as irrelevant. Mr. M'Chord protested against this decision of the Synod, and has appealed to the judgment of the Christian church at large.

In a circular letter, directed by Mr. M'Chord to many, and to myself among others, bearing date Lexington, Kentucky, 12th Sept. 1816, Mr. M'Chord uses the following words :-"The opinions I hold up to the light of Heaven; shew me that they are erroneous, and I cheerfully relinquish them." As the Synod has pronounced the charges against Mr. M'Chord's sentiments respecting CHRISTIAN COMMUNION and PSALMODy irrelevant, nothing need be said on these subjects; and I candidly own, that they ever have been my own sentiments, and I have long been in the habit of acting on them, whenever the providence of God appeared to me to require it as a duty. And I do not think this an officious declaration of these sentiments, because all the world should know, that we are not disposed to surrender to any authority the liberty by which "Christ has made us free"-the liberty of submitting our consciences to no authority but his own and of knowing no law of duty but his law, which is the perfect law of liberty. Those who know their conscientious liberty should be open and candid, but at the same time, modest, in asserting it. The THEORY alone is at present in question, and I consider Mr. M'Chord as addressing himself to me personally in these words: "Shew me wherein I am wrong, and I cheerfully relinquish

INTRODUCTION.

iii

my opinions." I do know WHEREIN he is wrong, and I consider myself in duty bound, both as a Christian and as a man, to comply with a request so Christian and so manly. The duty also is strongly enforced by this consideration, that although it has been decided, both by presbytery and synod, that Mr. M'Chord is wrong, yet no person, so far as I have heard, has yet attempted to shew him WHEREIN is his error. And it now becomes Mr. M'Chord's duty to listen candidly and patiently, and to divest himself, so far as the state of humanity admits, of all fondness for his past opinions, that he may so listen, to what I am about to offer him. It is his duty, not only to be willing to admit the light, but to pray earnestly to the Father of lights for the spirit of illumination; and to take as much trouble, to submit to as much labour, to know the right from the wrong, as it has cost me to write this volume.

I enter upon this subject, with the stronger impressions of duty, when I consider that this is the error which has split up the reformed churches into so many parties, of Calvinists, Redemptional Universalists, Arminians, and a numerous list of other sects, as the reader will find in the sequel; and has converted them into hostile clanns, carrying on a perpetual war on each others borders, too much in the spirit, and with too many of the effects, of a bordering war, the embittered strife of brothers. The present subject is not new to my mind, but I have never been called in providence' before, to trouble the church, sufficiently troubled already from other causes, with my ideas on this subject. And without such a call, they should have gone to the grave with me.

After this declaration, the reader will have prepared himself to move along with me, in the cool temper, and

slow pace of analytic investigation. We shall march with perfect composure, and in perfect good humour, without one malicious thought towards any human being, intent only to reach the object of our journey, TRUTH. So taking up our staves in our hands, "Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord," let us move forward.

The Two Sophisms Detected.

THE reader who recollects the operations of his own heart under the ministrations of the gospel, knows-and the reader who is acquainted with the opinions of other men under those ministrations knows, that the doctrine of Adam's representation, and the consequence of that representation, original sin, on the one hand; and the doctrine of Christ's representation, and the consequence of that representation, imputed righteousness, on the other hand-are the ground on which sinners stumble and fall, many of them to rise no more. And even those who at last stand firm on this ground, have obtained their stability in consequence of much tottering and falling. The reader of ecclesiastical history knows, that the two doctrines before stated, are the ground on which most of the schisms and heresies which have taken place in the Christian church, have originated that, on this ground, sects, each of which have retained the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, have departed from each other in ill blood, and each taken its several way, accusing the others of dangerous, and even damning errors. Yet every one of them believed the Scriptures to be the word of God; and admitted that every decision of God in his word, ought to be taken as a first principle in all our religious argumen

must be wrong. Now there are, in this case, only two sources of error; the first lies in permitting something which is not divine, which is not true, to mingle with our first principles; and the second lies in illogical reasoning. Illogical reasoning is easily refuted, but to detect those atomic sophisms which sometimes mingle with original truths-hic labor, hoc opus est-this is the task. And this is the task which I must now attempt, under the divine guidance.

SECTION I.

The Doctrine of Representation.

As it is my wish that the following discussion should not merely exhibit detached objections against a particular theory; but that it should also present a connected view of the whole subject, I begin with a few observations on the representative character of man; forewarning the reader, that he is to expect to find those points which are commonly conceded, very concisely stated; while a more detailed and precise argument is reserved for those topics which belong to the new doc- trine.

It is, I believe, conceded by all, that man is a representative animal; that is, that notwithstanding the free agency which constitutes the individuality of every single man, and renders each individually responsible