LIBERTY AND CONSCIENCE

 

I thought that Chris and I would be the only people in the United States who had never come down with covid.  It was not to be.  In March, after the office crew at our complex came down with covid, Chris tested positive.  Aside from having his vertigo act up and ending up on the bathroom floor and couldn't get up, and me having to call 911, he didn't feel ill. Of course then I came down with it.  Chris and I both panicked.  I ended up going to the emergency room to be sure I didn't have something else on top of it.  I was just fine. So in light of the decisions to be made about whether to get a flu vaccine or a covid vaccine--  liberty and conscience are up for discussion.

The small pox vaccine was given regularly to children in the 1900's.  My mom and her sisters were born in 1915, 1917, and 1926. Grandpa did not approve of vaccines so his girls were opted out.  

But back in the 1700's smallpox constituted a crisis.  Opinions varied.  Here is one discussion by BenPurves a pastor at Occoquan Bible Church in Woodbridge, VA. Ben joined OBC’s staff in 2008. He has a B.A. from Multnomah Bible College (Portland, OR), an M.A. from Capital Bible Seminary (Lanham, MD), and is a D.Min. student at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (Louisville, KY) where he is working on a research thesis examining the Protestant plague ethic from the 1500-1700s. The Lord has blessed Ben and his wife Ricki with three children whom they are homeschooling.:

"Inoculation Controversy: Cotton Mather, Jonathan Edwards, and John Newton

The same year that Cotton Mather began inoculations in Boston, his father Increase Mather published a pamphlet entitled 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.2 In this work the elder Mather sought to discredit the death of an inoculation patient, and argued that inoculation was a way of keeping the sixth commandment. While equating “You shall not murder” to “get inoculated,” he resorted to using shame and attacking the reputation of those who opposed inoculation. He caricatured those who were “fierce Enemies to Inoculation” as “Children of the Wicked one.” Instead of being associated with such persons, he argued for his audience to join with such worthy persons as himself and the other pastors who supported inoculation, which included Solomon Stoddard of Northampton. Despite these tactics, it is surprising to note that Increase Mather did not want anyone to receive inoculation contrary to conscience, but instead for them to be persuaded to change their minds.

As inoculation was first introduced, there was significant opposition in the medical community and in the church. Multiple pastors preached against it, such as William Douglass who condemned those who received inoculation as being guilty of a sinful distrust of God, though he would change his mind in later years. Mather also faced violence as a bomb was thrown through the window of his house on November 13, 1721, with the attached note: “Cotton Mather, you dog, dam[n] you! I’ll inoculate you with this; and a pox to you.”3

In response to opposition, a Bostonian pastor by the name of William Cooper wrote a pastoral letter entitled A reply to the objections made against taking the small pox in the way of inoculation from principles of conscience. Cooper’s letter makes the case for allowing inoculation as a legitimate means to avoid suffering and preserve life. He rejected the legalism of pastors who sought to prohibit inoculation, and called for freedom of conscience in choosing or refusing inoculation.4

One particular moment that is worth noting during a subsequent smallpox outbreak is the death of Jonathan Edwards. On March 22, 1758, Edwards died after receiving the smallpox inoculation. This is chronicled by his great-grandson, Sereno Edwards Dwight, in The Works of President Edwards with a Memoir of His Life. Dwight provides a narrative of Edward’s careful consideration of inoculation and his seeking of counsel before receiving the treatment that caused his death.5 Edwards and multiple family members received the inoculation believing that it was a wise course of action, while entrusting themselves to the Lord. Edwards’ daughter Esther, who was also inoculated, died shortly after her father.

Controversy continued in New England, and also back in London. On July 8, 1772, Edmund Massey preached a sermon at St. Andrew’s Holborn of London entitled A sermon against the dangerous and sinful practice of inoculation.6 This text was republished and circulated in Boston, with Massey denouncing inoculation as a dangerous and sinful attempt to escape God’s judgment or to avoid the testing of one’s faith. Instead of receiving inoculation, Massey argued that one should trust the Lord. In addition to this, Massey argued that medical practitioners are assuming the role of God in intentionally giving the disease to their patients.

John Newton and Liberty of Conscience

As questions of conscience continued with this debate, John Newton wrote a letter of pastoral counsel addressing the ethics of whether or not one should receive inoculation. Instead of taking a position, he offered balanced counsel and argued for the individual to make a decision based upon faith, whether it be to receive inoculation or not, and for all to entrust themselves into the Lord’s providential care.7

In reading multiple sermons and letters from this period, opposing sides of the inoculation debate would manipulate Scripture to advocate for their position, sometimes with both sides using the sixth commandment to argue their case. In contrast to these polar opposites were the voices that appealed to Romans 14 and viewed inoculation as an issue of the liberty of conscience. Over time, this conviction gathered momentum. Instead of a false dilemma between faith and medical care, the emerging consensus was that one could receive the inoculation in faith, and that inoculation was a lawful and legitimate use of means to remove oneself from the harm of the smallpox. Though one’s interpretation of Scripture and medical data might shape one’s decision on whether or not to receive inoculation, the decision must still be made in light of one’s conscience.

