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SERMON

XLVIII.

Concerning the unity of the divine nature, and the bleffed Trinity, &c.

I TIM. ii. 5.

For there is one God.

THE particle for leads us to the confideration of

the context, and occafion of these words; which in fhort is this. The defign of this epiftle is, to direct Timothy, to whom St Paul had committed the govern ment of the church of Ephefus, how he ought to demean himself in that great and weighty charge. And, at the beginning of this chapter, he gives directions concerning public prayers in the church; that prayers and thankfgivings 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 Chriftians might lead a quiet and peaceable life, in all godliness and honesty.

And this he tells us was very fuitable to the Christian religion, by which God defigned the falvation 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 (faith the Apostle) is good and acceptable in the fight of God our Saviour; who will have all men to be faved, 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 Chrift Jefus, who gave himfelf a ransom for all: as if he had faid, This univerfal charity of Chriftians, in praying for all men, must needs be very acceptable to him to whom we put up our prayers, God the Father, who fent his Son for the falvation of all men; and to him likewife by whom we offer up our prayers to God, and is amongst us Chriftians the only Mediator hetween God and men, in virtue of that price and ranfom which he

paid for the redemption of all mankind; I fay, for this reafon, it must needs be very acceptable to him, that we fhould pray for all men, because he died for all men ; and now that he is in heaven at the right hand of God, intercedes with him for the falvation of those for whom he died. There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Chrift Jefus, who gave himself a ranfom for all.

Which words, though they be brought in to prove more immediately, that it is acceptable to God our Saviour, that we fhould put up prayers to him for all men, because he defires the falvation of all men, and hath fent his fon to purchase the falvation of all men by the facrifice of himself, and, in virtue of that facrifice, to be the only Mediator between God and us: I fay, tho' this be the immediate fcope and design of these words, yet they are likewife a direction to us, unto whom we ought to address our prayers, namely, to God; and by whofe mediation and interceffion we ought to put up our prayers to God the Father, namely, by his Son Jefus Chrift, who is constituted the only Mediator between God and man.

There are feveral propofitions contained in this and the following verfe. But I fhall at prefent confine myfelf to the first, namely, That there is one God; that is, but one; as St Paul elsewhere expreffeth it, There is none other God but one, I Cor. viii. 4. And Mofes lays this as the foundation of the natural law, as well as of the Jewish religion, The Lord he is one God; there is none elfe befides him, Deut. iv. 35. that is, befides Jehovah, whom the people of Ifrael did worship as the only true God. And this the prophet Ifaiah perpetually declares, in oppofition to the Polytheism and variety of gods among the Heathen, If. xliv. 6. I am the first, and I am the laft, and befides me there is no God. And again, ver. 8. Is there a God befides me ? there is no yea, God, I know not any. He, who hath an infinite knowledge, and knows all things, knows no other God. And our bleffed Saviour makes this the fundamental article of all religion, and the knowledge of it neceflary to every man's falvation: This (fays he) is life eternal, to know thee the only true God.

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The unity of the divine nature is a notion wherein the greatest and the wifeft part of mankind did always agree; and therefore may reasonably be prefumed to be either natural, or to have fprung from fome original tradition delivered down to us from the firft parents of mankind: I mean, that there is one fupreme 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 Ariftotle, in his metaphyfics, defines God," the eternal, and most excellent, or beft of "all living beings." And this notion of one fupreme being agrees very well with that exact harmony which appears in the frame and government of the world; in which we fee all things confpiring to one end, and continuing in one uniform order and courfe; which cannot reasonably be ascribed to any other but a constant and uniform caufe; and which, to a confidering man, does: plainly fhew, that all things are made and governed by that one powerful principle, and great and wife mind, which we call God.

But although the generality of mankind had a notion of one fupreme God, yet the idolatry of the Heathen plainly fhews, that this notion, in procefs of time, was greatly degenerated, and corrupted into an apprehen.. fion of a plurality of gods; though in reafon it is evident enough that there can be no more gods than one ; and that one, who is of infinite perfection, is as fuffi cient to all purposes whatfoever, as ten thousand dei-. ties, if they were poffible, could poffibly be; as I fhall fhew in the following difcourfe.

