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J. Watts de Ley

ROSE HILL, TIVOLI P. O., DUCHESS CO.,
1st January, 1868.

MEMBER of the NETHERLANDISHI LITERARY AS
[Maatschappij der Nederlandsche Letterkunde]
den, Holland.

HONORARY MEMBER of the MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SC and of the PHRENOKOSMIAN SOCIETY of PENNSYLVA¡¡A COLLEGE, Gettysburg; of the PHILOSOPHIAN SOCIETY, Missionary Institute, Selins Grove, and of the EUTERPIAN SOCIETY, Muhlenberg College, Allentown, Pennsylvania. MEMBER of the NEW YORK and of the PENNSYLVANIA HISTORICAL SOCIETIES; MEMBER, Third Class, (HONORARY) of the MILITARY ORDER of the LOYAL LEGION of the United States.

LIFE MEMBER of the HISTORICAL SOCIETY of MICHIGAN, and of the NUMISMATIC and ARCHEOLOGICAL SOCIETY of New York. CORRESPONDING MEMBER of the STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETIES of MAINE, of VERMONT, and of WISCONSIN; of the LONG ISLAND, and of the BUFFALO HISTORICAL SOCIETIES; 'of the NEW ENGLAND HISTORIC-GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY; of the QUEBEC LITERARY AND HISTORICAL SOCIETY; etc., etc.. etc.

EDITOR'S

THE

P R E F A СЕ.

Or the Tracts, Essays, &c. which are now presented to the public,-the two first, on the Divinity of Christ, and the Atonement, were published separately, many years ago, in reply to Dr. Priestley and others, who were engaged in writing and circulating small popular Tracts in opposition to these important doctrines of Christianity. Some account of the controversy, and of the success of these " short defences" has been given in the Life of Mr. Hey, which was published in the early part of the present year.

The Moral Essays, Obituaries, &c. to page 487, appeared, at different periods, in "The Christian Observer;" the papers which follow these pages are now printed for the first time. Mr. Hey, during the course of a long and active life, frequently committed

his thoughts on various subjects in divinity to paper; but he destroyed a considerable portion of these writings long before his death, not from any settled distrust of the soundness of his reasonings, but from a fear lest the freedom with which he had discussed some popular tenets, might be misunderstood, or misused, by any into whose hands the manuscripts might fall.

Truth in the understanding, and charity in the heart, are, perhaps, the most precious gifts which can be conferred upon the sons of men in their present state and condition; but although absolutely denied to none, they are found to exist with much inequality, both in their measure and in their relative proportions. Knowledge and grace are not inseparable; for genuine piety may subsist with obscure and inadequate conceptions, and much confusion of thought; but where that is conjoined with modesty and due humility, it is more to be valued than all the treasures of natural science, or the most learned and profound speculations in theology itself. Illfounded pretensions, however, are not to be

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