have such cause. And by observing the same process of investigation; first by an examination of scriptural positive evidence, and then by comparing that with true principles of reason; it was found, that no other adequate cause could be assigned of necessitation to good, but SOVEREIGN BENEVOLENCE; nor any other adequate cause of exemption from decretive necessitation, but DIVINE EQUITY.

The more strictly and impartially this inquiry was made, the more forcible was the evidence, that to these two causes were all the parts of ethics and theology ultimately reducible. Hence the determination of attempting a scriptural and rational display of the Equity of divine Government and the Sovereignty of divine Grace, and an examination of different systems by the light of these principles. At first, indeed, the design was to publish a small Essay, containing merely the author's leading ideas; but as he proceeded in penning his thoughts, the subject appeared to acquire accumulated interest and importance. Accordingly, he announced his design of publishing an octavo volume; and, amidst many interruptions from personal and domestic illness, changes of situation, and multiplied engagements, he penned the greatest part of the work at intervals; and a considerable portion of it was printed many years ago. He had from the first, and ever since increasingly, a strong and habitual conviction that the primary and essential parts of the projected work are the truths of God, deduced from, and harmonizing with the holy scriptures; and not only that they are truths, but also principles of the utmost importance towards a satisfactory view of religion in all its bearings, as to doctrine, experience, and practice.

This

This made him proportionably anxious to ascertain, whether they would bear, with equal satisfaction to his mind, the test of continued experience, in their personal and practical influence; of argument, by means of reflection, conversation, reading and correspondence; and of prejudice, by an occasional diffusion of them. On trial, he found—at least he thought-this last to be the only formidable opponent; while the experiment has given him the most satisfactory proof of a warm approbation from persons whose judgment, piety, and usefulness are highly respected in the religious world. He does not, therefore, all things considered, regret the delay of publishing the work, notwithstanding the frequent and pressing solicitations of his friends; for, though efforts have been made to represent his views of Equity and Sovereignty, and some primary truths inseparably connected with them, as an unprofitable speculation, (than which nothing can be more unfounded) it has been the means of preparing the public mind to give the subject more close attention, which it is presumed will be growingly advantageous to the important truths here defended.

After a watchful attention to the interests of consistent orthodoxy, for above twenty years past; after constant prayer to GOD, the only wise, for direction; after trying the effect of his principles on the congregations where providence has called him to labour in the ministry; after feeling, when apparently at the very entrance into the eternal world, that a just view and experience of the Equity of divine government, and the Sovereignty of divine grace, filled him with godly consolation; after observing with increased conviction, that learning and ingenuity, in some late attempts,* have utterly

* See the APPENDIX at the End of the Volume.

utterly failed in their opposition to the leading ideas contained in this work; and finally, after learning that the publication of it is now more than ever expected; -the author ventures it abroad with fervent supplications for a blessing to rest on every reader, and with firm and unshaken confidence, that the sentiments it contains are "the truth as it is in Jesus," and highly important to be well understood by professing christians

chapter, but it has been

The ADDITIONAL NOTES are inserted from a conviction, that though philological and critical disquisitions respecting the use of terms are seldom interesting in the body of a work, yet much controversial difference in the investigation of real opinions arises from a neglect of accurate statements. The principal terms indeed are defined in the first found by experience that some other terms needed explanation, the use of which in a metaphysical sense could not be avoided, without still greater inconvenience in inventing new ones. In no case is this more clear than in the words TENDENCY, EVIL, POWER, cause and EFFECT. The generality of readers hastily conclude that all such terms must convey positive ideas whenever used; without reflecting, that there is most assuredly a negative idea, to be expressed by each of these terms, which cannot well be conveyed without them. Such persons, being familiarly and exclusively acquainted with either the physical or moral application of them, are soon confounded by their metaphysical use. And yet, since metaphysical ideas are not less real and precise in their nature than the others, there seems no alternative but the use of such terms in a new sense, properly explained, or the fabrication of new

terms

terms, which would also need appropriate definitions. To make light of this process, is to impede scientific knowledge, and virtually to say, that rhetoric alone is the field for improvement.

The author has, at various times, submitted to the public some of his leading sentiments on the subjects discussed in this volume; and these have called forth the opposition of different writers, for whose extraordinary opinions, and still more extraordinary misrepresentations, it is difficult to account. But where are the

arguments, founded either on scripture or common sense, adduced by the opposers of his principles? Is it fair, is it candid to assume a sense of terms which the author utterly disavows, and which had been previously disavowed by repeated and various explanations? To triumph in supposed absurd and shocking consequences so deduced, argues a disingenuous and cowardly mode of attack, and a disposition not very friendly to the attainment of sacred truth. Had any persons professing themselves the followers of PELAGIUS or ARMINIUS produced such works as have recently appeared, in order to counteract the doctrine of sovereign grace and to obtrude the self-sufficiency of the creature to secure his own goodness, their denomination would have served as an antidote to those who profess opposite sentiments. But works which have no settled explanation of terms, which do not even pretend to any fixed sentiments on the subject they discuss, seem but little calculated to cope with the subtle adversaries of evangelical religion. Such works may obtain approbation for a time, from unwary readers; but truth is no temporizer.

Of

Of one thing the author is fully satisfied; that no consistent scriptural Calvinist can oppose the leading principles of this Essay. Concede to a philosophical Necessitarian that GOD is the author of good and evil alike, and to a Pelagian that MAN is the author alike of his good and evil; and their systems respectively may assume a tolerable appearance of consistency. But a Calvinist, siding to either of these hateful extremes, departs at once both from self-consistency and from truth.

Having long seen the importance of subverting error by a developement of sacred truth, as revealed in the scriptures, in its most radical principles, the writer's mind has been habitually impressed with the mode adopted in this Essay; while convinced that the mechanical, -necessitarian scheme, on the one hand, and the self-determining hypothesis, on the other, can never be fairly overturned on the principles of science, but in harmony with what is here defended. But whether an opponent sally forth from the camp of PELAGIUS, of ARMINIUS, or of PRIESTLEY; or whether he call himself a high or a low, a rigid or a moderate Calvinist, a supralapsarian or a sublapsarian; the author is not moved about it. It is enough if they be confronted with the unforced language and uniform tenor of scripture, the experience of the humble and be nevolent christian in his most heavenly tempers, the dictates of common sense, the first principles of moral science, and the legitimate use of right reason. "Truth and such company may give a modest man confidence,"

There are thousands who defend the doctrines of grace in a constant appeal to "chapter and verse;"

and