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A62587
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A sermon concerning the unity of the divine nature and the B. Trinity by John, Lord Archbishop of Canterbury.
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Tillotson, John, 1630-1694.
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1693
(1693)
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Wing T1222; ESTC R6941
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17,786
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42
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A SERMON Concerning the Unity of the Divine Nature AND THE B. TRINITY By JOHN Lord Archbishop of Canterbury LONDON Printed for B. Aylmer at the Three Pigeons in Cornhill And W. Rogers at the Sun over-against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleetstreet 1693. A SERMON Concerning the Unity of the Divine Nature and the B. Trinity c. 1 TIM II. 5. For there is one God THE Particle for leads us to the consideration of the Context and Occasion of these words which in short is this The design of this Epistle is to direct Timothy to whom St. Paul had committed the Government of the Church of Ephesus how he ought to demean himself in that great and weighty Charge And at the beginning of this Chapter he gives direction concerning Publick Prayers in the Church that Prayers and Thanksgiving be made for all men and for all Ranks and Orders of men especially for Kings and all that are in Authority that under them Christians might lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty And this he tells us was very suitable to the Christian Religion by which God designed the Salvation of Mankind and therefore it must needs be very acceptable to him that we should offer up Prayers and Thanksgivings to him in behalf of all men For this saith the Apostle is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour who will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the Truth And then it follows in the next words For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men the Man Christ Jesus who gave himself a Ransome for all As if he had said this universal Charity of Christians in praying for all men must needs be very acceptable to Him to whom we put up our Prayers God the Father who sent his Son for the Salvation of all men And to Him likewise by whom we offer up our Prayers to God and is among us Christians the only Mediator between God and Men in virtue of that Price and Ransome which he paid for the Redemption of all Mankind I say for this reason it must needs be very acceptable to Him that we should pray for all men because he dyed for all men and now that He is in Heaven at the right hand of God intercedes with him for the Salvation of those for whom he dyed There is One God and one Mediator between God and Men the Man Christ Jesus who gave himself a Ransome for all Which words though they be brought in to prove more immediately that it is acceptable to God our Saviour that we should put up Prayers to Him for all men because he desires the Salvation of all men and hath sent his Son to purchase the Salvation of all men by the Sacrifice of himself and in virtue of that Sacrifice to be the only Mediator between God and us I say though this be the immediate scope and design of these words yet they are likewise a direction to us unto whom we ought to address our Prayers namely to God and by whose mediation and intercession we ought to put up our Prayers to God the Father namely by his Son Jesus Christ who is constituted the only Mediator between God and Men. There are several Propositions contained in this and the following verse but I shall at present confine my self to the first namely That there is One God that is but One as St. Paul elsewhere expresseth it There is none other God but One. And Moses lays this as the Foundation of the Natural Law as well as of the Jewish Religion The Lord he is One God and there is none besides him that is besides Jehovah whom the People of Israel did worship as the only true God And this the Prophet Isaiah perpetually declares in opposition to the Polytheism and variety of Gods among the Heathen I am the first and I am the last and besides me there is no God And again Is there any God besides me there is no God I know not any He who hath an infinite knowledge and knows all things knows no other God And our B. Saviour makes this the Fundamental Article of all Religion and the knowledge of it necessary to every man's Salvation This says He is life eternal to know thee the only true God The Unity of the Divine Nature is a Notion wherein the greatest and the wisest part of Mankind did always agree and therefore may reasonably be presumed to be either natural or to have sprung from some Original Tradition delivered down to us from the first Parents of Mankind I mean that there is One Supreme Being the Author and Cause of all things whom the most ancient of the Heathen Poets commonly called the Father of Gods and men And thus Aristotle in his Metaphysicks defines God the eternal and most excellent or best of all Living Beings And this Notion of One Supreme Being agrees very well with that exact Harmony which appears in the Frame and Government of the World in which we see all things conspiring to one End and continuing in one uniform Order and Course which cannot reasonably be ascribed to any other but a constant and uniform Cause and which to a considering man does plainly shew that all things are made and governed by that One powerful Principle and great and wise Mind which we call God But although the generality of Mankind had a Notion of One Supreme God yet the Idolatry of the Heathen plainly shews that this Notion in process of Time was greatly degenerated and corrupted into an apprehension of a Plurality of Gods though in Reason it is evident enough that there can be no more Gods than One and that One who is of infinite Perfection is as sufficient to all purposes whatsoever as ten thousand Deities if they were possible could possibly be as I shall shew in the following Discourse Now this multitude of Deities which the fond Superstition and vain Imagination of Men had formed to themselves were by the Wiser sort who being forced to comply with the Follies of the People endeavoured to make the best of them supposed to be either Parts of the Universe which the Egyptians as Plutarch tells us thought to be the same with God but then the more considerable Parts of the Universe they parcelled out into several Deities and as the Ocean hath several Names according to the several Coasts and Countries by which it passeth so they gave several Names to this One Deity according to the several Parts of the World which several Nations made the Objects of their Worship Or else they adored the several Perfections and Powers of the One Supreme God under several Names and Titles with regard to the various Blessings and Benefits which they thought they received from them Thus the Indian Philosophers the Brachmans are said to have worshipped the Sun as the Supreme Deity and he certainly is the most Worshipful of all