N02384:347
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 10 (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.
III. IT is requisite that a Rule be Plain. The end and use of a Rule being to direct men in their work, to show what is to be done, and how to do it, it ought therefore to be easy and intelligible, else instead of directing, it will be perplexing. The Precepts of every Science, should be scientifical; that which a man cannot understand, will not be for his information: It is therefore the commendation of every teacher, to lay down his Rules in the easiest and most intelligible words. This property also belongs to the Scriptures: the Rule of Life and Salvation therein is perspicuous. God hath therein wonderfully condescended to write heavenly truths in earthly language, that so he might suit them to the capacity of such as were to be instructed by them. The Question about the perspicuity of the Scriptures, is a matter of great controversy between us, and them of Rome, who deny it; and for that reason forbid the Laity the reading of them, as being too deep for them, and endangering their being led into Heresy. That therefore this property of them may be evidenced, I shall first give some Arguments to prove that they must needs be so, and then show wherein they are so.
III. IT is requisite that a Rule be Plain. The end and use of a Rule being to direct men in their work, to shew what is to be done, and how to do it, it ought therefore to be easy and intelligible, else instead of directing, it will be perplexing. The Precepts of every Science, should be scientificall; that which a man cannot understand, will not be for his information: It is therefore the commendation of every teacher, to lay down his Rules in the easiest and most intelligible words. This property also belongs to the Scriptures: the Rule of Life and Salvation therein is perspicuous. God hath therein wonderfully condescended to write heavenly truths in earthly language, that so he might sute them to the capacity of such as were to be instructed by them. The Question about the perspicuity of the Scriptures, is a matter of great controversy between us, and them of Rome, who deny it; and for that reason forbid the Laity the reading of them, as being too deep for them, and endangering their being led into Heresy. That therefore this property of them may be evidenced, I shall first give some Arguments to prove that they must needs be so, and then shew wherein they are so.