Republican ledger, and Portsmouth price current — Portsmouth, N.H., 1803-04-19 00:00:00, page 2

Miscellany,
A LETTER
To THOMAS PAINE.
Great Pulley, 21st, Feb. 1803. _
Sir,
In the Aurora of the firft inst. appeared a
letter addrelfed to you by the piou^and ven
erable patriot Samuel Adams. Aour an
swer, which the fame paper preferred to the
public, merited in my opinion, a reply.
For that reply I have till this time waited
in .vain. I therefore, take the liberty of
tranfmiting to you, by the lame publick con
veyance, a few thoughts on the muff promi
rnt parts of your fetter; This liberty 1
am pet funded you will indulge in one who
with pteafure, and with gratitude to the au
thor, often reviews the intrinh; merit and
memorable efEclsof your wrrin'js in favour
of the in Impendence id the Uni . jiaos.
“ The books, you fay, that compole the
New THLn. nt were voted by yeas and
nays, to be the Word of G )d, as we now
vote a law, by the ponlfh councils of Nice
and Laodicea about 1450 years ago. This
vote may appear authority enough to some,
& not authority enough to others. It is proper
however, that every body Should know the
fad " You also affirm that “ BiShop Wat
lon acknowledged this fact.
This, iir, is an extraordicirv paragraph.
But the mild and forbearin ;ip ' of the gof
pc! and the example 6is benet xnt author
forbid me to ufe,he language, here which to
many, it may feeru to merit. Far am I
from charging you with the base crime of
intentional falsehood. I (hall not ascribe
to you, an ignorance of ecciefiaftical hifthry
which would be reproachful toa febooi boy
profeffing to have read it. I Shall impute
to inadvertence, or precipitance, or some
less culpable cause a Statement in this para
graph, which is absolutely talfe. The idea
which yo u mean to convey and impress is
(in your own words extracted from the Age
of Reason) that "there was no such book as
the New Testament till near 300 years after
the time that Christ is sud to have lived:"
or that the origin of that book was not believ
ed to be divine before the council of Nice or
Laodicea.
You well know, fir that Clemens, Igna
tius, and Polycarp were contemporary with
the apostles themselves. You well know
that Justin, Irenceus, Theophilas Melifo
and Tertullian lived in the ficond century
immediately succeeding those who were the
companions of the apoltics. You are not
ignorant that Julious Africanus, Aruunious
Origen, arid Dionyfin^ of AeXar dria lived
and wrote before the year 300. Anri if
when writing to Mr. Adams, you had cai
led up your hirtoricai k^owEdge you would
have been prbcFv Convinced that by the
writings of these diflinguifhed non collec
tively taken, the following prop ditions are
proved to be tide ; viz. from tue timcort
the apostle, the books which compefe the
New Testament, were quoted aml alluded
to with peculiar i;f r r'&'as books (acr.rl,'i
vine anl infallible—Th y were colteacd in
to a dillu,a iphiue ; publicly re^d and ex
pounded in odigions ailcmblics : commen
taries on them wriricu an 4 formal catalogues
ofthm pnb!dh.:ddong before the council al
Nice - Lio Ucva. Lithe year 1,8 Murilo
expressly dittin urihes the o'4 1 citamer'
from the N'w. A ten: 20 years later this
volume is by Terurllian tailed “ the New
Testament."—Aid yet unfortunately for
you,thru' your zeal tor rifiidity you havejo
the age of reason afford and m your lever
to Mr. Adapts itf^trt that no such buck
as torN v Teftamcm e.\;.'t,l till more than
300 •,. "sotn.r the time orCbrid. Ft hr
prop". .;.,„- ,I without kny hatred, affirm or
be true. A lit is proper that mmy body
lh':x id kr '^faa."
F<T.^W\ n,ti,ouohfowe. "a zeknow
^.\ ^'< dt of yo! r ul. urn Permit
^. :h°: impeacbmr yoor veracity, to
r.^.w;' four ^o'roccepuon pf the meaning
o' ^.t rH^r^ly drained ant pious prelate
whole candor in controversy, is a mod ami
able pattern to infidels and to Christians.
He telis you that 27 books or parts compose.
the New Testament : that refpeaing seven
(and those the shortest) of those parts fume
doubts were at firft entertained ; and that
the queftiop concerning thefe might be decided,
as all questions concerning opinions must be,
by vote. But he tells us further (and gives
you authority for what he fays) that “ the
other 20 parts were owned as canonical at all
times, and by ail Chriltiaus." " I hold it,"
faith he, “ to be a certain faa that ai/the
books of which the New Teflament is com
posed, were written, and most of them recero
edby all chriftians, within a few years after
his "death." Is this what you call an ac
knowledgement that the books which com
pose the New Testament, were voted by
yeas and nays to be the word of God about
1450 years, ago.
