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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.
4. THAT the Recovery of fallen man from this Misery, is an act of God's sovereign Pleasure. It derives from hence, and hath its dependence here. If, when man had come short of his end, and lost his happiness, he had left him there without hopes forever, he could not have done him any injury; it had been but an Hell of his own procuring. Hence the Original of man's Recovery is referred to God's Will. Eph. 1.5. Having predestinated us to the a•••tion of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will. God had once brought himself under an Obligation to give him life in case of Obedience; but he had not obliged himself to deliver him, if he should cast himself away.
4. THAT the Recovery of fallen man from this Misery, is an act of God's sovereign Pleasure. It derives from hence, and hath its dependance here. If, when man had come short of his end, and lost his happiness, he had left him there without hopes forever, he could not have done him any injury; it had been but an Hell of his own procuring. Hence the Original of man's Recovery is referred to God's Wil. Eph. 1.5. Having predestinated us to the a•••tion of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will. God had once brought himself under an Obligation to give him life in case of Obedience; but he had not obliged himself to deliver him, if he should cast himself away.
5. THAT hence the Way, in which this recovery is to be obtained, depends upon that Pleasure of His. He that might have chosen, whether ever he would have saved us, hath the liberty of prescribing (as he sees meet) how he will bring it about, and upon what Terms we may expect it. If he do not restore us, none can: and if he do, it is free Grace. Who then shall prescribe to him? Or who shall make his terms for him? And for this reason it is, that Salvation is said to belong to God.