N02384:873
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 32 (Question 7)
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.
2. SOMETHING in which it differs, viz. It is Eternal: In God we conceive some Acts to be Immanent, some to be Transient; To the Former of which his Decree appertains: It must needs therefore be Eternal: God never was without this Decree; It is therefore said to be Forever, Psal. 119.89. Else there would be a Change in God, which is contrary to his Nature, Mal. 3.6. For I am the Lord, I change not.—
II. A more Particular Account of this: In which,
(1.) THE Subject of the Decree; or the the Things decreed; Whatsoever comes to pass; i. e. All that is wrought in his Efficiency: The Decree involves every Thing in it, and hath left nothing uncertain as to that; It extends it self to all Effects and Events; Eph. 1.11. It reacheth to Sparrows, Matth. 10.29. And Hairs, Ver. 30. To Gourds and Worms, Joh. 4. And as it neglects not the Least things, so it orders the Greatest; all Changes in Kingdoms and Monarchies, Dan. 4.32. And things most Eventual, Prov. 16.33. The lot is cast into the lap: but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord. Yea, even the Arbitrary Contingent Actions of Reasonable Creatures,