"In all the statements which I have made of the doctrinal ideas of others, I have been careful to state no more than what I have read in authors, or heard contended for in preaching and conversation; and if I have, in any instance, done those ideas any injustice, it was not intended. "The reason," he continues, "why I have not quoted any author, or spoken of any denomination, is, I have not felt it to be my duty nor inclination to write against any name or denomination in the world; but my object has been, what I pray it ever may be, to contend against error, wherever I find it, and to receive truth and support it, let it come from what quarter it may. For the sake of ease, however, in writing, I have reasoned with my _opponent_, _opposer_ or _objector_, meaning no one in particular, but any one who uses the arguments and states the objections which I have endeavored to answer. "It is very probable that some may think me too ironical, and in many instances too severe on what I call error. But I find it very difficult to expose error, so as to be understood by all, without carrying, in many instances, my arguments in such a form as may not be agreeable to those who believe in what I wish to correct. I confess I should have been glad to have written, on all my inquiries, so as not to have displeased any, but to have pleased all, could I have done it and accomplished my main design; but this, I was persuaded, would be difficult. I have, therefore, paid particular attention to nothing but my main object, depending on the goodness of my reader to pardon what may be disagreeable, in manner or form, as inadvertencies." But all he did and said was in the spirit of the true Christian. He fought against error,--not against those who walked in the ways of error; it was a creed he decried, not his fellow-men;--and the battles he won were far more glorious than the blood-stained fields that follow in the train of mortal warfare. Let us add that the triumphs of truth are the more glorious for being bloodless, deriving their brightest lustre from the number of the saved, instead of the slain. Personally he could have no enemy,--he would not have recognized any human being as such; but against error he waged a most open and resolute warfare, throughout the entire course of his life.