ral arguments.

In taking this part, it does not follow that we are to repudiate, as
totally without foundation, the philosophy and the metaphysics of
the necessarian--_aequo pretio aestimentur_. We may admit, that the
force of his argument, in the present imperfect state of human
knowledge, renders the question perplexed and difficult; that it
accounts for the divided opinions of the erudite and the devout, and
that it precludes the hope of a speedy termination of the
controversy. But in assigning to moral reasoning the superior
authority, we are governed by a just regard to the nature of the
question at issue, which, being related to the destinies of moral
agents, and the principles on which the Deity conducts his moral
government, must be determined, not by metaphysical, but by moral
arguments. When brought to this test, Calvinism appears utterly
indefensible, as being a system at variance with the attributes of
the Deity, and irreconcileable with the moral constitution of human
beings, and with the obligations laid upon them by their Creator. It
is falsified by facts.

That the predestinarian theology, which denies the freedom of the
will, is supported by names of great consideration, is cheerfully
granted. No man, for example, was ever endowed with a genius more
commanding, with logical powers more acute, with a faculty more
surprising of writing on recondite subjects with force, perspicuity,
and nervous eloquence, than President Edwards. Nevertheless, the
correctness of his views is not implicitly to be inferred from his
transcendant intellect and fervent piety.

All the great errors, which have been propagated in the Christian
Church, have found advocates in men of the first character for
intellectual power and moral dignity, or they would have passed away
with their authors into immediate oblivion.

In estimating the authority of Edwards as a theologian, it is
requisite that we should know the temperament and habits of that
very remarkable person. It is not, perhaps, generally considered,
that great as were the energy and acuteness of his reasoning powers,
he was less under the dominion of these than of his imagination and
feelings. In early life this is not unfrequently the case with
persons of imaginative character; but, commonly, the ardent
enthusiasm of youth gives way afterwards to the ascendancy of the
higher faculties. Edwards was, constitutionally, too much the
creature of dreams and impulses ever