Sir Thomas Browne and his 'Religio Medici': An AppreciationWhyte, Alexander
Religion
Sir Thomas Browne and his 'Religio Medici': An Appreciation
Whyte, Alexander
Browne, Thomas, Sir, 1605-1682; Browne, Thomas, Sir, 1605-1682. Religio medici
it, nor can I highly love any that is afraid of it: this makes me
naturally love a soldier, and honour those tattered and contemptible
regiments that will die at the command of a sergeant. For a pagan there
may be some motives to be in love with life; but for a Christian to be
amazed at death, I see not how he can escape this dilemma, that he is too
sensible of this life or hopeless of the life to come.
I am naturally bashful, nor hath conversation, age, or travel, been able
to effront or enharden me; yet I have one part of modesty which I have
seldom discovered in another, that is, (to speak truly), I am not so much
afraid of death, as ashamed thereof. It is the very disgrace and
ignominy of our natures, that in a moment can so disfigure us, that our
nearest friends, wife and children stand afraid and start at us. The
birds and beasts of the field, that before in a natural fear obeyed us,
forgetting all allegiance, begin to prey upon us. This very conceit hath
in a tempest disposed and left me willing to be swallowed up in the abyss
of waters; wherein I had perished unseen, unpitied, without wondering
eyes, tears of pity, lectures of mortality, and none had said, _Quantum
mutatus ab illo_! Not that I am ashamed of the anatomy of my parts, or
can accuse nature for playing the bungler in any part of me, or my own
vicious life for contracting any shameful disease upon me, whereby I
might not call myself as wholesome a morsel for the worms as any.
ON HEAVEN
Now, the necessary mansions of our restored selves are those two contrary
and incompatible places we call heaven and hell; to define them, or
strictly to determine what and where these are, surpasseth my divinity.
That elegant apostle which seemed to have a glimpse of heaven hath left
but a negative description thereof: 'which neither eye hath seen, nor ear
hath heard, nor can enter into the heart of man': he was translated out
of himself to behold it; but being returned into himself could not
express it. St. John's description by emeralds, chrysolites, and
precious stones is too weak to express the material heaven we behold.
Briefly, therefore, where the soul hath the full measure and complement
of happiness, where the boundless appetite of that spirit remains
completely satisfied that it can neither desire addition nor alteration,
that I think is truly heaven: and this can only be in the enjoyment of
that essence whose infinite goodness is able to terminate the desires of
itself, and the insatiable wishes of ours; wherever God will thus
manifest Himself, there is heaven, though within the circle of this
sensible world. Thus the soul of man may be in heaven anywhere, even
within the limits of his own proper body; and when it ceaseth to live in
the body it may remain in its own soul, that is, its Creator. And thus
we may say that St. Paul, whether in the body, or out of the body, was
yet in heaven. . . . Moses, that was bred up in all the learning of the
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