N02384:1085
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
AN EXPOSITION OF THE ASSEMBLY's SHORTER CATECHISM: IN Two Hundred a… › Sermon 39 (Question 10)
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.
2. THE Manner of his Making; and, 1. IN Respect to God that made him: It is otherwise introduced in the History, than the Creation of any other Being: Concerning others it is only said, Let them be, and it was so; but as to Man, God doth as it were consult in himself about making of him: there is a Divine Deliberation how or in what manner to make him, Gen. 1.26. Let us make Man. It is spoken after the manner of Men, but it tells us, That there was something peculiar in and about this Creature to be remarked. 2. IN Respect unto Man that was made, viz. his special Nature; He made him a Reasonable living Creature. He is a Creature, and so he partakes with the common Kind with all Second Beings. He is a Living Creature and hereby he comes nearest to things that have Life, and having in him a Principle of Vegetation. Motion, and Sense; wherein God's Wisdom & Goodness to the other Creatures appeared in providing a suitable Governor to set over them, and giving them a King of their own Kind: But then he is a Reasonable Creature, & herein he differs from, and excels the Rest, and doth more nearly resemble the Life of God; for according to our manner of conceiving, God lives a Life of Reason: He therefore often calls himself a Man, in Scripture, because He deals with Man in a Reasonable way: And Angels are called Men, because they have a Life of Reason. Now Man was made a Reasonable Creature, 1. BECAUSE he had not been otherwise capable of the Image of God: For that shines forth only in Rational Beings: other Creatures have a Shadow of the Divine Perfection on them, by an Impression on them, which they passively receive; and not the Image which they are Incapable of, which afterward appears. 2. BECAUSE otherwise he could not have been a suitable Ruler over his fellow Creatures Government requires Wisdom & Discretion: Hereby it is that Man is capable of guiding them according to the Rules of right Reason: By this he is Wiser than they are, Job 35.11. He maketh us wiser than the Fowls of Heaven: Able to discern their Ends & Uses, & accordingly improve them serviceably, to the Glory of God, and his own Comfort.
2. THE Manner of his Making; and, 1. IN Respect to God that made him: It is otherwise introduced in the History, than the Creation of any other Being: Concerning others it is only said, Let them be, and it was so; but as to Man, God doth as it were consult in himself about making of him: there is a Divine Deliberation how or in what manner to make him,