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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 8 (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.
SERMON VIII.
Articl. 3. THAT the Scriptures are a sufficient Rule to direct us to our chief end. Let it be here remembered, that the sufficiency of the Scripture as a Rule, doth not deny the necessity of the guidance of the Spirit in order to our attaining our end: for, besides our want of a Rule to direct us, we also need eyes to see, and ears to hear, & hearts to consider, which must be given us by the Spirit of God, or else the Scriptures will not profit us; the Disciples had the Word of God, but they were ignorant of the Mysteries of it, till Christ opened their understandings, (Luk. 24.45.) We therefore have David praying for this, Psal. 119.18. Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. But still all these great and wondrous things are contained there, and there is no truth needful to guide us to blessedness, but what that word recommends unto us; the perfection of the Scripture is celebrated by the Psalmist, Psal. 19.7. The law of the Lord is perfect — &c. And set forth by the Apostle, 2 Tim. 3.16, 17. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. And what more can be said to assure us of the Scripture's sufficiency! But because this truth is impugned by many, and man's inventions are introduced and imposed as needful to supply the Scripture's defects; and this being the foundation of all the following Doctrines of Religion, it needs to be well laid, that we may be firmly established in the belief of it. Here then I shall lay down this assertion, & endeavour to make it good, viz.