dium
of Christianity, without interruption of the prosperity or of the
regular course of human affairs.

CHAPTER VII.

THE SUPPOSED EFFECTS OF CHRISTIANITY.

That a religion which under every form in which it is taught holds forth
the final reward of virtue and punishment of vice, and proposes those
distinctions of virtue and vice which the wisest and most cultivated
part of mankind confess to be just, should not be believed, is very
possible; but that, so far as it is believed, it should not produce any
good, but rather a bad effect upon public happiness, is a proposition
which it requires very strong evidence to render credible. Yet many have
been found to contend for this paradox, and very confident appeals have
been made to history and to observation for the truth of it.

In the conclusions, however, which these writers draw from what they
call experience, two sources, I think, of mistake may be perceived.

One is, that they look for the influence of religion in the wrong place.

The other, that they charge Christianity with many consequences for
which it is not responsible.

I. The influence of religion is not to be sought for in the councils of
princes, in the debates or resolutions of popular assemblies, in the
conduct of governments towards their subjects, of states and sovereigns
towards one another; of conquerors at the head of their armies, or of
parties intriguing for power at home (topics which alone almost occupy
the attention, and fill the pages of history); but must be perceived, if
perceived at all, in the silent course of private and domestic life.
Nay, even there its influence may not be very obvious to observation. If
it check, in some degree, personal dissoluteness, if it beget general
probity in the transaction of business, if it produce soft and humane
manners in the mass of the community, and occasional exertions of
laborious or expensive benevolence in a individuals, it is all the
effect which can offer itself to external notice. The kingdom of heaven
is within us. That which the substance of the religion, its hopes and
consolation, its intermixture with the thoughts by day and by night, the
devotion of the heart, the control of appetite, the steady direction of
will to the commands of God, is necessarily invisible. Yet these depend
the virtue and the happiness of millions. This cause renders the
representations of history, with respect to religion, defect and
fallacious in a gre