N02384:581
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 21 (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 XXI.
WE have been considering of the Divine Qualities; what next and lastly follows in the Description, is the Virtues of God: concerning which in general, we are to observe that all the Divine Qualities are to be ascribed to each of them, as well as to his Being; and indeed they are all of them but his Being, variously apprehended by us: and by these Qualities it is, that these Virtues of his are distinguished from those in Angels & Men, which bear the like denomination: We ascribe as Being, so Wisdom, &c to some Creatures; but we do not put the Epithet of Infinite, &c. upon them; add these to any one of them, and that speaks them to be Divine. As to the Being or Essence of God, it hath already been spoken to; and how these properties belong to it, hath been discovered in asserting and proving them to be God; for indeed they are such Attributes, as result from the consideration of God, as the most absolute first Being. How we may ascribe them to these Virtues is plain, if we consider what it is to be Infinite &c. and then put the titles to his Wisdom, &c. and that, if his Being be so, these must be so, is plain; because whatsoever is in God, is God: it would be a disparagement to his Divine Nature to ascribe any thing to him, that is not like himself. It remains therefore only to speak of these Ve•u••s of God severally; and there are Six of them here asserted concerning him, as more eminently displaying of him.
WE have been considering of the Divine Qualities; what next and lastly follows in the Description, is the Virtues of God: concerning which in general, we are to observe that all the Divine Qualities are to be ascribed to each of them, as well as to his Being; and indeed they are all of them but his Being, variously apprehended by us: and by these Qualities it is, that these Vertues of his are distinguished from those in Angels & Men, which bear the like denomination: We ascribe as Being, so Wisdom, &c to some Creatures; but we do not put the Epithet of Infinite, &c. upon them; add these to any one of them, and that speaks them to be Divine. As to the Being or Essence of God, it hath already been spoken to; and how these properties belong to it, hath been discovered in asserting and proving them to be God; for indeed they are such Attributes, as result from the consideration of God, as the most absolute first Being. How we may ascribe them to these Vertues is plain, if we consider what it is to be Infinite &c. and then put the titles to his Wisdom, &c. and that, if his Being be so, these must be so, is plain; because whatsoever is in God, is God: it would be a disparagement to his Divine Nature to ascribe any thing to him, that is not like himself. It remains therefore only to speak of these Veus of God severully; and there are Six of them here asserted concerning him, as more eminently displaying of him.