N02384:490
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 16 (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.
4. THESE Perfections are in God, void of all that imperfection, which accompanies them in the Creature. There is no good quality in the Creature, but it is there in a limited manner; it is restrained to its de•re•s, because it is a created goodness; and therefore it must have ⟨p. 52⟩its measure. Hence there is none so wise, but hath some ignorance; none so holy, but hath something of impurity, if not positive, yet comparative. Job 4.18. Behold, he puts no trust in his servants; and his angels he charged with folly: So Chap. 15.15. Behold, he putteth no trust in his saints; yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight. But there is no gradation in the Divine Attributes; they are superlative; and hence there can be no imperfection. So that we must remove all this from his perfection 1 Joh. 1.5. This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. His Attributes do not only contain all the degrees to which they arrive in Creatures, but they infinitely transcend them. Hence we add a name to them.
USE 1. WE here see the way how to come to the right knowledge of God. i. e. by viewing his Essence in his Attributes: This is his Name; and every several Attribute is one letter of it; and by putting of them together, we may come to spell what he is, so far as is for our safety, and sufficiently for our satisfaction. By gazing upon the naked Essence, we destroy our selves, and come to no knowledge at all; but are altogether confounded: but by a careful eying him in his Attributes we may come to the discovery of that which is illuminating, delightful, and saving. We must see him as he is to be seen. The bold eye, that will dare to gaze upon the splendid Meridian Light of the Sun, is dazzled & put out, & sees nothing at all; but he that looks upon it in its beams, sees clearly, and it it is a pleasant thing. Let us Mortals content our selves with these speculations; he that experimentally knows thus much of God, is happy enough. Hence,