The Virginia Gazette

To the CHURCH OF ENGLAND MAN.
All, all, but Truth, drops dead-born from the Press,
Like the last Gazette.

SIR,

YOU have proposed a Method of deciding the Question in Dispute. I accede to it, and will abide by the Consequence. Your Doctrine is, that the Church may be considered as a Society, which always implies Government, and this again a Head; and your Reason, that, without it, Anarchy would ensue. To avoid an Evil so great, you inform us it is a standing Rule of all Societies to choose a Head; and you ask, where then can be the Harm of the Clergy's petitioning for such a Head? What, then, have the Clergy in Reality no Head? Till now, I have understood that the King was their Head; but if they have no Head, how do you make the Church a Society? For, to use your own Words, the Dispute may be settled by considering the CHURCH as a SOCIETY, which ALWAYS implies GOVERNMENT, and THIS again a Head. So that, without a Head, according to the Principle you lay down, No Society can possibly exist; and yet, you tell us, it is the standing Rule of ALL SOCIETIES to choose a HEAD, that is, to choose what they already have, and without which they could not be a Society. Did not the Frontispiece of the Leviathan suggest to you this Argument? It exhibits, if I mistake not, a human Skeleton, the Muscles of which are made up of a Number of Men, with one Head only on its Shoulders. But let us, if possible, pass by this Absurdity, and ask how is this Head to be chosen? We learn, from you, that all the Clergy of the Church of England in Virginia, and all over North America, are upon a Level. This being, as you affirm, notoriously the Case, it follows, according to another of your Positions, there CAN BE No Order or Discipline among them. You, Sir, are equally well acquainted with human Nature, civil Government, and Logick. Blush not at the Compliment, it is literally true.

In Answer to your next Inquiry, can it be supposed that Religion will thrive where there is no Discipline among the Clergy? If I should reply as you wish, what would you gain by it but this obvious Conclusion, that since, according to your former Assertion, there CAN BE No Order or Discipline among them, it will be IMPOSSIBLE for Religion to thrive in the Church of England in America? It is hard to kick against the Pricks! But, however, supposing a Ruler could be chosen, what gives the Clergy a Right to petition for him in Opposition to the Sense of the People? Is the Church composed of the Clergy alone? The only Article in which the Church is defined mentions not one Word of the Clergy. You proceed to ask, can we imagine that their Lives and Conversations will be as orderly where there is no proper Ruler, to reward the Good and punish the Bad, as where there is? By a proper Ruler you can mean only an American Bishop, and by rewarding the Good, and punishing the Bad, Nothing but ecclesiastical Preferments and Penalties. But does not this convey too strongly an Insinuation that without a Living from the Bishop, or the Censure of his Court, the Inspection of the Deity, and the Solemnities of his Tribunal, are incapable of influencing the Conduct of the Clergy? In what a Light do you represent the Ministers of Religion!
The first Sentence of your next Paragraph is, to say the least of it, so egregiously absurd that you will thank me for my Lenity in proceeding to the second: Rewards and Punishments are said to be the Springs of all Government, without which, you add, all virtuous Principles will be starved. If so, what Opinion ought we to entertain of the Founder of our Faith, who withheld from his Apostles those Incentives to Virtue, a rich Livings, and rewarded them only with empty Promises of Heaven? He must certainly have nipped in the Bud every generous and publick spirited Action, by Subjecting them to Persecutions and Martyrdom. It was one of his most express Declarations to the Disciples, that he who would be GREATEST among them should be the Servant of all. No Wonder then that Judas only should be faithful in the Service of his Master!

The Church of Christ, you tell us, for at least the first fifteen Centuries, has been governed by Bishops, as is well known to all conversant in Church History. From what Church History may we gain this Information? We find Nothing of it in the only authentick Record, the Scripture. Christ left no Bishops behind him; his Commission extended no farther than to disciple and baptize; no Corpus Juris Ecclesiastici was bequeathed the Church by ST. PAUL. But, allowing that Bishops have governed so long, of what Kind they have been those who are yet ignorant shall soon be informed. The audacious Attempt which you mention of depriving the American Church of a Bishop was the sole Project of those who refused a Consultation with his Lordship of London, the only Bishop to which the American could ever make the least Pretention. But, consistent Man! you are their Partizan. However, you, perhaps, would suggest that the Church is in Danger of being deprived of what it never had. Witty as the Conceit is, it is not your own; long ago was it invented by Blackmore the Poet:

A painted Vest PRINCE VOLTI GER had on,
Which from a naked Pict his Grandsire won.

Taking Flight from this Topick, you soar away into the Regions of Imagination, with such Strength of Wing that it is by no Means easy to follow. I hope, however, next Week, to make you again my Quarry: and,

Like as a Hawk, that feeling herself freed,
From Bells and Jesses, which did let her Flight,
pursue you with all the Keenness that a Prey so noble deserves.

Till then, farewell.

S. HENLEY.