N02384:605
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.
1. THERE are some things done by Men which arise from, and argue imperfection in them. These things then God cannot do, not for want of Power, but by reason of Power. When we read, that God cannot lye, it argues no weakness in him, but his Infinite Perfection. God therefore cannot swerve from his own Rules, or cross his own Nature, who is a God of Holiness and Truth: Men through' weakness can swerve from the Rule; Sin is therefore called a falling short, Rom. 3.23. but because God hath no weakness, but is Omnipotent, therefore he cannot lie, or deceive, or sin.
1. THERE are some things done by Men which arise from, and argue imperfection in them. These things then God cannot do, not for want of Power, but by reason of Power. When we read, that God cannot lye, it argues no weakness in him, but his Infinite Perfection. God therefore cannot swerve from his own Rules, or cross his own Nature, who is a God of Holiness and Truth: Men thro' weakness can swerve from the Rule; Sin is therefore called a falling short, Rom. 3.23. but because God hath no weakness, but is Omnipotent, therefore he cannot lie, or deceive, or sin.
2. THERE are some things which God cannot do by reason of impossibility in the things. And this no whit weakens his Power. There are two sorts of impossibles to be observed, 1. THERE are some things impossible to nature. Nature natured hath its Powers limited and regulated, and there are bounds beyond which it cannot pass; such things we therefore call impossible; but these things are easy with the God of Nature: Nature cannot, but God can and did make a Virgin to conceive: Nature cannot produce the fruits of the earth for our nourishment but successively; but Christ by his Divine Power, could multiply the loaves and fishes immediately. 2. OTHER things are impossible in Nature. Not for want of Power in him, but by reason of incapacity & inconsistency in the subject; the doing of the thing u••erring an impossibility. The Rules of Art are Eternal & Uncha gable Principles, which therefore cannot be nullified. It is impossible that there should be an Effect without a Cause; an dnst without a Subject. God cannot make a thing to be, and not to be at the same time, place, and respect; or a thing done, not to be done. God cannot mke a contradiction true, because then he should nullify his own Infinite Wisdom, which he cannot do. In a word, whatever God cannot do, it is because either for want of Entity or Goodness, it cannot be the Object of his Will.