N02384:1284
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 47 (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. THAT all the Actions of Natural Agents are designed by God to serve to some End. God doth nothing in vain: There is no Second Being but was made for something: accordingly there is no Action of any Being, but doth in some respect tend to the great End which the Wise Artificer, who framed it for Operation, aims at by the Creature The Sun shines not, the Fire burns not, the Creature stirs not to no purpose: the stamp or impression of Divine Goodness left upon things, in the Creation, declares that they were made for something; and the consideration of the Infinite Wisdom of Him who hath made and guides them, will assure us, that they are in all their Motions going home-ward; how else can it be that He should not lo•e His Glory by them, and they fall short of the goodness that was put into them?
2. HENCE it follows that all the Natural Actions of all these Creatures are guided by some Rule of Government. Or, that there is a Rule according to which they are to be managed. An End appointed, supposeth a Rule prescribed, because it is a necessary Medium to the right ⟨p. 146⟩attainment of that End, and not missing of it. It is by its regular moving that the Creature h••s the mark, and doth not fall besides it: Its End is the proper Bu•• to which all these Arrows are directed, and if they reach it, they must fly right, and therefore they must be shot right, which requires a Rule, unless we should say that all things attain their End by a mere casual or fortuitous Event, which is a reproach to the Providence of God, and a groundless conjecture in respect of the Creature.
2. HENCE it follows that all the Natural Actions of all these Creatures are guided by some Rule of Government. Or, that there is a Rule according to which they are to be managed. An End appointed, supposeth a Rule prescribed, because it is a necessary Medium to the right