N02384:334
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 9 (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.
THAT this properly also belongs to the Scriptures, is that which is now to be made evident; which will further clear up it's sufficiently, to direct us to our end. This is one of the commendations which David gives it, Psal. 19.7. And that it is so will be very apparent to us, if we do but consider these things, (1.) THE Scriptures were given on purpose by God to be a Rule to man, to direct […] to his chief end: They must therefore be every way suited to that purpose. It is good arguing from the perfection of the Author, to the perfection of his work: God is the Author of the Scriptures, this hath been already proved; He gave them to man for a Rule, that also hath been made evident; that therefore they are perfect is a genuine consequence; so he argues, Deut. 32 4. He is the rock, his work is perfect—. If God work, he must work like himself: if he intended to show man his way in his word, he hath done it; for what should hinder him? Not ignorance, for how should he not know his own mind? Not design, for it was his very design, to give man a Rule in it. Mic. 6.8. He hath showed thee, O man, what is good —? (2.) EITHER the Scripture is a perfect Rule, or else God hath left fallen man without one. That he hath not so done, is evident, for if he hath, it is either because he could not, or would not give him such an one; not because he could not, for if God was able, and knew how to restore the fallen creature to happiness; if he could bring him back to the recovery of hi• end; he must then be able to lay out, & discover to him a way, after which it might be done. If God can save Apostate man, he can tell him how he may be saved: If God have an Idea of it in himself, he can give man an Exemplar of it; but there was no impossibility in this: not because he could not, for the event proves the contrary: There is a company of this fallen Race that are restored to felicity, by attaining their end, and how they should so do without a Rule, or how without a perfect Rule, is not be conceived: so that it is unquestionable that man hath such an […] given him: only the dispute it, where we may find it, and I say, either the Scripture is such an one, or there is none revealed: where is there one to be produced? Let all ••em that are pretended to, be examined […] tried whether they have in them the perse qui. [1.]