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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.
He doth not keep these treasures locked up with himself; but he opens them and distributes them as the Sun diffuseth its beams, and innate warmth; as the Fountain sends abroad its waters in springs, and refreshes with its streams the thirsty lands. God unlocks his Store-houses, and supplies his indigent Creatures; Deut. 28.12. The Lord shall open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow. And that which commends it is, that he doth it liberally, or bounteously; and there are two things implied in this, [1.] THEY are Riches of Goodness which God bestows upon Sinners Rom. 2.4. Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness—. There are a world of Mercies that they are made to participate in, in this World: God is heroically liberal, magnificently bountiful to them: He is not sparing, near and close of his treasures; but they are poured out as a mighty Fountain vents it self, not in small springs; but great Rivers: And there are four things in which this appears, 1. HIS Bounty is manifold. It doth not consist in some one good turn which he doth to the Sinner; but in an uncountable variety: He supplieth every sort of want; he answers all his outward needs, gives him conveniences every way, answers them in all; Acts 17.25.— He giveth to all life, and breath, and all things. Gives them a World to live in, Air to breath in, ⟨p. 86⟩an hearth to walk upon, Light to see by, Fire to warm them, Houses to dwell in, Meat, Drink and Raiment; and these varieties, not for bare necessity, but delight to […] All the Sinner ••oh, […] can speak of […] out of this Fountain or Treasury. 2. HE bestown all these things plentifully upon Sinners. He gives them great Store in every kind which they enjoy. Their Furrows are richly watered; Grass grows plentifully, and Corn enough and to spare; Psal. 65.9, &c. Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it: thou greatly enrichest it with the river of God which is full of water: thou preparest them corn, when thou hast so provided for it—. God is no niggardly Housekeeper, but maintains his Family in the World, so as the Beasts eat not all the Grass, nor is all the Provision spent, neither need they to allowance themselves.