N02384:742
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 28 (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.
GRACE is God willing to exalt a residue of fallen Men to a stare of Eternal Life & Glory, for his own name sake. Here we may observe, 1. THE word Grace signifies something that is Free. It is sometimes applied to a Prison, and then it deciphers a disposition in him to bestow undeserved kindness upon another; sometimes to a Thing, and is as much as a free-gift: and in this sense, all the common Mercy that Sinners enjoy, may be called Grace, because God bestows it liberally, without their Merit, for Grace and Merit are opposed. But the Gospel also is pleased to use the word in a restrained sense, and then the Grace of God, is specifically distinguished from his Mercy; the principal differences between which are contained, and may be taken notice of in the remaining particulars of the Description. 2. THE Subject upon whom this Attribute falls, a residue of fallen Men. It is Man for whom this Perfection of God is displayed, no other Creatures except Angels are capable of it; and Devils are denied it; and it is fallen Men, for all are so; the Apostasy hath included in at the whole race; but that which makes it peculiar ⟨p. 88⟩is that it is, only a residue. Special Grace hath singled out but some of many to glorify it self upon; who these are, belongs to an after Consideration. Here only take notice, that there are but a few saved, Luk. 13.25. a remnant, Rom. 9.27. and all that are so, are saved by this Attribute; Eph. 2.8. By grace are ye saved —. The Subjects of Anastasy or Restitution, and the Subjects of Grace are the same; and this is one difference between Mercy and Grace, all partake in that, and but some in this. 3. THE Act of this Grace, or that wherein it displays it self: It exalts or raiseth up this Residue. The Sin of Man had brought him into a low Condition, cast him into a dungeon of distress, a pit of misery, he was laid by the Curse as low as Hell it self; but now this Grace comes, and with a mighty Power draws him out of this Pit, delivers him from the lowest Hell; it therefore runs through the whole work of Restitution: that is it which knocks off his Chains, unlocks his Prison doors, and brings him out of it; it releaseth him from all his misery, restores him again to God's favour which he had lost, and puts him among those nobles that are admitted to stand in his presence; in one word, it saves him,