were strongly condemned; clerical abuses and exactions fiercely inveighed against; but pure religion and morality were commended. “In this country,” writes Horseley, “I believe they know very well that bold undisguised atheism, proceeding directly and openly to its horrid purpose, will never be successful. They must have recourse, therefore, to cautious stratagem; they must pretend that their object is not to demolish, but reform: and it was with a view of giving colour to this pretence, that the impudent lie—for such I have proved it to be—has been propagated in this country of their reverence for pure Christianity, and for the Reformation.” But there was one invariable feature of all their proceedings, never lost sight of, a rancorous and malignant hostility to the established Church; and unwearied exertions “to alienate the minds of the people from the established clergy, by representing them as sordid worldlings, without any concern about the souls of men, indifferent to the religion which they ought to teach, to which the laity are attached, and destitute of the Spirit of God.” {137a} Here, then, we have a direct parallel between those times and the present, in which, indeed, the balance of evil is against us, for, “the Church of England,” observes a living prelate, {137b} “never, perhaps, hitherto has had to contend with so great a number of open and avowed enemies; who, in their reiterated and persevering attacks, stop short of no misrepresentations, however flagrant, which tend to hold it up to public scorn and indignation.”