N02384:1612
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.
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, Job 28.28. And unto man be said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding. And the wisdom of God did accordingly put into him, a nature adapted hereunto. See, Eccl. 7.29.
2. THE rectitude of man's nature, was an habitual conformity to the law of God. I mean the rule of special government, according to which he was to be judged and rewarded. When God made man, He knew what He made him for, and made him accordingly. He was to be a moral agent, and therefore had not only moral powers put into him, but also a disposition cleaving to them, whereby they were titted to act regularly: a natural bent and inclination in them to close with the rule, and a complete ability so to do: the bias of man's nature was set right; and this was truly his righteousness end holiness, which is therefore said to be renewed in convention, Eph. 4.24.
2. THE rectitude of man's nature, was an habitual conformity to the law of God. I mean the rule of special government, according to which he was to be judged and rewarded. When God made man, He knew what He made him for, and made him accordingly. He was to be a moral agent, and therefore had not only moral powers put into him, but also a disposition cleaving to them, whereby they were titted to act regularly: a natural bent and inclination in them to close with the rule, and a compleat ability so to do: the bias of man's nature was set right; and this was truly his righteousness end holiness, which is therefore said to be renewed in convention,