TO SAMUEL M'CULLOCH, ESQ. ANDREW WATSON, ESQ. PETER MACINTYRE, ESQ. M. D. AND THOSE OTHER FRIENDS OF THE FREE DISCUSSION OF MATTERS OF RELIGION ON SCRIPTURAL PRINCIPLES, BY WHOM HE WAS SUPPORTED IN HIS LATE ARDUOUS STRUGGLE WITH THE PRESBYTERY OF GLASGOW, THESE PAGES ARE RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR. PREFACE. WHEN I published the former edition of this work in the Spring of 1828, the subjects of which it treats had not particularly occupied my mind for more than two years. Other topics of equal, one of them certainly of paramount, importance had, during the period of my presiding over the Rodney Street Congregation, engaged my attention. Besides, after my expulsion from my former charge, shunned by those commonly denominated the serious, and opposed on principle to men of latitudinarian sentiments, I had none to confer with, none to consult, in the progress of my enquiries, and the formation of a scriptural creed. Is it surprising if, under such circumstances, I should, in the original composition of the present work, have committed some mistakes? My first information respecting the principal truths brought out and illustrated in the following pages, was derived from the word of God itself. The fifteenth chapter of the former of Paul's two epistles to the Corinthians, or rather that portion of it which lies between the forty-second and the fiftieth verses, was the means of originally suggesting those views, and causing me to engage in that train of investigation, which have resulted in the theory now propounded. At first, it was but a rough sketch. By degrees, the outline was filled up. The former edition of this work first brought it before the public: and, afterwards combining in my mind with the all-important scriptural and experimental doctrine of the assurance of faith, the system appeared in a still more mature shape in the two octavo volumes which I published in 1833. In struggling with the difficulties of my subject, for difficulties it had, there were two leading topics which for many years occasioned me uneasiness. These were, the exact amount of Adam's original forfeiture, and the nature of eternal punishment. On both subjects, strange to tell! I saw through the popular fallacies, long before I was enabled to grasp the simple truth. Eight years since, it was made clear to my mind, from the scriptures themselves, that Adam could not have forfeited spiritual and eternal life, and that there could be no eternal punishment of the nature of never ending torments. |