N02384:1547
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 57 (Question 16 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.
Here then observe, 1. THAT Adam's Sin made all mankind guilty This we have already taken notice of, […] it is again to be here remembered, because this whole Scheme must be reduced hither. ⟨p. 199⟩2. THAT it is a righteous thing with God to punish the Guilty. For what else is punishment, but the execution of the Sentence; if that then be right, so must this; yea it is in this way that God proves himself to be a righteous God, in respect of his relative Justice. 3. THAT the corruption of man's nature is a very great punishment. There are two things which go into the denomination of a punishment, viz. that the thing suffered be an evil, and that it is inflicted for a fault or offence. And both of these are here applicable to this sinful state of man. (1.) IT is a very great evil. That is accounted evil to any one that doth him harm; much more that maketh him miserable: and if so, nothing deserves the title of evil more than this doth; for it is the most pernicious and mischievous thing to mankind that can be; as will appear when we come to look into the nature of it, and shall consider what it is in it self, and what in it's woeful effects. Sin is therefore called an evil and bitter thing, Jer. 2.19. And (2.) IT is fallen upon men for the essence given by our first Parents, being imputed to them. All their Posterity bear it as the fruit of the Transgression. Hence that, Rom. 5.19. By one man's disobedience many were made sinners. They were made so, not only by imputation, but derivation too. Adam polluted the fountain of Generation, and God hath undered it to derive into the streams. 4. THAT God's punishing Sin with Sin is very frequent, and consistent with his Holiness and Justice. It is frequent, the manner of it is mysterious, but the thing is observable. Thus Pharaoh hardens his heart, and then God hardens it. And see, Psal. 81.11. But my people would not hearken to my voice: and Israel would none of me. Rom. 1.26. For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections. And He is holy even in this. He is no whit defiled by it, He can deliver men up to fin, without any spot cleaving to Him; and it is a righteous thing with Him; for fin deserves the greatest punishment the creature can suffer;