N02384:1704
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.
but by these the Spirit of God discovers to them their woeful misery, and together with it reveals the remedy, so that they are made serviceable to-show them their absolute need of a Saviour, and put them upon seeking after him, which they would not be willing to do, if they felt not their misery. (3.) THAT He takes out the curse from the miseries they meet with, after they are in Christ, and sanctifies them for their benefit. There are a great many miseries which the children of God undergo in this life, during their pilgrimage in an evil world, and some of them are plagued every day, and chastened every morning; but though these are for the matter, the same with those that wicked men meet with, and for degree are oftentimes more intense, yet the quality or form of them is altogether altered: for, though the bitterness be not, yet the poison is wholly taken out of them; they are crosses still, and hard to bear, but they are not curses: they are death, but the sting is taken out, 1 Cor. 15.55, 56. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin: and the strength of sin is the law. And besides this, they are made serviceable to their best advantage, there is now a blessing in them, and their operation is profitable. Rom. 8.28. And we know that all things work together for good, to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. (4,) AND He wholly cuts off the entail of everlasting misery from them. All the miseries they are like to meet with are whiles they are in the body; it is but this season, 1 Pet. 1.6. They were doomed to the other as well as these; but though they may be exercised with the sorrows of the first, they shall never be hurt by the second death. They were once in great danger of this, but now the danger is past, and their soul is brought out of prison and enlarged: for why, the law sentence is removed, there is no condemnation abides them, Rom. 8.1. And this is a privilege which some have by grace obtained. To proceed,
but by these the Spirit of God discovers to them their woful misery, and together with it reveals the remedy, so that they are made serviceable to-shew them their absolute need of a Saviour, and put them upon seeking after him, which they would not be willing to do, if they felt not their misery. (3.) THAT He takes out the curse from the miseries they meet with, after they are in Christ, and sanctifies them for their benefit. There are a great many miseries which the children of God undergo in this life, during their pilgrimage in an evil world, and some of them are plagued every day, and chastened every morning; but though these are for the matter, the same with those that wicked men meet with, and for degree are oftentimes more intense, yet the quality or form of them is altogether altered: for, though the bitterness be not, yet the poyson is wholly taken out of them; they are crosses still, and hard to bear, but they are not curses: they are death, but the sting is taken out,