And what if your affection were literally
true ? What if, not only seven but all the
books which compose the New Testament
had been actually declared, by a vote of the
nation.
You address to Mr. Adam<, a fcriptqre
phrase for those Clergymen ,who have
co-operated with certain statesmen to abo
liih oUr Reprefentruve fyftrm of govern
ment : " T rou (halt not revile the gods,
nor curse the rulers of thy people," " But
those ministers, you fay, such as Doctor
Emmons, curse the rulers and people both
for the majority are politically the people."
I am one of those whom you arc pieafed
so often to honor with the name of priests.
And yet I perfectly coincide with you in rc
orobating the part which too many of them
have aCted during the political animosities
which for a few years, have convulsed, and
at one time, endangered the exigence of our
own government. Nor can the severity of
your censure easily exceed their deserts.
Some of them have doubtless been deceived.
—Others im polled by native pride, or aris
tocratic principled, or the profpea of gain
nr the hope of elevation, have exerted all the
influence attached to their profeffion in
beha'f of a faction combined for the de
struction of our excellent Conftitutibn
and the establishment of a monarchy on
its ruins. Ori your return to this
country they railed against you, (what
you call “tile war whoop of morarchial
priest craft," but) what I call the voice of
federal hypocrisy. Your infidelity was the
cdenfible, your republican pen the real
ground of their alarm. For no one deserv
ing the name of a minister of the gospel can
feiioufly believe, what they affeCt to believe
that the religion of J-fus can be materially
affe&ed by the presence or absence of Mi
Paine. In the book which bears the naur
(but not the evidence) of t # e Age of Realon,
they' have lean your molt poifoced arrow,
limed with your utmost Skill, and exerted
with all your might against that religion.
They ha^e seen, in that book, but little more
than the objections I had almoil said cavils
and quibbles, which tor ages pal, have of-
I ten been raised by infidels, and a+ often van
quilhed bv the force of real n. They have
fren; in that book, nothing new among thole
objections, except the boldness with which
they are revived and the blafrhemy of the
language in vihich they are presented. 1 hey
have teen that book, like its predeceflors,
nade the talk of the day, and tullcn into
general contempt and univetfal neglect
And can those federal clergymen sincerely
apprehend, from your return to America
a deadly wound to that religion which has
already unimpaired, unenfeebled, unsullied,
sustained the learning of Parphyry, the pow
er of Julien, trio-eloquence of Bollingbroke
the raillery Voltaire, the subtlety of Hume,
and the biifyhcmy of Paine.
Under the administration of their favorite
chief, their, private encomiums and their
public prayers, and eulogies in his behalf
were abundant, and exceeded in extrava
gance by nothing but the profusion and ma
lignancy of the abuse which they bellowed
on those who were constrained by the force
of reason and integrity, to disapprove some
of his meafores. But Since the fourth of
March 1801, too many of them have omit
ted a weekly and public (application for the
firft magistrate of our country. They have
|zealouSly engaged in Supporting an eastern
Incwfpaper, whose avowed object is opposi
tion to his administration and to the great
majority of the people. With all their pro
feffional Strength they have swelled the vcice
of calumny to stain his reputation, to enfee
; ble his hands, to fubjeft to universal con
tempt him and/ the government, over which
the providence of God has appointed him to
'prefide.
, But, fir, 'the number of these miniflers is
, ;comparatively small and if it were greater,
;their condutl, however reprchcniiblc in it
council of Laodicea, to be the -word of God.
Would this be any reafouible ground either
of doubt to the believer, or of triumph to
the infidel r Would this prove either that
these books did not exist, or were not ac
knowledged to be divine prior to that event r
Suppose tbe fophiStry th ingenious and in
dustrious iufidels could, in some individuals
or churches in the United States, Shake the
credit with which the holy fcripmies are, to
this day regarded. Suppose these individu
als or churches Should, for their own fatif
faCtion, Submit the question to the investiga
tion and decision of the general convention
of the episcopal church in May next. —Sup-
pose that convention, after learned, tu:l
and free difeuffion, Should by their votes
declare that the New Teftamont is the word
of God, and a perfect rule of faith and prac
tice. Wou'd this vote imply, or would it
prove to fu :~c ring generations, that the di
vin. a^hTh<d the New Teffament was
never ..k wedged till voted by the episco
pal convent aot ifog ?" The answer to
this queliion is i • ,bvious, that the expres
sion of it would iiduh your unde:(landing.
Nor need I, to guard the feebltft intellect
agairdt the fallacy ul your argument, fay
that notwithstanding such a vote, it would
be an eternal truth that tor many hundred
y^ars before the convention, the New Tes
tament was received as divine by all Chris
tians in all countries and of every denomi-
''Thou (halt not revile the Gods" is the
firjt part of the verse which you quote. On
this you fay " it makes no part of my scrip
ture, I believe but one God."
