Produced by Richard Hulse, David King, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net. (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive.) Transcriber’s Note: This version of the text cannot represent certain typographical effects. Italics are delimited with the underscore character as _italic_. Footnotes have been moved to follow the chapters in which they are referenced. A Body of Divinity A BODY OF DIVINITY: WHEREIN THE DOCTRINES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION ARE EXPLAINED AND DEFENDED. BEING THE SUBSTANCE OF SEVERAL LECTURES ON THE ASSEMBLY’S LARGER CATECHISM. BY THOMAS RIDGLEY, D. D. WITH NOTES, ORIGINAL AND SELECTED, BY JAMES P. WILSON, D. D. IN FOUR VOLUMES. _VOL. I._ FIRST AMERICAN EDITION, FROM THE THIRD EUROPEAN EDITION. PHILADELPHIA: PRINTED BY AND FOR WILLIAM. W. WOODWARD, CORNER OF CHESNUT AND SOUTH SECOND STREETS. 1814. _District of Pennsylvania, to wit_: BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the seventeenth day of May, in the thirty-eighth year of the Independence of the United States of America, A. D. 1813, William W. Woodward, of the said District, hath deposited in this office the title of a Book, the right whereof he claims as proprietor, in the words following, to wit: “A Body of Divinity: wherein the doctrines of the Christian religion, are explained and defended. Being the substance of several lectures on the Assembly’s larger catechism. By Thomas Ridgley, D. D. With notes, original and selected, by James P. Wilson, D. D. In four volumes. First American, from the third European Edition.” In conformity to the Act of the Congress of the United States, intitled, “An Act for the encouragement of Learning, by securing the Copies of Maps, Charts and Books, to the authors and proprietors of such Copies during the times therein mentioned.”—And also to the Act, entitled “An Act supplementary to An Act, entitled ‘An act for the encouragement of Learning, by securing the Copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the authors and proprietors of such Copies during the times therein mentioned,’ and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints.” D. CALDWELL, Clerk of the District of Pennsylvania. TO THE READER.