Brown’s systematic theology was first published in 1782 at the request of theological students. In seven “books,” it covers the traditional topics of revelation, God, man, Christ, personal salvation, and the church. It contains more than 26,000 proof texts and numerous exegetical insights along with a consistent covenantal emphasis, experiential depth, and compelling applications. Brown’s style is methodological, including numerous divisions and sub-points to aid students, and his content is full of evangelical piety. This single volume of Reformed systematic theology is rich with content and an indispensable tool for students, pastors, and professors of theology.

Table of Contents:

Book 1: The Regulating Standard of Religion, Natural and Revealed

Book 2: God, the Author, Object, and End of All Religion in His Perfections, Persons, Purposes, and Works

Book 3: The Covenant Bonds of Religious Connection between God and Men

Book 4: Christ the Mediator of the Covenant of Grace in His Person, Offices, and States

Book 5: The Principle Blessing of the Covenant of Grace: Union with Christ, Justification, Adoption, Sanctification, Spiritual Comfort, and Eternal Glorification

Book 6: The External Dispensation of the Covenant of Grace by the Word and Ordinances of God

Book 7: The Church or Society for and to Which the Covenant of Grace is Dispensed

About the Author 

John Brown of Haddington (1722–1787) was the leading minister in the Associate Synod during the formative years of eighteenth-century Scotland. He was a devout Christian, a gifted preacher, and a prolific writer of theology. He began life in obscure poverty, without advantage of wealth, position, title, or education. Yet God favored him with unusual gifts and an enormous capacity for hard work. Brown taught himself Greek while working in the fields. He became a man of deep spiritual experience with skill in preaching the doctrines of free grace and piety. His last words, “my Christ,” summarize his life and thought.

Endorsements

“John Brown stands in continuity with both the Puritan and Dutch Reformed writers of the seventeenth century who assumed that theology was both a contemplative and a practical discipline and who assumed that the definition of Christian doctrine ought to build on exegesis and issue in praxis. All in all, this is a welcome reprint of a classic work, representative of a late eighteenth-century heir of the orthodox tradition of Puritan and Reformed theology.”  — Richard A. Muller

“Of John Brown of Haddington Dr. William Blaikie says that he ‘towered above his fellows.’ Dr. David Wright describes him as having ‘the makings of a universal scholar.’ His biographer calls him ‘one of the best remembered names in the Scottish theology of the eighteenth century.’ Yet today the name of John Brown is all but forgotten, notwithstanding his stature as one of the foremost teachers of covenantal Calvinism in the history of Scottish theology. All the more welcome, then, is this publication of Brown’s Compendious View of Natural and Revealed Religion, his systematics. He pours both his vast learning and his deep piety into this overview, and now a new generation of covenantal theologians can sit at Brown’s feet. I congratulate the publishers on the resurrection of this important work and wish it a wide circulation." — Iain D. Campbell, pastor of Point Free Church, Isle of Lewis, Scotland