Footnotes have been collected at the end of the text, and arelinked for ease of reference.
A Body of Divinity
iiDistrict of Pennsylvania, to wit:
BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the seventeenth day of May, inthe thirty-eighth year of the Independence of the United States ofAmerica, A. D. 1813, William W. Woodward, of the said District,hath deposited in this office the title of a Book, the right whereof heclaims as proprietor, in the words following, to wit:
“A Body of Divinity: wherein the doctrines of the Christian religion, are explainedand defended. Being the substance of several lectures on the Assembly’slarger catechism. By Thomas Ridgley, D. D. With notes, original andselected, by James P. Wilson, D. D. In four volumes. First American, fromthe third European Edition.”
In conformity to the Act of the Congress of the United States, intitled, “AnAct for the encouragement of Learning, by securing the Copies of Maps, Chartsand Books, to the authors and proprietors of such Copies during the times thereinmentioned.”—And also to the Act, entitled “An Act supplementary to AnAct, entitled ‘An act for the encouragement of Learning, by securing the Copiesof Maps, Charts, and Books, to the authors and proprietors of such Copiesduring the times therein mentioned,’ and extending the benefits thereof to thearts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints.”
D. CALDWELL, Clerk of the
District of Pennsylvania.
TO THE READER.
In this first American edition the original text remains unaltered,the notes which Dr. Ridgley had subjoined to his workare retained, and for the sake of distinction, printed in Italics.The other notes have been added by Dr. Wilson; and in everyinstance wherein they have been selected by him from others,they are accompanied by marks of quotation, and the name ofthe author or book from whence they were taken.
PREFACE.
The influence which the different sentiments of men, inmatters of religion, have, for the most part, on their temperand behaviour towards one another, af