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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 15 (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.) THE general nature of it, viz. it is his fullness, or his perfection. For the fullness of a thing is its perfection, by virtue whereof there is nothing wanting to it: and it is opposed to emptiness or vanity; which is a defect. Now there is a double fullness or perfection considerable, the one belongs to the Creature; the other is proper to the Creator. 1. THERE is an inferior and limited fullness, or perfection: and it is when there is nothing wanting to the thing, which properly belongs to such a Species, or is due to such a kind of Being. There are other perfections which it hath not, but all that belongs to its Existence, Integrity, and Ornament of Nature, it hath that fully. A Beast having all things suitable for a sensitive life, is perfect in its kind, tho' it hath not attained to the perfection of a man; and still the higher rank or order of being, the Creature is placed in, the more is requisite to denominate it perfect. 2. THERE is a simple & absolute perfection, which comprehends in it the whole and universal fullness of all perfection to the utmost latitude of possibility: and this is the fullness of God. He hath in him, all kinds of goodness in the highest degree, without defect or possibility of it: hence is he said to be all in all, (1 Cor. 15.28.) And we read of the fullness of the Godhead. (Col. 2.9.) Here are steps by which we may ascend in our Conceptions of this fullness which there is in God. 1. THE chief perfections of the Creature are, in a most perfect manner and measure, in God. If we speak of Justice, Wisdom, Power, Goodness, &c. there seems to be some Analogy between God and Man in respect unto these. Hence, we give them the same name, and have Analogous formal conceptions of them in our minds. Hence that, Mat. 5.48. Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven ⟨p. 47⟩is perfect. But we must remember, there is but little of this in the Creature; but they are infinite in God. They have them separably, he inseparably: he therefore hath them in a more sublime & supereminent manner, than either is or can be in a Creature. Hence we add the Epithet of Transcendency to them, when we ascribe them to him, most wise, most holy, &c. 2 GOD contains in him all these kinds of perfection in the highest degree. There is a perfection in the several Creatures, arding to their kind.