N02384:289
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 7 (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.
3. THAT it was in singular Favour to his People, that God hath ordered our Rule to be left on Scripture-Record. Hereby his People have a standing Rule to repair unto; they have a counsellor always with them; a light and a lamp still to carry before them; a remembrancer at hand to put them in mind, when ready to forget: a judge to determine them, when at a loss. Here they may examine all Doctrines, prove all Opinions, try all Spirits, be taught the right way, and helped to keep it. And it is the most familiar method of God's communicating his mind to his People in this life. Apparitions, Visions, Dreams, have been more terrible to them. Thus also the truth is continued, when men degenerate, and by these God's people are preserved in times of greatest Apostasy. For all which ends, David commends the written word, Psal. 119.
3. THAT it was in singular Favour to his People, that God hath ordered our Rule to be left on Scripture-R•cord. Hereby his People have a standing Rule to repair unto; they have a counseller always with them; a light and a lamp still to carry before them; a remembrancer at hand to put them in mind, when ready to forget: a judge to determine them, when at a loss. Here they may examine all Doctrines, prove all Opinions, try all Spirits, be taught the right way, and helpt to keep it. And it is the most familiar method of God's communicating his mind to his People in this life. Apparitions, Visions, Dreams, have been more terrible to them. Thus also the truth is continued, when men degenerate, and by these God's people are preserved in times of greatest Apostasy. For all which ends, David commends the written word, Psal. 119.
4. THAT God hath appointed the Scripture to be our sole Guide as a Rule. It is true there is a secret sovereign conduct of special Providence, by which God leads his People; but he deals with men, as with Reasonable Creatures, and hence they must have a Rule to apply themselves to in all things: This is only God's word. There are indeed in men common principles, which a natural Conscience dictates to them; but the way to improve them for salvation, is pointed in the word of God; without which, they can never make them serviceable to that end. God hath not left men to the guidance of their own spirits, nor to the direction of men: but commends them in all things to his word.