It must not be dissembled, that, in the progress of such a reform, certain inconveniences will be unavoidably encountered; but these will be speedily and effectually compensated by an influx of real and permanent advantages. The pangs which accompanied the “death unto sin,” will soon be forgotten in the pleasures which result from a “life unto righteousness;” and the peace and hope which abound in the way, will efface the recollection of those agonistic efforts by which it was entered.
In the mean time, all things will be done with decency and order. The whole economy of life and conduct will be scrupulously consulted; and such arrangements introduced, as will make the several parts and details correspond and harmonize with each other. Duty and recreation will have their proper characters, and times, and places, and limits. Every thing, in short, will be preserved in the system, which can facilitate intercourse without impairing virtue; and nothing be struck out but what administers to vanity, duplicity, and vice.
Whether changes of such magnitude as those which I have described, will ever take place upon an extensive scale, I cannot pretend to conjecture; but certain I am, that, if ever they should, not only the Fashionable World, but society at large, will be very much the better for them. Greatly as I wish the “Reformation of Manners,” and “the Suppression of Vice,” I see insuperable obstacles to each of these events, while rank, and station, and wealth, throw their mighty influence into the opposite scale. Then—_and not till then_—will Christianity receive the homage she deserves, and produce the blessings she has promised—when “the makers of our manners” shall submit to her authority; and the PEOPLE of FASHION become the PEOPLE of GOD.
THE CHRISTIAN MONITOR for the LAST DAYS; or a Caution to the professedly Religious, against the Corruptions of the latter Times, in Doctrine, Discipline, and Morals. Second Edition, corrected.—8vo. 6_s._
THE HISTORY of the ORIGIN and FIRST TEN YEARS of the BRITISH AND FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY. 2 Vols. Extra Boards. Demy, 1_l._ 4_s._ Royal, 1_l._ 15_s._
This Work contains an Authentic Account of the Origin of the Institution, and of the several Societies in connection with it: together with a Chronological View of the Controversy concerning it, and other Matters of an interesting Nature, not before made Public.
