N02384:417
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.
but not in a word and moment, because there can be no one word formed, which can draw forth & comprehend ⟨p. 43⟩the whole sum of the perfection of the First Being; not in a speech, or many words & space of time; because if God should speak concerning himself throughout all Eternity, it would not explain to us all the perfection that is in him. Eternity would not complete the discourse, but there would be something yet behind: especially if we add to this, [3] THAT if God discourse to us of himself, it must be either in his own Language, or in ours. If in his own Language, it would not inform us; we should not be any whit acquainted by it. We can hardly understand heavenly things tho' clothed in earthly language, how then should we if spoken of in heavenly? Joh. 3.12. If I have told you earthly things, & ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things.? If he speak to us in our own language that hath no words in it to express Divine things properly, much less adequately, his Nature being above us. 3. BECAUSE his Name is wonderful & secret, and therefore God would not have us inquire after it; as, when Moses desired to see his face, God gave him a Check, (fore-cited, Exod. 33.20) giving him to understand, that he asked his own bane and destruction, in that demand. So, when Jacob inquired for his Name, he rebukes him for his boldness, Gen. 32.29. And the like to Manoah upon a like inquiry, (Judg. 13.17, 8.) and gives him the reason, Because his Name •s secret or wonderful. That which is wonderful, is a thing sequestered from knowledge and reason; which excels humane Capacity; which out-bids the reach of a created understanding. Such is his Name, Isai. 9.6. His name shall be called Wonderful. How then should the Creature know him as he is?
but not in a word and moment, because there can be no one word formed, which can draw forth & comprehend