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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 18 (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. THERE is also his Incomprehensible Omnipresence appears in that he is Infinite; which is God without all limits of place, being no where shut up nor any where shut out. Place is properly the limitation of a Creature, within the bounds of quantity: but if God be Infinite, he is not then capable of any such limitation: and this will appear, 1. BECAUSE that which can be contained in place, is fair, and both quantity: all place is finite, because it bounds and limits the thing contained in it; that therefore which is Infinite, is incapable of place, it being contradictory to the Nature of a being that hath no bounds, to be bounded. 2. BECAUSE that which may be comprised in place, may be measured, and is figured, or hath some external form or shape: for place is properly a measure to what is in it; and nothing can be measured, but what hath some figure or other: but if God be Infinite, and so without any dimensions, then he can have no figure; which is nothing else but the disposition of the dimensions of a thing into such a mode: and hence appears his U••g••ty, or Omnipresence, in regard whereof he is unconfined. For, 1. IF he were not Omnipresent, he might be in one place and not in another: and then his Being would not be Incomprehensible but limited. 2. HE must be Omnipresent, because all places are contained in him; and every other Being in the world. In respect of places, we have that of the Psalmist, Psal. 139.7,—10. Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I fire from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and d•••l in the utter most parts of the sea: Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. For we are not to conceive him to be in any of these as in a place, or as comprehending him in it. And for Being, that of Paul is clear, Acts 17.28. For in him we live, and move, and have our Being.
2. THERE is also his Incomprehensible Omnipresence appears in that he is Infinite; which is God without all limits of place, being no where shut up nor any where shut out. Place is properly the limitation of a Creature, within the bounds of quantity: but if God be Infinite, he is not then capable of any such limitation: and this will appear, 1. BECAUSE that which can be contained in place, is faire, and both quantity: all place is finite, because it bounds and limits the thing contained in it; that therefore which is Infinite, is incapable of place, it being contradictory to the Nature of a being that hath no bounds, to be bounded. 2. BECAUSE that which may be comprized in place, may be measured, and is figured, or hath some external form or shape: for place is properly a measure to what is in it; and nothing can be measured, but what hath some figure or other: but if God be Infinite, and so without any dimensions, then he can have no figure; which is nothing else but the disposition of the dimensions of a thing into such a mode: and hence appears his Ugty, or Omnipresence, in regard whereof he is unconfined. For, 1. IF he were not Omnipresent, he might be in one place and not in another: and then his Being would not be Incomprehensible but limited. 2. HE must be Omnipresent, because all places are contained in him; and every other Being in the world. In respect of places, we have that of the Psalmist,