14 THE WORKS OF THE REV. ANDREW FULLER, IN EIGHT VOLUMES. VOL. II. NEW-HAVEN: PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY S. CONVERSE. 1824. THE CALVINISTIC AND SOCINIAN SYSTEMS EXAMINED AND COMPARED, AS TO THEIR MORAL TENDENCY: IN A SERIES OF LETTERS, ADDRESSED TO THE FRIENDS OF VITAL AND PRACTICAL RELIGION. TO WHICH IS ADDED, A POSTSCRIPT, ESTABLISHING THE PRINCIPLE OF THE WORK AGAINST THE EXCEPTIONS OF DR. TOULMIN, MR. BELSHAM, &c. Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. PAUL. PREFACE. THE following Letters are addressed to the friends of vital and practical religion, because the author is persuaded that the very essence of true piety is concerned in this controversy; and that godly men are the only proper judges of divine truth, being the only humble, upright, and earnest inquirers after it. So far from thinking, with Dr. Priestley, that "an unbiassed temper of mind is attained in consequence of becoming more indifferent to religion in general, and to all the modes and doctrines of it ;" he is satisfied that persons of that description have a most powerful bias against the truth. Though it were admitted, that false principles, accompanied with a bigoted attachment to them, are worse than none; yet he cannot admit, that irreligious men are destitute of principles. He has no notion of human minds being unoccupied or indifferent he that is not a friend to religion in any mode, is an enemy to it in all modes; he is a libertine; he doeth evil, and therefore, hateth the light. And shall we compliment such a character, by acknowledging him to be in " a favourable situation for distinguishing between truth and falsehood?"* God forbid! It is he that doeth his will, that shall know of his doctrine. The humble, the candid, the upright inquirers after truth, are the persons who are likely to find it; and to them the author takes the liberty to appeal. The principal occasion of these Letters was, the late union among Protestant Dissenters, in reference to civil affairs, having been the source of various misconception, and, as the writer apprehends, improved as a mean of disseminating Socinian principles. In the late application to Parliament, for the repeal of the Cor * Discourses on Various Subjects, p. 95. |