than fiefh, which cannot enter into the kingdom of God. In answer to your laft obfervation: the conclufion which you draw from the goodness of God is unfupportable and unneceflary, if I have any juft idea of that goodnefs, or of the establishments of truth; which do ever in themfelves afford the higheft fecurity to every approved being. The evidences we now derive from revelation, are condefcenfions to our prefent frailties and imperfections, which will be relieved by the full difplay of truth, that a more favourable organization of body will admit into the foul. If a doubt of divine veracity can enter into heaven; I own it falls vaftly fhort of my expectation. They, whofe devotions are now excited by the crucifix, may indeed expect the identical Crucified body to fupply its, place in heaven. Touch the perpetuity of the wounds is an important doctrine, as you fay, but on my principles it is of no confequence: nor do I imagine it App. has any place at all, much less a capital one, as you feem to apprehend it has, in divine revelation. So that for any thing you have faid, I am yet found confiftent; and till better arguments offer, I muft retain that view of the fubject which has fallen under your cenfure; though with an hearty difpofition to change it, whenever one more rational fhall be fhewn me. A Lay Citizen. Subflance of Colonel Burgoyne's Speech before the Court of King's-Bench. My Lord, Have the heavy and the unexpected misfortune to ftand at your bar, convicted of a crime, for which, had I been intentionally guilty, there would need no aggravation from the learned gentlemen who have fupported this profecution, to create in my breaft much feverer punishment than any thing this court, were it difpofed to rigour, could inflict. It is far from my intention to impeach the probity of the jury who have found the fact upon this information, but it is inexpreffible fatisfaction to me that I am to receive judgement for that fact from a tribunal, where no difappointment of a party struggle, no biafs of borough inte reft, neither friendship, nor enmity, nor prejudice, nor partiality, will infuence a wish to my difadvantage, where, with the fact, the intention will be weighed, and where the duties of public juftice will be tempered with every confideration that can juftify, excufe, or mitigate the cafe of an unconscious offender. I fhall not trouble the court, my lord, with the hiftory at large of a conteft, which has been too notorious to the whole kingdom, which has been particularly notorious to this court, not only by the evidence on the report, but alfo by a series of litigation, I believe, hardly to be equalled in any contest of the like nature within your lordship's memory. I appeal, my lord, to that evidence, and to that notoriety, for the tenor of my conduct through the first stages of this difpute, and for the system of forbearance laid down by me, and thofe who most honoured me with their fupport and council, in the interval of eight months between my first canvas in June 1767, and the commencement of the 1769. Col. Burgoyne's Speech in the King's-Bench. disorders, as stated in the information Under thefe circumstances, my lord, preffed by the united voice of the fpirited and of the timid of my party; threatened with defertion by one, with absence by others, and alarmed with danger of declining intereft by all : fenfible of my power to overcome force by force, and not infenfible of the recent 679 attempt upon my life; my lord, thus urged, thus provoked, would it have been an unufual expedient of election policy; would it have been (however unjuftifiable) extraordinary intemperance, had I given rein to the warmer feelings of my friends and to my own,; and opened the door to a ready multitude, connected in a caufe, which, from the manner of conducting it on. different fides, was efteemed the caufe of liberty and proteftantifm? My lord, the measures I refolved. upon, were of a very different nature: my first care was to apply to the candidates for a meeting, to confider and to establish effectual measures to restore the public peace. I went to that meeting attended but a by few, and those. of the most respectable of the inhabi-, tants in my intereft, without weapons, without parade, without clamour: the chief directors of my opponents were, prefent; and thefe gentlemen, not apt to let my words or geftures pafs without comment and interpretation, bore, at least, a filent teftimony to the fincerity of my purpose in requesting this meeting, and I would ftate my whole juftification upon their acknowledging, if called upon, that I difclaimed every idea of violence, that I was earnest in every effort that could be thought of to fecure future tranquillity. My lord, I complained, I remonstrated, I deprecated; I propofed, my lord, in the midt of the conference of Monday, under the eyes of the first gentlemen of the town, under the eyes of the chief magiftrate of the town, under the eyes of the candidates, the known band of rioters, armed with bludgeons, delivered to them from the town