N02384:128
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
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.
HAVING thus stated the QUESTION, it remains,
Secondly, TO give some Explication of the ANSWER.
HERE we have Two distinct things put together, viz. To Glorify God and Enjoy him for ever: But we must warily consider them, else we may be greatly mistaken about them.
IT is to be observed, that in strict speaking, that which is Chief can be but One. It is a Contradiction to say, there are Two last Ends; if both are Equal, neither of them can be the Chief or Last. Among Intermediate Ends, some may be subordinate, others may be co-ordinate, but the Last will admit of no Compeer: and as the Chief is but One, so it is not a thing compounded, but single: It cannot be made of the Meeting of divers in One, for that which is compounded, is indeed manifold; and except there were an Equality between those things so concurring, they cannot he of a like Weight: and therefore the One must needs stand in Subordination to the Other. So, that if we would speak exactly, there is but One of these, viz. TO GLORIFY GOD. which is Man's Chief End; the Other is immediately subordinated, or it is Next to the Last. It is Man's Duty to seek his Own Pest Good, which consists in his Enjoying of God; but he is to do it in and for the Glory of God; and so from thence all his seeking of it is to take it's Measures.