and was one of the first that subscribed the Composition but withal sent her a Letter wherein he remitted his whole Debt and desired to see her when her Affair was cleared and she at quiet When she came to him he said He had missed in his aim in what he design'd to procure for her but he would do something himself Shortly after he sent her a good Norwich Stuff that very well clothed her and her Four Children She told me this with many Tears to which I had the more regard because I had long known her to be a Virtuous and very Prudent Woman As Mr. Firmin's Pains and Care in giving forth these Charities were not small so neither were they little in procuring them Not only because many Persons are hardly perswaded to give the Bread of themselves and Families to others but because 't is much more difficult to beg for others than to give ones self He that begs for others must be Master of a great deal of Prudence as well as Wit and Address He must know how to choose the Mollia tempora fandi the fittest opportunity of speaking and when he speaks he must apply himself to those passions of the Person by which only he can be wrought on I remember Mr. Firmin told me of his applying to a Citizen of the highest rank for his Charity in rebuilding St. Thomas's Hospital Of whom he demanded no less than 100 l. The Person had been some way disobliged by the Governours of that Hospital so he refused to subscribe any thing But our Friend seeing him one day among some Friends whom he respected and by whom he was willing to be respected and that also he was in a very good Humour he push'd on his Request for the Hospital and prevailed with him so far as to subscribe the whole 100 l. But to his personal Solicitations he was forced sometimes to add Letters and sometimes succeeded by the Arguments in his Letters better than by the Authority of his personal Mediation I find in one of his Books in the Year 1679. the Sum of 520 l. 6 s. received of seventy two Persons in a Book of the Year 1681. the Sum of 531 l. 19 s. 6 d. received of forty three Persons All these were to be treated with privately and opportunely which required much Time Caution Industry and Discretion which laid out on his own Business what great Effects would it have produced Mr. Firmin might much more easily have been one of the great Men of the World than Almoner General for the Poor and the Hospitals I observe in the same Book of 1681. that the Disbursments against the Sum 531 l. 19 s. 6 d. do amount to 594 15 11. the Balance over paid is 62 15 5. which over-paid Balance is to be found in many of his Accounts and I believe it came out of his own Purse I must note also that the Sums were not given for the Poor alone or for the Spinners alone but of 50 l. given 30 of it is for the Spinners and 20 for the Poor sometimes 20 for the Spinners and 30 for the Poor Elsewhere 100 l. is given 50 for the Poor and 50 for Spinners Another gives 50 l. for Cloth to be divided to the Poor Another 100 l. for the same use Mr. Firmin having set his heart so much on Charity could not but esteem and love Mr. Gouge a Man of the same Spirit whom while he was in London he got to table with him 'T is not to be doubted that 't was the intimate Friendship of these two Persons that gave occasion to that remarkable passage in Dr. Tillotson's Funeral Sermon on Mr. Gouge p. 82. Mr. Gouge was of a disposition ready to imbrace and oblige all Men allowing others to differ from him even in Opinions that were very Dear to him Provided Men did but fear God and work Righteousness he loved them heartily how distant soever from him in Judgment about less Necessary things in which he is worthy to be propounded as an Example to Men of all Persuasions And till the Example is followed the World will never have Peace That great Preacher has given us an account of Mr. Gouges Religious Charity in printing divers good Books in the Welch and English Tongues to be given to those that were Poor and sold to such as could buy them the Chief of those Prints and the most Expensive was an Edition of the Bible and Liturgie in the Welch Tongue no fewer than Eight Thousand Copies of this Work were printed together One cannot question that Mr. Firmin contributed to and procured divers Sums for this excellent Undertaking of his Friend tho' all is attributed to Mr. Gouge who was Chief in that great and good Work After Mr. Gouge's Death I find the Sum of 419 l. 9 s. given to buy a Number of those Bibles whereof Dr. Tillotson then Dean of St. Paul's gave 50 l. Mr. Morrice 67 l. other Persons the rest but there wants in the Receipts 26 l. 13 s. to balance the Disbursment and that I judg was Mr. Firmin's mony Now that we are speaking of Books I ought not to forget that Mr. Firmin often printed Ten thousand Copies of the Scripture-Catechism which some think was written by Dr. Worthington But I have cause to believe that the Author was Dr. Fowler now Bishop of Glocester who in compiling it followed the Method of Dr. Worthington These Mr. Firmin gave to his Spinners and their Children and to the Children of the Hospital engaging them to get it by heart and giving something to those that did He lodged also great Numbers of them with Booksellers at cheaper rates than they were printed that they might be sold also cheaper and thereby be dispersed all over England