ENTERED according to act of Congress, in the year 1846, by WILEY & PUTNAM, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of New York. R. CRAIGHEAD, PRINTER, 112 FULTON STREET. gift PREFACE. It is no more than justice to the conductors of the Princeton Review, to state distinctly, that the thought of this republication did not originate with them. For the selection of the articles, and the mode of their present appearance, neither they nor the respective authors have any responsibility. For a number of years it has been impossible to make up complete sets of this periodical work; and numerous orders for the earlier volumes remain unfulfilled. As, however, the demand for these discussions was manifestly increasing, it was judged suitable to make choice among the more valuable theological articles: the result is the volume now offered. This, it is confidently believed, will have a permanent value, as representing a class of doctrinal opinion which, not without conflict, is making wide and rapid progress in America. The topics here treated, by some of the ablest pens in the Presbyterian Church in the United States, are of great importance in theology. They involve the grave questions agitated between the Evangelical scheme, on one hand, and Infidels, Papists, Socinians, Pelagians, Arminians, and Enthusiasts, on the other. In reproducing, for the use of clergymen, theological students, and accomplished laymen, dissertations which have a polemical aspect, it is by no means intended to revive old controversies; yet it is the persuasion of those who make this publication, that the value of the truths contended for cannot well be overrated. The "Biblical Repertory" has now reached its twenty-second volume. It was commenced, at Princeton, in the year 1825, by Professor Hodge, to whose care and learning it has continued to owe much of its value and popularity. At the time of its inception, the plan did not extend much beyond the field of criticism and hermeneutics; and it was largely occupied with translations and reprints of biblical treatises, thus verifying both parts of its title. After three or four years, it began to assume more of the attributes of a theological and literary review, which character it has avowedly sustained for the last seventeen years. To speak of the living contributors to this work might savour of indecorum; nor have we authority to intrude upon the privacy of those respected men whose labours we use. Among the dead, we may record, as ornaments of this publication, by essays and reviews of great merit, the following honoured and beloved names:-The Reverend Dr. John H. Rice, the Reverend Dr. Fisk, the Reverend Dr. John Breckinridge, President Marsh, Professor Patton, the Reverend Mr. Winchester, and the Reverend Professor Dod. In regard to the writings of the eminent man last-mentioned, it is proper to say, that the publishers have been restrained from incorporating his valuable contributions into this volume, by the welcome information that a separate edition of his remains is in preparation. Ample materials still remain for a similar volume, in case that which is now respectfully offered should meet with the patronage which is expected. New York, April 15, 1846. |