They would find it difficult to make others believe in a
system to which they manifestly give no credit themselves. The
Christian statesmen of this land would indeed first provide for the
multitude, because it is the multitude, and is therefore, as such, the
first object in the ecclesiastical institution, and in all
institutions. They have been taught that the circumstance of the
gospel's being preached to the poor was one of the great tests of
its true mission. They think, therefore, that those do not believe
it who do not take care it should be preached to the poor. But as they
know that charity is not confined to any one description, but ought to
apply itself to all men who have wants, they are not deprived of a due
and anxious sensation of pity to the distresses of the miserable
great. They are not repelled through a fastidious delicacy, at the
stench of their arrogance and presumption, from a medicinal
attention to their mental blotches and running sores. They are
sensible that religious instruction is of more consequence to them
than to any others- from the greatness of the temptation to which they
are exposed; from the important consequences that attend their faults;
from the contagion of their ill example; from the necessity of
bowing down the stubborn neck of their pride and ambition to the
yoke of moderation and virtue; from a consideration of the fat
stupidity and gross ignorance concerning what imports men most to
know, which prevails at courts, and at the head of armies, and in
senates as much as at the loom and in the field.
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