Perfection, in the sense in which it is understood by some people, frequently leads to great extravagance on religious subjects, by inducing men to believe that they have eradicated from their hearts every propensity to evil, and have arrived at a state of stainless purity. There is a great difference between the perfection of the Creator and man. The perfection of man consists in his possessing all that is requisite to attain the end of his creation; and the proper question for him to consider, is not whether he has arrived at that perfection which is the promised reward in another state of being, but whether he has by careful diligence and attention secured for himself that reward. If I have succeeded in this, and to your deliberate examination I submit it, my task is accomplished; for if we are permitted to judge of the sermons as the arguments of a simple individual, sure I am, there are none among you habituated to reflection, who will not discover that they abound with inconsistencies, and are totally irreconcileable with reason, and the authority of the Scriptures. And you must unite with me in lamenting the strange illusion which induced the author of such discourses to declare that "he dare not speak at random, otherwise he should show that he departed from God's illuminating spirit." LETTER I. When I some time since addressed you, I expressed an anxious wish that you would submit to the consideration of your friends, your scheme of religion, in such a form as would enable them to examine it with deliberation; because I did believe that on this momentous subject, too much care could not be exercised. My wish has been gratified, not by your immediate agency, but by the zeal of your followers, who have caused a number of your discourses to be printed and published to the world.