Full and easy satisfaction which is the true and safe religion in a conference…Full and easie satisfaction which is the true and safe religion in a conference…

D. I think no better of it than they did.

R. And 1. Do you not know that almost all the world was then Heathen and Idolaters? Alas, what was Judea (less than England) to all the world? Was not the Roman Empire, and Alexander's before that, far Greater than any Christian Prince hath now? And to this day, are not four sixth parts of the whole world (at least) Heathens and Idolaters? Brierwood's Calculation is, that if you divide the world into thirty parts, nineteen are Heathen, six Mahometans, and five only Christians of all sorts: besides the vast unknown parts of the world, which are not like to have any Religion of supernatural Revelation. ⟨p. 166⟩2. And do you not know, that Athens and Rome-Heathen were no Barbarians, but of most polite literature, and the Fathers of the Learning now in use; and that when the Christians arose among them, they accounted them Barbarians? And at this day, and long before us, the Chinenses have been addicted to Arts and Literature: And the Brachmanes and Bonzii are no Barbarians. And have not all these souls to save or lose? And are all these so mad as to cast away their souls upon a senseless contemptible Religion? If your reason be good, how much more will it hold for the Heathens, than the Papists? Alas, what a handful are the Papists in comparison of the present Idolaters! much more in comparison of the Ancient Heathen world, before Christianity and Mohammedanism dispossessed them of those parts which they now hold! With what greater show of advantage did the Heathens use the Arguments which the Papists do now put their trust in, and lay their Cause upon! 1. Do they talk of Antiquity? Why, it was the Novelty of Christianity in comparison of Heathenism through the world, which was it that hardened them to contemn and persecute it. 2. Do they talk of Universality and Consent? Alas, how little a part of the world were the Christians at first, and are the Papists now, in comparison of the Heathens, then and now? 3. Do they talk of Greatness, Empire, Acts and Learning? How little are they as to the first, to the Heathen Empires? And for Learning, they received it of them: And Aristotle still is the Schoolmens Oracle. And yet doubtless all these advantages are not sufficient to disprove the follies of Heathenism,