N02384:1291
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.
All the Creatures times are in His hands, He is the Master of this interlude; at his bidding they come, and at his bidding they retire, Psal. 104.29▪ 30. Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled; thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust. Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created: & thou renewest the face of […] earth, And they cannot go beyond these limits, for so much as one moment. 5. HE brings about His own Ends of glorifying His Name out of all the Actions of the Creature. Every thing that the Irrational Creature doth, it doth it Blindfold, it is led it knows not whither. It doth not, it cannot reflect and ask it self, to what purpose it is and acts; yet as a natural Stream, it keeps to its own Channel, and deviates not, till it hath paid it self a due Tribute to the Ocean of God's Glory, Psal. 19, begin. (4) THIS pre-determining influence insinuates it self into all the Actions of the Creatures of all kinds. We are here speaking only of Natural Agents; and it were an endless task to examine all the Actions of all Creatures in particular: In General be it observed; 1. THE smallest Things do not escape it. God counts it not below Him, or any disparagement to His lofty Majesty to look after, and curiously to manage the least and most inconsiderable things: a Sparrow dies not, one Hair of our head falls not off, but at his Order, Math. 10.29, 30. There is not a Gourd grows, nor Worm that eats it, but at his Command, Jonah 4.6.7. A poor Bird cannot build a Nest to lay her Young in, till He gives Order about it, Psal. 104 16, 17. 2. THE greatest Things are not above it. The mighty Wheels of the World are managed by Him: This Government is the Spirit which is in the Wheels turning them which way it hath a mind: This makes the Sun to arise, and go down; this makes all the Celestial Bodies to keep th••r ⟨p. 148⟩[…] Time in all their Motions as […], as if they knew it. 3. THE most Fort […] Things do not escape it. In the greatest Casualties He is an absolute & determining Agent: Those things that are […] without any counsel of the Creature, do without fail accomplish His counsel. As Anew shot at random is carried and guided by His Providence, to accomplish His threatening in […] ruin 1 King. 23.34.