AN ESSAY

ON

MORAL FREEDOM:

TO WHICH IS ATTACHED,

A REVIEW OF THE PRINCIPLES OF

DR. WHITBY AND PRESIDENT EDWARDS

ON

FREE WILL

AND OF

DR. BROWN'S THEORY

OF

CAUSATION AND AGENCY.

BY THE

REV. THOMAS TULLY CRYBBACE, A. M.

AUTHOR OF AN ESSAY ON THE EXTENT OF HUMAN AND DIVINE AGENCY
IN THE PRODUCTION OF SAVING FAITH."

Omnis vero materies a rebus ipsis petenda est.

BACON.

EDINBURGH:

WAUGH AND INNES.

M. OGLE, GLASGOW; W. CURRY, JUN. & CO. DUBLIN; JAMES DUNCAN,
AND WHITTAKER, TREACHER & ARNOT, LONDON.

M.DCCC.XXIX.

21,395.

EDINBURGH :

PRINTED BY A. BALFOUR & CO. HIGH STREET.

In having the honour to inscribe to you the following Essay, I will not distress you with the impertinence of admiration and eulogy. "By the grace of God I am what I am," is not more the principle of your theology than the sentiment of your heart; and while the sentiment suppresses all seeking of honour from men on the one hand, the principle should surely check all tendency to hold men's persons in admiration on the other, and awaken rather a sympathetic feeling of gratitude to Him who, as the God of nature or of grace, is the author of all that is excellent and admirable in human character.

Of the leading principles of the present Essay, you formerly did me the honour to express your approbation; and, since that time, I have had a public opportunity of perceiving more fully how exactly the views here given coincide with your own, so far as you deemed it necessary to examine the subject.

Of the importance of the inquiry it is needless to say any thing. "The question about free will," says Dugald Stewart," has furnished, in all ages and countries, inexhaustible matter of contention both to philosophers and divines. In the ancient schools of Greece, it is well known how generally and keenly it was agitated. Among the Mahometans, it constitutes one of the principal points of division between the followers of Omar and those of Ali; and among the ancient Jews, it was the subject of endless dispute between the Pharisees and Sadducees. It is scarcely necessary for me to add what violent controversies it has produced, and still continues to produce, in the Christian world."

And it is not as a matter of curious speculation, that this subject has so deeply engaged the attention of men of all ages, sects, and countries.

* Stewart's Intellectual and Active Powers, Vol. II. App. I.