N02384:921
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 33 (Question 8)
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. IN the Ordering of Management of the things that are produced by Him. In all the carrying on of the Affairs of the whole World, He is All in All; and his Hand is in every thing: (1.) IN the very Smallest things that are. There is not so much as a Sparrow falls to the ground, but it is according as He disposeth it, it is not without Him; and the very Hairs of our head are all numbered by Him Matth. 10.29, 30 There is not a Gourd grows, nor a Worm that eats it, but it is according as he Orders it; Jonah 4.6, 7. He hath an Hand in the very Birds building their Nests, and disposeth thereof as he pleaseth. Psal. 104.17, 18 (2.) IN the Greatest things that are. As the Least are not beneath Him, so the Greatest are not above Him: All the high Wheels in the World are turned about by his Hand. All the translations of Kingdoms, desolations brought upon Dominions, and rueful versions of Thrones, are the work of his Pleasure; He doth all this; Jer. 27.5 6, 7. Dan. 4.32.1 Sam. 2.5, 6. All the risings and fallings of great Men are done by Him; Isa. 40.20, 23. Psal. 76.12. He shall cut off he spirit of Princes, He is terrible to the Kings of the earth. (3.) IN the most Eventuous things that be. Things which seem to us to be most Casual, and to have no pre-disposal, He is the determining Agent in all these. We may instance in Lots; Men cast them, and there is a Contingency in them; as to any thing in second Causes, there is no Discretion of the Creature in the direction of them; yet are these wisely over-ruled by Him, and he makes them Decide matters just as he had before Purposed; Prov. 16.33. The Lot is cast into the jap, but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord. Thus the Lot fell upon chan, upon Saul, &c. And this also is eminent in the Determination He puts upon things that are done without Counsel, to make them so fulfil his Counsel; thus in the Arrow that slow Ahab, 1 Kings 23.34. God is said to deliver a Man into his hand, that kills another accidentally, axed. 21.13. (4.) IN all the Evils that do befall the Children of Men: God challengeth this to himself,