[662] Dwight offered as his sources of authority Robison’s _Proofs_ and an article on Barruel’s _Memoirs of Jacobinism_ which he had discovered in the _British Critic_. [663] _Cf._ Dwight’s _Sermon_, p. 11. [664] _Ibid._ [665] _Ibid._ [666] _Cf._ Dwight’s _Sermon_, pp. 11, 12. [667] _Ibid._, p. 12. [668] _Ibid._, p. 13. [669] _Cf._ Dwight’s _Sermon_, p. 15. [670] _Cf._ Dwight’s _Sermon_, pp. 20, 21. [671] _Ibid._, p. 22. [672] The commanding position that Dwight occupied in the Standing Order, as well as the unenviable distinction which in the eyes of the opposition belonged to him, is certified to by the fact that he was commonly referred to as “Pope Dwight.” _Cf._ Beecher, _Autobiography, Correspondence, etc._, vol. i, p. 289. _Cf._ Stiles, _Diary_, vol. ii, p. 531. [673] The _Connecticut Journal_ of July 11, 1798, comments as follows upon New Haven’s celebration of the previous Fourth: “The exercises of the day at the Meeting-house were a Sermon by President Dwight, from the 16th chapter of Revelations, 15th verse, accompanied with prayers. An Oration by Noah Webster, jun., Esq., and sundry pieces of excellent music. We forbare [_sic_] to remark particularly on the Sermon and Oration, as the public eye will be speedily gratified in perusing them.... We shall only say that an enlightened audience, composed of the citizens of New-Haven, the members of our university, and many clergymen, civilians, and other respectable inhabitants from the adjacent towns, listened with profound attention while Doct. Dwight and Mr. Webster exposed to their view, in a feeling manner, those principles of modern philosophy which desolate Europe, and threaten the universe with mighty evils.” [674] _An Oration, pronounced at Sharon, on the Anniversary of American Independence, 4th of July, 1798._ By John C. Smith, Litchfield, (n. d.), pp. 6 _et seq._ _Cf. ibid._, pp. 7 _et seq._ [675] _Theodore Dwight: An Oration spoken at Hartford, in the State of Connecticut, on the Anniversary of American Independence, July 4th, 1798._ Hartford, 1798, p. 23. [676] _Ibid._ On a later page, in commenting upon Robison’s reference in his _Proofs of a Conspiracy_ to the lodges of the Illuminati which had been established in America, Dwight said: “I know not who belonged to that society in this country; but if I were about to make proselytes to illuminatism in the United States, I should in the first place apply to Thomas Jefferson, Albert Gallatin, and their political associates.” (_Ibid._, p. 30.) This early use of the outcry against the Illuminati for political purposes was prophetic. [677] _An Oration on Party Spirit, Pronounced before the Connecticut Society of Cincinnati, convened at Hartford, for the celebration of American Independence, on the 4th of July, 1798._ By Thomas Day, (n. d.), p. 15. [678] _Ibid._