CONCISE SYSTEM OF THEOLOGY: BEING THE SHORTER CATECHISM OF THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY OF DIVINES, ANALYZED AND EXPLAINED. BY ALEXANDER SMITH PATERSON, A.M., AUTHOR OF A "HISTORY OF THE CHURCH." WITH A PAPER ON THE HISTORY AND ARRANGEMENT OF THE ADVERTISEMENT. THE Author of the following work, Mr ALEXANDER SMITH PATERSON, was the elder son of the late Rev. Alexander Paterson of Dundee, and nephew of the Rev. Dr Paterson, one of the ministers of Montrose. He was educated at the Grammar School and Marischal College, Aberdeen, where his family resided after the death of his father. Although a singularly laborious student, he evinced no small anxiety in the prospect of appearing before the Presbytery for examination. This apprehension was, in a great measure, the occasion of leading him to draw up very ample notes on the topics connected with Ecclesiastical History, which were afterwards posthumously published under the title, " History of the Church from the Creation of the World to the Nineteenth Century." The present work was composed with a somewhat similar object; and it is supposed that the intensity of mind which he brought to bear on both, in some measure hastened his premature and lamented death, which took place on the 12th of September 1828, in the 25th year of his age. The "Analysis of the Shorter Catechism was left by Mr Paterson in a state of entire preparation for the press, but various circumstances have delayed its publication. It is now presented to the public entirely on account of its intrinsic merit. The manuscript was submitted to several distinguished ministers, who expressed their opinions in terms of the most |