It is, however, probable, if not certain, that they were, generally speaking, the dupes of their own zeal.

Hypocrisy, quite pure and free from fanaticism, is perhaps, except among men fixed in a determined philosophical scepticism, then unknown, as rare as fanaticism entirely purged from all mixture of hypocrisy.
So congenial to the human mind are religions sentiments, that it is impossible to counterfeit long these holy fervors, without feeling some share of the assumed warmth: and, on the other hand, so precarious and temporary, from the frailty of human nature, is the operation of these spiritual views, that the religious ecstasies, if constantly employed, must often be counterfeit, and must be warped by those more familiar motives of interest and ambition, which insensibly gain upon the mind.
This indeed teems the key to most of the celebrated characters of that age.

Equally full of fraud and of ardor, these pious patriots talked perpetually of seeking the Lord, yet still pursued their own purposes; and have left a memorable lesson to posterity, how delusive, how destructive that principle is by which they were animated.
With regard to the people, we can entertain no doubt that the controversy was, on their part, entirely theological.

The generality of the nation could never have flown out into such fury, in order to obtain new privileges, and acquire greater liberty than they and their ancestors had ever been acquainted with.

Their fathers had been entirely satisfied with the government of Elizabeth.