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money here has hindered me near two months, and our Assembly will sit the 2d of August next, at which time I must not be absent; but I hope to see you this fall. I am your affectionate brother,

B. FRANKLIN.

TO JOSIAH FRANKLIN.

Religious Opinions and Practice. Freemasons.

HONORED FATHER,

Philadelphia, 13 April, 1738.

I have your favors of the 21st of March, in which you both seem concerned lest I have imbibed some erroneous opinions. Doubtless I have my share; and when the natural weakness and imperfection of human understanding is considered, the unavoidable influence of education, custom, books, and company upon our ways of thinking, I imagine a man must have a good deal of vanity who believes, and a good deal of boldness who affirms, that all the doctrines he holds are true, and all he rejects are false. And perhaps the same may be justly said of every sect, church, and society of men, when they assume to themselves that infallibility, which they deny to the Pope and councils.

I think opinions should be judged of by their influences and effects; and, if a man holds none that tend to make him less virtuous or more vicious, it may be concluded he holds none that are dangerous; which I hope is the case with me.

I am sorry you should have any uneasiness on my account; and, if it were a thing possible for one to alter his opinions in order to please another, I know none whom I ought more willingly to oblige in that respect. than yourselves. But, since it is no more in a man's

power to think than to look like another, methinks all that should be expected from me is, to keep my mind open to conviction, to hear patiently, and examine attentively, whatever is offered me for that end; and, if after all I continue in the same errors, I believe your usual charity will induce you to rather pity and excuse, than blame me. In the mean time your care and concern for me is what I am very thankful for.

My mother grieves, that one of her sons is an Arian, another an Arminian. What an Arminian or an Arian is, I cannot say that I very well know. The truth is, I make such distinctions very little my study. I think vital religion has always suffered, when orthodoxy is more regarded than virtue; and the Scriptures assure me, that at the last day we shall not be examined what we thought, but what we did; and our recommendation will not be, that we said, Lord! Lord! but that we did good to our fellow creatures. See Matt. xxv.

As to the freemasons, I know no way of giving my mother a better account of them than she seems to have at present, since it is not allowed that women should be admitted into that secret society. She has, I must confess, on that account, some reason to be displeased with it; but, for any thing else, I must entreat her to suspend her judgment till she is better informed, unless she will believe me, when I assure her, that they are in general a very harmless sort of people, and have no principles or practices that are inconsistent with religion and good manners.

We have had great rains here lately, which, with the thawing of snow on the mountains back of our country, have made vast floods in our rivers, and, by carrying away bridges, boats, &c., made travelling almost impracticable for a week past; so that our post has entirely missed making one trip.

I hear nothing of Dr. Crook, nor can I learn any such person has ever been here.

I hope my sister Jenny's child is by this time recovered. I am your dutiful son.

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I took your admonition very kindly, and was far from being offended at you for it. If I say any thing about it to you, it is only to rectify some wrong opinions you seem to have entertained of me; and this I do only because they give you some uneasiness, which I am unwilling to be the occasion of. You express yourself, as if you thought I was against the worshipping of God, and doubt that good works would merit heaven; which are both fancies of your own, I think, without foundation. I am so far from thinking that God is not to be worshipped, that I have composed and wrote a whole book of devotions for my own use; and I imagine there are few if any in the world so weak as to imagine, that the little good we can do here can merit so vast a reward hereafter.

There are some things in your New England doctrine and worship, which I do not agree with; but I do not therefore condemn them, or desire to shake your belief or practice of them. We may dislike things that are nevertheless right in themselves. I would only have you make me the same allowance, and have a better opinion both of morality and your brother. Read the pages of Mr. Edwards's late book, entitled "Some

Thoughts concerning the present Revival of Religion in New England," from 367 to 375, and when you judge of others, if you can perceive the fruit to be good, don't terrify yourself that the tree may be evil; but be assured it is not so, for you know who has said, "Men do not gather grapes of thorns and figs of thistles." I have no time to add, but that I shall always be your affectionate brother,

B. FRANKLIN.

P. S. It was not kind in you, when your sister commended good works, to suppose she intended it a reproach to you. It was very far from her thoughts.*

The following extract from a letter, written to a relative many years afterwards, may with propriety be added in this place.

"I received a letter or two from you, in which I perceive you have misunderstood and taken unkindly something I said to you in a former jocular one of mine concerning charity. I forget what it was exactly, but I am sure I neither expressed nor meant any personal censure on you or anybody. If any thing, it was a general reflection on our sect, we zealous Presbyterians being too apt to think ourselves alone in the right, and that, besides all the Heathens, Mahometans, and Papists, whom we give to Satan in a lump, other sects of Christian Protestants, that do not agree with us, will hardly escape perdition. And I might recommend it to you to be more charitable in that respect, than many others are, not aiming at any reproof, as you term it; for if I were disposed to reprove you, it should be for your only fault, that of supposing and spying affronts, and catching at them, where they are not. But, as you seem sensible of this yourself, I need not mention it; and, as it is a fault that carries with it its own sufficient punishment, by the uneasiness and fretting it produces, I shall not add weight to it. Besides, I am sure your own good sense, joined to your natural good humor, will in time get the better of it."

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TO EDWARD AND JANE MECOM.

Philadelphia, [date uncertain.]

DEAR BROTHER AND SISTER,

If you still continue your inclination to send Benny,* you may do it by the first vessel to New York. Write a line by him, directed to Mr. James Parker, Printer, on Hunter's Key, New York. I am confident he will be kindly used there, and I shall hear from him every week. You will advise him to be very cheerful, and ready to do every thing he is bid, and endeavour to oblige everybody, for that is the true way to get friends.

Dear Sister, I love you tenderly for your care of our father in his sickness. I am, in great haste, your loving brother, B. FRANKLIN.

TO MRS. JANE MECOM.

Condition of Apprentices, and Habits of Boys.

DEAR SISTER,

Philadelphia, [date uncertain.]

I received your letter, with one for Benny, and one for Mr. Parker, and also two of Benny's letters of complaint, which, as you observe, do not amount to much. I should have had a very bad opinion of him, if he had written to you those accusations of his master, which you mention; because, from long acquaintance with his master, who lived some years in my house, I know him to be a sober, pious, and conscientious man; so that Newport, to whom you seem to have given too

* Benjamin Mecom, a nephew of Dr. Franklin, whom he seems to have taken particularly under his charge.

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