N02384:1151
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 42 (Question 11)
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.
(1.) FROM the Wisdom & Order which appear• in the Manager […] of all the Creatures that are in the World. They are most Wifely Acted and Guided to their Ends; e•en such Creatures as have no Principle of Reason to Guide themselves. If we look into the whole Frame of Second Beings among so many Creatures, there are no Rational Agents, but Angels and Men; all other Creatures are void of Knowledge and Understanding, and yet are they Guided by exact Wisdom to their several Ends; not by their […], for they have it not: not by the Wisdom of Superior Creatures, for what Agency have they in this Guidance? It must •eeds therefore be by the Wisdom of God. When Creatures Act as if they foreknew the Times and Seasons, (J•r. 8.7.) this is not to be attributed to M••'s Wisdom, which can•o Influence them: Hence that Challenge, Job 39.26, 27. Doth the H•••k •ly by thy wisdom and stretch ••er wings toward the South? Doth the Eagle m••nt •p•t thy Com••s Me•••, & make her •ost on High? They Act by a Rule which they know not, and as regular as if they knew it: This saith that there is One who both Knows their Rule, and Guides them by it; & that is God, and this is Providence. Some Philosophers observing this ascribed to the World a Soul, making it a great Animate; and so seeking to come at God, they fell short of him. The Truth is, the Soul of the World is Divine Providence, guiding every thing by the Rules of Infinite Wisdom. God is not mixed with the Creature as a part of its Essence; but he is with every Creature as an Efficient: To see such a World of Creatures in their several Ranks and Stations, so discreetly Ordered, so Wisely Marshalled, and so regularly Marching, each one in its Place, and without ail to reach their great End; and yet the greatest part or them blindly, without any Skill or Discretion, not knowing whither they go, and yet going Right; declares evidently what Hand it is that leads them.