N02384:1287
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.
4. IN the Way and Manner of God's Governing the Natural Agent, we are to consider, (1) THE Law of Nature; which is nothing else but the Impression of the Will of God upon the Creatures Nature, from the beginning; by virtue of that Creating Word, let it be so: It is that stamp of Divine Wisdom the footsteps whereof are to be found in its Natural Constitution. Job 38.12. Hast thou commanded the morning since thy days; and caused the day-spring to know his place? And v. 33. Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth? Ordinances, i. e. Statute-Laws imprinted on them, according to which they act. So, Jer. 33.20 Thus saith the Lord, If you can break my covenant of the day end my covenant of the night, and that there should not be day and night in their season. Covenant, i. e. The Character which God hath given them, according to which they are to be governed. (2) AN inclination or promptitude natural in the Creature to act in conformity to this Law. And this is a Principle or Natural Power which is twisted in the Nature of the Creature, and in the ordinary course inseparable from it: and this is something distinct from the Law it self; for as that disposeth it, so this empowers it, to yield Obedience to the Law: it gives it an Aptitude and Readiness to comply with these Rules. So, Job 5.7. Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward. Psal. 104.19. The sun knoweth his going down. (3) A Natural Instinct which is left upon Animals, or Creatures endowed with sense. By virtue of this they are instigated to ••t forth those noble Acts, which carry in them I very great resemblance, as if they had, […] active principle of Reason in them; as if they understood the Reason and Tendency of their own Actions; which yet it is certain they do not. The Scripture therefore Metaphorically ascribes to them Wisdom & Discretion, Prov. 30.24. And sends foolish Men to School in them, Prov. 6.6, 7, 8. Go to the Ant, thou •lagg, consider her ways, and be wise, &c. And upbraids man with them,