his question, when we turn our thoughts to the
great Christian doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, and of a
future judgment, no doubt can possibly be entertained. He who gives me
riches or honours, does nothing; he who even gives me health, does
little, in comparison with that which lays before me just grounds for
expecting a restoration to life, and a day of account and retribution;
which thing Christianity hath done for millions.

Other articles of the Christian faith, although of infinite importance
when placed beside any other topic of human inquiry, are only the
adjuncts and circumstances of this. They are, however, such as appear
worthy of the original to which we ascribe them. The morality of the
religion, whether taken from the precepts or the example of its Founder,
or from the lessons of its primitive teachers, derived, as it should
seem, from what had been inculcated by their Master, is, in all its
parts, wise and pure; neither adapted to vulgar prejudices, nor
flattering popular notions, nor excusing established practices, but
calculated, in the matter of its instruction, truly to promote human
happiness; and in the form in which it was conveyed, to produce
impression and effect: a morality which, let it have proceeded from any
person whatever, would have been satisfactory evidence of his good sense
and integrity, of the soundness of his understanding and the probity of
his designs: a morality, in every view of it, much more perfect than
could have been expected from the natural circumstances and character of
the person who delivered it; a morality, in a word, which is, and hath
been, most beneficial to mankind.

Upon the greatest, therefore, of all possible occasions, and for a
purpose of inestimable value, it pleased the Deity to vouchsafe a
miraculous attestation. Having done this for the institution, when this
alone could fix its authority, or give to it a beginning, he committed
its future progress to the natural means of human communication, and to
the influence of those causes by which human conduct and human affairs
are governed. The seed, being sown, was left to vegetate; the leaven,
being inserted, was left to ferment; and both according to the laws of
nature: laws, nevertheless, disposed and controlled by that Providence
which conducts the affairs of the universe, though by an influence
inscrutable, and generally undistinguishable by us. And in this,
Christianity is analogous to most other