His Acquaintance might at all times have of them what Numbers they would gratis He valued this Catechism because 't is wholly in the Words of Scripture favours no particular Party or Persuasion and therefore is of general Use the Aim of the Judicious Author being to instruct the Youth and the Ignorant in what all Parties agree is necessary to be believ'd and done leaving it to others to engage 'em in Controversies and Debates In the Year 1680. and 1681. came over the French Protestants new work for Mr. Firmin's Charity and Zeal for of all the Objects of Charity he thought those the most Deserving who were undone for Conscience toward God whether such Conscience be a well-inform'd Conscience or an erroneous and mistaken 'T is not the truth or falshood of the Opinion but the Zeal for God and the sincerity to the dictates of Conscience that makes the Martyr Therefore now our Elemosinary General had to beg not only for the Spinners the Poor of the out-Parishes of London the Redemption of Debtors from Prison for Coals and Shirting but for a vast number of Religious Refugees whose Wants required not only a great but an immediate Succour The first and one of the most
sincerely preached as he then thought and continued still to think of those Points that however no bodies false imputations should provoke him to give ill Language to persons who dissented conscientiously and for weighty reasons That he knew well this was the case of the Socinians for whose learning and dexterity he should always have a respect as well as for their sincerity and exemplariness Afterwards when Mr. Firmin gave him a Copy of the Considerations after he had read it he only said My Lord of Sarum shall humble your Writers Nor did he afterwards at any time express the least coldness on the account of the Answer made to him but used Mr. Firmin as formerly enquiring as he was wonted How does my Son Giles so he called Mr. Firmins Son by his second Wife About the time the Great and Good Archbishop died the Controversie concerning the Trinity and the depending Questions received an unexpected Turn The Vnitarians took notice from D. Petavius Dr. R. Cudworth S. Curcellaeus the Oxford Heads Dr. S th and others that their Opposers agreed indeed in contending for a Trinity of Divine Persons but differed from one another even as much as from the Unitarians concerning what is to be meant by the term Persons Some of 'em say three Divine Persons are three Eternal Infinite Minds Spirits Substances and Beings but others reject this as Heresie Blasphemy and Tritheism These latter affirm that GOD is one Infinite Eternal All-perfect Mind and Spirit and the Trinity of Persons is the Godhead Divine Essence or Divine Substance considered as Vnbegotten Begotten and Proceeding which Modes or Properties they further explain by Original Wisdom Unbegotten and therefore named the Father the reflex Wisdom Logos or WORD which being generated or begotten is called the Son and the eternal Spiration of Divine Love that has therefore the name of Holy Spirit The Vnitarians never intended to oppose any other Trinity but a Trinity of infinite Minds or Spirits grant to 'em that GOD is one Infinite Spirit or Mind not two or three they demand no more They applied themselves therefore to enquire which of these Trinities a Trinity of Spirits or of Properties is the Doctrine of the Catholic Church they could not miss of a ready satisfaction all Systems Catechisms Books of Controversie Councils Writers that have been esteemed Catholic more especially since the General Lateran Council Anno 1215. and the Reformation have defined GOD to be one Infinite All-perfect Spirit and the Divine Persons to be nothing else but the Divine Essence or Godhead with the three relative Properties Unbegotten and Begotten and Proceeding They saw therefore plainly that the difference between the Church and the Vnitarians had arose from a meer mistake of one anothers meaning a mistake occasioned chiefly by the unscriptural terms Trinity Persons and such like They resolved that it became them as good Christians to seek the Peace of the Catholic Church and not to litigate about Terms tho never so unproper or implying only Trifles when the things intended by those Terms are not unsound or heterodox These Honest Pacific Inclinations of men who drove no design in their dissent from the Church gave birth to the Agreement between the Unitarians and the Catholic Church a Book written at the instance chiefly of Mr. Firmin in Answer to Mr. Edwards the Bishops of Worcester Sarum and Chichester and Monsieur de Luzanzy I need not to say what will be owned by every Ingenuous Learned Person without hesitance that the Agreement is as well the Doctrine of the Catholic Church as of the Vnitarians and that in all the points so long and fiercely debated and controverted by the Writers of this and of former Ages It must be confest the hands of a great many excellent Persons did concur to this Re-union of Parties that seemed so widely and unreconcilably divided and did encourage the Author of the Agreement in his disinteressed laborious searches into Antiquity and other parts of Learning and several learned men some of them Authors in the Socinian or Vnitarian way examined the Work with the Candor and Ingenuity that is as necessary in such cases as Learning