Sßb 9TRLNGT11 AND :'TAKNESS or HUMAN REASOY, to us, on the other hand, the practical insufficiency of his reason to to resist criminal inclinations and enable him to oppose the idolatrous customs of his country. Thus it appears that either his reason was insufficient to guide him right, or if it did whisper truth and duty to him, it was with so low a voice, as was veiy insufficient to make him obey. Loe. Pray, Sophronius, let us have your sentiment upon this subject ; for I am at a loss to find a solid reply, and I must besilent, unless I would run into cavilling ? Sorts. Dear Sir, pardon me if I say, that I am x1s unable to refutePithander's manner of arguing as you are ;- and T rejoice to see.you so steady a friend to truth, as to yield to an argu- ment. But I will take occasion, gentlemen,. if you favour the with your permission, to make one remark upon this debate of yours, concerning Cicero's. opinion and practice with regard to every man's compliance with the religion of his country. Seve- ral of the great men of antiquity, of whomCicero was one, hav- ing lost the divine revelations of Noah, their ancestor, thought it necessary to introduce some doctrines and duties of pretended revelation, and particular ceremonies of worship, among their countrymen, in order to oblige the consciences and practices of , men to virtue, and to restrain them from vice, by some guidance and authority superior to each man's own reason ; because they were generally convinced, that reason, as it is at present in the bulk of mankind, is very insufficient to be their guide to virtue, religion and happiness. Give me leave upon this occasion to read to you a, page out of an ingenious writer of the present age, wherein he cites your own favourite author Cicero more than once. It is in the 49th page of his book*, where he is arguing against the same ill trea- tise which Doctor Waterland opposes, written by some supposed infidel, and entitled t' Christianity as Old as the Creation." " The testimony of all ages, says he, teaches us, that reason, whatever forceand strength it. might have in particular men, yet never had credif or authority enough in the world to be received as a public and authentic rule, either of religious or civil life : This is allowed by all the great reasoners of the heathen world : And the experience ofits insufficiencyas a guide of life, is givenby many of there as the very cause of the invention and establishment of religion," that is, of some pretended revelation from heaven, andceremonies ofworship," that theAuthorityof religion, asTully takes notice, might restrain those whom reason hadbeen found too weak to keep in order. The life of man, as Plutarch tells us from Euripides, was once like that of beasts governed by force and violence ; laws were then contrived to repel injustice ; bet when these proved still insufficient, religion was at last invented : * Remarkson Dr. Watertand, &c.
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