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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 13 (Question 4 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.
3. THE thing known is in the knower, according to the manner, & measure of him that knows, and therefore the knowledge of every one is accommodated to the manner of his own Nature, & not according to the manner of the Nature of the thing known. Quicquid recipitur, recipitur ad modum Recipientis. The Understanding can receive nothing but in its own way, according to the manner of its being and operation. It is like an Artificer; take him out of his way, and he knows not what he doth. If you go about to carry any thing into the Understanding of Man any other way, it will be at a loss & confounded. It is also after its own measure. The created Understanding is finite; it hath its Ultimum Conamen, its bounds beyond which it cannot pass; and if you go about to put more into it, it will break it. There is a knowledge that is too high, too hard for it. Prov. 30.3, 4. I neither learned wisdom, nor have the knowledge of the holy. Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended? who hath gathered the wind in his fist? who hath bound the waters in a garment? who hath established all the ends of the earth? What is his name, & what is his Son's name, if thou canst tell?
3. THE thing known is in the knower, according to the manner, & measure of him that knows, and therefore the knowledge of every one is accommodated to the manner of his own Nature, & not according to the manner of the Nature of the thing known. Quicquid recipitur, recipitur ad modum Recipientis. The Understanding can receive nothing but in its own way, according to the manner of its being and operation. It is like an Artificer; take him out of his way, and he knows not what he doth. If you go about to carry any thing into the Understanding of Man any other way, it will be at a loss & confounded. It is also after its own measure. The created Understanding is finite; it hath its Ultimum Conamen, its bounds beyond which it cannot pass; and if you go about to put more into it, it will break it. There is a knowledge that is too high, too hard for it. Prov. 30.3, 4. I neither learned wisdom, nor have the knowledge of the holy. Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descened? who hath gathered the wind in his fist? who hath bound the waters in a garment? who hath established all the ends of the earth? What is his name, & what is his Son's name, if thou canst tell?