, both
natural and revealed, "that he had always considered him, both in his
life-time and since his death, as approaching as nearly to the idea of a
perfectly wise and virtuous man, as perhaps the nature of human frailty
will permit?"

Can there then be a doubt, whither tends the path in which we are
travelling, and whither at length it must conduct us? If any should
hesitate, let them take a lesson from experience. In a neighbouring
country, several of the same causes have been in action; and they have
at length produced their full effect. Manners corrupted, morals
depraved, dissipation predominant, above all, Religion discredited, and
infidelity grown into repute and fashion[117], terminated in the public
disavowal of every religious principle, which had been used to attract
the veneration of mankind. The representatives of a whole nation
publicly witnessing, not only without horror, but, to say the least,
without disapprobation, an open unqualified denial of the very existence
of God; and at length, as a body, withdrawing their allegiance from the
Majesty of Heaven.

There are not a few, perhaps, who may have witnessed with apprehension,
and may be ready to confess with pain, the gradual declension of
Religion; but who at the same time may conceive that the writer of this
tract is disposed to carry things too far. They may even allege, that
the degree of Religion for which he contends is inconsistent with the
ordinary business of life, and with the well-being of society; that if
it were generally to prevail, people would be wholly engrossed by
Religion, and all their time occupied by prayer and preaching. Men not
being sufficiently interested in the pursuit of temporal objects,
agriculture and commerce would decline, the arts would languish, the
very duties of common life would be neglected; and, in short, the whole
machine of civil society would be obstructed, and speedily stopped. An
opening for this charge is given by an ingenious writer[118] alluded to
in an early period of our work; and is even somewhat countenanced by an
author since referred to, from whom such a sentiment justly excites more
surprise[119].

In reply to this objection it might be urged, that though we should
allow it for a moment to be in a considerable degree well founded, yet
this admission would not warrant the conclusion intended to be drawn
from it. The question would still remain, whether our representation of
what Christianity requi