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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 19 (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 XIX.
2. GOD is Eternal. This is another Divine Quality attributed to him, and is also his Propriety. In clearing up which Attribute, we may first inquire what Eternity is, and then make it evident, that God is Eternal.
2. GOD is Eternal. This is another Divine Quality attributed to him, and is also his Propriety. In cleering up which Attribute, we may first inquire what Eternity is, and then make it evident, that God is Eternal.
[1.] WE may take up the notion of this Attribute in this Description; Eternity is God, without possibility of beginning, succession or ending of time. The word is supposed to signify, ⟨p. 59⟩beyond any term. This is also an Attribute appearing from the Essence of God, considered as the most absolute first being. This also is a Negative Attribute, ascribing a perfection to God, by removing an imperfection from him. The difference between the perfections of God, and those of the Creature, which are the most noble, is in one respect discerned, in that his are immersurate, whereas theirs may be measured. Now there are two sorts of measures that may be applied to Creatures, and by which they may be comprehended, viz. Quantity and Duration: the former whereof is measured by place, the latter by time. Both of these are to be removed from, or denied to God; and because we cannot grasp in our narrow and short understanding these perfections positively, hence we are necessitated to ascribe them to him negatively. In regard to the former of these we say he is Infinite, of which already; of the latter we declare him to be Eternal, which is now under consideration: and because the Attribute is negative, it will help to our right Contemplation of it, to consider the nature of Time, the contrary negative to what is Eternity, and is best known by denying all the notions of time to it. Time then, is properly the measure or limit of the Creatures Duration. It is not easy to express the true notion of time; it hath not any Essence or Existence of it's own, but is an adjunct, or in some sense a quality that belongs to all second beings: it is therefore no where to be found by it self, but always adhering to the thing as it's subject: it is, as it were, the register of the Creatures Age: it tells us how long it hath been, and when it ceaseth to be. There are three things in which the nature of Time is conceived of by us: or there are two Terms, and a Medium, which appertain unto it; and all bear a respect to the Creature, as the subject of them: viz.