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nature of things; and philosophise, not for popularity and the theatre, but for the finding out solid and everlasting truth."

I have but translated the words of Plato a (or of some other philosopher that hath borrowed his name), who was much pleased in such thoughts as these: though he made but uncertain guesses at that blessed state which our Lord hath so clearly revealed, and so strongly demonstrated, that we have reason, with never ceasing joy, both in life and death to give him thanks for so great a grace. For as there is nothing beyond this that the heart of man can wish, so nothing of such importance to our present happiness in this world. For which cause the Jews have thought fit to expunge those from the number of Israelites, who do not believe the immortality of the soul and the resurrection of the dead and to resolve, that they shall have no part in the world to come, though they otherwise live orderly, and observe the precepts of the law. For such men, they saw, opened a door to all licentiousness; and could never do so much good by any other means as they did hurt by subverting this belief.

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Which I have endeavoured therefore to establish by such arguments, as they were ignorant of till our blessed Lord and Saviour appeared who, as St. Matthew observes out of the Psalmist, uttered things which had been kept secret from the foundation of the world. Maimonides himself saith, in his last chapter of his book concerning Kings, that, at the coming of Christ, "things hidden and profound shall be laid open and revealed to all b;" which is true of nothing more, I have shown, than of that which is the greatest desire of all mankind, immortal life. Of which, though I have not treated according to the dignity of the subject, yet I am confident I have laid a good foundation, to be improved by the labours of those who have more skill and more leisure. And it is a very great satisfaction to have done any thing (though never so small) for the honour of our ever-blessed Lord and Master; whom it is the highest glory in the world to serve in faithfulness and truth: for he will not fail to reward such services with an ample recompense; being a Prince so great, that nothing is beyond his power; and so gracious, that his servants have reason to expect the best effects of his good will. Which may very well content us, whatsoever usage we meet withal at present and should mightily excite us, as St. Chrysostom often and earnestly exhorts, "neglecting the suspicions, and the re

"In Axiocho. [p. 370 D.]

b [Quoted by J. Cocceius, excerpt. e Gemara, Sanhedrin,-Opp. tom. ix.

p. 247.]

e Homil. 87. in Matth. p 539. [ed. Ben. tom. vii. p. 823 D.]

proaches, and the praises too of men, to study this one thing alone, how to be conscious to ourselves of no evil: which will bring us in the end, both here and hereafter, the greater glory."

The God of all grace bless this work to the settling and increasing this holy faith and resolution in all our hearts, whereby we shall also obtain the sweetest foretastes of the joys of the future state. And may your Grace be blessed with many of them, to support the infirmities of old age; and, having finished your days, have an easy passage to that better life; and there receive from the Chief Pastor, when he shall appear, the crown of glory which fadeth not away: which is the hearty prayer of,

My Lord,

Your Grace's,

in all dutiful observance,

SY. PATRICK.

TO THE READER.

I HAVE no other reason to give for adding one more to that heap of books, which men complain is already grown too great, but the hope I have of doing some service to our Lord, by making a further search (as I promised in the conclusion of the former part of this work) into the testimony of these divine witnesses concerning ETERNAL LIFE.

The hope of which is the most precious legacy the Son of God hath left us; the hinge upon which all religion turns: without which it would be the greatest vanity (as Lactantius a often speaks) to obey the commands of virtue; for whose sake we must endure not only many labours, but ofttimes sore calamities. "We were born (as he discourses elsewhere b) to acknowledge God the Maker of us and the world: whom we therefore acknowledge, that we may worship him; and therefore worship him, that we may receive immortality for a reward of our labours, (because his service engages us in the greatest :) and therefore immortality is bestowed on us for a recompense, that, being made like to the angels, we may serve the Father and Lord of all for ever, and be the eternal kingdom of God. This is the chief of all things, this is the secret of God, this is the mystery of the world; to which they are strangers, who, following their present pleasures, have addicted themselves to terrestrial and frail goods, and sunk their souls, born to celestial enjoyments, into delights as deadly as they are muddy and dirty."

