superstition. By a _fourth_, the succession and variety
of popular religions; the vicissitudes with which sects and tenets
have flourished and decayed; the zeal with which they were once
supported, the negligence with which they are now remembered; the
little share which reason and argument appear to have had in framing
the creed, or regulating the religious conduct of the multitude; the
indifference and submission with which the religion of the state is
generally received by the common people; the caprice and vehemence
with which it is sometimes opposed; the frenzy with which men have
been brought to contend for opinions and ceremonies, of which they
knew neither the proof, the meaning, nor the original: lastly, the
equal and undoubting confidence with which we hear the doctrines of
Christ or of Confucius, the law of Moses or of Mahomet, the Bible,
the Koran, or the Shaster, maintained or anathematized, taught or
abjured, revered or derided, according as we live on this or on that
side of a river; keep within or step over the boundaries of a state;
or even in the same country, and by the same people, so often as the
event of a battle, or the issue of a negotiation, delivers them to
the dominion of a new master;--points, we say, of this sort are
exhibited to the public attention, as so many arguments against the
_truth_ of the Christian religion;--and with success. For these
topics being brought together, and set off with some aggravation of
circumstances, and with a vivacity of style and description familiar
enough to the writings and conversation of free-thinkers, insensibly
lead the imagination into a habit of classing Christianity with the
delusions that have taken possession, by turns, of the public
belief; and of regarding it as, what the scoffers of our faith
represent it to be, _the superstition of the day_. But is this to
deal honestly by the subject, or with the world? May not the same
things be said, may not the same prejudices be excited by these
representations, whether Christianity be true or false, or by
whatever proofs its truth be attested? May not truth as well as
falsehood be taken upon credit? May not a religion be founded upon
evidence accessible and satisfactory to every mind competent to the
inquiry, which yet, by the greatest part of its professors, is
received upon authority?

"But if the _matter_ of these objections be reprehensible, as
calculated to produce an effect upon the reader beyond wh