The Deity hath not touched the order of nature in vain. The Jewish
religion produced great and permanent effects; the Christian religion
hath done the same. It hath disposed the world to amendment: it hath put
things in a train. It is by no means improbable that it may become
universal; and that the world may continue in that stage so long as that
the duration of its reign may bear a vast proportion to the time of its
partial influence.
When we argue concerning Christianity, that it must necessarily be true
because it is beneficial, we go, perhaps, too far on one side; and we
certainly go too far on the other when we conclude that it must be false
because it is not so efficacious as we could have supposed. The question
of its truth is to be tried upon its proper evidence, without deferring
much to this sort of argument on either side. "The evidence," as Bishop
Butler hath rightly observed, "depends upon the judgment we form of
human conduct, under given circumstances, of which it may be presumed
that we know something; the objection stands upon the supposed conduct
of the Deity, under relations with which we are not acquainted.
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