CONFERENCE 1. 397 PITH. No, Sir, by no means : I can never think it could con- vince ignorant heathens, of the unityof God, if it should ever happen to come into their minds : for I think it hath hardly evi- dence enough to give conviction to a common reasoner in the Christian world. The force of it does not appear so very plain and clear to demand a ,ready assent and submission : I donot thinkthe union of all beings in the universe under one Lord, is so very manifest and so obvious a thing. And indeed, I should . have expected to find a much stronger argument for the unity of God, from a writer of such fame and reputation, and especially in asermon that was written expressly on that subject, which he every where maintains with peculiar zeal. But suppose this argument should be thought strong and evident, to a person who is before convinced of the unity of God ; 'yet an American in the north would tell you, as they have told other enquirers, that the Europeans, Ste. who live beyond the great sea, that is, theocean, dwell in a diffèrent world from them, and may have a God, and every thing else, peculiar to themselves : But that the Americans came into being quite another way, and sprung from another man or woman, who came down from heaven in ancient times. For though they have some ideas of beings above them, yet they have not so much as a name f'Or God amongthem. So that they would as readily conclude from the distance of the European and American worlds, that they had different superior powers, or gods, as the ancient Grecians concluded that three gods divided the universe among them ; that heaven and earth had one 'god, viz. Jupiter ; the sea another god, viz. Neptune : and hell, or the world of departed souls, had a third god, viz. Pluto. Loc. This is strange doctrine indeed : Yet since you tell ms this is the opinion of the wild creatures in America, I am not so well acquainted with them as to contradict it. But why do you cite the several names of the old poetical gods against me, as though the rambling and` irrational fancies of the old heathen poets were to be regarded, when we are talking of the powers of reason to find out the one true God ? PITH. I grant Sir, there were a thousand fables of the poets concerning these heathen gods, which could not be heartily be- liesed, at least by thinking men : But alas ! Sir, it is a very unthinking world in which we dwell : And the priests, and the princes, and people had really the same gods whom I have named, with many others, and they actually raised temples to them, and worshipped them with sacrifices and divine honours, (yid they had no other gods but such as these. Loa. But thephilosophers knew there was but one true God. PITH. Permit me Sir, to say, that few of them knewor owned this : If the Plato.nists had generally this opinion; yet
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