i TO THE S STUDY OF PRESBYTERIANISM OR, AN UNSOPHISTICATED EXPOSITION OF CALVINISM, WITH A VIEW TO A MORE EASY INTERPRE- TATION OF THE SAME. TO WEICH IS ADDED 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 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. REVEREND SIR: My 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 hono 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 self distrust 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, prin ciples, tendency, and designs, of the National Societics. 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 re quest of many of my intimate friends, I have carried through this under taking. This work supplies a want which I have often painfully felt, and affords a manual which I should gladly sec 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 ex amine 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 meas ures, 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 argu ments, 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 verily believe, I have been, in the providence of God, especially called. To 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 5666 1214 888919 |