The Virginia Gazette

To the PRINTER.

SIR,

THESE give you to understand, that I have agreed with my Hybernian Relation to make one in a Debate out of Doors, and chuse you, who are the only proper Person for that Office, to be the Speaker of our Society. My Part now comes on, who am appointed to second the Motion of Philo-Virginia, and that you may not be at a Loss for my Name, it is Philo-Bombastia, and therefore Mr. Hunter.

Mr. Hunter, Mr. Bombastia.

THE Gentleman, who spoke last, by the Perfection of his Stile, deep Erudition, and great Reading, very much conciliates my Veneration. It is not without excruciating Reflections upon my own Inabilities, that I presume to come next to so deep a Reasoner, and so great a Master of elegant Composition. However, that I may discharge the Part I have undertaken (which it is too late to relinquish) as well as I can, I shall methodically take a View of the Foundation, which my Precursor has laid, and then proceed to the Superstructure left for me to erect.

My noble Precursor has demonstrated with all the profound Learning, and masterly Reasoning peculiar to his Speeches, the Necessity of Religion in general, by a very short, but most convincing Argument, the Authority of Mr. Warburton. He has next given the Religion of Jesus the Preference to all others, not principally for the Sake of its divine Original, which he has with great Judgment used only as a collateral or secondary Argument, thrown in par parenthèse, but for its being the generous Religion of Patriots, in which indeed it is peculiar, and distinguished from all other Religions. For it is very plain, especially to Persons of his Reading, that the Religion of Pagans never was the Religion of Patriots, nor the Religion of Mahomet either is, or ever will be the Religion of Patriots; that there were no Patriots among the ancient Greeks and Romans, nor are to this Day, or ever can be, in Turkey, or any Asiatic Government, while they continue of their present Perswasion.

I cannot agree so entirely with my generous Precursor in the next Article, which he most orderly takes in Hand. For I own he appears to me too partial to the Church of England, and much too liberal of his Compliments to the Ministers of that Church. He has conceived so high an Opinion of their Abilities, that he supposes them sent to convince those, who can live in contented Ignorance of revealed Religion, though shining round them with Almighty Evidence. Now there is an Ignorance, which is more than contented,—which is a happy one, and conceits itself to be Learning, known vulgarly by the Name of a Fool's Paradise; but how this, or any other Ignorance, which can resist Almighty Evidence, when offered to it, can be removed by our Parsons, is beyond my Comprehension. He supposes it to be the generous Business of the same Ministers to concur with the Magistracy in humanising a Savage World; but this is more than the most sanguine of them ever undertook. They meddle with no such mighty Difficulties, thank ye,—they pretend only to do their best in propagating the Christian Faith in civilized Countries,—they concur with the Magistracy in humanizing a Savage World! I would fain see one of them concurring with the Magistracy of a single Savage Nation, in Order to humanize it. The most ancient Propagators of Christianity were not so visionary as to attempt concurring with the Magistracy even of polite Nations; —they only desired the Magistrates to concur with them, reproving, and rebuking them for a Refusal; which Humour of theirs much increased the Catalogue of Martyrs. But if this be not sufficient to satisfy my Precursor in the Point, I can produce two favourite Authors, to whose Judgment he pays a most implicit Regard; I mean Mr. Warburton, and HIMSELF.

I shall not affront his extensive Reading in Mr. Warburton so far as to quote a Passage from that Author; but as it is possible, he may have forgotten, what he has said himself (a Qualification commonly possessed by great Men) the Words I allude to are these, Christianity is not the Artifice of Politicians to awe the unruly Populace, but bears the most incontestable Credentials of its divine Original, and is chiefly intended and adapted to form us for a happy Immortality; yet it has the strongest Tendency to promote the Weal of Mankind in a civil Capacity. As to putting the Reins of licentious Appetite into the controuling Hands of Conscience; explaining and inculcating the Duties of a social Life; as well as shewing Men the Way of Salvation. I am afraid the first depends as much upon the Will of his meanest Parishioner, as upon the good Doctor himself,—that the second is no Part of his Aim, except it should happen to be included in the last (as it is not impossible but it may) which last, I take to be all that the Parson (whom my Precursor's too great Fondness for the ministerial Function has made so formidable a Hero of) undertakes to accomplish. He might therefore have been more sparing in his Panegyrick, without Fear of being characterized either for a Bigot, or a Free-Thinker. However I am glad to observe, that though this Fear kept him from attacking the whole Set, yet it could not keep him from being so just as to own, that some of the Clergy, without naming whom, are useless Lumber, or public Nuisances, —that to raise any of them above Want, and extricate them from the Hurries, and Incumbrances of Life, must indeed appear highly reasonable to their Friends, but whether it can do so to any Body else, he is not so hardy as to affirm.

It is a sensible Pleasure to find one, who is violently attached to the Interest of the Clergy, go thus far; but, as I profess myself not their Friend; I cannot but remark to my own Honour, that however I may be inferior in Talents to my generous, and erudite Precursor, I am in this Respect fitter to display that Scheme in its full Latitude, which he was fittest to begin. Tho' he was fittest to speak; I am fittest to speak out.

Our Foundation then consists of the following Arguments.

1. The Number of bad Clergymen (which is our Corner Stone.)

2. Dissenters are ready to flock from Pennylvania, that moderate Government; and Ireland, where they groan under the Burden of exorbitant Tithes and Decimations, in their native Country.

