N02384:662
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 25 (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.
5. IT follows that we take some account of the Goodness of God, which is another of his Virtues or glorious Perfections: which also hath its manifestations in the works of Efficiency. For, tho' God be good in himself, yea, Goodness it self; yet from this Essential Goodness of his there is a Relative one, which derives to the Creature, by which it makes discoveries of this Perfection in him, whereby it tastes and sees that God is good. We may take an account of it under this Description: Goodness is God inclined to bestow his favour; freely upon his Creatures. We do not look upon this Attribute here, as an expression of the Perfection of his Nature, which is the goodness of a Being, for so it compriseth all his Attributes under it; nor as his own happiness, which is the result of the former, and is also counted the goodness of a Being; but as a moral Virtue, according to our Conception, and so the Scripture often, yea, for the most part useth it: and it bears a relation to something unto which it imparts it self, in which Communication it is made known; hence that, Psal. 119.68. Thou art good, and doest good.— We may here, 1. Make some general remarks on the Goodness of God. And, 2. Take a more particular account of the several discoveries which are made of it in the works •f G•d.
5. IT follows that we take some account of the Goodness of God, which is another of his Vertues or glorious Perfections: which also hath its manifestations in the works of Efficiency. For, tho' God be good in himself, yea, Goodness it self; yet from this Essential Goodness of his there is a Relative one, which derives to the Creature, by which it makes discoveries of this Perfection in him, whereby it tastes and sees that God is good. We may take an account of it under this Description: Goodness is God en•l•ned to bestow his favour; freely up•n his Creatures. We do not look upon this Attribute here, as an expression of the Perfection of his Nature, which is the goodness of a Being, for so it comprizeth all his Attributes under it; nor as his own happiness, which is the result of the former, and is also counted the goodness of a Being; but as a moral Vertue, according to our Conception, and so the Scripture often, yea, for the most part useth it: and it bears a relation to something unto which it imparts it self, in which Communication it is made known; hence that,