tONFERENÈE 111. 47Á distinction between them, as to set some of them in a plainerand easier road to happiness than he has others i And it is shameful ingratitude for us, in christian countries, to complain of our bountiful Creator, who has affordedus such peculiar favours, and made our way to heaven plainest of all. Loo. I observe, Pit.hander, you keep close to this distinc- tion of Sophronius, and talk of the natural powers of heathens inAfrica, and their natural sufficiency to obtain happiness ; but I think they ought to have, and therefore I think they have, something more than this natural and remote sufficiency, to find out the way to heaven by their own reason. Is not sense and reason allowed by you ali to have a proximate and practical suf- ficiency to guidemen in the affairs of this life ? And surely one would think, reason should be a more sure and infallible guide in matters of religion, than sense is, or can be, in the affairs of this world. This shall stand for my third argument ; and I would enforce it thus : The difference of good and evil, and the natural obligations to virtue and piety, are as manifest to the mind as any of the objects of sense can be, and they have that certainty and demonstration, whichthe others are not capable of. Surely natural religion has been, and should be always counted as much within the reach of natural reason, as any business that man has to do, since it is the most necessary and most important of all. PITH. Here, Sir, your argumentagain runs directlyCounter to matter of fact, which has been examined, proved, and agreed between us. Thedifferences of good and evil, and the obligations to virtue, are not soexceeding obviousto heathens asyou imagine; for though they may beproved by certaindemonstrations, yet these demonstrations are, some of them at least, more deep and diffi- cult ; and therefore the rules of virtue and piety are far from being so plain and manifest, as the objects of sense, or the com- mon affairs of this present life : Besides, if they were, surely some of these wild savages, at least, wool have actually attained the knowledge of them, since they do actually acquaint them- selves with objects of sense sufficiently for their own poor and sorry manner of life here on earth : but in the affairs of religion, and a life to come, they are all error and darkness. All their reasoning powers leave them utterly ignorant of true religion, be it never so necessary and important. And such ignorance reigned very much in polite nations too, except among a few philosophers, or men of a studious and thoughtful frame of mind, who couldargue upon moral and intellectual subjects, and trace out a few demonstrations and certainties about them, which lie out of the road of Americans, and almost out of the reach of these unthinking creatures. LOG. But surely, without being philosophers, every one by
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