N02384:1610
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 60 (Question 18 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.
II. THAT in the reasonable creature too consider both its nature and its actions. The nature of a creature is those powers and principles which are put into it, whereby it is rendered capable of acting in its own orb. The nature then of a reasonable creature, as such, is that power which it had given it to act as a moral agent under a rule: and that is an ability of knowing, and electing, or choosing & refusing. Its Actions are such things as it doth by the exertion of that nature, or principle which is in it; or whatsoever it doth under the influence of its reason and will.
II. THAT in the reasonable creature too consider both its nature and its actions. The nature of a creature is those powers and principles which are put into it, whereby it is re•dred capable of acting in its own orb. The nature then of a reasonable creature, as such, is that power which it had given it to act as a moral agent under a rule: and that is an ability of knowing, and electing, or chusing & refusing. Its Actions are such things as it doth by the exertion of that nature, or principle which is in it; or whatsoever it doth under the influence of its reason and will.
III. THAT the swerving of the rational nature from its rule, is properly original sin. Give me leave to illustrate this more particularly. Here then observe,
1. THAT God at first put into man a nature suited to his end. That all things were made by God for an end, is evident, because He is a most wise agent, and therefore would not make any thing in vain. Now though the general end of all things be one, viz. the Glory of God; yet as there were diverse natures put into creatures, so there was a different manner in which they were to serve to their end; and accordingly we take up various notions respecting the end itself. Now man was appointed to serve to the glory of God, by an active conformity to the law of obedience given him. Hence that,