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    aignation , to which he was compelled , he said , 6 t by the great increase of students , and the pressure of his own personal con « terns /*

    Previously to his quitting the connection , he was called upon to preach the Annual Sermon before the supporters of the institution . To tbis sermon , which was published , we have already had occasion to refer . —The object of it

    was to recommend the " Union of Knowledge and Goodness /* which he observed , comprehends every thing we can conceive of , as ami . able in the nature and attributes

    of the Deity / ' In comparing tke present state of the country with what it had formerly been , he says , — Many writers have taken upon them to condemn the present age , without reserve , because they can trace among us some vices which-had little or no

    appearance in tt ^ ej last ^ entury , or possibly at a much , later period , when they themselves were children . But these persons forget that yij-tu ^ s and yices , like sea

    stud land , often change places with each other , though th « y cannot exchange natures . In one place the sea trenches on the land , and swajlovvs up a , large tract C ) f it ; but then , in another , it

    retreats just as much , an ^ i leaves a valuable portion of solid ground , Sp iq , one century , vices spring up , which in the preceding were scarcel y observably ; and on the contraryy . those which formerly

    prevailed and Mfea ^ e enormous , now almost disappear . And if we compare the present state of this country , with what historians record 9 , * Us manners under l ; be reign of Charl « 3 H . s ^ all we not discern ^ that in his time , tbis nation had

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    more drunkenness , obscenity and profane ness than now ? But on the contrary , is there not , in the present clay , a spirit of refinement , dissimulation and luxury gone forth , which enervates both the

    moral and political body ? The former assailed the temple of vir * tue by storm , the latter secretly undermines the foundation . From these things it surely appears , that an exact estimate of the virtue

    and vice of any country is a calculation which requires many data . Whoever praises or condemns the age he lives in , in an unqualified manner , or , as we usually say , in

    the gross , entirely misses the truth , and exposes his own weakness /*—He then proceeds to shew in what respects the world is better than it formerly was : that the arts and sciences have been more cultiva *

    ted : the laws amended : war is conducted with less cruelty : the spirit and power of the Inquisition have declined : and liberty , civil and religious better understood .

    Yet he would wot compliment the age with a character for greater seriousness , compared with what it had been , unless , said he , * ' you include the instances wherein it is

    ivretchedly disfigured by the non « senseof enthusiasm . " Thepreach * er goes on to speak , with just and becoming indignation , against the apathy of those who " profess religion , but understand nothing

    about it : who are decent , because not tempted by their connection * to be profane : who are Dissenter * or members of the Establishment , just as their fathers were before them . '

    " Now , from this apathy , " says he , ** many are awakened ; but it is to enthusiasm , absurdity , blind seal and superstitious yrvr

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    Memoir of the late Rev * Hugh Worthingtort . 667

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1813, page 567, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2432/page/7/