127762 APR 6 1909 BSG A113 S PREFACE. THE author of this Treatise all along intended that his Work on "The Method of the Divine Government Physical and Moral" should be followed by another on "The Method of the Divine Government Supernatural and Spiritual." This Essay may be regarded as Part First of that contemplated work. Whether it will be succeeded by a Second Part, bearing more especially on the Spiritual Economy of God in our world, depends on so many circumstances at the disposal of a Higher Power, that he thinks it wiser to make no promise to the public on the subject. The questions agitated in our day have called on him, in the mean time, to give to the world the First or Apologetic Part of the intended publication. His deepest feeling, in now issuing it from the press, is a regret Pub 1860 that it is not more worthy of the all-important theme discussed. In this world of ours the work of destruction is easier than that of reconstruction. A few reckless men may, in a few hours, break or consume as much valuable property as would require many sober men, many years of toil, to repair or restore. When the authors of "Essays and Reviews" began to scatter inflammable materials, the first efforts of the defenders of the citadel attacked were naturally directed towards ascertaining the precise aims of the combatants, and staying the immediate effects on the minds of the nation. I suppose, however, that the public feel that we have had enough of disquisitions as to the position of the Essayists, and as to the tendency and probable effect of their writings. There is also a very general feeling that we must now have something beyond those excellent little articles and essays, which have been written with the view of counteracting the general influence of the doubts that have been insinuated in regard to vii the Word of God, and the attacks that have been made on the fundamental principles of religion. The expectation now is, that there must be a laborious discussion of all and of each of the questions started, and this on their absolute merits, with a view it may be to existing controversies, but on grounds and by principles not peculiar to this or to any age. It has often been remarked, that in a common-place subject it is easier to advance an acute objection than to offer a telling reply. A man may acquire a reputation for ingenuity more readily by proving that a stone is not a stone, than by a laboured demonstration that it is a stone. Nevertheless, the friends of religion, natural and revealed, must engage patiently in the work of defending what has been attacked. It may be all true that the objections have been offered before; it may also be true that they have been answered before; still, as long as the attacks continue, and there is a race of young men springing up who are exposed to them, those |