N02384:1263
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 46 (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) THERE is an Operation of second Cause•. For where there is no Operation of the Creature, there can be no Co-operation of God. Government respects the Actions of the Creatures according to their innate Principles. If a Man will do any thing with an Instrument, he must not only make it, and suit it, but also improve it: if that doth not work instrumentally, the Man doth not work by it. We must not think that God only works, at the P•e•ence of second Causes and these stand by, and do nothing at all. That there is a formal Principle in the second Cause, proper for its own Operations, is evident from, Gen. 1.11. God said, […] the Earth bring •orth, &c. Were the […] Opinion a Truth, then either the Creatures have no Principles of Activity in them, or the Principles, together with the dispositions they have to act, are put into them for nothing; which is inconsistent with the wisdom of their Creator, who made nothing in vain. Yea such a Notion will remove all goodness from the Creature, contrary to Gen. 1. ult. yea the difference between things; and utterly vacate the Notions of Good & Evil; render ungodly actions as laudable as the most holy, and subvert the Reason & Equity of the Punishment of wicked men. But the Scripture most frequently ascribes Efficiency to second Causes; Acts 1.23. They appointed, &c 1 Cor. 3.9. For we are labourers together with God.
(1) THERE is an Operation of second Cause•. For where there is no Operation of the Creature, there can be no Co-operation of God. Government respects the Actions of the Creatures according to their innate Principles. If a Man will do any thing with an Instrument, he must not only make it, and suit it, but also improve it: if that doth not work instrumentally, the Man doth not work by it. We must not think that God only works, at the P•eence of second Causes and these stand by, and do nothing at all. That there is a formal Principle in the second Cause, proper for its own Operations, is evident from,