1. In order to repel the shocking and groundless imputation which I
understand that some pains have been taken to fix upon me, I do not
mean by you, sir, for you know the contrary that the object of my late
publication was to aim at destroying all religion, and the annihilation
of the publick worship of God, a charge which I reject with horror, and
also with bitter indignation, that it should ever have been attributed
to me. God forbid! that the publick worship and stated reverence which
all ought to pay to the Great and Tremendous Being from whom we receive
life and its every blessing; and to whose Providence we are subject;
and by whose goodness we are sustained, should ever be caused to be
neglected, or forgotten, by any man, or by the subvertion of any
opinions whatever. The propriety of the publick worship of God stands
independent and without need of support from the peculiar doctrines of
any sect. And the idea that this great duty would be superceded by the
dismission of the New Testament is so utterly groundless and absurd:
that to make it appear so, any man has only to recollect that the
public worship of the Supreme existed before the New Testament was
written or thought of; and to look round the world and see millions of
men worshipping God in houses of prayer, who know nothing about the New
Testament except by report. I regard, sir, the imputation I have spoken
of, as either a gross mistake of the simple, or a cunning and
deliberate calumny of the crafty. I have made this statement and
representation to show, that it does not follow, that in giving up the
New Testament Christians will be deprived of all religion. For in
retaining the Old Testament they would adopt nothing new, and would
retain nothing but what they now acknowledge as containing a divine
revelation; and in giving up the New Testament they would not, as I
think has been shown, give up a jot of what had ever any right to the
name of Scripture.
Whether however, people give up both, or retain one, or both, is their
concern. I have stated what I have merely to show, that in giving up
the New Testament they would not necessarily give up more than a part
of their bibles, or any part of their bible, except that whose
authenticity cannot be proved; nor any more of their faith, than that
part of it which for almost eighteen hundred years has produced
interminable disputes among themselves and misfortunes, and causeless
reproach to others.
"With great regard, and the most respectful esteem, I subscribe myself,
Reverend Sir, Your obliged and humble servant