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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 22 (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.
We must not conceive that God hath sometimes been out of Act; and that he did afterwards by this Power of his, set himself to work: but yet our conception is necessitated to look upon him as having the virtue of a Cause, or of communicating Efficacy or Efficiency to Effects. But there is no Power in God, really distinct from his Essence; for his Essence is that Power by which he is Omnipotent; as it is that mercy, by which he is merciful. God's Active Power is therefore best conceived of by us, as it relates to the Creature, which is capable of receiving the impression which it had not upon it before. Hence this Power of God is said not to be in respect of himself, but with reference to the things that are Effected, Matth. 19.26.—With God all things are possible.
We must not conceive that God hath sometimes been out of Act; and that he did afterwards by this Power of his, set himself to work: but yet our conception is necessitated to look upon him as having the vertue of a Cause, or of communicating Efficacy or Efficiency to Effects. But there is no Power in God, really distinct from his Essence; for his Essence is that Power by which he is Omnipotent; as it is that mercy, by which he is mercifull. God's Active Power is therefore best conceived of by us, as it relates to the Creature, which is capable of receiving the impression which it had not upon it before. Hence this Power of God is said not to be in respect of himself, but with reference to the things that are Effected, Matth. 19.26.—With God all things are possible.
THESE things thus premised, I come now to consider this Attribute as is expressed in the Description, viz. That it is God able to do whatsoever he doth or can Will. And here I shall ⟨p. 69⟩only point you, to the account which the Scripture gives us of it; which we may take in these particulars, 1. THERE is none stronger than God. Among all the beings from the first, there is none whose Power equals, much less goes beyond his. There are many strong beings in the Creation; Angels are mighty beings and that whether good or bad; Satan is called the strong man,