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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 12 (Question 4)
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 there is a God. And this is supposed in the Question: for when we ask, What a thing is, we take it for a granted truth, that there is such a thing; and it will be vain for us to go about to describe the Being of God, except we believe him to be. The Apostle therefore takes this to be the first Article of faith, which if not entertained, there can be no coming to him, Heb. 11.6. But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God, must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. It may here perhaps seem a thing superfluous to go about to prove a truth so clear and manifest as this, which is the prime dictate of Nature's-light, and is written with such Sun beams, as are sufficient to convince a mere Gentile, and leave him without excuse, (Rom. 1.19, 20.) Yet, because there is so much of Atheism in men's hearts naturally, as tacitly to deny it; (Psal. 1•.1. The fool hath said in his heart, There […] to God Psal 10.4. The wicked through the pride […] countenance will not seek after God: God is not •n all his thoughts. They desire there were none, and what they desire they endeavour to believe) And because it is the Pillar-truth of all Religion give the leave to pick up a few of the many Demonstrations, by which this Article is confirmed.
1. THAT there is a God. And this is supposed in the Question: for when we ask, What a thing is, we take it for a granted truth, that there is such a thing; and it will be vain for us to go about to describe the Being of God, except we believe him to be. The Apostle therefore takes this to be the first Article of faith, which if not entertained, there can be no coming to him, Heb. 11.6. But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God, must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. It may here perhaps seem a thing superfluous to go about to prove a truth so clear and manifest as this, which is the prime dictate of Nature's-light, and is written with such Sun beams, as are sufficient to convince a meer Gentile, and leave him without excuse, (