3. Young Pennylvania flourishes more than old Virginia; and that without eternal Piddling about that sovereign Weed Tobacco.

4. Philadelphia is the Mart of Nations, who unite their various Arts, and exert their different Geniuses to make it flourish with a blended Profusion of all the useful Peculiarities of most of the European Nations.

5. Protestant Dissenters are a laborious People.

6. Dissenters have Religion enough to render them good Subjects.

7. This Colony has Room enough to spare for an Inundation of them.

8. That the Hybernians are great Fortune Hunters.

This is our Bottom, and the great Top suitable to it is extensive Toleration, which it is now my Province to raise.

1. This extensive Toleration must exceed that allowed by Act of Parliament; otherwise it would be no Remedy for those Burdens mentioned in the second Argument.

2. It must not be so narrow as that mentioned by Dr. Swift, who in his Sentiments of a Church of England Man (a Piece not worth Reading) impudently says, Sects in a State seem only tolerated with any Reason, because they are already spread, and because it would not be agreeable with so mild a Government, or so pure a Religion as ours, to use violent Methods against great Numbers of mistaken People, while they do not manifestly endanger the Constitution of either. But the greatest Advocates for general Liberty of Conscience will allow they ought to be check'd in their Beginnings, if they will allow them to be any Evil at all; or, which is the same Thing, if they will only grant, it were better for the Peace of the State, that there should be none.

3. This extensive Toleration must extend to the State, as well as the Church. I am as great a Friend to the one, as my Precursor is to the other; and therefore since he would not abuse the whole Set of Clergy, lest he should be accounted a Free-Thinker, so neither will I abuse the whole Set of Magistrates, lest I should be reckon'd a Highway-Man, or a Robber,—an Independent, a Leveller, and an Enemy to all Government.

But, I hope I may say, without Offence, that if some Justices, and Militia-Officers, are not useless Lumber, and public Nuisances, or have not fallen under just Contempt, yet they are no very great Credit to their Order.

Now a Toleration to admit Protestant Dissenters of every Denomination to all Offices of State would be full as good a Sink to carry off our ill-qualified Magistrates, as the extensive Toleration of dissenting Preachers to receive our ill-qualified Clergy; and which of the two Bodies of Men want draining the most, is perhaps not so easy to determine, as it may appear to every Superficial Observer. Besides the sixth Argument of our Foundation tells us, that Protestant Dissenters have Religion enough to be good Subjects, which qualifies them for an Office in the State; but it does not say, whether they have Religion enough to be good Christians, which would be one Qualification of tolerable Importance for Preachers. The fifth Argument says, that Dissenters are a laborious People; and it is well known from History that they are full as laborious to gain Offices in the State, as Offices in the Church,—think their being kept from the one as burdensome, and as great a Hardship, as their being refused the Benefits of the other, and love to go a Colonelling as much as any People under the Sun. Let us therefore pass as many Compliments, as you please, upon our old, and present Magistrates, but let us make a Law to encourage the new ones.

4. This extensive Toleration must not only take in Protestant Dissenters of all Kinds (under which Term, we comprehend Free-Thinkers, Infidels, Jacobites, and Convicts, who are State-Dissenters) but also Roman Catholicks themselves. The Roman Catholicks want the most of any People to be relieved from the Burdens complain'd of in the second Argument.

We cannot without them import all the useful Peculiarities of European Nations recommended in the fourth Argument. They are a laborious indefatigable People to obtain Offices of Church, and State; as The Toleration, which this impertinent Writer on Government, and low Dabbler in Politicks, would have, will never answer any of the Purposes intended by the Arguments, which make our Foundation.
Well as those mentioned in the fifth Argument. They will help to fill up the vacant Places of the Colony, upon Mississippi, according to the seventh Argument. And I know not, why they should not have their Share of Fortune-hunting with the other Hibernians in the eighth Argument. Why should one Part of the Kingdom for God's Sake, be suffered to runaway with all the Indian Queens, and Princesses.

Thus I have shewn you that extensive Toleration, which is design'd to make us wiser than our Mother Country.---which will make England a Land of Slavery in Comparison of Virginia for Liberty.---Liberty!---O charming Liberty! Sing lo Triumph to Liberty. Do not, pray Gentlemen, put such a Disgrace upon the Goddess, as to make her come in at the Back-door, and then banish her behind the Mountain-Springs, which send forth irriguous Streams from the Foot of the American Alps, as my Precursor so sublimely proposes. No, let the Fore-door be thrown open to welcome her and her Attendant Anarchy, and her Votaries of all Sorts; ---make the Gap wider if possible, that their Entrance may be render'd as august as can be imagined, and a Fig for such narrow Limits as the Lands of Mississippi ;---let them revel from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific, and that you may be true Worshippers of Liberty make your Negroes as free as yourselves. Then shall you be delivered from such Lumber and publick Nuisances,--- Then shall you out-do Philadelphia for Variety of Peculiarities, and grow as rich as Pennsylvania herself, without planting that sovereign Weed, which was never yet planted in Pennsylvania.

It is therefore humbly submitted to the Legislature, whether the passing an Act to admit all Persons of all Nations and Opinions, from all Parts of the World, to be naturalized and tolerated, and to enjoy any Office in Church, or State, throughout the Colony of Virginia, and to set all Slaves free in this Country of Liberty, would not be for the publick Utility? 'Tis probable some Petitions may be presented for this Purpose, and this is only intended to introduce them.