N02384:1242
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.
1. BY Provision of Supplies for the Sustentation of His Creatures. The Creature is a Dependent Being; it must be Maintained or else it would Perish; and this Maintenance we are now in Consideration of, is Mediate, it stands in need of a New Supply to be brought in unto it, that it may Live upon, and be Preserved by: Now God takes Care that there be such a Supply provided for, and afforded to the Creature in a way of Constancy and Continuance: And herein God's Providence appears Wonderful b•th to Man and to B•ast. In the greatest Famine that ever came upon the World, God hath laid up Store sufficient in His Providence, for the Preservation of every Kind, so as to keep them alive. There are many Creatures in the World which are very shiftless, and have no fore cast of their own; they have not the Wisdom of the An•, to lay up in Summer for the Winter-Si•••; fore-see not hard Times, and therefore have laid in nothing before-hand; and yet God gives a Supply to these; that the Kind doth not Cease, but the Individuals are Supplied, they find something which may Uphold and Con••ue their Being unto them. There are some things that do not Spin and T•il; and are yet Richly Clothed, (Matth. 6.28.) That do not Plough nor Sow, and yet they Live, and how? Your Heavenly Father •eedeth them; (Ver. 26.) That do not lay in for themselves; but only gather that which God hath made ready for them; (Psal. 104.28.) That cannot lock after themselves, and are cast upon Providence, and yet they Live; (Job 38. ult.) And although' Mankind are more Instrumental in the making of Provision for themselves, in that God hath taught them to understand how to make use of the Means for a Livelihood; yet is the Success of all their Labour entirely Subservient to, and Dependant upon God's Providence, which only can give the Blessing to, or with-hold it from their Endeavours. He therefore is the First in this Order of Causes; (