410 STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS OP HUMAN REASON. ofreligion, it was a frequent thing, as the Spanish writers of the country of Mexico inform us, to seek out some beautiful girl, and offer her a sacrifice to their offended idols, when they thought their gods were angry with them : penitence and reformation, virtue, and piety of heart and life, are little thought of among wild heathens as the means of obtaining divine pardon, or as necessary for that end. Lou. I confess, my frientl, you put me in mind of many histories which I have read, not only of heathen but of popish countries, where the doctrine and practice of penances and sacri- fices, and rich ,offerings to saints and idols, gods and goddesses, are the immediate remedy to which men apply themselves after sin, and which papists and heathens make their ready refuge, after a sense of guilt, rather than to practise the inward and spiritual duties of repentance and mortification, and maintain -a future course of watchful holiness. PITH. Let us drop this point then, Sir ; and now I entreat you to prove, that if a heathen should truly repent, and be sorry for his sin, even as it is committed against God, and should en- deavour to performhis fluty better for time to come, will his rea- son assure him, that God will forgive his sin, receive him to his favour, and make him happy ? Loc. Yes, certainly Pithander, he need not doubt it ; for if doing evil be the Only foundation of God's displeasure, ceasing to do evil, or returning to do well, lutist take away that displeasure. God is too good a being, not to approve and forgive such a penitent. And not only the goodness, but even the wisdom of God would oblige him to forgive those who repent, since the sinner then becomes what God in his wisdom requires him to be : Whereas if God punished him, it could only be with a design to correct him, and make him pious and virtuous for time to come : But when this happy end is attained without punishment, there is then no need of it : And God has no cruelty inhis nature, to incline him to punish a creature with- out necessity. PITH. To this I answer, That the correction or amendment of the particular offender, is not the only end ofpunishment, but thevindication of the wisdom and justice of the lard-giver, and his law, which are like to be insulted, and the laws continually broken afresh, if offences were always passed by with impunity, and if the criminal were always pardoned upon repentance. It is necessary for a governor sometimes to teach his subjects what an evil thing it is to trangress his law, by the proper punishment of those who offend. The honour and authority of government must be sometimes supported and vindicated by such severities: And though it may please a sovereign sometimes to pardon an of- fender out of his great goodness, when he is truly penitent for
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