or Judgment are Mr. Firmin publisht it when examined and corrected with more satisfaction than he had before given forth so many Eristic Writings I did not wonder however that our Friend was so ready to embrace a reconciliation with the Church for he was ever a lover of Peace and always conformed as far as he could according to that direction of the Apostle Whereunto we have already attained let us walk by the same Rule Which with the best Interpreters he understood thus Conform to the Doctrines Terms and Usages that are commonly received as far as you can if in some things you differ from the Church yet agree with her and walk by her Rule to the utmost that in Conscience you may or as the Apostle himself words it so far as or whereunto you have attained From this Principle it was that our Friend never approved of those who separate from the communion of the Church on the account of Ceremonies Habits form of Government or other mere Circumstantials of Religion He was wont to tell such that seeing 't was undeniable they might communicate with the Church without either sin or scandal and did communicate on some occasions it is therefore both scandal and sin to separate and divide With this he silenced many and reclaimed divers In the Year 1658. the Vnitarians were banisht out of Poland the occasion this Poland had been long harass'd with most dangerous Civil and Foreign Wars insomuch that at one time there were in Arms in Poland Lithuania and the Vkrain One hundred and fourscore thousand Poles as many Tartars and two hundred thousand Cossacks besides powerful Bodies of Austrians and Transilvanians which attacked Poland on the West and South The ravages and desolations committed and caused so by many great Armies in a Country that has but few fortified Places were unexpressible Poland therefore was reduced to such a feeble and desperate condition that their King himself withdrew and the King of Swedes took the advantage of their confusion and low estate to invade them with Forty thousand men regular Troops He took the Cities of Warsaw and Cracow and with them almost all Poland he constrained the Polanders to take an Oath of Subjection and Allegiance to him which Oath was first submitted unto and taken by the Roman-Catholies then by the Protestants and not till last of all by the Vnitarians But the Swedish King engaging himself in other Wars particularly with Denmark and in Germany John Casimire King of Poland appeared again and the Poles generally joining their King at length drove the Swedes out of Poland the Swedish King found himself obliged to condescend to a reasonable Peace with King Casimire As the Vnitarians were the last that submitted to the obedience of Swedeland so being bound thereto by an Oath they did not
Thomas Hospital petitioned the House of Commons to have some share in that Tax toward the Rebuilding their Church but because many other Parishes prayed the like assistance at the same time the House upon a debate in a Grand Committee resolved that only St. Paul's and Westminster-Abby Churches should have any such provision allowed to them Mr. Firmin hereupon came home not a little heavy but he and another of the Governours put into Writing that very night some reasons why St. Thomas his Church might better claim some favour of the Honourable House than other ordinary Churches They used such diligence as to get their Paper printed against the next morning Mr. Firmin and his Associate gave copies of it to the Members as they entered the House telling them they must not expect to have any sick or wounded Seamen cur'd if they did not grant something towards the Rebuilding of that Church The effect was that the House took the matter again into consideration and allowed 3000 l. to the Hospital for the use desired On which our Friend came home with more pleasure and satisfaction than if an Estate of that value had fallen to himself Among his other Charities he was not unmindful of those that suffered by Fire but would immediately apply himself to 'em for their present Relief afterwards he assisted 'em in soliciting their Briefs and to manage their Briefs when obtained to the best advantage He often lent mony to honest persons to answer sudden emergences or distresses but he lost so much this way that he was forced at last resolutely to forbear lending but instead of lending he would many times give some part of what they desired to borrow He put very many Boys to Apprentiships and contributed to setting them up if they had served their Apprentiships faithfully and diligently He has told me that the Clergy of London and other dignified Persons in the Church often enabled him in this kind of Charity He said he had put many Boys out with the mony of some of the richer Clergy who considered this he thought as a sort of Charity that extends to the person 's whole life and might be the ground of many Charities in time to come It deserves in my opinion to be reckoned among his Charities that when some two or three years since there was a great Scarcity of current Coin all the mony in England being either clipp'd or debas'd by mixture of coarse metals he lessened his expence by laying down his Coach that he might be the more able to continue his former Charities at a time when they were more needful than ever I have now accounted for