and a degree of
morality in practice, but little if at all superior to that for which we
look in a good Deist, Mussulman, or Hindoo.

If any one be disposed to deny that this is a fair representation of the
religion of the bulk of the Christian world, he might be asked, whether
if it were proved to them beyond dispute that Christianity is a mere
forgery, would this occasion any great change in their conduct or habits
of mind? Would any alteration be made in consequence of this discovery,
except in a few of their speculative opinions, which, when distinct from
practice, it is a part of their own system, as has been before remarked,
to think of little consequence, and in their attendance on public
worship, which however (knowing the good effects of religion upon the
lower orders of the people) they might still think it better to attend
occasionally for example's sake? Would not their regard for their
character, their health, their domestic and social comforts, still
continue to restrain them from vicious excesses, and to prompt them to
persist in the discharge, according to their present measure, of the
various duties of their stations? Would they find themselves
dispossessed of what had been to them hitherto the repository of counsel
and instruction, the rule of their conduct, their habitual source of
peace, and hope, and consolation?

It were needless to put these questions. They are answered in fact
already by the lives of many known unbelievers, between whom and these
professed Christians, even the familiar associates of both, though men
of discernment and observation, would discover little difference either
in conduct or temper of mind. How little then does Christianity deserve
that title to novelty and superiority which has been almost universally
admitted; that pre-eminence, as a practical code, over all other systems
of ethics! How unmerited are the praises which have been lavished upon
it by its friends; praises, in which even its enemies (not in general
disposed to make concessions in its favour) have so often been unwarily
drawn in to acquiesce!

Was it then for this, that the Son of God condescended to become our
instructor and our pattern, leaving us an example that we might tread in
his steps? Was it for this that the apostles of Christ voluntarily
submitted to hunger and nakedness and pain, and ignominy and death, when
forewarned too by their Master that such would be their treatment? That,
after all, th