Though the controversy surrounding inoculation would subside as the practice became more widely accepted in medicine and in the church, many are faced with similar questions regarding the COVID vaccine today. John Newton’s letter of pastoral counsel regarding smallpox inoculation easily bridges the gap from the past to the present, and it contains wise counsel for today. While Newton was not an advocate for inoculation, he advocated for liberty of conscience while calling his audience to trust the Lord.

Read the full text of Newton’s letter below:

June 3, 1777

Dear Sir,

It seems I must write something about the small-pox, but I know not well what: having had it myself, I cannot judge how I would feel if I were actually exposed to it. I am not a professed advocate for inoculation; but if a person who fears the Lord should tell me, I think I can do it in faith, looking upon it as a salutary expedient, which God in his providence has discovered, and which therefore appears my duty to have recourse to, so that my mind does not hesitate with respect to the lawfulness, nor am I anxious about the event; being satisfied, that whether I live or die, I am in that path in which I can cheerfully expect his blessing; I do not know that I could offer a word by way of dissuasion.

If another person should say, My times are in the Lord’s hands; I am now in health, and am not willing to bring upon myself a disorder, the consequences of which I cannot possibly foresee. If I am to have the small-pox, I believe he is the best judge of the season and manner in which I shall be visited, so as may be most for his glory and my own good; and therefore I choose to wait his appointment, and not to rush upon even the possibility of danger without a call. If the very hairs of my head are numbered, I have no reason to fear that, supposing I receive the smallpox in a natural way, I shall have a single pimple more than he sees expedient; and why should I wish to have one less? Nay, admitting, which however is not always the case, that inoculation might exempt me from some pain and inconvenience, and lessen the apparent danger, might it not likewise, upon that very account, prevent my receiving some of those sweet consolations which I humbly hope my gracious Lord would afford me, if it were his pleasure to call me to a sharp trial? Perhaps the chief design of this trying hour, if it comes, may be to show me more of his wisdom, power, and love, than I have ever yet experienced. If I could devise a means to avoid the trouble, I know not how great a loser I may be in point of grace and comfort. Nor am I afraid of my face; it is now as the Lord, has made it, and it will be so after the small-pox. If it pleases him, I hope it will please me. In short, though I do not censure others, yet, as to myself, inoculation is what I dare not venture upon. If I did venture, and the outcome should not be favorable, I would blame myself for having attempted to take the management out of the Lord’s hands into my own, which I never did yet in other matters, without finding I am no more able than I am worthy to choose for myself. Besides, at the best, inoculation would only secure me from one of the innumerable natural evils the flesh is heir to; I should still be as liable as I am at present to a putrid fever, a bilious colic, an inflammation in the bowels, or in the brain, and a thousand formidable diseases which are hovering round me, and only wait his permission to cut me off in a few days or hours: and therefore I am determined, by his grace, to resign myself to his disposal. Let me fall into the hands of the Lord, (for his mercies are great,), and not into the hands of men.

If a person should talk to me in this strain, most certainly I could not say, Notwithstanding all this, your safest way is to be inoculated.

We preach and hear, and I hope we know something of faith, as enabling us to trust the Lord with our souls. I wish we had all more faith to trust him with our bodies, our health, our provision, and our temporal comforts likewise. The former should seem to require the strongest faith of the two. How strange is it, that when we think we can do the greater, we should be so awkward and unskillful when we aim at the less!

Give my love to your friend. I dare not advise; but if she can quietly return at the usual time, and neither run intentionally into the way of the small-pox, nor run out of the way, but leave it simply with the Lord, I shall not blame her. And if you will mind your praying and preaching, and believe that the Lord can take care of her without any of your contrivances, I shall not blame you. Nay, I shall praise him for you both. My prescription is to read Dr. Watts, Psa. cxxi. every morning before breakfast, and pray it over until the cure is effected. Probatum est.

Hast thou not giv’n thy word,
To save my soul from death?
And I can trust my Lord
To keep my mortal breath.
I’ll go and come,
Nor fear to die,
Till from on high
Thou call me home.

Adieu!

Pray for Yours, &c.

Newton’s application of the doctrine of liberty of conscience is gracious and charitable,"

My prayer for this coming flu season is that liberty and respect for conscience will prevail.  What is your COVID story?

I Corinthians 10:29 I do not mean your conscience, but his. For why should my liberty be determined by someone else's conscience? 30 If I partake with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of that for which I give thanks? 30 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.