62 HISTORY OF 



know it to be our duty to please God, who yet has left 

 us under an incapacity of doing it ; will this missionary 

 therefore conclude we shall be eternally damned ? Will 

 he take upon him to pronounce damnation against us for 

 not doing those things which he himself acknowledgeth 

 were impossible by us to be done. It is our opinion, that 

 every man is possessed with sufficient knowledge for his 

 own salvation. The Almighty, for any thing we know, 

 may have communicated himself to different races of peo- 

 ple in a different manner. Some say, they have the will of 

 God in writings ; be it so, their revelation has no advan- 

 tage above ours, since both must be equally sufficient to 

 save, or the end of revelation would be frustrated; be- 

 sides, if they both be true, they must be the same in sub- 

 stance, and the difference can only lay in the mode of 

 communication. He tells us there are many precepts in 

 this written revelation, which we are entirely ignorant 

 of; but those written commands could only be assigned 

 for those who have the writings, they camiot possibly 

 regard us. Had the Almighty thought so much 

 knowledge necessary for our salvation, his goodness 

 would not so long defer the communication of it to us. — 

 And to say m a matter so necessary he could not at one 

 and the same time reveal himself to all mankind, is 

 nothing else than an absolute denial of his omnipotence. 

 Without doubt he can make his will manifest without 

 the help of any book, or the assistance of any bookish 

 man whatever. We shall, in the next place, consider 

 the arguments which arise from the consideration of 

 Providence. 



If we be the work of God, (which we presume will 

 not be denied) it follows from thence, that we are under 

 the care and protection of God; for it camiot be sup- 

 posed that the Deity should abandon his own creatures, 



