therefore, when I see this poor man, who you say has been a
profligate, and almost a murderer kneel down and pray to Jesus
Christ, as we suppose he did, though not fully enlightened;
believing that God, from whom every such work proceeds, will
sensibly touch his heart, and bring him to the further knowledge of
that truth in His own time; and if God shall influence this poor
man to convert and instruct the ignorant savage, his wife, I can
never believe that he shall be cast away himself. And have I not
reason, then, to rejoice, the nearer any are brought to the
knowledge of Christ, though they may not be brought quite home into
the bosom of the Catholic Church just at the time when I desire it,
leaving it to the goodness of Christ to perfect His work in His own
time, and in his own way? Certainly, I would rejoice if all the
savages in America were brought, like this poor woman, to pray to
God, though they were all to be Protestants at first, rather than
they should continue pagans or heathens; firmly believing, that He
that had bestowed the first light on them would farther illuminate
them with a beam of His heavenly grace, and bring them into the
pale of His Church when He should see good.”
CHAPTER VII – CONVERSATION BETWIXT WILL ATKINS AND HIS WIFE
I WAS astonished at the sincerity and temper of this pious Papist,
as much as I was oppressed by the power of his reasoning; and it
presently occurred to my thoughts, that if such a temper was
universal, we might be all Catholic Christians, whatever Church or
particular profession we joined in; that a spirit of charity would
soon work us all up into right principles; and as he thought that
the like charity would make us all Catholics, so I told him I
believed, had all the members of his Church the like moderation,
they would soon all be Protestants. And there we left that part;
for we never disputed at all. However, I talked to him another
way, and taking him by the hand, “My friend,” says I, “I wish all
the clergy of the Romish Church were blessed with such moderation,
and had an equal share of your charity. I am entirely of your
opinion; but I must tell you that if you should preach such
doctrine in Spain or Italy, they would put you into the
Inquisition.” – “It may be so,” said he; “I know not what they
would do in Spain or Italy; but I will not say they would be the
better Christians for that severity; for I am sure there is no
heresy in abounding with charity.”
Well, as Will Atkins and his wife were gone, our business there was
over, so we went back our own way; and when we came back, we found
them waiting to be called in. Observing this, I asked my clergyman
if we should discover to him that we had seen him under the bush or
not; and it was his opinion we should not, but that we should talk
to him first, and hear what he would say to us; so we called him in
alone, nobody being in the place but ourselves, and I began by
asking him some particulars about his parentage and education. He
told me frankly enough that his father was a clergyman who would
have taught him well, but that he, Will Atkins, despised all
instruction and correction; and by his brutish conduct cut the
thread of all his father’s comforts and shortened his days, for
that he broke his heart by the most ungrateful, unnatural return
for the most affectionate treatment a father ever gave.
In what he said there seemed so much sincerity of repentance, that
it painfully affected me. I could not but reflect that I, too, had
shortened the life of a good, tender father by my bad conduct and
obstinate self-will. I was, indeed, so surprised with what he had
told me, that I thought, instead of my going about to teach and
instruct him, the man was made a teacher and instructor to me in a