Benjamin Franklin

本杰明·富兰克林

Franklin's parents were both pious¹ Puritans. The family attended the old South Church, the most liberal Puritan congregation in Boston, where Benjamin Franklin was baptized in 1706.

富兰克林的双亲皆为虔诚的清教徒，他们加入了波士顿最自由的清教徒们所参加的古老的南方教堂，富兰克林也于1706年在那里受洗礼。

Franklin's father, a poor chandler, owned a copy of a book, Bonifacius: Essays to Do Good, by the Puritan preacher and family friend Cotton Mather, which Franklin often cited as a key influence on his life. The book preached the importance of forming voluntary associations to benefit society. Franklin learned about forming do-good associations from Cotton Mather, but his organizational skills made him the most influential² force in making voluntarism an enduring part of the American ethos.

他的父亲是位贫困的杂货商，拥有一本Bonifacius的书，书名为:行善箴言，这本书是一个清教传教士也是富兰克林家族的朋友Cotton Mather写的。此人对富兰克林的人生产生了关键性的影响。书中亦提及:成立志愿协会对社会的好处。从Cotton Mather身上，富兰克林得知成立行善协会将会对社会产生贡献，但富兰克林的组织才能使其成为影响形成美国人坚忍个性的最主要力量。

Franklin formulated³ a presentation of his beliefs and published it in 1728. It did not mention many of the Puritan ideas as regards belief in salvation⁴, the divinity of Jesus,and indeed most religious dogma. He clarified himself as a deist in his 1771 autobiography⁵, although he still considered himself a Christian⁶. He retained a strong faith in a God as the wellspring of morality and goodness in man, and as a providential actor in history responsible for American independence.

富兰克林在1728年公开了他的信仰并出版了一本书，书中并未提及诸多清教徒们的思想，像救世、地狱、耶稣的神威等等。他也在1776年的自传中澄清，自己身为一位自然神论者，虽然他仍保有着对上帝的坚强的信念:道德善良的人们及清教徒对美国独立的责任。

When he stopped attending church, Franklin wrote in his autobiography: "Sunday being my studying day, I never was without some religious principles.I never doubted, for instance, the existence of the Deity⁷; that He made the world, and governed it by His providence⁸; that the most acceptable service of God was the doing good to man; that our souls are immortal;and that all crime will be punished, and virtue⁹ rewarded, either here or hereafter."

当富兰克林停止去教会后，他在他的自传中写道，“星期天是我学习的日子，我坚守信仰且从未怀疑过，比如我相信:神的存在;他创造了这个世界，并以他的远见来治理，最令人接受的服务

，便是对人类做些有益的事;我们的灵魂是不朽的，不论现在或未来，所有的罪犯都将受到惩处，而坚贞的美德都将受到赞赏。”