“2. This comfortable doctrine, the sum of which, proposed in plain English, is, God before the foundation of the world absolutely and irrevocably decreed, that ‘some men shall be saved, do what they will, and the rest be damned, do what they can,’ has, by these tracts, been spread throughout the land, with the utmost diligence. And these champions of it have, from the beginning, proceeded in a manner worthy of their cause. They have paid no more regard to good nature, decency, or good manners, than to reason or truth. All these they set utterly at defiance. Without any deviation from their plan, they have defended their dear decrees, with arguments worthy of Bedlam, and with language worthy of Billingsgate. “3. In the _Arminian Magazine_ a very different opinion will be defended, in a very different manner. We maintain, that God _willeth all men to be saved_, by _speaking the truth in love_; by arguments and illustrations drawn, partly from Scripture, partly from reason; proposed in as inoffensive a manner as the nature of the thing will permit. Not that we expect those on the other side of the question will use _us_ as we use _them_. Yet, we hope, nothing will move us to return evil for evil; or, however provoked, to render railing for railing. “4. Our design is, to publish some of the most remarkable tracts on the universal love of God, and His willingness to save _all men_ from _all sin_, which have been wrote in this and the last century. Some of these are now grown very scarce; some have not appeared in _English_ before. To these will be added original pieces, wrote either directly upon this subject, or on those which are equally opposed by the patrons of _particular redemption_. We are not yet determined, whether to insert any poetry or not; but we faithfully promise not to insert any _doggrel_. If any verses are inserted, they shall be such as will not shock either the understanding or the taste of the serious reader. “5. We know nothing more proper to introduce a work of this kind than a sketch of the life and death of _Arminius_; a person, with whom those, who mention his name with the utmost indignity, are commonly quite unacquainted, of whom they know no more than of _Hermes Trismegistus_.” This, though lengthy, is too scarce and too curious a document to withhold from the Methodist community; moreover, it was the commencement of a magazine, now, we believe, the oldest religious periodical in the world; a magazine which has flourished, without interruption, for ninety successive years; and has been read by myriads in all quarters of the globe.