"Every way calculated for our unspeakable Benefit and Comfort": Tillotson on the Incarnation

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What then remains, but that at all times, and more especially at this Season we gratefully acknowledge and joyfully commemorate this great and amazing Goodness of God to us, in the Incarnation of his Son for the Redemption and Salvation of the sinful and miserable Race of Mankind?

A Method and Dispensation of the Divine Grace and Wisdom, not only full of mercy and condescension, but of great power and virtue to purify our hearts and to reform our Lives; to beget in us a fervent love of God our Saviour, and a perfect hatred and detestation of our Sins, and a steadfast purpose and resolution to lead a new Life, following the Commandments of God and walking in his ways all the days of our life. In a word, a Method that is every way calculated for our unspeakable Benefit and Comfort.

From a 1680 Christmastide sermon - Sermon IV - by John Tillotson, then Dean of Canterbury, preached at the Church of St. Lawrence Jewry, London.

The painting is by contemporary artist Vanessa Bowman.

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