A Collection of Theological Tracts.

Cambridge: Printed by J. Archdeacon...for J. & J. Merrill..., 1785. FIRST COLLECTED EDITION. 6 volumes. Large 8vo, pp. [iv], xxxii, ii, 504; [iv], 533 [534 - 536 chronology]; [iv], 484; vii [viii blank], 513 [514 blank]; viii, 443 [444 blank]; [iv], 420 [421 - 468, Appendix, "A Catalogue of Books in Divinity," engraved map opposite p. 49 in volume 1, uncut, contemporary quarter calf, marbled boards (rubbed), red morocco labels; spines a little chafed and rubbed, but a very good set. Watson (1737 - 1816) reproduces, with commentary, some twenty-four works here; among the theologians are George Benson, Samuel Chandler, Samuel Clarke, Nathaniel Lardner, and John Taylor, but Watson also reprints Locke's Reasonableness of Christianity. Watson compiled this collection of tracts in order to encourage university students to become "better acquainted with the grounds and principles of the Christian Religion...." He adds later, an exemplification of a university education, that "The Lectures of Professors and Tutors are doubtless of great use in every science, but their use does not consist so much in rendering the science intelligible, if we except the first Elements of the abstract Sciences, as in directing the attention of the Students to the best books on every subject; and if to this they add a frequent examination into the progress which the Students have made, they will have done all that reasonably can be expected from them."