N02384:1421
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 52 (Question 13 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.
NOW if we consider what the Temptation was, we shall find in general; that it was a fallacy, whereby under the prete•• truth and goodness, he endeavoured to […] man to believe a lye, and thereupon to e••• tain evil. Man is a cause by counsel of his actions, his understanding is for eyes to his will; and therefore, by deceiving of th•• […] is drawn into mischief▪ accordingly […] applied himself to man. Here observe, (1.) MAN hath a natural reach after ••• ness. This is a principle engraven in […] nature, and inseparable from it: hence […] strongest motives to persuade him to any […] are from this to pick, to make him […] that it will be a medium to happiness: […] that, Psal. 4.6. There be many that say, […] will show us any good? (2.) GOD therefore made these the […] of his law, viz. happiness in case of obed••••• misery upon disobedience. These being […] of all accommodated to man's nature, […] having the strongest tie or obligation […] them, the one to encourage, the other to caution him. (3.) GOD to try man's obedience, gave […] also a test; a prohibition to eat of the […] &c. on pain of death. This, we have […] was a positive command, in a thing in […] indifferent, 'till God used his sovereig•• about it. (4.) THE Devil hereupon makes an advan••• by his lies, to lay before men, matter of prejudice against God. The substance whereof is in Gen. 3.4, 5. And the serpent said unto […] woman, •e shall not surely die. For God […] know, that in the day ye eat thereof, then your ⟨p. 183⟩yet shall be opened: and ye shall be as Gods ••••ing good and evil. Where, 1. HE proposeth a short and easy way to be ••ppy at once, by eating the fruit of this Tree. He therefore abuseth the name of it, to intimate a secret virtue hidden in it, to ill man with divine wisdom, and advance him to a God-like perfection: and he knew if he could but screw into man an opinion of being happy by it, he could go a great way to prevail with him. 2. HE calumniates God, as having some ill design in prohibiting man the use of this tree. q. d. God knows how much a very taste of this fruit will advance your perfection, and because he envies you so much felicity, therefore he hath forbidden you to touch it, left you should thereby be made more happy than He is willing to have you. 3. HE persuades them that the threatening was but a bugbear to fright children, and not to be regarded;