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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 27 (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.
This also is of his benignity, that God keeps him alive, who deserves to die as soon as he is born; that he not only shores up his life, by putting under the hand of his power, but he looks after all, that none of them suffer or are destroyed; that those Casualties he is liable to every moment, are kept off, which would impair the powers either of Soul or Body; there are innumerable of them and unseen: the Sinner could not avoid them, if God did not watch over him, and guard him with his watchful Providential eye. He is defended from outward violence, and inward infections. Every step might be a trip, and every trip a fall, every fall might break his bones. Every indisposition might prove a sickness, and every sickness his Death; every one he meets might be his Enemy and slay him; that these things are not, is God's Goodness. David saw much in this; Psal. 35.10. All my hones shall say, Lord, who is like unto thee, which deliverest the poor from him that is too strong for him, yea, the poor and needy, from him that spoileth him. 3. THE comfortable place which God hath provided for the Sinner to live in, and his making it so to him. This lower World was adapted for an habitation for Man, and made every way convenient and comfortable for him; and tho' Man's fall hath greatly impaired the excellency of it, and brought many inconveniences into it, yet it is still a place of much delight to poor Man: and that God gives Sinners a room in his World, a place on this Earth, and liberty to breath in this Air, is a great favour. Hell is another manner of place where he deserved to be, and God doth many things here to preserve the conveniency of it; that he hath firm footing here to walk up and down, and the earth doth not cleave under his feet, and swallow him up, as it did Corah and his Complotters; that he keeps the Air pure and salubrious, and doth not poison it with those infectious vapours, which should make him to suck in his breath and bane at once, is Mercy; that the waters do not return and drown him; that the Sun, that great eye of the World, keeps its circuit to give him light; and the Moon and Stars lend him their benign influences, and do not fight against him. 4. THE suitable Provision that God makes for him in this place.
This also is of his benignity, that God keeps him alive, who deserves to die as soon as he is born; that he not only shores up his life, by putting under the hand of his power, but he looks after all, that none of them suffer or are destroyed; that those Casualties he is liable to every moment, are kept off, which would impair the powers either of Soul or Body; there are innumerable of them and unseen: the Sinner could not avoid them, if God did not watch over him, and guard him with his watchful Providential eye. He is defended from outward violence, and inward infections. Every step might be a trip, and every trip a fall, every fall might break his bones. Every indisposition might prove a sickness, and every sickness his Death; every one he meets might be his Enemy and slay him; that these things are not, is God's Goodness. David saw much in this;