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TO THE

STUDY OF PRESBYTERIANISM

AN UNSOPHISTICATED EXPOSITION OF CALVINISM, WITH
HOPKINSIAN MODIFICATIONS AND POLICY, WITH

A VIEW TO A MORE EASY INTERPRE-

TATION OF THE SAME.

TO WHICH IS ADDED

A brief account of the Life and Travels of the Author;

INTERSPERSED WITH ANECDOTES.

BY WILLIAM G. BROWNLOW,

MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL.

For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not
be made known....

...CHRIST.

KNOXVILLE, T.

F. S. HEISKELD, PRINTER;

1834.

Entered, according to act of Congress, in the year 1834,

By WILLIAM G. BROWNLOW,

in the Clerk's Office of the Eastern District of Tennessee,

DEDICATION.

TO THE

REV. NATHAN BANGS, D. D.

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REVEREND SIR;

Mr personal acquaintance with you, and certain knowledge of your high standing among the Methodist Societies, both in Europe and America, would alone have inclined me to solicit for this work, the honor of your name and patronage. But, Sir, I must further confess, the peculiar satisfaction which I feel, in offering it as a tribute and a public acknowledgment of my admiration for a man, who, as I believe, more than any other, has enriched, by his labors, the moral and theological literature of America. Sir, your good heart, clear and penetrating mind, sound and strong judgment, calmness of temper for deliberation, invincible firmness and perseverance in what you undertake, incorruptible integrity and unvarying orthodoxy; connected, at the same time, with that selfdistrust peculiar to your innate modesty, the constant attendant of preeminent virtue, have won for you the affections of many, and entitled you to the respect of all.

In this work, which, as a tribute of respect, I now dedicate to you, I have instituted the most strict and impartial enquiry into the origin, principles, tendency, and designs, of the National Societies. I have long cherished a desire to see a work of this kind brought forward in this country, and I am exceedingly gratified that, in compliance with the request of many of my intimate friends, I have carried through this undertaking. This work supplies a want which I have often painfully felt, and affords a manual which I should gladly see placed in the hands of every American citizen. I know of none which, in all respects, would supply its place. Therefore, Sir, you may, most strongly recommend this little unpretending volume to the attention of every lover of liberty, and more particularly, of our own country. It will induce them, I am sure, to examine more closely than they have been accustomed to do, the designs of the Calvinistic Sections of the Church, and such examination must prove interesting to them; for I have introduced them to movements and measures, which, in a good degree, have hitherto been hidden from too many. In the prosecution of this arduous and hitherto almost unattempted work, in this form, I have derived greater aid from your views and arguments, as exhibited in the different periodicals you have so ably edited, for the last eight or ten years, than I have been able to find besides, in the whole range of our existant editor or authorship. With this powerful aid, I commenced the arduous and highly responsible task, to which, I erily believe, I have been, in the providence of God, especially called. o imagine that I have completed this task, would be to forget at once, that, like yourself, I am but a man, and therefore liable to make a failure. Although I do not enjoy the satisfaction of knowing that I have travers

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