Novelties Unknown to our Fathers

From The Huguenots by Samuel Smiles, a quote from the Rev. Jacob Bourdillon, minister of the Artillery Church, Spitalfields, who in 1782 celebrated his golden anniversary as preacher by bemoaning the reasons for the general decline in morality:

'...because of inconstancy in the principles of the faith, which induces so many by a sort of infatuation to forsake the ancient assemblies in order to follow novelties unknown to our fathers, and listen to pretended teachers whose only gifts are rapture and babble, and whose sole inspiration consists in self-sufficiency and pride. Alas! what ravages have been made here, as elsewhere, during the jubilee of fifty years!'

The phrases I've emphasised in bold strike me as thoroughly modern in sentiment. I suppose every generation has its Sony playstation and Hello! magazine.