YOUR Continuation of Letters concerning the Constitution and Order of the Christian Ministry, has sufficiently engaged my attention to enable me to judge of its spirit, its decorum, and its weight of argument. Of its spirit, I cannot say much in commendation. It appears to me to be a spirit of resentment, and of a mind irritated by opposition. Of its decorum, I can say still less. It wants propriety and civility in a striking degree. And as to its weight of argument, it falls, in my judgment, much below your first publication. But general observations are of no material consequence; I shall, therefore, proceed to verify my assertions in a few instances.
There is, Sir, I am bold to say, a great want of propriety and civility in your Continuation of Letters. You tell me on more than one occasion, that 'I ought to blush.' Now, Sir, as blushing seldom accompanies a consciousness of integrity and propriety; and as I am not destitute of this consciousness, you must excuse me for not complying with your intimation. In order to justify your censure, you say, that I charge you with 'contemptible cavilling;' with 'contemptible puerility;' with 'misrepresentations gross to excess;' with 'nonsense;' 'palpable nonsense;' and with your calling episcopacy an 'anti-christian usurpation.' Without running over my two volumes, (for you have not pointed to the pages) I take it for granted that you are perfectly correct. I then ask, Supposing it were possible for you, Sir, to cavil; when you do, what am I to say? What name should I give it? Should I say, the objection is unreasonable? Would this mend the matter? Might you not say, Dr. B. calls me an unreasonable man? When I apply the term 'puerility' to some of your reasonings, would it alter the case, and be more polite to say your argument is weak? If your argument is weak, and your objections cavils, and that to a great degree, is there any thing improper in applying to them the epithet 'contemptible? If I