On a Late Publication.
THOUGHTS ON A LATE PUBLICATION.
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1. SOME time since a celebrated book fell into my hands, “An Account of the Pelew Islands.” I looked it over, but in a cursory manner, being straitened for time. Having now a little more leisure, I took it again, and went through it with more attention, particularly the latter part, which is by far the most labored: And the more I read and considered, the more convinced I was, that, if this account be true, the Bible is not true; for the Bible affirms, not in one place only, but through the whole tenor of it, that all mankind are “by nature dead in trespasses and sins.” But in this treatise we read not only of a man, but a nation who are by nature free from sin, without any ill tempers, without anything blamable either in their words or actions.
Nay, they are described, not only as negatively good, free from every evil temper and action, but as positively so, as adorned in a high degree with benevolence, and every amiable quality. It is true, the author allows them to have some infirmities; among which, perhaps, some may reckon polygamy, theft, and murdering all their prisoners in cool blood; but even for the last of these, he makes a handsome apology, on the foot of political wisdom.
2. Such a nation, the unblamable Ethiopians, Homer supposes to have lived two or three thousand years ago: But if there ever was, or is now, such a nation in the world, the Scriptures are a falsity, and the inspired writers, so called, talked at random, and were utterly ignorant of human nature: Nor did any writer do justice to mankind, till the account of the Pelew Islands was published.
3. I make no doubt but Captain Wilson sailed from England in the Antelope, in the East India Company’s service; neither of his being shipwrecked on the coral-reef, not very far from China. I readily believe, that the inhabitants of the neighboring island showed him and his men no small kindness; and that one of them, a youth of an amiable temper and uncommon understanding, (whether he was a Prince, any more than Tomo Chachi was a King, I cannot tell,) accompanied him in his return to London, and some months after died of the small pox: But I can in nowise believe, that he, or Abba Thulle, or any of his subjects, were taught all that is right by the light of nature, and enabled, by the power of nature, to practice all that is good. To suppose this, is to sap the foundation of revelation, and to destroy Christianity at a stroke; seeing, if this supposition be admitted, there is no need of it at all. If, therefore, this be the judgment of Captain Wilson, and Mrs. Keate, why should they personate Christians any more?
4. But I cannot admit this supposition at all. Perhaps I have conversed, in fourscore years, (between forty and fifty of which I have, at an average, traveled four thousand miles a year,) with more persons than these two gentlemen put together; and many of them Indians of various nations, Creeks, Cherokees, Chickasaws, and no ways infected with Christianity: But one such man as Abba Thulle, Raa Kook, or Arra Kooker, I have not found. Nor therefore can I believe that there is, I will not say a nation, but an individual upon earth, who are either born without shame, as Captain Cook affirms the nations of Otaheite to be; or to be wholly unblamable, both in their tempers and actions, as Captain Wilson affirms the nations of Pelew to be.
5. I do not say that either Captain Wilson or his historian designed, by this publication, to strike at the root of the Christian revelation, by showing that it was grounded on a palpable falsehood, namely, the fall of man; but I say again, that if their account be true, if mankind are faultless by nature, naturally endued with light to see all necessary truth, and with strength to follow it, — that smooth sophister Reynal is in the right; revelation is a mere fable; we can do perfectly well without it: Witness Lee Boo, Abba Thulle, and all his subjects; nay, witness all Captain Wilson’s crew, (except one, who happened to give his fellow a bloody nose,) and we may seriously say, with a great man, “Indeed I do not see that we have much (or any) need of Jesus Christ.”
6. I cannot, therefore, but earnestly advise all these who still believe the Scriptures to be of God, to beware of this, and all other books of this kind, which either affirm or insinuate that there are any Heathens in the world who, like the supposed nations of the Pelew Islands, are unblamable by nature; since, if there be any such, all revelation is needless, and the Christian revelation utterly false.
JOHN WESLEY.
PECKHAM, December 30, 1789.