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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.
(1.) THAT he is without Beginning, Succession, or Ending of Time. His duration admits of none of these limitations, but excludes them all.
1. HE had no Beginning. As there never was a time when he was not, so neither could it ever •e ••d that he began to be••. He is without Original; he never was a possible being, but was ever in Act: he never was in a state of non-being, from whence he was to pass into existence, and for this reason is he called the Ancient of Days. 2. HE hath no Succession. Their have no times passed over him, but he enjoys himself in an everlasting NOW. Years, Months, Days and Hours cannot be ascribed to him; it cannot be truly said of Him, that he was, but that he IS: hence his name, I AM, and that of Christ, Joh. 8.58. Jesus said unto them, verily verily I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am. He hath lived as many thousand Years as he hath Days; for which reason the Scripture tells us, that with him there is no difference between one day and a thousand years Psal. 90.4. For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday, when it is past, and as […] •atch in the night. 2 Pet. 3.8. But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. He hath in himself a full and perfect possession of Everlasting and interminable life, all at once, and hath no succession of thoughts, notions, or visions, but drinks up all his felicity at once and eternally. 3. HE hath no Ending. There never will come a time when his being will cease; but he will be the same after Infinite Ages; hence he is said to be from Everlasting to Everlasting, Psal. 90.2