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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 5 (Question 2 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.) What we understand by the Word of God? (2.) How it appears to be the only Rule?
Q. 1. WHAT are •• to understand by the Word of God?
A. THIS Expression is variously used in Scripture: Especially, 1. For the Son of God, who is the Eternal Word, (Job. 1.1, 14.) So called, because by him God hath been pleased to make himself known to his People. Vet. 18. No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. 2. FOR the Eternal Decree or Ordinance, in which God laid out and determined the works of Efficiency. So Psal. 148. • 3. FOR God's powerful Administration of the Works of Creation & Providence. There is a Creating Word (Psal. 33.6.) and there is a Preserving Word, (Mat. 4.4. Heb. 1.3.) But neither of these is here applicable. 4. FOR the Revelation or Discovery of his approving Will. The proper use of […] of […] among men, is to communicate their minds & thoughts one to another: and hence 'tis metaphorically applied to God, in respect of those manifestations, which he makes to the Children of men, of himself; and is more especially restrained to those discoveries, wherein he lets them know what is their Duty, and wherein they may be capable of pleasing him. And this is the most frequent use or the Word in Scripture. In what way soever God sees meet to make known his mind to us, in that way he may be said to speak to us; which the Apostle tells us hath been in divers manners.