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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
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. MAN must love a Lost & Chief End. He must have an End, or else he were in vain. A Being that hath no End, is for nothing, and had as good not to have been. Vanity is properly the coming short of an End; and whether it be for Want of one, or by Missing of it, it comes all to one at the last: And he must have a Last End, else he can never be happy; for if there were an Infinite Subordination in his Ends, be could never come to his Resting Place, but must be an Everlasting Seeker, wandering in his endless Quest.
1. MAN must love a Lost & Chief End. He must have an End, or else he were in vain. A Being that hath no End, is for nothing, and had as good not to have been. Vanity is properly the coming short of an End; and whether it be for Want of one, or by Missing of it, it comes all to one at the last: And he must have a Last End, else he can never be happy; for if there were an Infinite Subordination in his Ends, be could never come to his Resting Place, but must be an Everlasting Seeker, wandring in his endless Quest.
2. GOD's Glory is the Lost End of all the Creatures, and therefore of Man. He also is a Piece of the Creation, and partakes in whatsoever is common to the Whole: But that all things were made for God's Glory, is clearly asserted in Scripture; forementioned Prov. 16.4. Rev. 1.11.
3. MAN […] nearly and immediately made for the Glory of God. Other Creatures were made for it ultimately, but Man both nextly and ultimately too. The other parts of the Visible Creation were nextly made for Man and his Service,