N02384:1702
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 63 (Question 19 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. THERE is his Mercy, which he intends to •••e appear in common to the world. Hence his mercy is said to be over all his works. Now mercy hath always a respect to such as are miserable, as the subject it falls upon, and it expresseth it self in moderating of those miseries, so as that they do not fall upon them to the uttermost, and this is designed for sinners in this life: From whence it comes to pass. (1.) THAT he doth not bring the whole curse in its efficacy upon them at once. His hand of compassion holds back his hand of vengeance; and though they feel some of the scalding drops of his anger at present, yet they do not suffer all his fury. They have great reason to make that confession, Psal. 103.10. He hath not dealt with us after our sins: nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. It is but a little part, not only of the whole misery which they are doomed to, but of the present sorrows which belong to them, that they are under the impression of. (2.) THAT he bestows upon them in his beauty, a great many of the favours which they had forfeited. Man hath by his fall forfeited all good things; hath not only lost his title to eternal felicity, but also to every comfort of this life, and God owes […] not a draught of water, or a crust of bread; and by the curse he is condemned to lose them all: but God doth not at present strain this to the height, but allows him a great many of these blessings, and possibly in a great plenty; He gives him rain from heaven, &c. He spreads his table for him, and the waters of an overflowing cup are wrung out to him; he makes his sun to shine, and his rain to fall upon him; and it may be, he lives in such fullness as if there had been no such forfeiture made. We have an account of such as these, though ungodly, Job 21. Psal. 73. and we have that remark, ver. 12. Behold these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world, they increase in riches. (3.) HE lays crestraint upon those miseries which they do undergo. Though they do meet with and suffer these and those calamities, and have experience of some of the stings of the curse, yet they are greatly moderated; when he doth give a vent to his anger, yet he doth not let it all out; the miseries threatened are boundless, but he sets bounds to theirs, there is a great deal of the mixture of mercy in their afflictions; every sickness that comes upon them, is not deadly;