the general Endeavours and Performances of Mr. Firmin's Life the particulars to each general Head were too numerous to be reckoned up without tiring the Reader if not also the Writer But we have taken tho' but a short view of a Person of middle Extraction and slender Beginnings who raised himself to the honor of a very great number of Illustrious Friendships and to an affluence of Worldly Wealth To which when he had attained by Industry Integrity and Worth like our Saviour He went about doing good Nay like the same our Saviour He became Poor that through his Poverty others might be Rich. A Person who in respect of his endeavours in all kinds of Charity may deservedly be called the Father of the Poor in respect of the Irish and French Resugees the Almoner of England The Divine Hand had qualified him to do much Good himself sought out the Objects and Occasions for it and delighted in the doing He did it with so much diligence and application that he might even have said with our Saviour My meat is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish his Works i. e. the Works that he hath commanded John 4.34 The Jesuit that assisted the late famous Marshal Luxemburgh in his last hours thought he might put this question to him Well Sir tell me had you not rather now to have given one Alms to a poor Man in his distress for God's sake than to have won so many Victories in the Field of Battel The Marshal confess'd he should now choose the former seeing nothing will avail any man in the Eternal World but only the Actions of Charity or of Justice and Piety The Confessor doth not seem to have been impertinent in the question for in our serious last hours we shall all be sensible and forward to confess that we were Wise only in that part of our life that was laid out in the duties either of Humanity to Men or Piety to God The Crassi and Craesi the Hannibals and Luxemburghs the most conspicuous for Wealth or Military Glory how gladly would they now give all that Tinsel for some part of our Firmin's Sweat and Drudgeries for the Poor and for the Deserving Is it for want of FAITH or of CONSIDERATION that we so much more delight to read the Acts of the Alexanders the Charlemains and other false Heroes than of Persons that have been exemplary for Justice Beneficence or Devotion and are now Triumphant in Heaven on the account of those Services to God and to Men But so it is either because we are not Christians or because we are Fools we are commonly speaking better pleased with the Sons of Earth than of Heaven I have read somewhere but so long since that I forget the Author's Name and the Subject of his Book that the Punishment of Judas who betray'd our Saviour is that he stands on the surface of a swelling dreadful Sea with his Feet somewhat below the water as if he were about to sink The Writer saith besides his continual horror and fear of going to the bottom a most terrible Tempest of Hail and Wind always beats on the Traitors naked body and head he suffers as much by Cold and the smart of the impetuous Hail as 't is possible to imagine that he could suffer by the Fire of Purgatory or of Hell But saith my Author further in this so great distress Judas has one very great Comfort and Relief for whereas the Tempest would be importable if it beat always upon him from all sides at a little distance from him and somewhat above him there is stretched out a sheet of strong coarse Linen-cloth which sheet intercepts a great part of the Tempest Judas regales himself by turning sometimes one side sometimes another side of his head and body to the shelter of this sheet In short the sheet is such a Protection to him that it defends him from the one half of his Punishment But by what meritorious Action or Actions did Judas deserve so great a Favour Our Author answers He gave just the same quantity of Linen-cloth to a certain poor Family for Shirting It had been impossible that this Gentleman should hit on such a conceit as this but from our Natural Opinion of the value and merit of Charity it seems to us a
Virtue so Excellent that it may excuse even Judas from some part of his Punishment I can hardly afford to ask the Reader 's pardon for this Tale I incline to think that divers others may be as well pleased with the Wit of it and the Moral implyed in it as I have been who remember it after above 40 years reading without remembring either the Author or Argument of the Book I return once more to our dear Firmin to take leave of him forever He had very much weakned his otherwise strong and firm Constitution by his manifold Charitable Imployments c. having been sometimes liable to Jaundies often afflicted with Colicks and scarce ever without a Cough his Lungs had long been Ptysical He would often return home so tired and depressed in his Spirits that his Pulse was scarce to be felt or very languid he would then take a little rest in his Chair and start up out of it and appear very vigorous in Company especially where any good was to be done The more immediate cause of his death was a Fever which seiz'd his Spirits beginning with a chilness and shivering and then a heat ensued He was at the same time afflicted both in his Lungs with a great shortness of breath not having strength to expectorate and also with such terrible pains in his Bowels that for many hours nothing could be made to pass him He had for many years been troubled with a large Rupture All which made his Sickness very short He had wisht in his life-time that he might not lie above two days on his last Sick-bed God granted to him his desire he lay not so long by eight hours And Decemb. 