And it is the singular privilege of Christians, as I have demonstrated, to be assured of a good so great, by so many most credible witnesses; whose testimony none can refuse, but they that will be so absurd as to believe none at all. The FATHER, the WORD, the HOLY GHOST, the WATER, the BLOOD, and the SPIRIT, declare so unanimously and so plainly, that the Lord Jesus will give eternal life to his followers, that what the orators said in flattery to the Athenians in the time of the Chremonidian war, may in truth be

a Lib. vi. c. 9. [tom. i. p. 455.] vii. 1. [p. 514.]

b Lib. vii. 6. [p. 534.]

said to us, if we alter but one word: that "other things indeed are common to us with the rest of the world; τὴν δ ̓ ἐπὶ τὸν οὐρανὸν ἀνθρώπους φέρουσαν ὁδὸν Χριστιανοὺς εἰδέναι μόνους c, but the way that leads men to heaven is known to Christians alone:" who have a manifold grace bestowed on them; enjoying not only a promise of eternal life, (which the world never had before,) but that promise attested by so many witnesses: who tell us also, it is in the power of him that died for us to confer it on us, as well as to show us by what means we may become so exceeding blessed.

And again, it is

The serious reader, I doubt not, will be sensible of this, when he hath perused the following work; in which I have endeavoured to satisfy those also who wish I had said something of that part of this record which I undertook to explain; These three are one. Which words, I have reason to believe, (whatsoever the Socinians have pretended to the contrary,) were always a part of this holy Scripture. For they are alleged by St. Cyprian, in his book of the Unity of the Catholic Churchd, to show how dangerous it is to break that unity by the clashing of our wills, which not only coheres by celestial sacraments, but proceeds, as he speaks, from the divine firmness. "For our Lord saith, I and the Father are one. written of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, Et hi tres unum sunt, and these three are one." By which, that the apostle would have us to understand not merely the consent of their testimony, (though that is not to be excluded,) but the unity of their nature or essence, we have great reason to think, because there can no account be given why he should not use the same form of speech here which follows, when he speaks of the other three witnesses, if these three in heaven were no otherwise three than those three in earth. Which being admitted, (and if we take in the constant sense of the church to interpret the words, we cannot make any further doubt of it,) that these three are one in their essence, then it is certain there are Three Persons whose essence is one and the same. For else there would not be three witnesses in heaven, but only one: which would cross the design of the apostle, whose scope is to show that our faith doth not rely upon a single testimony. And indeed the holy Scriptures in other places ascribe such actions and works to each of them as are proper to persons: which is a sufficient warrant to the church to express the distinction that is between them by this name. Non quia scriptura dicit, (as St. Augustinee speaks

• Athenæus in Deipnosoph. lib. vi. [p. 250 f.]

[De Unit. Eccles. p. 109.]

e Lib. vii. de Trinitate, cap. 4. [tom. viii. col. 859 F.]

concerning this very business,) sed quia Scriptura non contradicit; 'not because the Scripture saith they are persons, but because the Scripture doth not say the contrary:' but rather, I may add, directs us to say they are, for the reason before mentioned. “When human scantiness (as that holy doctor of the church goes on) endeavoured to express in words that which it conceived in the secret of the mind concerning our Lord God the Creator, it was afraid to say there were three essences, lest any diversity should be thought to be in that highest equality and on the other side, to say there were not tria quædam, 'really three,' was to fall into the heresy of Sabellius. For it is certain there is the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost; and that the Son is not the Father, nor the Holy Ghost the Father or the Son. It sought therefore what three it should call them; and it said three persons, (as the Latin church speaks,) by which name it would not have any diversity understood, but only singularity that not only unity should be there conceived, because we say there is one essence, but a trinity also, because we say there are three persons.'

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This faith we ought to defend; and in this simple belief we ought, I have shown, to acquiesce. We ought to defend it because it is the catholic faith, revealed in the holy Scriptures; according as they have been always understood by the church of Christ. For it is sufficient (as St. Gregory Nyssen excellently discourses against those that demanded more proof of these things) to the demonstration of this doctrine, that we have a tradition descended to us, like an inheritance, by succession from the apostles, and transmitted through the hands of holy men that followed them. They that will innovate need the help of mighty arguments, if they will go about to shake the faith, not of men built on the sand, and wavering like Euripus, but grave, settled, and constant in their opinion. And while we see nothing but mere discourse against it, τίς οὕτως ἠλίθιος kai kтnvwdŋs, 'who is there so silly and brutish' as to think the doctrine of the evangelists and apostles, and of those lights that succeeded them in the church, to be weaker than their babble, without demonstration ?"

But we shall not wholly avoid the imputation of folly, unless we also rest satisfied in this plain belief; not busying ourselves in more curious inquiries. For the greatest lights in the church, I have shown, will lead us no farther; but tell us we shall grope in darkness, if we will needs pry too much into this mystery. Which we ought to discourse of as becomes divines, not philosophers: lest,

Lib. iii. contra Eunomium, p. 126. [tom. ii. p. 554 D. ed. Morell.]

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