426 STEENGTH AND WEAKNESS OF HUMAN itEASON. practices, which run through the whole nation ; which national customs are held so sacred in their esteem, that it is a sufficient proof oftruth or duty to them to say, It is the constant opinion or custom ój their country. Every thing that their ancestors have believed or done is reasonable in their account, without any exa- mination..--3. He considers the natural thoughtlessness of these creatures, about any thing that is spiritual and divine, without some hint given them, that should set their reason at work : They eat and drink, and lie down and rise whole years together, and never think of the true God, and the honours due to him, if some peculiar providence, occurrence, or conversation doth not turn their thoughts this way. And to this we might add, their general astonishing stupidity in matters of God and godliness, if ever they hear any discourse of them ; their aversion to the spiritual parts of religion, and utter disregard of every thingthat belongs to it. -4. He considers the weakness of their un- taught reason, to distinguishtruth from error, if it were set a working on spiritual things. Reason, as well as our other pow- ers, learns to exercise itselfby practice and instruction ; and with- out instruction it is very rude and giddy, and ever wandering into folly and madness. These rude and barbarous creatures, therefore, must not only be put into a right track of thought at first, but he kept in it too ; or otherwise they presently run into gross mistakes, even in the plainest and commonest principles of religion, such as the existence and unityof God, and the worship that ought to be paid to him, andthe common virtues ofjustice and sobriety. Such poor savages as these, if their faces were once set towards religion and truth, would be readily led away into a 'varietyof errors which stand thick on every side, unless they had some other guide, some better clue anddirection, than their own reasoning powers. 5. He considers the incessant and ever- lasting influence of sensible thingsupon their minds, which con- tinually, though unreasonably, divert them from a right exercise of their reason about matters of religion and virtue. The urgent necessities of nature, the constant return of their appetites, the so- licitude and care to supply them, and the frequent rise andeffórtr of their unrulypassions all join together, not only to hinder the better powers of their nature from engaging closely in the pur- suitof religion, but also tend to blind their minds, and lead them astray from the truth. They are criminal indeed, in indulging these inferior powers to the neglect of their souls, and their best interest ; but still they do universally indulge them. And I might add, in the last place; he has intimated, that if They feel any efforts of their own reason toward the search- ing out of the true God and his worship, if they are awakened 'by the inward dictates and reproofs of conscience now and then, to make some resistance to their brutal customs, and ungodly practices ; yet-these inward efforts of conscience and reason are
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