A Body Of Divinity Wherein The Doctrines Of The Christian Religion Are Explained And Defended Vol 1 Of 4

Author : Thomas Ridgeley
Publisher : Forgotten Books
ISBN 13 : 9780331754063
Total Pages : 678 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (54 download)

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Download or read book A Body of Divinity, Vol. 1 of 2 written by Thomas Ridgeley and published by Forgotten Books. This book was released on 2017-11-23 with total page 678 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from A Body of Divinity, Vol. 1 of 2: Wherein the Doctrines of the Christian Religion Are Explained and Defended; Being the Substance of Several Lectures on the Assembly's Larger Catechism Dr. Ridceley's Body of Divinity, if viewed, not in any one point of light, but in all its aspects, will, probably, be pronounced the best book of its class. In criticism, in erudition, in polemical tact, in rhetorical beauty, or in some other solitary excellence, it has, no doubt, been surpassed; but, in the aggre gate properties of a luminous and well-adjusted summary of didactic and con troversial theology, it has lived through upwards of a century without meeting its equal. No book in the English language, or, so far as I know, in any other, will serve so efficiently the purposes of a daily companion to a reflecting Christian in his inquiries into Divine truth, or a guide to a candidate for the Christian ministry in introducing him to his theological studies. Its parts are in their due proportion, and its properties in their due degree. Subjects great and small are not set up in niches of equal space, but extended or compressed according to their relative magnitude in the system of Divine truth; nor are they treated agreeably to the scope they afford for displaying the writer's ac quirements and powers, and gratifying a popular taste for eloquence or a popu lar admiration of scholarship, but discussed with entire reference to their own intrinsic claims upon both the writer's care and the reader's attention. Dr. Ridgeley has, on almost every topic which he touches, the happy but rare art of knowing when he has said enough; and never, even when drawn, in justice to his subject, into extended dissertation, does he appear to forget that his work demands due space for the whole circle of revealed truths. He is not tempted, by love of declamation or of oratorical flourish, to write a sermon in stead Of a disquisition; nor by keenness of controversial spirit, to write long and arduously when an opponent is in the field, and not to write at all when no opponent, or but an insignificant one, appears; nor by attachment to a party, or fondness for denominational peculiarities, to write munificently in favour of his sect, and write like a niggard when the interests of his sect are out of view; nor by aptitude for abstract thinking, or critical analysis, or display of erudition, to array some topics in the glitter and gorgeousness of metaphy sics and bibliographical scholarship, and either to append to minor or plain topics some trappings of learnedness, or to pass them undiscussed. His Body of Divinity is eminently distinguished by sound sense. We look in vain throughout its pages for any indications of the pedant, the bibliographe, the theorist, or the declaimer, and see only the labours of a sober, judicious divine. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.