CONFERENCE II. 455 be this, viz.- that though both these travellers spent much time in these countries, and took a great deal of pains with the natives to instruct them in religion, and the knowledge and worship of the true God, yet they could never findone soul among them all, that learned to know and worship the one trae God, and to practise sincere and serious religion : So far were their own reasoning powers from a practical sufficiency to guide and con- duct them in religious affairs, that their reason would not hearken to instruction, it would neither teach them, nor let then} learn the way to heaven. Peru. You stand entitled, Sophronius, to our best acknow- ledgments, for the pains you have taken in entertaining us with these two accounts of African and American religion. And can you now, dear Logisto, deny the justice of the remark that Sophronius has made ? Can you ever suppose, Sir, that such sort of people as these have any reasoning powers inthem, sufficient toframe and furnish out a religion for themselves, such as is suited to the majesty of God, and to the dignity of human nature, such as can restore sinful mankind to a temper fit for the blessedness of heaven, or such as can recommend guilty and sinful creatures to the favour of a wise, a holy and a righteous God ? I mean, is the reason that is in them sufficient to do it in a practical and experimental sense, according to the distinction with which Sophronius has endeavoured to reconcile our present controversy ? Loc. 1 acknowledge we are greatly obliged to Sophronius for the abstracts he hath given us of the religiou of these nations : And it must be granted, that these narratives are more worthy of credit, since the authors from whom he borrowed them were not mere sailors, who touched upon the coast and left it again in a few days, but resided there a considerable time, and spent someyears in the countries, as well as conversedwith great num- bers of the inhabitants. I know not what to answer, Philander, withregard to these particular nations i but surely our learned friend has chosen the most stupid, the most ignorant, themost brutal and obstinate tribes of mankind, to set before us as a proofof the weakness and insufficiencyof reason to conduct men to the divine favour and happiness in a way of religion. And by this account of them, they seem to be so far degenerated from the rank of rational beings, and sunk into brutal life, that revelation itself could hardly recover them, if the christian reli- gionwere preached amongst them : For Sophronius has declared, that where some single attempts have been made of this kind, they have been without success. PITH. Thoughobservation, experience, and matter of fact assure us, that the solid clouds of darkness and irreligion which hang upon heathen nations, have been impenetrable to all the ii . ..
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