hall, which was become an arfenal for that purpose, stript to the waift, and every way prepared for mifchief, paraded be fore the windows, inftantly difperfed the peaceable defenceless few who had followed my steps, and walked the town, carrying triumph and terror where ever they appeared. The only reafon attempted to be affigned for this outrage was, that the expreffion of Bur goyne for ever had been heard in the treets, and that my friends had orangecoloured cockades in their hats. The gentlemen prefent profeffed their innocence and their difapprobation, and their want of power to controul thefe proceedings; and one gentleman, an 4 R 2 officer 680 Col, Burgoyne's Speech in the King's-Bench. officer of the Lancashire militia, for all that corps were not in my intereft, did take fome pains, and did fucceed to fend thefe rioters to their quar ters. My lord, among other measures, I had fuggefted an appointment of a number of special conftables, by the mayor, from among the principal in habitants of both parties, that thefe fhould patroll the street; and that every gentleman fhould be bound by honour for himself and for his influence with his inferiors, not to bail any perfon who should be taken up for breach of the peace. This was agreed to, and the meeting feparated towards the evening I received in writing from the mayor a recantation of this agreement, upon pretence of a doubt up. on the legality of it, and no other expedient being propofed in the place of it, the town was left that night expofed to all its ufual diforder, and to all that the circumftances of my arrival might provoke. The next day, against the advice of my friends, who feared perfonal fafety, I canvaffed the town: I fhall pass by the infults I received from the known ring-leaders of the gang of rioters, who thewed me bludgeons under their coats, and who, together with men, who from birth and fortune bore the rank of gentlemen, took evident meafures to provoke a riot, inflamed with pat encouragement on one fide, and emboldened with non-refiftance on the other. In the afternoon they affaulted the house where I dined in the most violent manner; an interview was again had with the candidates, the mayor, and principal gentlemen of that intereft; the pretence there was, that there was intelligence of country people being in the town in my interest: the report was proved to be totally groundJefs the language of the morning was again repeated; they were ferry they were flocked, they could not help it; they would use their endeavours: the officer of the militia with fome other again removed the gang from the door; but whither were they removed, and how were they difcontinued? To the market-place, where a barrel of ale was publickly diftributed to them by the agents of the candidates; in the mean time I received repeated notice that I could not return home unless App difguifed without eminent danger, and repeated advice to fummon affistance from the country. My lord, I was not moved by one or the other. I fent for fuch arms as were neceflary for felfdefence, and accompanied by two gentlemen and one fervant, walked thro the public ftreets home, but not without fuch an infult as demonstrated to all prefent that the prefervation of my life depended folely upon the piftol I had in my hand. I come now, my lord, to the 13th of February; the day when the diforder stated in the information began ; the paffions, the apprehenfions, and the confternation of men were now at their height, and had spread beyond the town; every engagement for the public tranquillity broken by my opponents; all protection from magiftrates rendered hopeless by repeated disappointments: it became the univerfal opinion that I must quit the town or probably die in it. As for me, my lord, I fcorn to prevaricate, and fhould think it trifling with the Bench, and an unmanly part, to deny that I know the fentiments of the country in my favour. I knew a concourfe was likely to come into town, not brought by the call, or by the pro mifes, or the rewards of my friends: they wanted not the inducements; they were exasperated by general and voluntary refentment against the partial and over-bearing conduct of the corporation, by the interference and activity of the whole papift intereft against me, and by the popularity of my caule. And thefe being the motives, my relinquishing the undertaking would have been of no avail. In vain fhould I have deferted a moft refpectable body of friends, and have refigned the fruits of my paft labours and expence: in vain fhould I have facrificed to an idea reftoration of tranquillity, the honest ambition of ferving my country in parliament: my engagement, my intereft, my honour, every fpirited and every liberal principle. I believe there is not a man who knew the ftate of Preston and the neighbourhood at that time, who will not agree in the fentiments I then held, that it was out of my power to prevent an eruption, that absence would not only increase the evil, and leave upon mens minds, together with an indelible imputation upon my cha |