ir contentions less ruinous and
sanguinary? Is it owing to Christianity, or to the want of it, that the
regions of the East, the countries inter quatuor maria, peninsula of
Greece, together with a great part of the Mediterranean coast, are at
this day a desert? or that the banks of the Nile, whose constantly
renewed fertility is not to be impaired by neglect, or destroyed by the
ravages of war, serve only for the scene of a ferocious anarchy, or the
supply of unceasing hostilities? Europe itself has known no religious
wars for some centuries, yet has hardly ever been without war. Are the
calamities which at this day afflict it to be imputed to Christianity?
Hath Poland fallen by a Christian crusade? Hath the overthrow in France
of civil order and security been effected by the votaries of our
religion, or by the foes? Amongst the awful lessons which the crimes and
the miseries of that country afford to mankind this is one; that in
order to be a persecutor it is not necessary to be a bigot: that in rage
and cruelty, in mischief and destruction, fanaticism itself can be
outdone by infidelity.

Finally, if war, as it is now carried on between nations produce less
misery and ruin than formerly, we are indebted perhaps to Christianity
for the change more than to any other cause. Viewed therefore even in
its relation to this subject, it appears to have been of advantage to
the world. It hath humanised the conduct of wars; it hath ceased to
excite them.

The differences of opinion that have in all ages prevailed amongst
Christians fall very much within the alternative which has been stated.
If we possessed the disposition which Christianity labours, above all
other qualities, to inculcate, these differences would do little harm.
If that disposition be wanting, other causes, even were these absent,
would continually rise up to call forth the malevolent passions into
action. Differences of opinion, when accompanied with mutual charity,
which Christianity forbids them to violate, are for the most part
innocent, and for some purposes useful. They promote inquiry,
discussion, and knowledge. They help to keep up an attention to
religious subjects, and a concern about them, which might be apt to die
away in the calm and silence of universal agreement. I do not know that
it is in any degree true that the influence of religion is the greatest
where there are the fewest dissenters.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE CONCLUSION,

In relig