The State of Religion among the Protestant Dissenters in Virginia

Reverend and dear Sir,

IF

the Publication of a Narrative of the Rise, Progress and present Situation of Religion in Virginia, may not only gratify good People, but (as you give me Reason to hope) animate their Prayers for us, and also encourage Preachers to come into these Parts;

I should charge my self with a criminal Neglect, did I deprive this Colony of these Blessings, by delaying or refusing to publish the marvellous Works of the Lord among us. Such Matters are liable to Misrepresentations; and I doubt not but the State of Religion in these Parts has suffered the same Fate with other Facts reported by common Fame, and been magnified or diminished to you. I shall therefore, Sir, with as much Brevity and Accuracy as the Case and my Circumstances will allow, give you an Account of the State of Religion among the Protestant Dissenters in Virginia, not only in my Congregation in Hanover, but also in the Frontier Counties of this Colony, which are generally inhabited by Dissenters; which, after Perusal, you may present to the Publick, or doom to Oblivion, as your Prudence will direct. I look upon my self under the most sacred Obligations to maintain the strictest Regard to Matter of Fact in my Narrative: and as my Residence in Hanover above three Years, and my Itinerations p. 4among the vacant Congregations in the Frontier Counties, have furnished me with-peculiar Opportunities of Information, my Misrepresentations would be the more inexcusable.

My Design Sir, is not to inform the World of my petty personal Concerns, to boast of Proselytes, or to asperse the Church of England here established; and therefore, to avoid Suspicions, I must suppress sundry Particulars that might be proper to mention in the Freedoms of amicable Conversation, but are not to be trusted to the Candour of a censorious World; and I have always tho't it an Instance of Imprudence pregnant with mischievous Consequences, when Persons in such Cases unbosom themselves to Mankind in general, with the unguarded Liberties of intimate Friendship.

p. 4It will not probably be worth while to give you any further Geographical Account of Hanover County, where the late Revival of Religion began, than that it is situated, I think, pretty near the Centre of Virginia; is a flourishing County, and generally very healthy to Persons from all Nations; which I mention Sir, to remove your Scruple,

Whether this Climate agrees with the Constitution of New-England Men?

I hope I may observe without the Umbrage of Calumny, what glares with irresistable Evidence on the Eyes of the Serious of all Denominations among us, that Religion has been, and in most Parts of the Colony still is, in a very low State. A surprizing Negligence appears in attending on publick Worship; and an equally surprizing Levity & Unconcernedness in those that attend. Family-Religion is a Rarity, and a solemn Solicitude about eternal Things is still a greater. Vices of various Kinds are triumphant, and even a Form of Godliness is not common. The Clergy universally, as far as my Intelligence extends, have embraced the modish System of Arminian Divinity, (tho' I allow my self the Pleasure to hope there are sundry consciencious Persons among them) p. 5and the Calvinistic, or rather PAULINE Articles of their own Church are counted horrendous and insufferable.— But I suppose universal Fame has superseded my Information; and therefore I willingly exempt my self from the disagreable Task.

I cannot find there has been a dissenting Minister settled in Virginia, 'till lately, since its first Plantation. You no doubt remember what Dr. Mather, and Mr. Neal from him, relate of the sending of Messirs. James, Knowles, and Thomson into it from New-England, at the Invitation of sundry of its Inhabitants, above a Hundred Years ago; and of their being compelled to depart the Colony by the Governour's Order, after preaching a few Sermons: [See Neal's Hist. of N. England, Vol. I. p. 220. sub an. 1642.] Since which, there have been hardly any Attempts made to obtain such Ministers, 'till a few Years ago; and many of the Populace knew little or nothing of any Denomination, but that in which they had been educated.

p. 5I have Reason to hope Sir, there are and have been a few Names in various Parts of the Colony, who are sincerely seeking the Lord, and groping after Religion, in the Communion of the Church of England; which I charitably presume from my finding there were a few of this happy Character in & about Hanover before the late Revival of Religion. Such were awakened, as they have told me, either by their own serious Reflections, suggested and enforced by divine Energy; or on reading some Authors of the last Century, particularly Bolton, Baxter, Flavel, Bunyan, &c. Some of them were wont to attend on publick Worship in the established Church without much murmuring at the Entertainments there; tho' they were sensible these were vastly inferior to what past Ages were favoured with, and often wondered if there were such Doctrines taught any where in the World at present, as they found in the p. 6Writings of these good Men. Others of them, tho' they had no Objections against the Ceremonies of the Church of England, except a few who were shocked at the impracticable Obligations imposed upon the Sponsors in Baptism, were utterly dissatisfied with the usual Doctrines taught from the Pulpit. Tho' these were generally true, and would have been useful, in their Connection with the Scheme of evangelical Doctrines; yet so many necessary Truths were neglected, as rendered those that were inculcated of very little Service. The whole System of what is distinguished by the Name of experimental Religion, was past over in Silence. The Depravity of humane Nature, the Necessity of Regeneration, and it's Pre-requisites, Nature and Effects, the various Exercises of pious Souls according to their several Cases, &c. these were omitted; and without these, you know Sir, the finest Declamations on moral Duties or speculative Truths, will be but wretched Entertainment to hungry Souls. Such a maim'd System is not the compleat Religion of JESUS, that glories in the amiable Symmetry, mutual Dependency and Subserviency of all its Doctrines, as its peculiar Characteristic.