Now, this multitude of deities, which the fond fuperftition and vain imagination of men had formed to themfelves, were by the wifer fort, who, being forced to comply with the follies of the people, endeavoured to make the best of them, fuppofed to be, either parts of the uni verfe, which the Egyptians, as Plutarch tells us, thought to be the fame with God; but then the more confiderable parts of the univerfe they parcelled out into several deities; and as the ocean hath feveral names, according to the feveral coafts and countries by which it paffeth; fo they gave feveral names to this one Deity, according

to

to the feveral parts of the world, which feveral nations made the objects of their worship:

Or elfe they adored the feveral perfections and powers of the one fupreme God, under feveral names and titles, with regard to the various bleffings and benefits which they thought they received from him.

Thus the Indian philofophers, the Brachmans, are faid to have worfhipped the fun as the fupreme Deity: and he certainly is the moft worshipful of all fenfible beings, and bids faireft for a deity; efpecially if he was, as they fuppofed, animated by a fpirit endowed with knowledge and understanding. And if a man, who had been bred in a dark cave, fhould all on the fudden be brought out at noon-day to behold this vifible world; after he had viewed and confidered it a while, he would in all probability pitch upon the fun as the most likely, of all the things he had feen, to be a deity. For if fuch aman had any notion of a God, and were to chufe one upon fight, he would without difpute fix upon the fun, and fall down and worship him.

And Macrobius manageth this as his main plea for the idolatry of the Heathen, that under all the feveral names of their gods they worshipped the fun: and this diverfity of names was but a more diftinct conception and acknowledgement of the many bleffings and advantages which mankind received from him, and a more particular and exprefs adoration of the feveral powers and perfections which were in him. And this was the very best defence, and all the tolerable fenfe which the wifeft among the Heathen could make, of the multitude: of their deities..

And yet whilst they generally owned one fupreme being, that was the principle and original of all things,. they worshipped several fubordinate deities, as really dif tinct from one another. Some of these they fancied to be fuperior to the reft, and to have their refidence in heaven, by which Marfilius Ficinus fuppofes Plato to mean no more but the chief of the angels. These were called Boi, dii fuperi, and dii cæleftes; "fuperior and heavenly gods. The fcripture terms them the host of heaven, meaning the fun, moon, and ftars; which they fuppofed

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to be animated, or at least to be inhabited by angels, or glorious fpirits, whom they called gods.

Other of their deities were accounted much inferior to thefe, being fuppofed to be the fouls of their deceased heroes; who, for their great and worthy deeds when they lived upon earth, were fuppofed after death to be: tranflated into the number of their gods; and these were called femidei and deaftri; that is, "half gods, and a "fort of gods.' And as the other were celestial, fo these were Saimoves inávio, a kind of terrestrial fpirits, that were prefidents and procurators of human affairs: here below; that is, a middle fort of divine powers,. that were mediators and agents between God and men, and did carry the prayers and fupplications of men to God, and bring down the commands and bleffings of: God to men.

But in the midst of all this croud and confufion of deities, and the various fuperftitions about them, the. wifer Heathen, as Thales, Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato,. Ariftotle, Tully, Plutarch, and others, preferved a true. notion of one fupreme God, whom they defined, "An "infinite Spirit, pure from all matter, and free from all "imperfection :" and all the variety of their worship: was, as they pretended in excufe of it, but a more particular owning of the various reprefentations of the di.. vine power and excellencies which manifefted themselves in the world, and of the feveral communications of bleffings and favours by them imparted to men. And Tertullian (adverfus Marcionem, 1. 1. c. 10.) obferves, that even when idolatry had very much obfcured the glory of the fovereign Deity, yet the greater part of mankind. did ftill, in their common forms of fpeech, appropriate the name of God in a more efpecial and peculiar manner to one, faying, If God grant, If God pleafe," and the like.

So that there is fufficient ground to believe, that the: unity of the divine nature, or the notion of one fupreme. God, creator and governor of the world, was the primitive and general belief of mankind; and that polytheism and idolatry were. a corruption and degeneracy from the original notion which mankind had concerning God; as the fcripture-hiftory doth declare and teftify.

And