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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 20 (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.) IN his Will be is also Unchangeable: The Will in Man is a faculty, whereby he doth freely make his own choice, and determine of his own Actions: accordingly the Scripture assigns a Will to God, by which he hath consulted, resolved & decreed about all his works of Efficiency, under which are comprised all things that come to pass in time; that there is such a Will of his that hath so decreed, is fully asserted in his word, and necessary from the consideration of his nature. That this Will of his is Unchangeable, appears not only because it is himself, and differs in our conceptions, only modally from his Essence; but if we consider, that God is the highest Cause by Counsel of his own Actions: hence this Will of his determines nothing, but upon a sure and unalterable Principle: all the reasons why men alter their purposes at any time, are incompatible to him, as may be exemplified; that which makes a man to change his resolves, is either unstableness, conviction or compulsion, but there is nothing of these influential upon God.
(2.) IN his Will be is also Unchangable: The Will in Man is a faculty, whereby he doth freely make his own choice, and determine of his own Actions: accordingly the Scripture assigns a Will to God, by which he hath consulted, resolved & decreed about all his works of Efficiency, under which are comprized all things that come to pass in time; that there is such a Will of his that hath so decreed, is fully asserted in his word, and necessary from the consideration of his nature. That this Will of his is Unchangable, appears not only because it is himself, and differs in our conceptions, only modally from his Essence; but if we consider, that God is the highest Cause by Counsel of his own Actions: hence this Will of his determines nothing, but upon a sure and unalterable Principle: all the reasons why men alter their purposes at any time, are incompatible to him, as may be exemplified; that which makes a man to change his resolves, is either unstableness, conviction or compulsion, but there is nothing of these influential upon God.
1. NOT instability in himself. That which makes men to be off and on, now for a thing, and presently against it, is a fluctuating, unstable mind, and proceeds partly from a great deal of ignorance of the mind, partly from the mobility of the Affections, neither of which can be imputed to him: the irresolute man doth not know his own mind, but God doth his,