N02384:1744
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 65 (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.
SERMON LXV.
II. SPIRITUAL Miseries are all those evils to which the Soul is subjected in this life. They are such as the inward man is nextly harmed by; and though this be least regarded by sinful man, by reason of that stupidity which he labours of, yet it is indeed the most awful: all the outward evils we before took notice of, are little in comparison of it: spiritual death is the most amazing death.
For, 1. THE Soul is the most excellent part in Man, and consequently the misery which befalls it must be the sorer. If a man had a thousand bodies he had better lose them all, than one soul. This was fitted for communion with God, and is the immediate subject of blessedness; the body shares in these by participation: one soul is of more worth than a world, and the loss of it cannot be compensated by the gain of that. Mat. 16.26. For what is a man profited, if be gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? 2. THE soul is of large and vast capacities. It's endowments were many and great, and unspeakably more than those of the body; and for that reason is capable of losing more, and suffering more than that. God endowed the soul with more than he did the body, it had therefore more to lose, and the miseries of which it is capable are more terrible. Hence we have that aggravation, Jer. 4.10. The second reacheth unto the soul. 3. A man may undergo all bodily miseries and yet be happy. We observed before, that God's Children are often encountered with them in this Life; and yet are beloved of God, and heirs of the Kingdom. Whereas he that is under the efficacy and power of these spiritual miseries, is miserable indeed, and all the enjoyments of outward favours, cannot make him happy.