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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 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.
2. SPIRITS are impalpable. As they cannot be seen, so they cannot be felt; and this upon the […] reason with the former; for that which is felt, must be more gross than the Spirits, with which we feel it. Now our sensitive Spirits are made of the Elements, which are of a coarser matter, and not so fine as Angelical substances are, and hence they escape our touch or feeling. Therefore our Saviour by the argument of sense convinced his Disciples, that he was no Spirit. Luk. 24.39. Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I my self: handle me, and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have. And God is much more so; he cannot be approached, 1 Tim 6 16. In sum, all the senses are incapable of apprehending Spirits. Angels may be with us, and we have no manner of sense of it: nor do men apprehend sensibly the Presence of God, though in him we live, move, and have our being.
2. SPIRITS are impalpable. As they cannot be seen, so they cannot be felt; and this upon the 〈…〉 reason with the former; for that which is felt, must be more gross than the Spirits, with which we feel it. Now our sensitive Spirits are made of the Elements, which are of a coarser matter, and not so fine as Angelical substances are, and hence they escape our touch or feeling. Therefore our Saviour by the argument of sense convinced his Disciples, that he was no Spirit. Luk. 24.39. Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I my self: handle me, and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have. And God is much more so; he cannot be approached, 1 Tim 6 16. In sum, all the senses are incapable of apprehending Spirits. Angels may be with us, and we have no manner of sense of it: nor do men apprehend sensibly the Presence of God, though in him we live, move, and have our being.
3. SPIRITS are the most Agile, Active, or Nimble beings among Creatures. An Angel is very speedy in his journeying: they are God's swift Messengers to do his will, and go post on all errands that he hath to employ them about. The swiftest things among Elementary & corporeal substances are slow and dull compared with them. The Lightning is one of the nimblest things we discern by our senses. The motion of the Primum Mobile is such as some have conceived is very rapid; but all short of Angelical Agility. One of them can travel from the Third Heaven to the Earth in a few hours. (