Crito freely will rehearse I have heard of a Minifter who ufed to compofe hymns in the pulpit. It was his cuftom to give out one line, and by the time the congregation had fung the first, he had a fecond ready for them, and fo on, as long as he thought proper to fing. These were not forms, they were composed pra re nata. Before he had finished a fecond stanza, the former (as to the verfe and cadence) was in a manner forgotten; and the fame hymn was never heard twice. I know I know not what thefe unpremeditated pieces were in point of compofition: but were I perfuaded of the unlawfulness of forms of prayer, and at the fame time approved of the practice of finging in public worship; I should extremely covet the talent of extempore hymn-making, as one of the most neceffary gifts a Minifter: could poffefs in order to maintain a confiftency in his whole fervice. I here close what I intended by way of introduction. In my fubfequent Letters I purpose to acquaint you more directly with the reasons which determined my own choice, and which still fatisfy me, that in receiving epifcopal ordination, and exercifing my miniftry in the established Church I have not acted wrong. At present, I fhall relieve your attention, by fubfcribing myfelf Your affectionate Friend and Brother, LETTER LETTER II. My dear friend and brother, As S fuch I addrefs you; as fuch, notwithstanding our different views of Church Government, you acknowledge me. You have confirmed your love to me by many repeated proofs, and it is the defire of my heart, that nothing may take place on either fide to weaken the exercise of that friendship, which having the faith and hope of the Gospel for its bafis, is calculated to fubfift and flourish in a better world. With this contained in the holy Scriptures has a peculiar authority, as the fountain from whence we are to derive our public difcourfes, and the ftandard by which they are to be tried; yet truth, as to its nature, does not admit of degrees, but all propofitions, if they be true, must be equally true, and every conclufion which is rightly inferred from fcriptural premises, muft be, in whatever words it is expreffed (if they are precife and clear,) as true as the premifes from which it is drawn. If I give a juft definition or explication of a doctrine of the Bible in my own words, the truth or importance of that doctrine are not affected or weakened |