PHI LOS 0 P H Y . - Classic Works of Apologetics Online

432 Of Religious EliJhlishmelZ/;,
which will in a great ~~sure
regulate our ~oilch!-·
~!)ns upon this head. . . '~he fi~t is, ttat any form of
:Chri~tiafJity is better thein n~ rdigion at an· the se·
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j cO'ld, that of diff:rent rystems of faith, th2!" is tIle best
; which is the true.t. Tne first of these positions will
\ hardly be disputed, when we r~8ect, that every sect
~ and modification of Christianity holds out t!.e happi­
. ness arid mi~ery of another life, as depending chieB}
: npon the. practice o~ virtue or of vice in this; and
. that the distinctions of virtue and vice are nearly th{-
same in all. A person who acts under the impression
of these hopes and fears, though combined with many
errors and superstitions, is more likely to advance
both the public happiness and his ov.:-n, than one who
is destitute of all expectation of a future account.
loe latter proposition is founded in the consideration
that the principal imp~rtance of rc!igion consists
in irs influence upon the fate and condition of a future
existence. Thi; influence belongs only to that
reiigion which comes from God. A political religion
may be framed, which shall embrace the purposes,
and describe the duties, of political society peJf~t1y
well; but if it be nnt delivered by God, what assurance
does it afford, that the decisions of the divine
judgment will have any regard to the rules 'l' hich it
con[ain~? By a man who acts with a view to a futqre
judgment, the authority of a religion i~ the first
thing inquired after; a reli~ion which wants authority,
witt. him wants every thing. Since then
. this authority appertains, not to the religion which
. is most comnl,-,dious, to the religion which is most
sublime and effi:acious, to the religion which 5uiu
best with the f.'lrm, or ~eems mo~t calculated to uphold
the power and stability of civil government, but
only to that religion which comes from Cod; we are
justified in pronouncing the. true re1igion, by its very
trutb .. and independently of an considerations of t~ ..
dencies, aptne5se~, or any other btemal qualities
whatt:Jver, to be universa))v the be~t.
t' }i'rnrrl the first propo~ition follows this inference,
kllat when tbe state enables its subjects to learn sam~
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