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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.
If he hath a mind to a thing, he dares to challenge the whole World to hinder him if they can, Isa. 14.27. & 43.13 He declares what is in his thoughts to do; and sounds a challenge to all the Powers of Earth & Hell to defeat him if they are able. 5. ALL Created Power is nothing, and less than that, when it is compared with his. There are Powers among Creatures, and they can do much if he permits them; we see many effects thereof in the World; but cast them into the scale against his, and they will not weigh the light dust, Isa 40.17. All nations before him are as nothing, and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity. If there were a thousand times more power in Creatures, than there is, it would be all nothing; that therefore that is, is less than nothing; it stands for a Cypher. In a word, the Power of God exceeds the Creatures knowledge, Psal. 50 11. 6. HENCE there are two things in which the extent of this Power is expressed, viz. 1. THAT he can do all things that he Wills. Whatsoever his holy pleasure saith shall be, that he doth always powerfully and uncontrollably effect, Psal. 115.3. He never had a mind or desire to do or effect any thing which he could not effect; he never did affect any project, but what he brought about, let it be never so great, Job 23.14. 2. THAT he can do all things, which he can Will. Hence his Power reacheth not only to the things that are, but to all possibilities. There is not only a World made according to his Counsel, but thousands of beings which he could have wrought; for when God made the World, he did not put forth all his Power; but had the residue of the spirit, (Mal. 2.15. Matth. 3.8.) Nor is all the Capacity of the Creation able to comprehend the vast extent of this Omnipotency of God. 3. THERE are clear & convincing discoveries of this Divine Omnipotency, in the worlds that he hath done. If God doth work all, it is thence evident that he can work all. He that is the Cause of all Causes; he hath the virtue and efficacy of all Causes in him. Hence the Psalmist,