Benjamin Franklin, Self-Revealed, Volume 1 (of 2): A Biographical and Critical Study Based Mainly on his own Writings — John Shaqi
Benjamin Franklin, Self-Revealed, Volume 1 (of 2): A Biographical and Critical Study Based Mainly on his own WritingsBruce, Wiliam Cabell
History
Benjamin Franklin, Self-Revealed, Volume 1 (of 2): A Biographical and Critical Study Based Mainly on his own Writings
Bruce, Wiliam Cabell
Franklin, Benjamin, 1706-1790
different set of Bishops and Archbishops and perhaps the Bishop of Derry,
who was a man of liberal sentiments, might give them orders as of the Irish
Church. If both Britain and Ireland refused them (and he was not sure that
the Bishops of Denmark or Sweden would ordain them unless they became
Lutherans), then, in his humble opinion, next to becoming Presbyterians,
the Episcopal Clergy of America could not do better than follow the example
of the first Clergy of Scotland, who, when a similar difficulty arose,
assembled in the Cathedral, and the Mitre, Crosier and Robes of a Bishop
being laid upon the Altar, after earnest prayers for direction in their
choice, elected one of their own number; when the King said to him:
"_Arise, go to the Altar, and receive your Office at the Hand of God._" If
the British Isles were sunk in the sea, he continued (and the surface of
the Globe had suffered greater changes), his correspondents would probably
take some such method as this, and persistence in the denial of ordination
to them by the English Church came to the same thing. A hundred years
later, when people were more enlightened, it would be wondered at that men
in America, qualified by their learning and piety to pray for, and
instruct, their neighbors, should not be permitted to do it until they had
made a voyage of six thousand miles out and home to ask leave of a cross
old gentleman at Canterbury who seemed, by the account of his
correspondents, to have as little regard for the souls of the People of
Maryland as King William's Attorney-General Seymour had for those of the
People of Virginia, when, in reply to the reminder of the Reverend
Commissary Blair of William and Mary College that the latter had souls to
be saved as well as the People of England, he exclaimed: "_Souls!_ damn
your Souls. Make Tobacco."
Here we have Franklin absolutely _in puris naturalibus_ as respects the
sacerdotal side of Religion, lavishing upon his correspondents in a single
letter a series of half-serious, half-mocking sentiments flavored with some
of his best intellectual qualities, and doubtless leaving them in a teasing
state of uncertainty as to whether he intended to ridicule them or not. In
the light of such a letter as this, the reader will hardly be surprised to
learn that he did not quit the world until he had put on record his high
opinion of heretics. After asking Benjamin Vaughan in one of his letters
about a year and a half before his death, to remember him affectionately to
the "honest" heretic, Doctor Priestley, he said:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account