I am sure you will not esteem me uncandid
when I fay that you with by this to insinu
ate that the scriptures admit a plauality of
Gods and to contrast this folly with the wis
dom of infidelity which acknowledges but
one. Long, fir, did the world experience
the utmost efforts of natural reason in in
vestigating the nature and perfections of dei
ty. And what were the effects of those ef
forts ? Every temple even of enlightened
Rome and philosophic Greece was crouded
with Gods : and the proud philosopher as
well as the'humble oeafant, bowed in hum
ble adoration to departed proflgiates and har
lots, to bulls, to calves and to reptiles. And
can you imagine that, if you had ,been con
temporary with the sages of antiquity, your
profrunder researches would have corrected
this preeminent error you would have ban
ished from the minds of Plato, Aridotle,
Cicero, &c. their doubts refpeaing the na
ture, number and perfections of the Gods
and ot the foul's immortality r —No fir,
Your modefly rebels with indignation, the
imputation ot a pretension so arrogant. In
those pure ages you would probably have her
ded with the worfhippers ot Hesiod's thir
ty thousand gods ; and like the rational and
venerable Socrates in the moment of death
the gratitude of your heart would have incli
ned vou piously to offer a cock to Efculapiut.
Whence then, let me ask, do you derive
those sublime conceptions of the deity for
which you fay, you are complimented by the
bishop of Landaff? From those very scrip
tures which you despise, and which you bear
charge with teaching the do&rine or a plu
rality of gods. “ Thou shalt not revile the
gods'." Is it unknown to you that in all
languages, many words are u fed not only in
a literal, but also in a figurative ferfe ? In
a figurative sense the iyfpired writings often
apply the the term god, or gods to celestial
angels ; to men as princes, juftices,or judg
es; to fatan who is called “ the god of
this world."
And the learned apostle Paul freaking of
four enemies of the cross of Christ, fays that
theii“ belly is their god." Ido not adduce
this iaft example to infinite that this is the
“ one God" which you exclufiVely acknow
ledge.-.-Such a fofpicion is precluded by the
exemplary temperance with which you pro.-
fefs to " nourish your health." And if a
knowledge of the bible bad made a part ot
the “ abundance" with which you test us,
v'ou furnish your " mind," I should have
been saved from the neceflity of informing
you that we need only open that book to fee
the unby of god inculcated and idolatry pun
ched : to learn, “ I am God and there is
one cite—the Lord our god is one Lord"
were the voice and refponce whi^h pervad
ed the camp, the tabernacle, the temple and
nation of the jews : to read that faint Paul,
in prefer.ee of the supreme court of Athens
boldly maintained the unity of God against
the learned philosophers of that city ; and
by faying " they be no gods which are made
with hands," roused the persecuting power
of Ephesus, a city devoted to the woifhip
“ of the great goddess Diana and the image
which fell down troin Jupiter."
I intended to have glanced at feme Jess
important Sentiments in yours to Mr. Adams
But I have already exhausted your patience,
and transgressed the limits which I had pre.
scribed to this letter. I cannot, however;,
conclude without expressing myregret that(al
tho' chriftianity has nothing to fear from your
talents or industry) your hoflility to it may
render some pious republicans more easily.
deceived by those hypocritical federalists who
cunningly connect the ideas republicanism
and infidelity and affirm that the object of
republicans is the extirpation of the gospel.
The religion of Jesus, neither in its origin
nor its progress, has ever been indepted, for
its glory, to theelevation or worldly greatness
of its patrons. To counteract this political
tendency ot your enmity against i 1 I thall ne
vertheless, embrace the opportunity of com
municating to those pious republicans,
through the medium of his letter to you, one
of the sublimest eulogiums that ever was ex
pressed on the reasonableness of the Christian
religion. I Shall give it in the very words
of a.*republican with whose intellectual
greatness your diffidence would blush to be
compared—whose influence is unrivalled
and who fits this day at the head of the fre
eft, bappieft, and most enlightened govern
ment in the world.
t " Reason and free enquiry, faith he, are
felf, ought not t^be viewed as a reproach to
that divine religion which declares the magif.
trate to be the " minister of Goi"—which
commands us to “ pray for all that are in au
thority"—to “render honor to whom honor is
due"& to be fubjea , to the constituted author
fcience fake." And yet Ido not hesitate to
fay that this condua has done more injury to
the c^nfe 61 our redeemer than the boldness
and ridicule, and blasphemy which yon dis
play in mentioning his name, his gospel and
the office of his niinifters.
A Letter fiom Vienna state, that a
Courier had passed through that City, on
his way to Constantinople with inftruc
tiohs to Gen. Burns to demand of the Port
that it Arnold caufeEgypt to be evacuated by
the English.
