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SERM. opinions) do style the Father of gods and men; the VIII. King of the gods; the most high, most great, most "TITOS, excellent, &c. The greater popularity, as Tertullian TIT. speaks, of mankind, even when idolatry obscured the

μέγιστος,

In Tim.

sense of Divine providence, did however appropriate the name of God especially to one, in their usual expressions; being wont to say, If God grant; and, What pleases God; and, I commend it to God. And if the vulgar had in some measure this conceit, the wiser sort appear to have had more clear and full apprehensions and persuasions concerning it: Plato refers the making of the world to one whom he calls Πατέρα καὶ Ποιητὴν (the Father and Maker of the universe.) Aristotle, when he hath occasion to speak of God, doth usually speak in the singular; so do other philosophers, as the Stoics, in their famous precept Deum sequi, (to follow God, that is, to acquiesce in, or submit to, Divine providence,) sometime they do expressly signify this to be their Cic. 1. de. opinion: There are many popular gods, said Antisthenes, but one natural one: eis de ŵy oλvwvvμós Arist. de T; Being really one, saith the author de Mun

N. D.

Mund. cap.

7.

do, he hath many names; according to the several affections he discovers, and the operations he exerts with whom Seneca thus agrees: So often as you please, you may diversely name the Author of things: there may be so many appellations of him, as there be gifts or offices and operations: him our people fancy to be father Bacchus, and Hercules,

z Major popularitas generis humani-etiam tanta idololatria dominationem obumbrante, seorsum tamen illum, quasi proprio nomine Deum perhibent; et Deum Deorum; et si Deus dederit; et quod Deo placet ; et Deo commendo. Tertull. adv. Marc. i. 10.

VIII.

and Mercury; call him also Nature, Fate, For- SERM. tune: all these are but names of the same God, variously using his power. If they ever speak of Gods plurally, they are to be understood to speak with the like opinion of them, as we of angels, that is, of invisible, intelligent powers, created by the supreme God, dependent of him, subject to him b; Mars. Ficinus's caution concerning Plato being applicable to the rest :-sed ne turbet quæso Deorum numerus, quem non turbat numerus angelorum. Nihil enim plus apud Platonem tot possunt Dii, quam apud nos tot angeli, totque beati. So much for God's unity.

As to his eternity: if God made all things, he could not receive being from another; and he who made this world, what reason can there be to suppose him to be from another? Nor can any thing receive a being from itself, or from mere nothing spring up into being; therefore the Maker of the world must be eternal. Something of necessity must be eternal, otherwise nothing could have been at all; other things shew themselves to have proceeded from the wisdom, power, and goodness of One; whence that One is eternal; and so all nations have consented that God is.

That he is immortal and immutable doth also follow plainly: for he not depending for his being, or any

a Quoties voles, tibi licet aliter hunc auctorem rerum nostrarum compellare: tot appellationes ejus esse possunt, quot munera ; hunc et Liberum patrem, et Herculem, ac Mercurium nostri putant; sic hunc Naturam voca, Fatum, Fortunam; omnia ejusdem Dei nomina sunt varie utentis sua potestate. Sen. de Benef. iv. 7. b See that most remarkable saying of Sophocles, (apud Grot. in Excerpt. pag. 149.) εἷς ταῖς ἀληθείαισιν, εἷς ἐστιν θεὸς, &c. Mars. Fic. in Arg. lib. x. de Leg.

SERM. thing thereto belonging, upon any other thing, neither VIII. can he depend for his continuance or conservation;

having power superior to all things, as having conferred on them whatever of power they have, nothing can oppose him, or make any prevalent impression upon him, so as to destroy or alter any thing in him. Also, from his making, his upholding, his governing all things, is consequent, that he was ever and is every where: where his power is, there his hand is; for every action with effect requires a conjunction of the agent and patient; nothing can act upon what is distant. That with his presence and power he doth penetrate all things, operating insensibly and imperceptibly, doth argue the spirituality of his being; and that he doth not consist of such matter (so extended, so divisible) as those things do, which we by sense perceive.

His overreaching wisdom implies him uncapable of being deceived; and his overbearing power signifies that he doth not need to deceive; and his transcendent goodness proves him unwilling to deceive: the like we may say of doing wrong; whence are consequent his perfect veracity and justice.

Lastly, the excellency of his nature, the eminency of his wisdom and power, the abundance of his goodness; as also, his having given being, then preserving it to all things, do infer his rightful title to supreme dominion; and accordingly, that all love, all obedience, all praise and veneration are due to him; according to the devout acknowledgment of those Rev. iv. 11. blessed elders: Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive the glory and honour and power, (or authority,) because thou hast made all things; and for thy will they are and were created.

I Believe in God,

SERMON IX.

THE BEING OF GOD PROVED FROM SUPER-
NATURAL EFFECTS.

JOHN V. 17.

But Jesus answered them, My Father hitherto worketh, and I work.

WHEN at first by the Divine power this visible SERM. system of things was consummated and settled in IX. that course wherein it now stands, it is said that God rested from all his work which he had made : Gen. ii. 2. the plain meaning of which saying is, that God had so framed all the parts of nature, and several kinds of things, and disposed them into such an order, and inserted into them such principles of action, that thereafter (without more than an ordinary conservation or concourse from him) things generally should continue in their being, station, and course, without any great change, for ever; that is, for so long as God had determined, or till their due period was run through a: (He established them, as the Ps. cxlviii. Psalmist speaks, for ever and ever; he made a de

* Ἔστιν δ' οὖν καταπεπαυκέναι τὸ τὴν τάξιν τῶν γενομένων εἰς πάντα χρόνον ἀπαραβάτως φυλάσσεσθαι τετάχεται, καὶ τῆς παλαῖας ἀταξίας ἕκαστον τῶν κτισμάτων καταπεπαυκέναι. Clem. Αlex. Strom. vi. (pag. 4923.)

6.

89, &c.

хххій. 25.

xxxi. 36.

SERM. cree, that shall not pass: His word was settled in IX. the heavens, and his faithfulness unto all generaPsal. cxix. tions: they continue this day according to his ordiJer. v. 22. nances: He made a covenant with day and night, and appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth:) thus God rested and ceased from his work of creation. But it is not said, nor intended, that God did absolutely give over or forbear working; that he withdrew his care, and tied up, as it were, his own hands by a resolution not to intermeddle more with any thing, but to enjoy a kind of Epicurean Ayatos yg ease and ampatía. No: his wisdom hath so ordered THI TOTI - things, that there should be need and reason of his ** To Os, acting continually; that there should be frequent vas wars occasion of variously displaying his glorious attriAlex. ibid. butes; of exercising his power, of demonstrating his 91. cxlviii. goodness. Indeed, as to beings merely natural and Isa. xl. 26. unintelligent, there were no need of his doing more; Psal. civ. 9, for they are all thoroughly his obedient servants, and

ὢν εἰ παύσε

γαθοεργών,

rai. Clem.

Psal. cxix.

8.

19.

exactly fulfil his word; never straggling from the station in which he placed them; never transgressing the rule that he prescribed them: but he hath also made other beings, by nature uncapable of such uniformity and settlement; very free, and therefore very mutable; to the well governing of whom therefore a continual intention and activity is requisite. For the use and benefit of which beings, as a great part of nature was designed and made by God, so it was not unmeet, that for their sake he should sometime alter the course of nature, and cross or check John ix. 3. the stream of things. The fuller and clearer illusDeut.iv.35.tration of his glory, the shewing that all things do not pass on in a fatal track; the confirming that he made nature, because he can command and control

Exod. vii. 5.

Dan. iv. 25.

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