Preface to the Third Edition

I resent thankful that God has so prospered and blessed this little work, that now, two large editions having been exhausted, a third is called for.

In revising it for the press, while I have felt the many defects which exist in it, I have been led to rejoice more and more in the truth for which it is designed to be a testimony. The errors against which it is pointed are, I believe, in some measure subsiding; but still it is most needful that the warning should be kept up. ‘The doctrines at stake are not subordinate and unessential. They are momentous and vital, — both in themselves and in their consequences. ‘They lie at the very foundation of true theology, and are imbedded in the very heart of the Word of God. The denial of them involves not only a misinterpretation of Scripture, but a misrepresentation of Jehovah’s character. In such a case there can be no compromise. The man who denies the sovereignty of the Father, the sudstitu-

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tionary work of the Son, the direct operation of the Holy Spirit upon the soul, and who expunges the doctrine of absolute election from the ninth of the Romans, may not be a Socinian himself, but he holds radically Socinian principles, and his followers will assuredly carry out these into open and broad Socinianism.

Ketso, April, 1850.

NOTE.

I nave carefully revised these Letters, correcting and supplementing very considerably, so as to render them more complete and more useful. In the first edition I referred but sparingly to writers upon the different points in question. In this edition I have thought it best to give what references I had collected, both in order to render the book more complete, and also for the sake of those who desire to study the various subjects. Still, I build nothing upon these in the way of authority. It is to the law and to the testimony that the appeal is taken. Let God be true, and every man a liar.

«Buy the truth, and sell it not:” that is, get truth at whatever price or cost; but part with it on no consideration, and for no price whatsoever.