It is said that Sir Sidney Smith and an
other gentleman are shortly to be ftnt to
Egypt with a fpectel Commiflion.
Feb. 9. —The emperor of Russia is equip,
ping two vcflels at Cronftadt, for the pur
pose of making a voyage of difcoveiy
round the world. They are to endevouf
particularly to penetrate as far as possible
in the North of Asia and America'.
letters from the Ruffian Confines, dated
the r.B>h December, fay, " The ports on
the Black Sea are to be declared free ports.
All articles of traffic may be imported into
them free from duties :-—and the Duke de
Richelien, lieutenant general in the Ruffian
service, is appointed to the principal direc
tion in the affairs of those places, both com
mercial and military."
The Eleßor of Bavaria has publiffied an
Edits in his new States, by which the Mem
bers of the Catholic, Lutheran and Reform
ed Religions are to enjoy an equality of *
rights with .fcfpea to the exeroife of their
worship, without any diftinSion whatever.
'ln the morning previous to the ceremony
of introducing Lord Whitworth to Bona
parte, the chief consul sent to Lord Whit
worth, to fay,that he would fend the govern
ment carriage and fix for his Lordfllip, and
the latter's carriage and four might follow.
Lord Whitworth replied, that as he repre
lented the king of Great Britain, he could
not permit his carriage to follow with far,
whilst the French carriage had fa. After
an hour and an half confutation, Bonaparte
returned that what was propefed was per
fe&ly agreeable to him. Thus, according
to the French, it is said, that peace and war
depended for feme time on two harfes !"
the only effcaual agents against enor. Give
a loose to them they will fuppoit the true re
ligion by bringing every falfe ere tp their
tribunal, to the test of their invefligation.
They are the natural enemies of error, and
of error only. Had not the Roman govern
ment permitted, free enquiry, Chriflianiiy
could never have been introduced. Had not
free enqbiry bebn indulged at the era of the
reformation, the corruptions of Chriftanity
could not have been purged away." That
is to fay, the reafcnablencfs of Chriftanity
was so gloriouflv refplendant that it con
founded the wisdom cf heathen philofophyj
aud dissipated the daiknefs of papel fuperlti
tion.„ .
I am. Sir, with due refpe&.
Your verv humble servant,
"JOHN GEMMIL;
Mr. Thomas Paine, IVajbivgloh.
* Thomas Jeffetfun. t Notes on Virginia!
——=—~~w4TCßT,„refliß»o* l *==^•'>
From the Baltimore American.
Prior to the American revolution, the floor ot
America uas admitted ti eely itrto Portngal.---
During the revolution, the king gave such encou
ragement, as induced many ot the mobility to
ereft mills in different parts of the kingdom—a
mong others the importation of flour was actually
prohibited. This regulation has been severely
felt in the United States, and cne,great cbje& of
fending a minister to the court of Portugal, it was
believed, was to induce a repeal of the prohibi
tion. Whether our minister, Mr. Humphries, or
Mr. W. Smith, made the necessary exertion for
an object of Inch great importance, or whether
they had orders to that effect, I know got—the
fact is, that under adniwiftratiors celebrated by
the federal party for their friendship to commerce,
the prohibition cenihued ; —and this, although we
had a minister there at an annual folary of ,oco
dollors. That minister Mas confix ered by Mr.
Jefferfon as ufelfcr-r-he was remo+ei, and Mr.
Jarvis, a republican American, was appointed
consul in pldce of Mr. Bulkely (a British fubjeß)
who was removed—What has been the coofe
quence—the papers tell us, 'and the fatt is so ;
the prohibition is taken off, and American
flour is new admitted into Portugal, on pay ment.
nt a small duty, which alter deducting the duty
payable on 5 bushels of wheat, the quantity re
quired to n?ke a barrel of flour, leaves only 30
cents payalle upon the Aineracan barrel of flour.
—And this great good is done by Mr. Jeffcr
loD, who the good feds have told us is a decided
enemy to commerce.—Portugal for herlelf and
her colonies will require annually trom So to
iou,ooo barrels of flour from the U. States.
Good news for the farmer and miller !
March 23 18 3. A MILLER.
London, Feb. 7.
General Ney has presented a note to the
executive Council of the Helvetic Republic,
complaining that English manufactures are
imported into France from Switzerland,
and demanding the adoption of rigorous
measures to prevent the continuance of this
trade in future.
EPIDEMIC in PARIS-
The epidemic disorder prevailing in Pa
ris, is thus described in an Engirfh print :
This disorder is a catarrhal cough,accompa
nied by fever and spitting qf blood. Several
physicians ordered bleeding ; but this in almott
every inltance, proved fatal. The common
people there call it “La Grippe, and tame
ly atribute the contagion to the pexfous return-
Foreign.