CONFERENCE I; Al and unwary reasoner into a thousand errors. The violence of hopeand fear, of desire and aversion, of love and wrath, per- suade and almost compel the reason of an Iroqnois, or a Negro, a Hottentot, or a Laplander, to determine every thing to be right or wrong according as these passions represent it. And since it is su hard for European philosophers, and even for christians, to judge aright by their own reason in particular cases, wherein appetite and passion are concerned, much harder is it, and almost impossible, for these savages of America or Africa, &c. to frame to themselves a scheme of virtue in theseself- denying instances. You yourself, Sir, have granted the truth of what our friend Sophronius expressed in the end of his dis- course, viz. that all men every where will frequently find them- selves betrayed into sin by the strength of appetites and pas- sions: And how perpetually will these wild creatures be thus exposed to sin against God, vv}ien their reason hasyielded itself such a captive to sense, as not, to enquire and settle the rules of duty? Let us proceed then, Sir, to the last article, which I shall desire you to prove, or rather to shew me how an untaught hea- then shall be convinced that he is a sinner against God ; and when convinced, what he should do to appease God's anger ; and if'he should repent of sin, how shall he know that God will forgive him upon his repentance, and receivehim into his favour? Loo. First, I cannot think it such a difficulty to convince human creatures that they have some way or other done what they should not do, or neglected what they ought to do with re- gard to God, or to their neighbours, or themselves : And thus reason is sufficient for conviction of sin; for it is suffi- cient to enable them to compare their actions with the rectitude of the nature of God, and with the general rules of their duty which they know, and to observe how much they have wandered from them. PITÜ. I grant it no hard matter, Sir, when they are once led into an acquaintance with the rectitude of God's nature, and are brought to the knowledge of their own various duties, to make them sensible thatthey come very short in theperformance of them: And I cannot but think, that reason and conscience do sometimes convince Negroes and Hottentots of some crimes. But reason, as it operates in those wild creatures, shews them ao very little of the holy nature of God, of their relations to him, and oftheir duty toward God or man, as you have found in this dispute, that it plainly follows, that this same reason of theirs will go but a very little way in making them sensible of any failures in their duty. How shall they be convinced they sin against God, in forgetting him from day to day, and from year to year, in neglecting to reverence hire for hisgreatness, topraise
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