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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.
3. ETERNITY is GOD, i. e. It is his alone Prerogative to be Eternal. It is a title which belongs to none but the First Being: all other things are the offspring of time. But for our right understanding of this, we must a little distinguish of the different usage of the word [Eternity] in Scripture. Sometimes it is used for a set period of time, which is of long continuance, but yet hath its date; so the word forever, and everlasting, are used often in the Old Testament. He that served till the Year of Ja•••e, is said to serve forever, (Exod. 21.6.) the Ceremonial statutes are said to be forever, (Numb 10.8.) and therefore, sometimes a proper Eternity is distinguished by the reduplication of these words, as forever & ever, and from Everlasting to Everlasting. Again, There are some Creatures, which are made for endless continuance, and are accordingly made without any seeds of Corruption in their Constitution: such are all constant natures, as the Third Heaven, Angels, and the Scars of men: which, because they shall actually abide forever, and have natures incapable of ••••ing, either by outward Created face, or any inward inclination to di••lut••ns, are therefore in a sense said to be Eternal, as being indeed actually Everlasting. Yet there is a vast difference between the Everlastingness of these, and the Eternity of God. For, 1. THEY all of them had a beginning: They received their being by Creation. (Gen. 1.1.) of all second beings it may be said, that once they were not: Angels themselves, as glorious as they now are, once were nothing, they are indeed full as old as time; time and they began at the same instant: hence they are called Suns of the morning: but follow them up by the measures of time, and you shall come to that moment when they first brake out of the womb of non-entity, and so are not properly eternal, which denies any Original. 2. THEY have a Succession in their being. Their duration hath it's measures; they do not, cannot enjoy an Eternal •••e; but it must be a continuing now. Being finite beings, all their adjuncts or qualities must have their measures, and consequently their duration: hence some Divines have distinguished of Eternity, and Eviternity; ascribing the former to God, and the latter to these ever enduring Creatures; different from the former, in that it hath a succession, which the other hath not: