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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
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.
UPON this occasion we would also obviate a very vain and superficial Notion beginning to take the Minds of some of our unwary Students, in derogation of the Usefulness, of Systematical Divinity, and by consequence of the just Esteem & Value of our Author and his excellent Writings.
UPON this occasion we wou'd also obviate a very vain and superficial Notion beginning to take the Minds of some of our unwary Students, in derogation of the Usefulness, of Systematical Divinity, and by consequence of the just Esteem & Value of our Author and his excellent Writings.
IF by Systematical Divinity be meant a mere slavish Subjection or Confinement to any Schemes thereof what ever, conceived or published by the mere Wit of Men, tho' founded in their own apprehensions on divine Revelation, without a Liberty reserved of varying from them upon further Discoveries; our Author was of too generous and great a Soul, and had too deep an Insight into the present Imperfection and Fallibility of Humane Nature, than to be capable of such a Slavery. He was indeed a Recommender of Divinity-Systems even to all sorts of Persons, and especially Young Students, in order to Methodize their Enquiries and Conceptions, to keep their Minds from wandering and Inconsistency, and help them to see the Connection and Harmony ⟨p. iv⟩of divine Truths; but without obliging them to an implicit servile Subjection to any mere humane Compositions. And whatever System he fell into, it arose from a careful Scrutiny into the genuine meaning of the Holy Scriptures, with a deep Penetration into the Nature & Relations of the things they reveal; and not from any mere previous Veneration of the Systems themselves or their renowned Compilers or Abettors, tho' worthy of ever so much esteem: making use of their Fame & Worth as Inducements only to peruse their Systems, as the special Fruits of their laborious Searches and Discoveries, and their most mature and accurate Expressions of them; and making use of their Systems only as the best Assistances to form a perfect notion of their most elaborate Ideas, that he might more clearly see and judge of their Agreement with the Holy Writings, the first Foundation, the sovereign Rule and the dernier Resort of all.