“ To any who may put such a question to me, I can only answer, that I have not written these books with a view to suiting the taste of men generally, still less those of this country, where the views of most men, even on the weightest of all matters, the Christian faith to wit, and the Christian Church, are as wide of mine as the east is of the west, as numberless and strange, as the dialects of Babel, and as opposite to each other as to truth and the Church. ”

“ Many may be likely to ask me, why I bring out another series of the Lyra Ecclesiastica when nearly all that were printed of the first series lie uncalled for in the hands of the bookseller? Surely, they will say, this alone is enough to show that neither the hymns themselves, nor the way wherein they have been done into English, have met the people's taste. ”

“ To this I will only add that as I have the satisfaction to know that some have found pleasure and edification in my first series, if this also should raise one good thought, or one holy feeling in any reader's breast, it's end will be more than answered, and I shall find therein further incouragement to go on. ”