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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 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.
1. THE first of these is Wisdom: of which take this Description, It is God, by one Simple and Erer••al Act, both knowing of himself, and all possible beings; and contriving & ordering all sure•• things often the best manner. The word Wisdom is sometimes taken in a restrained sense, and then it intends properly a skill of choosing & applying means suitably to the end: sometimes in a more large, and then it comprehends all knowledge universally; in which respect we call […] Man of great knowledge and skill, a […] Man: thus, after our manner, we may app••• it to God. In Man we take notice of several faculties, which are so many principles in him, or powers; and in these we observe several Virtues that do adorn them. The principal faculties in the rational Soul are the Understanding & Will; and in these are the Intellectual & Moral Virtues: among the Intellectual Virtues, Wisdom is the chief; and taken in its Intitude, it comprehends them all: and because God is the most Intelligent Being, we ascribe such Virtues to him, as are found in such Agents; yea, he assumes them to himself. This Attribute of Wisdom is the efore given to him in Scripture frequently, yea, it is appropriated to him in […] Tim. 1.17. — The only wise God — Because there is none wise as he i•. He is Wisdom, and the fountain of it; The Ocean of it is in him originally; there are but some little rivulets of it that are derived from him to Angels & Men; we are therefore •••ected to him for it; Jam. 1.5. And because there is no other Intellectual Virtues •work• in the Description, we may therefore take it in the largest sense, according as it is desti••••; so that we here take the Wisdom & Knowledge of God for the same thing; which is also sometimes called his Understanding; see, Prov. 8.14. which are the words of the Son of God, who is God. To this Attribute therefore, in describing of it, I have resorted both that Knowledge which is called Theoretical, which is more generally; and that which is counted Practical, which is more specially denomied Wisdom; and I shall a little explain each of them.