N02384:922
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.
If a Tile fall from a House, and slay a Man, God brought him thither in the instant. And indeed, it all these things are fore appointed by God, […] we before heard proved; then He hath an hand in the fulfilling of his Purpose; & this Joh gives Him the free Acknowledgement of, in every thing that he met withal; Joh 23.14. For […] performeth the thing that is appointed for me. (5.) IN the disposing of the freest Actions of the freest Creatures, viz. Angels and Men. These are Causes by Counsel, of their own Actions; they have a free Will of their own, but yet He doth all here too. He preserves this Will of theirs, or else it could not exert it self at all; and He inclines it too, to be sure to all that is Good; there is never a good motion in it, but He put it in, Psal. 119.33, 34. Yea He hath an hand also about Sin, though with out Sin: He hardens the heart, and blinds the Mind; Exod. 14.8. and Rom. 11.8. God ha•• given them the Spirit of slumber, Eyes that they should not see. He useth them as Tools, or Instruments, to Work his Pleasure by, in the World, and makes their Wrath serve his Praise &c. Psal. 76.10. Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee—. They mean one thing, and He another; and whilst they pursue their own Designs, they only Accomplish His; Isa. 10 6.1. I will send him against an hypocritical nations and against the people of my wrath will I give h••• a charge to take the spoil, and to take the prey and to tread them down like the mire of the streets. Howbeit, be meaneth not so —. And if all these Works belong to God, then needs must Al-sufficiency belong to Him; He must be Acknowledged to Work all, and in all. And it is […] be observed, that in all things, God keeps His Eye sixth upon His Decree: Efficiency is nothing else but His executing of that; it doth neither more, nor less, nor otherwise. He is said to do whatsoever he willed or pleased, which Will or Pleasure of His is not an occasional thing, as Men's Pleasures are: but it is Himself, from Eternity, Fixed, and Immutable; which is His Decree.