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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 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.
1. THAT the Scriptures must needs be plain, will appear if we shall consider these things; (1.) THE great end for which they were written, viz. To be a Rule for the direction of men in the way of peace. They were to teach, instruct, inform us, So (2 Tim. 3.16.) Now they would lose this end, if they were dark, obscure, ambiguous; they could not be profitable for such a purpose, but would be rather dangerous, and expose men to mistakes, which can••t without blasphemy be asserted of them, i• we consider ⟨p. 31⟩(2.) THE Author that gave and appointed them for this end, and he is no other than God himself. That God is the Author of the Scriptures, is already proved; that he designed them to this purpose, is no less certain: Now we must hence grant the Conclusion, or else say that he either could not, or would not thus accommodate them: To affirm that he could not, is to say, that God could propound an end to himself, above his power of obtaining, which casts reproach upon his Wisdom, as well as his Omnipotency: If we suppose that he would not, we may as well say it was not his end; for every one wills his end, and this is to impute falsehood to him, who assures us that it was. (3.) THE subject for whom the Scriptures were written, i. e. for Man. And therefore they must be suited to mans understanding: Yea, they were not only written for wise and learned men, for great Clerks that have a deep reach, and piercing judgment; but for the simple and unlearned. Prov. 1.4. To give subtlety to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion. Chap. 8.8, 9. All the words of my mouth are in righteousness, there is nothing froward or perverse in them. They are all plain to him that understandeth, and right to them that find knowledge. They were designed to lead God's chosen ones in the right way, and we know not many wise are chosen. (4.) THE Instruments whom God made use of in writing the Scriptures: and they were men, who must needs write in an humane language. Yea, and for the most part plain men, such as were not adorned with humane literature; but shepherds, fishermen, herdsmen, and such like. (5.) THEY are called light, which intimates their clearness.