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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 14 (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.
1. THAT which God reveals to us, is his communicable Glory. The distinction of the Incommunicable & Communicable Perfections of God is known and received among Christians. What this communicable glory is, in particular, will afterwards be considered. In general, it is that which (in other terms) we call his Declarative glory, as the former is called his Essential glory: and it contains in it all those divine perfections, which God doth interest the creature in, and influence it withal; of which he hath given us the intimations in his word & works: whatsoever of God we may be any ways partakers in, or whereby he may have glory by or from us, belongs to this head; and this is that which the Apostle calls, That which may be known of God, (Rom. 1.19.) and is called his Name, (Exod. 33.19.) intimating that there is something that may not be known of him; nor yet could this, if he had not revealed it, either by the impression of it upon the creature, or by the Testimony he hath given of it by his holy Spirit?
2. THE way, in which God reveals himself to us, comes under a double Consideration.
1. HE doth it according to our manner of receiving it. Because Heaven's mode and way is not known unto us, therefore he speaks to us in the language or manner of Earth; (Joh 3.12.) and that is in the way of created humane Reason. God's face is only knowable by divine & increased reason, which infinitely exceeds our capacity; but his backparts are the accommodation of the discoveries of himself to our reason. It is impossible for us to know or understand things, but by some rule of reason or other. Reason is nothing else but the manner of a Being, whereby it is acted upon our Understanding. We know nothing of God but by putting some Logical Notion upon him. All things are conveyed to us in a Logical way, and bear some stamp of reason upon them, or else we should know nothing of them. Hence God, to fit his discovery of himself to our manner of entertaining it, takes the Rational or Logical Arguments upon himself, admits of a Distinction or a Description, utters Sentences or Actions about himself, speak: of himself as if he were an Effect & had Causes; a Subject, and had Adjuncts: and by such a way we come to see something concerning him, who is in himself invisible: and this tells us how useful & necessary ason is to Faith; it being an instrument which is used to convey the discoveries of God unto it; and therefore Faith doth not relinquish or cast off reason; for there is nothing in Religion contrary to it, tho' there are many things that do transcend, and must captivate it. Religion is the wisdom of God, which cannot cross it self, & reason lisps out something to Faith, though this entertains more than reason is able to express.