world' by our Lord Jesus, was further confirmed by the coming down of the Holy Ghost upon his apostles. We are the disciples of him who spake as never man spake: whose word of salvation (as his gospel is called) we then neglect, when we mind not what he saith; or do not often think of it; or, having thought of it, prefer every trifle before it, and will not be moved by such a wonderful grace to obey his precepts. For, by the opposition wherein this stands to the transgression and disobedience mentioned before against Moses his law, we are sufficiently informed wherein this neglect principally consists: viz. in the transgressing those bounds our Lord hath set us; and disobeying those commands, to the observance of which he incites us by the promise of immortal life.

It is a fearful thing to think how miserable they will be who prove thus inconsiderate; and in how great danger Christians are to be so by the means of that very deceit which plunged the Jews into so many calamities: because God had manifested more of his love to them than to other nations; had given them an excellent law, spoken to them by his prophets, instructed them how to offer sacrifice, and appointed a place where he would dwell among them. They blessed themselves in the outward enjoyment of these singular privileges; they bragged that they were the seed of Abraham, and that they had the oracles of God, and were a people separated to him from the rest of the world by many holy rites: but they took no care to be obedient to his laws, and less regarded to be endued with the spirit of faithful Abraham, who left all those earthly goods, in which they placed their chief treasure, for God's sake. Just thus men suffer themselves to be deluded at this day : because God hath granted us the preeminence even above the Jews themselves, hath brought us into the kingdom of his dear Son, made us the children of light, and let us see such things as many kings and prophets desired to see, but did not see them. They content themselves with the bare profession of this religion, and think it enough to be called by such an honourable name as that of Christ: on whom they rest and rely, as the Jews did on their sacrifices; never thinking of being indued with his blessed nature and Spirit, and offering their wills entirely to God, as he did. Thus men perish, even in the midst of so great light and means of being saved. And there is no help for them, unless they will grow serious, and consider the design of the Christian faith which will teach them, after a very few thoughts about it, that our Lord Jesus is the Author of eternal salvation to those only that obey hima, and will be so far from protecting others

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a Heb. v. 9.

from destruction, that he himself will be revealed from heaven, with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I end this preface as St. Augustine begins his third chapter of his first book of the Trinity, with the alteration of one word only in the conclusion. "Whosoever reads this book, where he is convinced, let him go along with me: where he sticks, let him inquire with me: where he sees his own error, let him return to me; where mine, let him call me back to him. Thus we shall all walk together in the way of charity; tending to him, of whom it is said, Seek ye his face alway. Whosoever therefore when he reads saith, This is not well said, for I do not understand it; let him reprehend my speech, but not my faith. It might, it is likely, have been spoken more plainly but there is no man ever spoke so, as in all things to please all c."

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b

2 Thess. i. 7, 8.

c [Tom. viii. col. 751, 2.]

AN INTRODUCTION

ΤΟ

THE FOLLOWING DISCOURSE.

HAVING made in the former treatise as diligent a search as I could into the records of heaven and earth, and found there the clearest evidences that Jesus is the Son of God, (to whom therefore we owe the most humble and cheerful obedience,) I purpose now to make a further inquiry into them, after the royal powers which belong to so great a Prince, who both in his nature and in his office so infinitely excels all other, that his loyal subjects may well expect from him the greatest grace and favour. He was God “appearing as man," (to use the words of Ignatiusa,) and “ man working mightily as God;" but yet submitted himself to the meanest condition, and the basest death, for the purging away our sins by his blood whereby he obtained, as the most ample dominion over all creatures, so the largest power, both to remit sins, and also to reward the services of all those that believe on him. To whom his affection is so great, and extends itself in such boundless love, that his kindness towards them will not be perfected, I shall prove, till he hath bestowed on them ETERNAL LIFE.

A blessing for which all mankind most passionately wish: not only because the weakness of our bodies, the inconstancy of all their enjoyments, the troubles we meet with in the world, and the necessity of dying, make it most desirable, but because it comes recommended to us by its own proper worth and excellence; which is so exceeding great, that it renders the most constant untroubled possession of this world's goods, and a perpetuity in this life (could it be obtained) without any sickness or infirmity, a vile and contemptible purchase in comparison with it. This therefore all considerate minds would gladly be well assured of. There is nothing of such importance to their satisfaction as a certainty of immortal hap

* [Θεοῦ ὡς ἀνθρώπου φαινομένου, καὶ ἀνθρώπου ὡς Θεοῦ ἐνεργοῦντος.] Epist. [interpol.] ad Ephes. [cap. 19. Coteler. Patr. Apost. tom. ii. p. 51.]

piness when they leave this body: which will make our obedience to God's commands as steadfast as our belief is, and withal most sweet and easy, whatsoever opposition we have to discourage us. For the hope of ETERNAL LIFE is able to lift us up above all the temptations wherewith the world can assault us, be they either the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life; or be they those hatreds, reproaches, persecutions, loss of goods, yea, and death itself, which we may be in danger of for piety's sake.

Now looking a little further into this holy writer, who hath preserved the unquestionable records concerning these matters, I find there is as great a certainty of this eternal life by Jesus Christ, as there is of his being the Son of God: and that the very same witnesses who so fully declare the one give no less strong evidence for the proof of the other. For this, says heb, is the record (or witness), that God hath given to us eternal life: and this life is in his Son. Which words, being a continuation of the foregoing discourse, carry this sense in them; There is great reason you should receive the witness of God, (viz. of the Father, Word, and Holy Ghost, and of the Water, Blood, and Spirit,) not only because it is greater than the witness of men, which you cannot justly reject, and because, if you do reject it, you make God a liar d, which who can have the heart to do? but also because the thing which is testified to us by these witnesses, when they say that Jesus is the Son of God, is of all other the most desirable, viz. that God designs for us no less blessing than ETERNAL LIFE, which the Lord Jesus hath in his hands to keep for us, and to bestow upon us.

The ensuing discourse then will necessarily fall into these two parts: first, to show what this ETERNAL LIFE is; and secondly, to prove the certainty of it from the mouth of all those witnesses. Of the first of which I must treat with the greater brevity, because it is not the design of the apostle in this place to give us an account what the ETERNAL LIFE is which God hath promised, but to show that he hath given us an undoubted right to it, and that it is in the power of that great Lord, whose servants we are by faith in him, to dispose of it.

d Ver. 10.

© Ver. 9.

b 1 John v. 11.