N02384:106
A complete body of divinity in two hundred and fifty expository lectures on the…A compleat body of divinity in two hundred and fifty expository lectures on the…
A complete body of divinity in two hundred and fifty expository lectures on the Assembly's Shorter catechism wherein the doctrines of the Christian religion are unfolded, their truth confirmed, their excellence displayed, their usefulness improved; contrary errors & vices refuted & exposed, objections answered, controversies settled, cases of conscience resolved; and a great light thereby reflected on the present age. / By the Reverend & learned Samuel Willard, M.A. late Pastor of the South Church in Boston, and vice-president of Harvard College in Cambridge, in New-England. ; Prefaced by the pastors of the same church. ; [Six lines of Scripture texts]A compleat body of divinity in two hundred and fifty expository lectures on the Assembly's Shorter catechism wherein the doctrines of the Christian religion are unfolded, their truth confirm'd, their excellence display'd, their usefulness improv'd; contrary errors & vices refuted & expos'd, objections answer'd, controversies settled, cases of conscience resolv'd; and a great light thereby reflected on the present age. / By the Reverend & learned Samuel Willard, M.A. late Pastor of the South Church in Boston, and vice-president of Harvard College in Cambridge, in New-England. ; Prefac'd by the pastors of the same church. ; [Six lines of Scripture texts]
printed by B. Green and S. Kneeland for B. Eliot and D. Henchman, 1726
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
THE special Worth of this Doctrine, showing it to excel all others, discovers it's self in the End that it points Men to; and that is BLESSEDNESS, than which nothing can be more excellent or desirable.
THE special Worth of this Doctrine, shewing it to excel all others, discovers it's self in the End that it points Men to; and that is BLESSEDNESS, than which nothing can be more excellent or desirable.
THE First Question with is Answer is a ••y to all the Rest, because they refer to Divinity no further than they refer Hither: it is therefore necessary to state this Case rightly: for which purpose, I shall first take an account of the Thing armed at in the Question, and then proceed to give the Right meaning of the Answer.
First. In the QUESTION, we are marily to note what the Enquiry is about: And here are two Positions.
I. IT is about Mans END. Man is therefore properly & peculiarly concerned in it: It belongs to every rational Creature to know what he was made for, and what is his proper Work. Till a Work man knows his End, he cannot work prudently: for how should he be able to choose and use Means, except he know for what? The reason why the most of Men lead such foolish Lives, and do so many impertinent Actions, is because they know not what they live for, nor whereto their actions […]: And if they would be persuaded to […] their Works with their End, they would […] call themselves Fools. Now when Man's END is enquired after, we are to observe, 1. Negatively, THE Question is not about that which the most of Men do practically make their End, or propound to themselves as their Design. The Design of Divinity is to tell us what is Right; and by that it gives us light to discover that which is Wrong. Fallen Man is therein unhappy, because he hath lost his Right End, and is fallen upon others, which are so various, that they are also endless,