N02384:494
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 17 (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.
SERMON XVII.
IT would be advantageous, for our better enquiry into the Divine Attributes, to fix upon a suitable Distribution of them. Here diverse Divines have several Methods: some divide them into Negative, removing all imperfection from God: Relative, discovered by some relation that he bears to the Creature: Positive, ascribing of several perfections to him. Others not differing from the former but in terms, ascribe them to him, by way of Causality, Remotion, and Eminency. Others divide them into Goodness & Greatness: Others into the Attributes which shine forth by themselves, considering God as the absolute first Being, or such as appear in his Works of Efficiency: To which I would choose to adhere, but that the method of the Catechism leads me to another. I shall therefore take up the Attributes in the Description, and assign them their proper notion, as I pass, with respect hereto; and for others not here named, they may be afterwards taken notice of, in their proper places. In this Description we may observe three sorts of Attributes. 1. A Genus is analogically ascribed to him, a Spirit. 2. Divine Qualities negatively expressed, which are three, Infinite, &c. 3. Divine Powers and Virtues, which are •ix; of each whereof the Divine Qualities are expressed. These may be spoken to in order,
IT would be advantagious, for our better enquiry into the Divine Attributes, to fix upon a sutable Distribution of them. Here diverse Divines have several Methods: some divide them into Negative, removing all imperfection from God: Relative, discovered by some relation that he bears to the Creature: Positive, ascribing of several perfections to him. Others not differing from the former but in terms, ascribe them to him, by way of Causality, Remotion, and Eminency. Others divide them into Goodness & Greatness: Others into the Attributes which shine forth by themselves, considering God as the absolute first Being, or such as appear in his Works of Efficiency: To which I would chuse to adhere, but that the method of the Catechism leads me to another. I shall therefore take up the Attributes in the Description, and assign them their proper notion, as I pass, with respect hereto; and for others not here named, they may be afterwards taken notice of, in their proper places. In this Description we may observe three sorts of Attributes. 1. A Genus is analogically ascribed to him, a Spirit. 2. Divine Qualities negatively exprest, which are three, Infinite, &c. 3. Divine Powers and Vertues, which are ix; of each whereof the Divine Qualities are expressed. These may be spoken to in order,