REVIEW

Nathanid OF

DOCT. EMMONS'S THEORY

OF

GOD'S AGENCY ON MANKIND:

ADDRESSED TO THE

CONGREGATIONAL CLERGY OF NEW ENGLAND.

ALSO,

A REFUTATION

OF

THE VIEWS

ENTERTAINED BY ADVOCATES OF THAT THEORY,

RESPECTING

The Necessity

OF

THE MORAL EVIL EXISTING IN THE UNIVERSE

TO A DISPLAY OF THE DIVINE GLORY.

NEW-YORK:

PUBLISHED BY JOHN SAYRE, 146 broadwAY.

INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS

TO THE

CONGREGATIONAL CLERGY OF NEW-ENGLAND.

REVEREND FRIENDS,

THE work of the Ministers of the Gospel is not confined to the limits of their parishes: they are appointed, not merely to preach Christ to the people intrusted to their care, but are also "set for the general defence of the Gospel." They, as individuals, are constituted guardians of the public faith, as well as Pastors of the particular churches and congregations over which they are placed. It devolves on them to "walk about Zion, to tell the towers thereof, mark well her bulwarks, and consider her palaces ;" to extend a watchful eye over her general interests, to detect and arrest the intrusions of error, guard her purity, and defend her liberties.

This duty is imposed especially on the Congregational Clergy in their individual capacity. Their churches have not, like the Presbyterian and Episcopal, adopted a common Confession of Faith, as a standard of orthodoxy; nor established a common Judicatory, to which those who depart from the faith once delivered to the saints, are amenable. A large proportion of their churches are entirely independent of the others, and at liberty to embrace any system whatever of doctrine, and adopt any peculiarity of rites, without subjecting them. selves to the interference of any judicatory, or the sacrifice of any immunity. Their representative assemblies have no power to enact authoritative laws respecting the faith, rites, and government of their churches; nor to pronounce authoritative decrees of excommunication, or disfranchisement.

THE NEW YORK
PUBLIC LIBRARY
167356

ASTOR, LENOX AND
TILDEN FOUNDATIONS
1900.

Southern District of New-York, ss.

E IT REMEMBERED, That on the twenty-sixth day of Septemin year of the

of America, JOHN SAYRE, of the said District, hath deposited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof he claims as proprietor, in the words following, to wit:

"A Review of Doct. Emmons's Theory of God's Agency on Mankind; Addressed to the Congregational Clergy of New-England. tation of the Views entertained by Advocates of that Theory, respecting Also, a Refuthe Necessity of the Moral Evil existing in the Universe to a display of the Divine Glory."

In conformity to the Act of the Congress of the United States, entitled "An Act for the encouragement of Learning, by securing the Copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the time therein mentioned " And also to an Act, entitled "an Act, supplementary to an Act, entitled an Act for the encouragement of Learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned, and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints."

JAMES DILL,
Clerk of the Southern Distric, of New-York.