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"Ben Franklin"
Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography: Page 70
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of that persuasion, such as the eternal decrees of God, election, reprobation,
etc., appeared to me unintelligible, others doubtful, and I early absented
myself from the public assemblies of the sect, Sunday being my studying day, I
never was without some religious principles. I never doubted, for instance, the
existence of the Deity; that he made the world, and govern'd it by his
Providence; that the most acceptable service of God was the doing good to man;
that our souls are immortal; and that all crime will be punished, and virtue
rewarded, either here or hereafter. These I esteem'd the essentials of every
religion; and, being to be found in all the religions we had in our country, I
respected them all, tho' with different degrees of respect, as I found them more
or less mix'd with other articles, which, without any tendency to inspire,
promote, or confirm morality, serv'd principally to divide us, and make us
unfriendly to one another. This respect to all, with an opinion that the worst
had some good effects, induc'd me to avoid all discourse that might tend to
lessen the good opinion another might have of his own religion; and as our
province increas'd in people, and new places of worship were continually wanted,
and generally erected by voluntary contributions, my mite for such purpose,
whatever might be the sect, was never refused.
Tho' I seldom attended any public worship, I had still an opinion of its
propriety, and of its utility when rightly conducted, and I regularly paid my
annual subscription for the support of the only Presbyterian minister or meeting
we had in Philadelphia. He us'd to visit me sometimes as a friend, and admonish
me to attend his administrations, and I was now and then prevail'd on to do so,
once for five Sundays successively. Had he been in my opinion a good preacher,
perhaps I might have continued, notwithstanding the occasion I had for the
Sunday's leisure in my course of study; but his discourses were chiefly either
polemic arguments, or explications of the peculiar doctrines of our sect, and
were all to me very dry, uninteresting, and unedifying, since not a single moral
principle was inculcated or enforc'd, their aim seeming to be rather to make us
Presbyterians than good citizens.
At length he took for his text that verse of the fourth chapter of Philippians,
"Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, or
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