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pamphlets before us , and in a future number shall express our opinion of their merits .
The introductory lecture i& employed in stating and defending the professor ' s two deviations , which we have already mentioned , from the custom gf his predecessors , and in representing the
natuiv and importance of the study of divinity . Dr . M . considers it as indispensable to describe and arrange its several parts : he shews the necessity of the strictest order in pursuing it : he thinks it incumbent on him to direct his
hearers to the sources whence they may obtain information upon the manifold subjects Mrhich will gradually come under discussion , and to add some account of the
advancement or decline of theological Iearij 5 ng , Without disguise , he avows it to be the end of his lectures to confirm the system of faith established at the reformation and contained in the liturgy , articles and homilies of the church
of England : he deprecates any attempt to generalise Christianity : he aims at vindicating his more limited design , jand concludes with a further illustration of the
value of theological knowledge , especially to every man who is desirous of being a good divilie of the English church . x In his second lecture , he devel
already announced . He condemns the numerous , complex and obscure divisions of theological books that were taade by a learned pretete in the university of Oxford ,
( we be ) ieve , the present bishop of St . Asaph , ) , and cortimends the « inipler and more obyiou ? classification suggested by the auth d * of Ehm ent * of Christian Thtobtgy .
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On the four-fold division in use among the German divines , he also bestows the praise to which it is entitled ; He next with modesty brings forward , and with his usual good sense and perspicuity justifies , an arrangement rather different from these . On the
principle that the several parts of theology should be represented according to theirconnections and dependancies , he rightly proposes to begin with the criticism of the Bible , and then to consider its
interpretation , its authenticity and credibility , its authority 9 its inspiration , and its doctrines , ( which he subdivides into ( a ) doctrines deduced by the church of England , ( b ) doctrines deduced by other churches . ) His seventh and last branch relates to ecclesiastical
history D . M .. after again insisting , in the third lecture , on the necessity of order in our theological studies , and bn the importance of criticism and human learning , in op * position to those who seek for a conviction of the truth of
Christianity in certain inward feelings , describes some of those vety useful publications which are known under the name of Introductions to the Bible ; some of which have pariietil&r reference to the languages in vvhick the Scriptures
were written ^ wtile bthfers surmlv were written , wtitte bthfers supply inforrhation respecting tihe contents of them . Hd iiotlfces , too , a class of iritrodtlctbry writers who
haVe eniitiently dfistinguish ^ them - selves by their ^ rofband critical res ^ krehes ^ e . ' g . Sittlbn , Micbaelis and Eichhotn . Aftehveirds he
enters on . a iriintitfe examination of s ^ cfed ciiti&stti i atifl on a re * view of Whkt hafe beSh &&tie in flif-^ reftt ages Wfth i&pkci H 6 this
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1810, page 357, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2406/page/37/
