ТО А GENTLEMAN, UPON A VARIETY OF SEASONABLE AND IMPORTANT SUBJECTS IN RELIGION. BY JONATHAN DICKINSON, A. M. LATE MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL AT ELIZABETHTOWN, N. J. PHILADELPHIA: PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION. JAMES RUSSELL, PUBLISHING AGENT. 1841. HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY GIFT OF THE MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL SOCIETY Nov10.1938 Printed by WILLIAM S. MARTIEN. M LETTER III.-A Historical Account of the Birth, Life, Passion, Resurrection, Ascension, and Future Kingdom of our Blessed Sa- LETTER XIII.-The notion of a First Justification by Faith, and a Secondary Justification by Sincere Obedience, discussed and con- LETTER XIV.-The Apostle James's Doctrine of Justification by Works, in his Second Chapter, distinctly reviewed, and set in its genuine light, by a comparison with the Apostle Paul's doctrine LETTER XV.- Wherein is considered in what respects Good Works are Necessary; and our Obligations to them represented LETTER XVI.-The Nature of the Believer's Union to Christ LETTER XVII —Antinomian Abuses of the doctrine of Believers' Union to Christ, or Pleas from it for Licentiousness and Security in PREFACE. THE irregular heats and extravagancies of some late pretenders to extraordinary attainments in religion, their imaginary divine impulses, and ecstatic raptures, with other effects of their disordered fancies, have cast such a blemish upon the Christian profession, in the eyes of unsettled and unthinking people, that it is well if too many are not in danger of calling Christianity itself into question, from the manifestly false pretences and enthusiastic flights of some, who have put in a claim to so eminent an experience in the divine life. It is therefore thought needful, as well as seasonable at this time, that a brief and plain confirmation of the Christian religion be sent abroad among our people, to establish them in the foundation of our eternal hope. This has been my special motive to the publication of some of the first of the ensuing Letters. On the other hand, whether for want of duly distinguishing between delusive appearances and the genuine effects of an effusion of the Holy Spirit, or from whatever cause, such has been the violent opposition of some to the late revival |