unity; the laws are a curb upon open crimes, and religion on those
that are private. "No religion," says Bolingbroke, "ever appeared in
the world whose natural tendency was so much directed to promote the
peace and happiness of mankind as the Christian. The system of
religion recorded by the evangelists is a complete system to all the
purposes of true religion, natural or revealed. The Gospel of Christ
is one continued lesson of the strictest morality, justice,
benevolence, and universal charity.... Supposing Christianity to have
been purely an human invention, it had been the most amiable, and the
most useful invention that was ever imposed on mankind for their
good." Hume acknowledges, that, "the disbelief in futurity loosens, in
a great measure, the ties of morality, and may be supposed, for that
reason, pernicious to the peace of civil society." Rousseau
acknowledges, that, "if all were perfect Christians, individuals would
do their duty, the people would be obedient to the laws, the chiefs
just, the magistrates incorrupt, the soldiers would despise death, and
there would be neither vanity nor luxury in such a state." Gibbon
admits, that the gospel, or the church, discouraged suicide, advanced
erudition, checked oppression, promoted the manumission of slaves, and
softened the ferocity of barbarous nations; that fierce nations
received at the same time the lessons of faith and humanity, and that,
in the most corrupt state of Christianity, the barbarians might learn
justice from the law, and mercy from the gospel. "To impute crimes to
Christianity," says the celebrated King of Prussia, "is the act of a
novice." His word may fairly be taken for such an assertion. And yet
these unbelievers have been so vile and perverse as to decry a system
which they acknowledge to be useful. How ungrateful! How
reprehensible! Collect now the thoughts scattered under this branch of
the subject, and be honest--heartily believe, and openly acknowledge,
that God was the author of the Bible. What but a superhuman, a truly
divine influence breathing in the Scriptures, can account for the
energy and beneficence of their moral tendencies?

_From its general reception._ Vast numbers of wise and good men,
through many generations and in different countries, have agreed in
receiving the Bible as a revelation from God. Many of them have been
noted for seriousness, erudition, penetration, and impartiality in
judging of men and things. We might ref