N02384:178
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
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.
6. THAT the whole Creation affords no such Object, the Fruition whereof can make a Man Happy. And the Reason is, because they cannot Satisfy: So far are they from Satisfying the Rational, that they cannot do it to the Sensitive Soul; and for that Cause the Wise, man argues them to be Vanity, Eccl. 1.8. Not the. Lower World only, but Heaven itself is not enough to Answer Mans Desires, Psal. 73.25. There are Three Defects in the Creature, rend•ing it Insufficient for our perfect Well-Being.
(1.) ITS Unsuitableness. If there were enough of it, yet it is not accommodated to all a Man Wants; nay, those which are his Greatest Wants, and make him truly Miserable. It cannot Purchase him the Pardon of his Sins, Prov. 11.4. Riches profit: not in the day of wrath. It cannot deliver his Soul from being Eternally Lost; forementioned Mat. 16.26. It cannot make a Price that will pay his Ransom from the Curse which lies heavy upon him, Psal. 49.6, 7, 8. They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches: None of them can by any means redeem his brother, no• give to God a ransom for him: For the redemption of their soul is precious and it ceaseth for ever. It is but only his Earthly Part which it can give any Relief unto, that is the least and most inconsiderable of the two. (2.) ITS Scantiness. Were it never so suitable, yet there is not enough of it: The Reaches of Mans Soul are so vast, that they can grasp in the whole Creation, and scarce feel it: The Desire of Man, that •orsel••ches Daughter, is still ving Give, Give,: The Bed is too narrow, and the Covering too short: The World looks hully, but it is empty, void and aste. Many have had too m, but never yet any had enough, so as to […] Content, that had nothing but the Creature, but they have still enlarged their desires as Hell: And the reason is, because the World is a great Nothing,