N02384:1809
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 68 (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.
5. THEY shall lose all their moral goodness. Though sin hath depraved man's whole nature, so that there remains no theological goodness in him naturally; yet there are few sinners, if any in this world, that are so utterly debauched, but that they have some principles of morality abiding and active in them; which are a civil ornament to them, and so far commend them to the liking of men: yea our Saviour Christ looked upon the moral young man, who came to him, and loved him. Mar. 10.21. and this is a common gift of God, for the present benefit of mankind, and upholding of the world; but there will be none of this in hell, there being no use for it, where there is to be nothing but misery and confusion: Children will there have no respect for their Parents; nor Parents any love or pity for their Children; not one neighbour show any civility to another: and though possibly these principles will not be rooted out of their consciences, being left there, for their greater torment, yet the practice of them will utterly cease. As the perfection of holiness is not arrived at by the children of God in this life, but is at once ⟨p. 240⟩perfected when they dye; so though sinners grow worse and worse here, yet they are not at the top, all morality is not gone till they dye, and then it leaves them for ever; and this is intimated by that of Christ, Mat. 25.29. For unto every one that •ate shall be given: and be shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away, even that whi•h be hath.
5. THEY shall lose all their moral goodness. Though sin hath depraved man's whole nature, so that there remains no theological goodness in him naturally; yet there are few sinners, if any in this world, that are so utterly debauched, but that they have some principles of morality abiding and active in them; which are a civil ornament to them, and so far commend them to the liking of men: yea our Saviour Christ looked upon the moral young man, who came to him, and loved him. Mar. 10.21. and this is a common gift of God, for the present benefit of mankind, and upholding of the world; but there will be none of this in hell, there being no use for it, where there is to be nothing but misery and confusion: Children will there have no respect for their Parents; nor Parents any love or pity for their Children; not one neighbour shew any civility to another: and though possibly these principles will not be rooted out of their consciences, being left there, for their greater torment, yet the practice of them will utterly cease. As the perfection of holiness is not arrived at by the children of God in this life, but is at once