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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 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.
The he hath loved them with an everlasting love, and appointed them to be Heirs of the Kingdom before the foundation of the world; yet he brings them not to it till they are by Holiness prepared for it; and therefore gives them the Assurance in the Gospel that without it they shall never come into his presence, Heb. 12.14. Follow—Holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. He therefore sanctifies them throughout, in Soul, Body & Spirit, in order to his saving of them; and Christ by his Spirit thus fits them to be presented to himself in Glory, by taking away every spot and wrinkle, and blemish; and hath certified us, that there shall enter into the holy place, nothing that defiles.
USE 1. WE hence learn the miserable state of Sinners. The Holiness of God is a glass in which all ungodly Men may read their doom: and Oh that such as live and lie in Sin would consider of it I Think who that God is, with whom you have to do, and then say what hopes have you to escape his Infinite Wrath? Doth his Holiness engage him to stand up for his own Glory, and shall such vile Creatures who do nothing but dishonour him, hope to avoid the suffering of the impressions of his hot displeasure? It is the Sinner that sets himself against God. Sin is the thing that dishonours him, that tramples upon his Glory, and will God stand by as one unconcerned? Will he always keep silence? Where is his Holiness then? They that think so, believe not this Attribute of his Sinners, know it, you have an holy God to deal withal, one that hates Sin irreconcilably, one that will not lose the least tittle of his Glory, tho' he destroy a whole World that set themselves in opposition to it. And then remember, that his Wisdom, and his Power, which are equally Infinite, Eternal and Unchangeable, do stand engaged for the upholding of his Holiness, and will exert them selves in the Destruction of all those that are Enemies of it. And now say, how shall you escape and how shall you endure? Is it not a fearful thing to fall into the hands of that God, whose Holiness will cause his fury to come into his face, and engage the other Attributes to conspire in your Destruction▪ think of this, and let it drive you to Repentance, and make Sin an evil and better thing to you.