overborne, whenever they tended to any practical result, by natural good sense, correct moral principles, and sincere piety. The practical religion of men is often a very different thing from their professed religion; or from that contained in the creeds of the sect to which they consider themselves as belonging. Nor may we ever expect to see the whole operation and perfect results of any false opinions, when those by whom they are maintained live intermixed with others, holding opposite doctrines, whose numbers and character are such as to command respect. It is the tendency of the opposite opinions of various men to act upon and modify each other. A man without any religion will be a very different person, if he live in the midst of a religious community, from what he would have been in a society of men equally destitute of religious principle with himself; and the case is similar with him whose religion is erroneous. The characters of men are, without doubt, affected by many other causes beside the errors of the religious creed which they may profess.

We believe, and we rejoice to believe, that there have been men of excellent virtue in every different faith. But in estimating the virtue, or rather the merit, of individuals, we are con

tinually making allowance for their difference of faith; for the different degrees in which they have attained a knowledge of true religion, and of the character of its requirements. We do not expect certain virtues from men under the influence of certain errors. In giving the tribute of our admiration to the moral excellence of Socrates or of Cicero, we have to remember that Socrates and Cicero were heathens. In going back a century or two, if we would look without horror upon some who have passed even for saints, we must recollect, that they believed religious persecution to be a duty. We are continually applying the same principle, often perhaps unconsciously, in judging of the characters of those whom we regard as holding great errors; and frequently where such errors are entertained, though we may find much to praise, we find also, if not much to censure, at least much to regret.

There have been excellent men, whose belief on the most important subjects has been very erroneous. But if any one should infer from this fact, that all different faiths are equally adapted to produce such men, and that there is no ground, therefore, in their practical effects, for preferring one to another, he would reason in the same manner, as if, having observed that

some men retain their health and live long in insalubrious situations and unhealthy employments, he should conclude that any one climate or mode of life is as favorable to health as another. The constitution of man, and the testimony of experience, would be overlooked in the latter inference no more than in the former. When it can be shown that men's opinions do not influence their conduct; that there is an entire divorce between their intellect and their principles of action; that men do not perform certain things, because they believe it to be their interest or duty to perform them; and that religion, which has been regarded as so active a principle in the production of both good and evil, is really nothing more than an inert subject of speculation; then it may be inferred, not indeed that it is wholly unimportant whether our religion be true or false, but that it is of little more importance than whether we believe the system of Newton or of Ptolemy respecting the material universe.

To false religion we are indebted for persecutors, zealots, and bigots; and perhaps human depravity has assumed no form more odious than that in which it has appeared in such men. Persecution is passing away, we may trust, for ever; and torture will no more

be inflicted, and murder no more committed, under pretence of extending the spirit and influence of Christianity. But the temper which produced it still remains; its parent bigotry is still in existence; and what is there more adapted to excite disgust, than the disposition, the feelings, the motives, the kind of intellect and degree of knowledge, discovered by some of those, who pretend to be the sole defenders and patrons of religious truth in this unhappy world, and the true and exclusive heirs of all the mercy of God? It is a particular misfortune, that, where gross errors in religion prevail, the vices of which I speak show themselves especially in the clergy; and that we find them ignorant, narrow-minded, presumptuous, and, as far as they have it in their power, oppressive and injurious. The disgust which this character, in those who appear as ministers of religion, naturally produces, is often transferred to Christianity itself. It ought to be associated only with that form of religion by which those vices are occasioned. But such mistakes are continually made, because men do not discriminate between the different systems of faith which have passed under the name of Christianity, nor recognize the very different effects which they are adapted to produce.

It is indeed questionable, whether the direct influence of the errors which have been connected with Christianity upon those by whom they are held, is equally mischievous with their indirect consequences. They are, it cannot be doubted, among the most operative causes of unbelief; and of what probably is much more common, and what we have so much reason to lament, indifference and scepticism in respect to religion. A system of doctrines is presented to men, at which their minds revolt; and they are told that this is Christianity. A gospel is proposed to them, whose first aspect belies its name. If they are prevented from rejecting our religion altogether, by perceiving something of that character of divinity which belongs to it, and cannot be wholly obscured; by the authority of so many excellent men who have regarded it as the foundation of their hopes; and by some knowledge of the evidences of its truth; yet such misrepresentations will not be without their effect. Men will in consequence of them regard religion as a subject of habitual doubt and perplexity, an irksome topic of contemplation, one from which their minds will be always ready to escape. It will thus be prevented from mingling with their thoughts; it will not direct their common purposes; it will