N02384:296
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.
6. THE Spirit of God guides us to Salvation, according to this word. We must distinguish between a Rule, and a Guide. For tho' every rule be to guide, yet every Guide is not a Rule. When we say, The word is our only Rule, we do not deny the conduct and guidance of God's Spirit; but believe that without it, we cannot take one right step in the way to life. But still he hath given us the Scripture to be our Rule of direction, and pointed us thither to enquire our way, and doth also himself make use thereof in bringing us to happiness. His work is to guide us into all truth, (Joh. 16.13.) And he hath so restrained himself hereto, that, whereas there are other spirits which must be tried, He is, hereby to be discerned, by comparing the suggestions with the word, and if they agree not with that, they are none of his. Hence these are put together, as the Agent and Instrument. Jam. 1.18. Of his own will begat be us with the word of truth. Paul assures us, that the things, which the Spirit revealeth, are the same which they teach. 1 Cor. 2.12, 13. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. And he assures his Galatians, that there is no other Gospel to be entertained by them, but that which the Apostles preached, Gal. 1.9. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you, than that ye have received, let him be […]. And for this reason, is the Gospel called the […] of God to salvation, (Rom. 1.••) because God exerts his saving power in and by it.
6. THE Spirit of God guides us to Salvation, according to this word. We must distinguish between a Rule, and a Guide. For tho' every rule be to guide, yet every Guide is not a Rule. When we say, The word is our only Rule, we do not deny the conduct and guidance of God's Spirit; but believe that without it, we cannot take one right step in the way to life. But still he hath given us the Scripture to be our Rule of direction, and pointed us thither to enquire our way, and doth also himself make use thereof in bringing us to happiness. His work is to guide us into all truth, (