the State-by mifreprefenting the nature of Liberty, and afferting the right of every man to think for himself upon all fubjects, and the duty of every man to act according to his own fentiments-by throwing ridicule upon the most serious fubjects; and employing flander, invective, and falfehood, whenever and wherever it seemed likely to forward their purpofe.

It is indeed curious to reflect upon the progrefs of infolence and impiety. In 1786, the increafed diffufion of Infidelity was thus noticed by a celebrated writer": "Infidelity is now ferved up in every shape that is likely to allure, furprife, or beguile the imagination; in a fable, a tale, a novel, a poem, in interfperfed and broken hints remote and oblique furmifes; in books of travels, of philofophy, of natural history; in a word, in any form rather than that of a profeffed and regular difquifition.”

;

In the excellent Charge before mentioned to have been delivered in 1794, the Bishop of London fpeaks thus: "Hitherto we have had to contend only with the To

lands, the Tindals, the Bolingbrokes, and the Humes of the age; men whofe writings could fall only into the hands of a few in the higher ranks of life, and were not likely to make much impreffion on well informed and well cultivated minds. But the pieces to which I allude are addreffed to the multitude, and are most dexteroufly brought down to the level of their understandings. They comprefs the whole poifon of Infidelity into the narrow compafs of an effence, or an extract, and render irreligion eafy to the meaneft capacity. They are, in fhort, most artful fnares, laid for those numerous and valuable claffes of men who have hitherto escaped the contagion either of atheifm or deifm; the mechanic, the manufacturer, the tradefman, the farmer, the fervant, the labourer. On thefe (to whom the fubject is quite new, and who have neither time nor talents for examining queftions of this nature) the bold affertions, the intrepid blafphemics, and coarfe buffooneries, which conftitute the whole merit and character of thefe productions, are perfectly well calculated to impose, and to ftand in the place of argument and proof. It was by fmall tracts of this fort, diffeminated among the lower orders

orders in every part of France, that the great body of the people there was prepared for that most aftonishing event (which, without such preparation, could never have been fo fuddenly and fo generally brought about), the public renunciation of the Christian faith. In order to produce the very fame effect here, and to pave the way for a general apoftafy from the Gofpel, by contaminating the principles and shaking the faith of the inferior claffes of the people, the fame arts have been employed, the fame breviates of Infidelity have, to my knowJedge, been published and difperfed with great activity, and at a confiderable expence, among the middling and lower ranks of men in this kingdom."

"At this day," obferves Dr. Prieftley in 1796, "and efpecially fince the Revolution in France, unbelievers appear without any difguife, openly infulting the Chriftian religion, and affailing it by wit and argument; and the writings of unbelievers, now that they can do it with impunity and even applaufe, are exceedingly multiplied.' And when we confider the profligate falfehoods, the coarfe obfcenity, the daring blafphemy, which now more openly than

ever infult our Reafon, Virtue, and Religion, in every form that art can place them, or the most shameless effrontery present them-when we fee that every virtue, every fentiment, every feeling, religious, moral, or even natural, is made by turns a common fubject of ridicule with the vicious, the thoughtless, or the defigning votaries of Infidelity-and when we see the Government of a great nation daily iffuing the most direct and glaring violations of truth and honour, in its manifeftoes, decrees, and official reprefentation of facts, even to its own fubjects-a fyftem abfolutely unknown to any former age-we fhould furely believe, that the Power of this hydra had attained its zenith, if the profpect of a rifing generation educated in these principles, and formed by these examples, did not forbid the hope-a hope to which, I fear, the word of Prophecy is equally unfavourable!

Pro

Prophetic intimations of the" last days,” exactly correfponding with the Character, Principles, and Conduct, of modern Infidels.

Having thus taken a general sketch of the face of the world, let us pause to compare it with a general view of the Prophetic intimations concerning these "last days," before we examine the particular refemblance between THE NEW SYSTEM OF PHILOSOPHY WITH THE SECOND BEAST; AND THE REVOLUTIONARY TYRANNY OF

FRANCE WITH THE REIGN OF THE IMAGE; according to the interpretation adopted in the Introductory Chapter. The Prophets have indeed delineated thefe "falfe teachers," who have occafioned this wretched fcene, with a moft correct, and, as it were, hifloric pencil; and this general view of their character, principles, and conduct, will be found to agree fo exactly with

THEIR

OWN DESCRIPTIONS OF THEM

SELVES, and with the appropriate prophecies of the fecond beaft and his image," that it will both clucidate and ftrengthen their particular application.

The