The triumph of infidelity: a poem

"YOUR Creator endued you with shining talents, and cast your lot in a field of action, where they might be most happily employed: In the progress of a long and industrious life, you devoted them to a single purpose, the elevation of your character above his. For the accomplishment of this purpose, with a diligence and uniformity which would have adorned the most virtuous pursuits, you opposed truth, religion, and their authors, with sophistry, contempt, and obloquy; and taught, as far as your example or sentiments extended their influence, that the chief end of man was, to slander his God, and abuse him forever. To whom could such an effort as the following be dedicated, with more propriety, than to you. The subject it celebrates is the most pointed attack upon your old enemies; an attack more happily devised, at least, than any of yours; as yours were more advantageously concerted than the efforts of any of your predecessors. Reasoning is an unhappy engine to be employed against christianity; as, like elephants in ancient war, it usually, in this case, turns upon those who employ it. Ridicule is a more convenient weapon, as you have successfully evinced; but ingenious misinterpretation is a still more sure and effectual annoyance; for the sword and javelin, however keen, may be dreaded and shunned, while the secret and deadly dirk is plunged to the heart of unsuspecting friendship, unhappily trusting the smooth-faced assassin. Accept then, as..."
This is an edition of a classical book first published in the eighteenth century.