N02384:1237
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 45 (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.
(3.) THE Way in which God continues His Creatures in Being & Action is Various. And here we may take notice of those Two that are most observable:
(3.) THE Way in which God continues His Creatures in Being & Action is Varions. And here we may take notice of those Two that are most observable:
1. SOME things God continues in a Permanent State. There are some Individuals which are to last from the Beginning of Time to the End of it, Permanent and without Succession: There are the Constant Natures, viz. the Third Heaven and Angels, which are for Perpetuity; they are designed for an Aeviternity, and must be such as they are for ever. And there are some Inconstant Natures, which must endure as long as the Frame of them is to stand, until it be folded up as a Vesture, and the whole lower World be Changed, which is till the Day of Judgment; as the Sun, Moon and Stars, and the Bodies of the Elements: And these may be said to be Preserved more immediately, inasmuch as we are not acquainted with any Secondary Causes or Mediate Helps in their Preservation: They are Subject only to God, and there is no Second Cause, but only His own Almighty Power which continues these in Being and Act; Maintaining the Substance of them, so as that they abide: And tho' the Elements go through so many Changes by Generation and Corruption of Individuals that are Made out of them, there is not one Jo• of their Substance diminished, from what it was at First: And tho' Consistent Natures endure so long, yet they do not wax Old or Decay.
2. OTHER Beings God continues by a more Mediate Providence in a Changeable State; and that both with respect unto the Generals, and the Individuals.