ABSTRACT
The passage appears towards the end of Defoe’s The Present State of the Parties in Great Britain, a lengthy work in which the anonymous narrator describes the state of ‘decay and decline’ characterising English dissent. In the context of the passage cited, the moral implications for a degenerate ministry and debauched congregation – ‘mutually to Infect one another’ with ‘reciprocal Evil’ – seem ominous indeed. Taken en masse, the narratives do not merely consider how members of an immediate family household fulfil their moral and religious duties towards each other; they also explore how these roles are taken up by members of the wider social community. Defoe’s adherence to key aspects of the traditional genre of moral instruction, however, goes far beyond his desire for popular appeal. Despite their capacity for rational judgement and their faith, individuals still require moral support and religious guidance from their community.