20. about two of the Clock in the morning Anno 1697. he died During his decumbiture he was visited by his most dear Friend the Bishop of Glocester What passed between em his Lordship hath made me to know under his own hand in these words Mr. Firmin told me he was now going and I trust said he God will not condemn me to worse Company than I have loved and used in the present Life I replied That he had been an extraordinary Example of Charity the Poor had a wonderful Blessing in you I doubt not these works will follow you if you have no expectation from the merit of them but rely on the infinite Goodness of God and the Merits of our Saviour Here he answered I do so and I say in the words of my Saviour When I have done all I am but an unprofitable Servant He was in such an Agony of body for want of breath that I did not think fit to speak more to him but only give him assurance of my earnest Prayers for him while he remained in this World Then I took solemn and affectionate farewel of him and he of me It is usual to conclude Lives with a character of the Persons both as to their Bodies and the qualities of their Minds Therefore I must further add Mr. Firmin was of a lower Stature well proportioned his Complexion fair and bright his Eye and Countenance lively his Aspect manly and promising somewhat extraordinary you would readily take him for a Man of good Sense Worth and Dignity Walking or Sitting he appeared more comely than standing still for his Mein and Action gave a gracefulness to his Person The endowments inclinations and qualities of his Mind may be best judged by the account we have given of his Life It appears he was quick of apprehension and dispatch and yet almost indefatigably Industrious properties that very rarely meet in the same Man He was besides Inquisitive and very Ingenious that is he had a thirst of knowing much and his fine and mercurial Wit enabled him to acquire a large Knowledg with little labour but he was utterly against subtilties in Religion He could not dissemble on the contrary you might easily perceive his love or anger his liking or dislike methoughts in both these respects he was rather too open but both are the effects of sincerity and arguments of an honest mind He never affected proudly the respects of others whether above or below him with which I was the better satisfied because it follows that his Charities proceeded not from any affectation of Honour or Glory among Men but from the love of God and his afflicted Brother He was Facetious enough but without affecting it for he valued what indeed himself excelled in Judgment rather than Wit He was neither presuming or over-bold nor yet timorous a little prone to Anger but never excessive in it either as to measure or time which Acrasies whether you say of the Body or Mind occasion great Uneasiness and sometimes great Calamities and Mischiefs to Persons who are ridden by those Passions If the mind is turbulent by strong Passions of any sort the life is seldom serene and calm but vexed with great Griefs and Misadventure His manner of Conversing was agreeable so that seldom any broke friendship with him Being well assured in himself of his own Integrity he could even unconcernedly hear that this or that Man spoke ill of him When I told him of that infamous Story of the impudent Coffee-Man which had been broached 6 or 7 years before had he not been over persuaded he would not have taken any notice of him Yet was more concern'd at Mr. B's printing it than at the other fellow 's inventing it not from the least consciousness of guilt but that he should be so unchristianly us'd by a Minister of the Gospel who too rashly took up the Story against him Which shews what strange things may be done under pretence of a Zeal for Religion My Lady Clayton has so great a Respect for his Memory that she has with the concurrence of Sir Robert since his death erected a handsom Monument in their Garden at Marden in Surry in a Walk there called Mr. Firmin's Walk by reason of his Contrivance and Activity in it This Monument is a Marble-pillar about eight foot high with an Urn and Flowers growing out of the top of it with this Motto Florescit funere virtus an Emblem you may conceive of Death and Resurrection There is also a Marble-table fix'd to one side of this Pillar with the Inscription following To perpetuate as far as Marble and Love can do it the Memory of Thomas Firmin Citizen of London NONE ever pass'd the several periods of Human Life more irreprochably or perform'd the common Duties of Society with greater Sincerity and Approbation Though it appears by his public Spirit that he thought himself born rather for the Benefit of others than his own private Advantage yet the satisfaction of doing Good and the universal Esteem of honest men made him the happiest Person in the World But his Charity which was not confin'd to any Nation Sect or Party is most worthy thy Imitation at least in some degree O Reader He was as Liberal of his own as Faithful in Distributing the pious Donations