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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. WE •eed to look no farther than the common & daily ordering of, and providing for the Creature. When we see the unreasonable Creatures are guided to attain such ends, that they know not of, in such […] and […] way, as if they acted by counsel: how the S•n observes his seasons, and all his motions diurnal and annual, as if it had knowledge. Psal. 104.19. He appointeth the moon for seasons; the sun knoweth his going down. How other Creatures observe their seasons of coming and going. Jer. 8.7. Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times, and the turtle, and the crane, and the swallow observe the time of their coming. How rationally and discreetly every Creature acts, which have neither reason nor discretion in them; may we not, nay must we not hence infer, that if these Creatures act by a Rule they understand not, and go to an end which they are ignorant of, they must needs be guided by one above them, who knows both their journey's end, and the way to it? And when we consider the wonderful Provision that is made for this great family of the world, daily and suitably supplying all the wants of the several Creatures, that are in it, it leads us up hither. The Creature cannot provide for it self; it only gathers what is made ready for it. Psal. 104.27, 28. These wait all upon thee: that thou mayst give them their meat in due season. That thou givest them, they gather: thou openest thine hand, they are filled with good. And there are some Creatures that cannot do that, except it be brought to them. God therefore prove• his own Deity, by that one question, Job 38. ult. Who provideth for the raven his food? when his young ones cry unto God, they wander for lack of meat. Consider the lower world, wherein there are so many millions of Creatures that must be fed every day; and when they see they are so, must we not say, There is a great and a wise Master of this family, who gives them all their meat in due season. David concludes his meditation of this point, with that,