CONFEREN'CÊ IL 457 he done with far greater speed, and much better success, And mankind would be led into a much more just, uniform, and per- feet schemeof piety and virtue hereby, than if somephilosophers were sent amongst them, just to set their thoughts into a trackof reasoning upon these subjects, and leave them to find out the truths and duties ofnatural religion by their own natural powers, and by long trains of consequences : For I am very prone to think, that so wild a nation, having different capacities, different humours and inclinations, strong prejudices, appetites, andpas-. siods, besides all the concurrent avocations of nature, custom, folly, &c. would never be led by their own reasonings into any right notions of true religion and virtue, though their own, in- tellectual faculties should be awakened and roused into exercise. But to facilitate this great and blessed work, some have suppos- ed, that whensoever the appoined time is come, fór cullingin the, remainder of the heathen world to virtue and piety, and the faith of Christ; thert; will be anew and extraordinary effusion of the Spirit of God upon men for that purpose, and that the power of miracles and tongues shall attend the mission of the gospel through thebarbarous nations, as in the ancient days ofpentecost, when the apostles were sent to convert the world : For as you find in the narrati.ve of these rude nations; that when theysee any strange effect superior to all their notions of -thelower ofnature, they are very ready to attribute it to some invisible power, to some unknown spirit ; so when miracles shall be wrought amongst them, such as Christ and his apostles performed, at the same time that the doctrines , of religion, and the rules of virtue are taught them, in a clear and easy manner, they will naturally be disposed to attend and receive these things with a sense of divine authority ; and by the concurring influences of the grace of God, - there will be a wondrous reformation wrought amongst them. But I forbid myself to proceed in snob a digression as this : All that I insist upon at presetst is, that some wise and skilful preachers of the gospel, being sent among these savage nations, with the New Testament, and the art of reading, will be a thousand times more likely to convert any of the rude and uncultivated tribes of mankind, than their own rea- soning could ever be. Loc. But how hard soever it may be for reason to reform such savage countries as Sophronius hasdescribed in these' his narratives, yet the rest of the heathen world are not to be con- eluded under the samecharacters of 'atheism, vice, and brutality, nor are they so hard tobe reformed by reason. PITH. But I entreat you, Sir, be pleased to remember, that you at first agreed, and undertook to maintain, that the reasonof all mankind, and all nations of the earth, was sufficient for this purpose : And if it were not, then there is a necessity of revela-
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