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virtue ;-public vice was branded with public infamy, and obliged to hide its head in privacy and retirement. The fervice of God was regularly attended, and religion not exposed to the reproaches of the fcorner.

How the cafe ftands with us at present in each of these particulars, it is grievous to report, and perhaps unacceptable to religion herfelf; yet as this is a feason wherein it is fit we should be told of our faults, let us for a moment impartially confider the articles of this charge.

And first, concerning the great article of religion, and the influence it has at present upon the lives and behaviour of the prefent times;-concerning which I have faid, that if we are to trust appearances, there is as little as can well be fuppofed to exift at all in a christian country. Here I fhall fpare exclamations, and avoiding all common place railing upon the fubject, confine myself to facts, fuch as every one who looks out into the world, and makes any obfervations at all, will vouch for me.

Now whatever are the degrees of real religion amongst us,-whatever they are, the ap

pearances are ftrong against the charitable fide of the question.

If religion is any where to be found, one would think it would be amongst those of the higher rank in life, whofe education and opportunities of knowing its great importance, fhould have brought them over to its intereft, and rendered them as firm in the defence of it, as eminent in its example.-But if you examine the fact, you will almoft find it a test of a politer education and mark of more shining parts, to know nothing, and indeed care nothing at all about it :—or if the subject happens to engage the attention of a few of the more fprightly wits,-that it ferves no other purpose, but that of being made merry at, and of being referved, as a ftanding jeft to enliven difcourfe, when converfation fickens upon their hands.

This is too fore an evil not to be obferved amongst persons of all ages, in what is called higher life; and fo early does the contempt of this great concern begin to fhew itself—that it is no uncommon thing to hear persons difputing against religion, and raising cavils a

gainst the Bible, at an age when fome of them would be hard fet to read a chapter in it. And I may add, that of those whofe ftock in knowlege is fomewhat larger, that for the most part it has scarce any other foundation to reft on but the finking credit of traditional and fecond-hand objections againft revelation, which had they leifure to read, they would find anfwered and confuted a thousand times over.-But this by the way.

If we take a view of the public worship of Almighty God, and obferve in what manner it is reverenced by perfons in this rank of life, whofe duty it is to fet an example to the poor and ignorant, we fhall find concurring evidence upon this melancholy argument-of a general want of all outward demonstration of a fenfe of our duty towards God, as if religion was a business fit only to employ tradefmen and mechanics-and the falvation of our fouls, a concern utterly below the confideration of a perfon of figure and confequence.

I fhall fay nothing at prefent of the lower ranks of mankind-though they have not yet got into the fashion of laughing at religion,

and treating it with fcorn and contempt, and I believe are too serious a set of creatures ever to come into it; yet we are not to imagine but that the contempt it is held in by those whofe examples they are too apt to imitate, will in time utterly shake their principles, and render them, if not as prophane, at least as corrupt as their betters.—When this event happensand we begin to feel the effects of it in our dealings with them, those who have done the mischief will find the neceffity at last of turning religious in their own defence, and for want of a better principle, to fet an example of piety and good morals for their own intereft and convenience.—

Thus much for the languishing state of religion in the prefent age;-in virtue and good morals perhaps the account may stand higher.

Let us enquire

And here, I acknowlege, that an unexperienced man, who heard how loudly we all talked in behalf of virtue and moral honesty, and how unanimous we were all in our cry against vicious characters of all denominations,

would be apt haftily to conclude, that the whole world was in an uproar about it-and that there was fo general a horrour and detestation of vice amongst us, that mankind were all affociating together to hunt it out of the world, and give it no quarter.—This I own would be a natural conclufion for any one who only trusted his ears upon this fubject.But as matter of fact is allowed better evidence than hear-fay-let us fee in the present how the one cafe is contradicted by the other.

However vehement we approve ourselves in discourse against vice-I believe no one is ignorant that the reception it actually meets with is very different-the conduct and behaviour of the world is fo oppofite to their language, and all we hear fo contradicted by what we fee, as to leave little room to question which fense we are to truft.

Look, I beseech you, amongst those whose higher ftations are made a fhelter for the liberties they take, you will fee, that no man's character is fo infamous, nor any woman's fo abandoned, as to be vifited and admitted freely into all companies, and, if the party can

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