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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.
4. HE that shall observe how the Church hath been preserved in all ages, must confess there is a God. If there were no other Argument to evidence it but this, one would think it would stop the mouths of all Atheists. It is certain, that the Church of God is the Object of the malice of Men & Devils. The wrath and fury of earth and hell have been armed against it, and have in all Ages endeavoured the subversion of it: they have combined together, and taken secret counsel, there have been mighty associations, and strong confederacies, and all this against the flock, that have been in themselves indefensible, and have had none to help them in […] forces have nothing prevailed. That is proved true, Psal. 125.1, 2. They that trust in the Lord shall be as mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth for ever. As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about hi• people, from henceforth even for ever. And must they not say, as Verse ult. As for such as turn aside unto their crooked ways; the Lord shall lead them forth with workers of iniquity: but peace shall be upon Israel. How often have the Enemy been ready to say, They day is ours, they are swallowed up, there is no hope for them, we shall have our will upon them; and yet what strange, secret & unforeseen ways have there been to work their deliverance? How have the wa•er•loods risen up high, winds & storms beaten furiously upon, and endeavoured to sink or overturn this little Ark? and yet it hath weathered and outlived them all! Persecution hath tired it self in oppressing the Church, and yet the gates of hell could never prevail to root it out: and how could this possibly have been, if it had not had a God to look after it? I am sure the Church hath abundant reason to say as they, Psal. 124.1, 2.3. If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, now •ay Israel say: If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, when men rose up against us: Then they had swallowed us up quick, when their wrath was kindled against us. If there had not been a God, where had we been?
4. HE that shall observe how the Church hath been preserved in all ages, must confess there is a God. If there were no other Argument to evidence it but this, one would think it would stop the mouths of all Atheists. It is certain, that the Church of God is the Object of the malice of Men & Devils. The wrath and fury of earth and hell have been armed against it, and have in all Ages endeavoured the subversion of it: they have combined together, and taken secret counsel, there have been mighty associations, and strong confederacies, and all this against the flock, that have been in themselves indefensible, and have had none to help them in forces have nothing prevailed. That is proved true,