Griffin, Edward D. The Doctrine of Divine Efficiency, defended against certain Modern Speculations. New-York: Jonathan Leavitt1833, 1833. First Edition. [10649]
Tan cloth with plain boards, original printed paper title label on the spine, 8 x 5 inches. Dampstain inside the front cover from a removed bookplate. 221 pages with dark foxing throughout. Good. Hardcover.
Dr. Griffin's examination of the writings of the New-School proponents, and his defense of the Old School understanding of God's efficient power over the human will. He examines the views of Eleazer T. Fitch, Nathaniel W. Taylor and others and compares them with what he believes to be the correct scriptural view of man's corrupt nature, the divine efficiency in saving men, the dependence men have on God for holiness, the power of God to prevent sin, etc. The summary (p. 219) includes, "That in common matters God is able at pleasure to control the world by motives, I fully admit; because those motives are adapted to the governing temper or affections, and chiefly to self-love or the desire of happiness, which is inseparably interwoven with the nature of all things that have life. But even in common matters he cannot control the mind by motives opposed to the prevailing temper or affections; much less, by motives thus opposed, can he turn the carnal heart from sin to holiness."
In this book he reviews the doctrines of grace and shows why these Bible truths make the salvation, holiness, and perseverance of the saints gracious acts of God towards them, and that not scriptural to make a theory in which man's own motives and reasoning compete with God's efficiency, and in fact may thwart His efficiency.
Edward Dorr Griffin, D.D. (1770-1837), born at East Haddam, Connecticut graduated at Yale College in 1790 with distinguished honor. He was ordained pastor of the Congregational Church in New Hartford in 1795. He was pastor of the church in Newark, New Jersey, from 1801 to 1809, at which time he was appointed to the Bartlett professorship in Andover. In 1811 he was installed as pastor of the Park-street Church in Boston. In 1815 he returned to Newark as pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church. For fifteen years (1821-1836) he was President of Williams College. “His ministry was marked by numerous revivals. Dr. Griffin was a man of large intellectual proportions...His power of clear, penetrating, and, at the same time of lofty and comprehensive thought – his skill and force in argument, his rhetorical genius and culture, his eloquence, his majestic person and manner, all pervaded and controlled by his enlightened religious devotion, performed efficient service for the Church, and place him among the greatest lights of his age.” – M’Clintock & Strong.
