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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.
[2.] WE also ascribe to God a Practical Wisdom: and that appears in his contriving and ordering all future things after the best manner: and this is that which Divines call Scientian Visionis. As the appointing of all things belongs to his Will, (as we shall hear afterwards,) so the contrivance & ordering thereof properly belongs to his Wisdom. The Scripture speaks of the manifold wisdom of God, (Eph. 3.10) which is not intended of it, as it is in God; but as it appears in the various discoveries which are made of it in the things themselves: in discoursing of which, I might be endless; but I shall only point at a few comprehensive kinds of it, viz.
[2.] WE also ascribe to God a Proctical Wisdom: and that appears in his contriving and ordering all future things after the best manner: and this is that which Divines call Scientian Visionis. As the appointing of all things belongs to his Will, (as we shall hear afterwards,) so the contri•a•ce & ordering thereof properly belongs to his Wisdom. The Scripture speaks of the manifold wisdom of God, (Eph. 3.10) which is not intended of it, as it is in God; but as it appears in the various discoveries which are made of it in the things themselves: in discoursing of which, I might be endless; but I shall only point at a few comprehensive kinds of it, viz.
1. IN his Assigning of all things to their several ends. A Wise Agent always propounds to himself some end for which he works; he doth nothing in vain: and then discovers his Wisdom in his orderly allotting of the means with respect hereto. There is one common end to which all things have an ultimate respect, and that is the Glory of God. Prov. 16.4. The Lord hath made allthings for himself. And in order to this, are many subordinate ends to which these & those are appointed. Now the setting of these in order, the connecting of their subordination, and the setting them so as to have their due respect to the last; is an eminent discovery of this Wisdom; we read of such a Connection,