Not in 1 LECTURES ON THEOLOGY BY THE LATE REV. JOHN DICK, D.D. MINISTER OF THE UNITED ASSOCIATE CONGREGATION, GREYFRIARS, GLASGOW; AND PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGY TO THE UNITED SESSION CHURCH. PUBLISHED UNDER THE SUPERINTENDENCE OF HIS SON ] WITH A PREFACE, MEMOIR, &c BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. NEW YORK: PUBLISHED BY M. W. DODD, BRICK CHURCH CHAPEL, OPPOSITE CITY HALL. ZFF 1850. 1 THE NEW YORK ASTOR, LENOX AND 0 ENTERED according to Act of Congress, in the year 1836, by EDWARD C. BIDDLE, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. In presenting this work to the American public, the publishers believe that they are rendering an important service to the religious community at large, and to theological students in particular. The first edition was published at Edinburgh in 1834, and has already obtained a very extensive circulation in Britain. An estimate may be formed of the value of these Lectures, from the fact of their having received the highest praise of some of the most distinguished theological scholars in Scotland and England; and though expressing in the most decided manner the views of the particular denomination with which their author was connected, (the Presbyterian,) the catholic spirit with which these opinions are maintained, the candour with which others are stated, and the ability with which the common Christianity is illustrated and defended, may be learned from the fact of their being warmly recommended by the leading periodicals of nearly all the Protestant denominations of Britain. The Lectures of which this work is composed were read by their author to the students attending the Theological Seminary of the United Associate Church, in which he was Professor of Systematic Divinity. They were not prepared for the press; nor is it known that he ever entertained any design of publishing them. The following extract from one of the author's unpublished introductory addresses to his students. will give a correct idea of his aim in drawing them up. "You come to this place to hear such an explanation of the doctrines of religion as will furnish you with materials of reflection, and assistance in your private inquiries. Of one thing it may be proper to admonish you; that you are not to expect to be entertained with things which may be properly called new. To some of you, indeed, many things may be new in this sense, that you have not heard them before; but in general, the subjects 3 |