A COURSE OF LECTURES, CONTAINING A DESCRIPTION AND SYSTEMATIC ARRANGEMENT OF THE SEVERAL BRANCHES OF DIVINITY : ACCOMPANIED WITH AN ACCOUNT, BOTH OF THE PRINCIPAL AUTHORS, Printed at the University Press ; AND SOLD BY J. DEIGHTON, CAMBRIDGE; AND 1809. BIBI A PREFACE. WHE HEN these Lectures were written, they were not designed for publication, at least not for present publication. I proposed to follow the example of other Lecturers, and, when I had completed the Course, to make the same Lectures serve again and again for every successive audience. For so doing I had this additional inducement, that three years at least must elapse before the whole series of Lectures can be completed, during which time the Young Men of the University, for whom they were principally intended, will have been succeeded by a new generation. And as soon as I had performed the task of writing the Lectures, I could have divided them into a triennial course, commensurate with the usual period of academical study. After all, if I thought it expedient, I had the publication of them in reserve, whenever sickness, or the infirmities of age might prevent me from continuing to deliver them. Such was my original plan, which I have been induced to abandon by the solicitation of my friends; and it is now my intention to publish every year the Lectures, which have been delivered in that year. I shall thus lose the advantage, when the present Course is finished, of being provided with a fund for future uses, since Lectures once published can never be delivered again. But this private inconvenience will be amply compensated, if the printing of them affords any benefit to the public. One advantage at least will arise from the present publication of them, namely, that the Young Men who are now entering on their academical studies, will be thus enabled, before the Lectures are resumed, to make themselves acquainted with the subjects already explained. And even they who had an opportunity of hearing the Lectures now printed, may find it convenient to have their memories assisted in the recollection of many points, which it is necessary to know, in order to understand the subjects of inquiry in future Lectures. For as the whole Course is intended to form a systematic arrangement, the connexion of the several parts must be constantly kept in view, or the purport of that arrangement will be defeated. These considerations have had the chief influence on my present determination. Nor must I neglect either to mention, or to acknowledge with gratitude,' the additional inducement in the liberal offer of the Syndics of the Press to defray the expence of publication. As these Lectures were delivered in the University Church, it was necessary to adapt the mode of composition to the place and the audience, for which they were intended. In writing a book, which is designed for private meditation, an author cannot easily be too minute, either in his own researches, or in references to the works of other authors. In a private Lecture-room, where a Lecturer can occasionally wait while his pupils are taking notes, and where other circumstances |