5 These references are to portions of the volume before mentioned which are not introduced into this work. 6 Metaphysicians have mystified this subject thus:—They say “the will” (or choice) _invariably_, “is as is the greatest apparent good.” But when it is inquired, does “greatest good,” as here used, signify that which the intellect decides to be _best far all concerned_, and thus _right_, or does it signify that which causes the _strongest desire_ as measured by our own consciousness? It will be found that, in this metaphysical statement above, it means _both_. This leads to the same sort of confusion as would result from using the word _straight_ to include the two ideas of both _straight_ and _crooked_. With such an enlarged, but improper, definition, it could truly be said that men _invariably_ go _straight_, and as truly that they also _invariably go crooked_. The only way in which the expression, “the will is as is _the greatest apparent good_,” can be true, is to use the term to include both what is the greatest good as judged by the intellect, and also the greatest good as causing the strongest desire, thus making one word express two _diverse_ ideas. It is this want of discrimination in the use of the term “greatest apparent good,” by President Edwards, which accounts for the fact that one class of the most acute metaphysicians regard him as the defender of free agency, and another class, equally acute, maintain that he teaches the exactly opposite doctrine of fatalism. It is by this deceptive use of the words _greatest apparent good_, and _strongest motive_, that such _invariableness of antecedence_ and _consequents_ is made out, as is the proof of _producing causes_ and _necessary effects_ in the material world. Thus results the idea of _irrational free agency_, making the mind of man like irrational brutes, inevitably and necessarily controlled by the strongest desire, (or strongest motive) and destroying all idea of _rational free agency_. 7 This is a very important point in regard to the question of a _depraved nature_. 8 This refers to those theologians who teach that regeneration consists not in a change of _nature_ but of _purpose_. 9 In the Greek, the word in the New Testament translated “peacemakers,” is more correctly rendered “happiness‐makers.” 10 Note B. 11 Note C. 12 Note D. 13 This account is taken from Rev. Howard Malcom’s _Travels in Asia_. 14 The Arminians hold that Christ’s death has purchased the return of God’s Spirit withdrawn for Adam’s sin, and that owing to this aid, man has some power to obey God previous to regeneration, so that all the doings of the unregenerate are not sin.