A Practical View of the Prevailing Religious System of Professed Christians, in the Middle and Higher Classes in this Country, Contrasted with Real Christianity.

Transcriber’s Notes:
All footnotes have been moved to the end of the text and numbered sequentially. Links to the Index and Footnotes sections have been added to the Table of Contents.
Some words were spelt, hyphenated, or had apostrophes placed, inconsistently within the text. These have been silently corrected to match the form most frequently used in the text.
Where scanned text was unclear, the 1834 edition has been consulted.
Unless due to a clear typographic error, consistent differences from modern usage have been retained, such as spellings (e.g. prophane), hyphenation (e.g. to-day), and punctuation (e.g. omission of commas following full stops in lists and the Index).
Inconsistent style of Section headings are as in the original
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Search the Scriptures!—— John, v. 39.
How charming is DIVINE PHILOSOPHY! Not harsh, and crabbed, as dull Fools suppose, But Musical as is Apollo’s lute, And a perpetual feast of nectar’d sweets, Where no crude surfeit reigns. Milton.

It has been, for several years, the earnest wish of the writer of the following pages to address his countrymen on the important subject of Religion; but the various duties of his public station, and a constitution incapable of much labour, have obstructed the execution of his purpose. Long has he been looking forward to some vacant season, in which he might devote his whole time and attention to this interesting service, free from the interruption of all other concerns; and he has the rather wished for this opportunity of undistracted and mature reflection, from a desire that what he might send into the world might thus be rendered less undeserving of the public eye. Meanwhile life is wearing away, and he daily becomes more and more convinced, that he might wait in vain for this season of complete vacancy. He must, therefore, improve such occasional intervals of leisure as may occur to him in the course of a busy life, and throw himself on the Reader’s indulgence for the pardon of such imperfections, as the opportunity of undiverted and more mature attention might have enabled him to discover and correct.