N02384:621
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 23 (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.
to look after, and see to the advancement of that. We have God himself expressing his Holiness after this manner, Isa. 42.8. I am the Lord, that is my name, and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images. It is the Creature's Sanctity to be for God, because it is of him, Rom. 11.36. For of him, and through him, and to him are all things: to whom be glory for ever, Amen. It is his, to be for himself, because he is of himself, and from no other. And this is that which he stands bound for, i. e. in all his works of Efficiency, he aims at it, and is resolved to promote it; Prov. 16.4. The Lord hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil. (Rev. 4.11. Ezek. 28.22.) All he doth is for his great Name sake, that he may display his wondrous Perfections, and declare that he alone is God. 2. HEREBY he makes himself his own last End. That which one is bound for, is his End; that which he is ultimately bound for, is his last End. Holiness is a disposition to seek the advancement of the most excellent End in the last place, and to have no other in co-ordination with it, but to subordinate them all unto it: the last Good, is deservedly the last End: because God is better than the Creature, he is therefore its End; and because there is none better than he, he is its last End; and because he hath no equal, he must have no Competitor; and because he knows none better, no other God besides himself, therefore is he his own last End; you have a sufficient Reason for it, Isa. 44.8.—Is there a God besides me? yea, there is no God, I know not any. When therefore God promotes in all his works, the declarative glory of himself; and makes all things to contribute to the illustration and exaltation of it, then he appears to be holy; Isa. 5.16. But the Lord of ho••s shall be exalted in judgment, and God that is holy, shall be sanitised in righteousness. And see, Ezck. 36.23. And I will sanitise my great name which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them, and the heathen shall know that I am the Lord, saith the Lord God, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes. They had endeavoured to make his name common among the Heathen; but he would show himself to be the most excellent one: