It is the present mode of speculation to charge these men with total hypocrisy, as wretches who have no other design but that of temporal advancement, and consider religion only as one of the means by which power is gained, or wealth accumulated. But this charge, whatever may have been the depravity of single persons, is by no means generally true. The persecutor and enthusiast have often been superiour to the desire of worldly possessions, or, at least have been abstracted from it by stronger passions. There is a kind of mercantile speculation, which ascribes every action to interest, and considers interest as only another name for pecuniary advantage. But the boundless variety of human affections is not to be thus easily circumscribed. Causes and effects, motives and actions, are complicated and diversified without end. Many men make party subservient to personal purposes; and many likewise suffer all private considerations to be absorbed and lost in their zeal for some publick cause. But envy still operates, however various in its appearance, however disguised by specious pretences, or however removed from notice by intermediate causes. All violence, beyond the necessity of self-defence, is incited by the desire of humbling the opponent, and, whenever it is applied to the decision of religious questions, aims at conquest, rather than conversion.
Since, therefore, envy is found to operate so often, and so secretly, and the strife which arises from it is certain to end in confusion, it is surely the duty of every man, who desires the prosperity of his country, as connected with a particular community, or the general happiness of the world, as allied to general humanity,
First: To consider, by what tokens he may discover in himself, or others, that strife which springs from envy, and ends in confusion.
Secondly: What are the evils produced by that confusion which proceeds from strife.
First: Let us consider, by what tokens we may dis-
