My Lord, I presume to address you, invited by your Lordship’s known good sense and candour, and much emboldened by a strong conviction that some enemy hath craftily obtained your Lordship’s countenance to his project; which, I am sure, if your Lordship knew all, you would spurn with indignation and contempt. I am persuaded that you know not the men and their communication, to whom you have joined yourself. Let this then be my excuse for intruding myself upon your notice; and if I fail to convince your Lordship, at least let me promise myself that patience and respect which is always due to sincerity and good intention. At present, my Lord, you appear as the head of a party, (rather, should I say, a legion of parties) by whom every opponent is sure to be reviled, as illiberal and uncharitable, and as an enemy to the gospel. I confess I expect the honour of their reproaches. I am thankful that I have enjoyed them before. “If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household?” From you, my Lord, I expect the treatment of a Gentleman and a Christian; and if I fail in the respect which is due to those honourable characters, I sincerely profess it shall be contrary to my resolved purpose; and I beg your Lordship to let Charity do its perfect work, and cover this failure among the multitude of my other sins. It is very true, my Lord, that “to promote the circulation of the scriptures at home and abroad, is an object in which every one who professes the religion of Christ, must feel a deep interest.” But the _object_ of a society, my Lord, is not to be known from its public declaration in print. Your experience of the world will suggest to you, that the most important objects, whether of a good or evil tendency, have been prosecuted, and are now continually pursued in a close and clandestine manner, under favour of public declarations of a different and often of a contrary character. It is impossible for any man to say what shall be the _real_ object of any society, till he be in possession of the favourite object of each of its members; for although a body of men may at first associate for, and appear to bind themselves to the promotion of some specific common object, we well know, that in process of time, this common object is generally lost in neglect; and at last, each individual pursues that particular object which, as a private man, engages his affection and preference.