N02384:1204
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 44 (Question 11 cont.)
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. IMMEDIATE Providence, is that whereby God by Himself takes Care of all things as their absolute Cause: And this is fully Express, Act. 17.28. In Him we live, move and have our Being. He never doth any thing so by Mea••, but that He Himself is immediately concerned, and acting in it: There is nothing done but He is the Doer of it. And there is a double Immediacy we are to ascribe to Him.
1. IMMEDIATE Providence, is that whereby God by Himself takes Care of all things as their absolute Cause: And this is fully Express, Act. 17.28. In Him we live, move and have our Being. He never doth any thing so by Mea••, but that He Himself is immediately concern'd, and acting in it: There is nothing done but He is the Doer of it. And there is a double Immediacy we are to ascribe to Him.
(1) THERE is an Influential Virtue goes forth from Him with respect to the Entity which appears in every Effect. There is no Operation of the Creature wherein this virtual Influence doth not exert it self: hence all things that come to pass are Attributed to Him: no Creature could do any thing, at any time, if He did not derive the Virtue unto it from Himself by which it doth it: Only here we must distinguish, between the Entity and the Irregularity of the Action; of which we may afterward have occasion to consider: But it is on this account that Second Causes have the title of Instruments put upon them, Isai. 10.5. O Assyrian, the Rod of mine Anger, &c. (2) THERE is also an Immediacy of the Divine Presence with every Effect that is wrought in the World. God himself is present with it, not only by His Virtue, but also His Being: His Omnipresence hath already been spoken to; and we are to observe, That He is not an Idle Spectator, but an Agent in all;