The Progress of Morals: Day 2

Number of sermons read: 14 (oof!)
Date range: 1827-1852
Authors of interest: In addition to a return engagement by Baptist Noel, there were special guest appearances by Richard Waldo Sibthorp (subject of a recent biography), J. W. Cunningham (best known as the author of The Velvet Cushion), and the perhaps somewhat overly prolific George Croly (also the author of Salathiel, a bestselling Gothic novel based on the legend of the Wandering Jew). 
Running themes: Catholicism emerges from fallen human nature, instead of standing against it (a popular theme--see Richard Whately's lectures on the same subject, reviewed here); the Roman Catholic Church as the Antichrist; right of private judgment; Catholic "fictions"; hermeneutics; theory of history; Catholicism leads "necessarily" to skepticism and "infidelity."
Points of interest: Not surprisingly, given the amount of Croly I was imbibing, today was heavy on the prophecy.  I also encountered a fair amount of dubious argumentation--like this bit from J. W. Cunningham:

But, in the next place, it may be said, that if the religion of any community is to be judged by the conduct of a large proportion of its professors, an equally strong argument may be raised against Protestantism. I answer, No. There is this grand distinction: if the Protestant sins, he sins, not in conformity with his principles, but in opposition to them: the one sins in spite of his religion, and the other in obedience to it. Self-justification, superstition, unbelief, the depreciation of the cross, the substitution of outward for inward religion, are the legitimate offspring of the principles and ritual we have had to describe. On the contrary, though they may be grafted upon Protestantism, they are no part of its natural produce.