he was leaving the world, as by what he preached whilst he was in it.

And, as a testimony of this, one of his last actions, even when he was upon the cross, was to confirm his doctrine, by giving salvation to one of the thieves that was crucified with him, upon his declaration, that he believed him to be the Messiah: for so much the words of his request imported, when he said, "Remember me, Lord, when thou comest into thy kingdom," Luke xxiii. 42. To which Jesus replied, ver. 43, "Verily, I say unto thee, To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise." An expression very remarkable: for as Adam, by sin, lost paradise, i. e. a state of happy immortality; here the believing thief, through his faith in Jesus the Messiah, is promised to be put in paradise, and so reinstated in an happy immortality.

Thus our Saviour ended his life. And what he did after his resurrection, St. Luke tells us, Acts i. 3, That he showed himself to the apostles, "forty days, speaking things concerning the kingdom of God." This was what our Saviour preached in the whole course of his ministry, before his passion: and no other mysteries of faith does he now discover to them after his resurrection. All he says, is concerning the kingdom of God; and what it was he said concerning that, we shall see presently out of the other evangelists; having first only taken notice, that when now they asked him, ver. 6, "Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom of Israel? He said unto them, ver. 7, It is not for you to know the times and the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power; but ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you; and ye shall be witnesses unto me, unto the utmost parts of the earth." Their great business was to be witnesses to Jesus, of his life, death, resurrection, and ascension; which, put together, were undeniable proofs of his being the Messiah. This was what they were to preach, and what he said to them, concerning the kingdom of God; as will appear by what is recorded of it in the other evangelists.

When on the day of his resurrection he appeared to the two going to Emmaus, Luke xxiv., they declare, ver. 21, what his disciples' faith in him was: "But we trusted that it had been he that should have redeemed Israel;" i. e. we believed that he was the Messiah, come to deliver the nation of the Jews. Upon this, Jesus tells them, they ought to believe him to be the Messiah, notwithstanding what had happened; nay, they ought, by his sufferings and death, to be confirmed in that faith, that he was the Messiah. And ver.

26, 27, “Beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them, in all the Scriptures, the things concerning himself," how, " that the Messiah ought to have suffered these things, and to have entered into his glory." Now he applies the prophecies of the Messiah to himself, which we read not that he did ever do before his passion. And afterwards appearing to the eleven, Luke xxiv. 36, he said unto them, ver. 44-47, "These are the words, which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled which are written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms concerning me. Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the Scripture, and said unto them: Thus it is written, and thus it behoved the Messiah to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day; and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." Here we see what it was he had preached to them, though not in so plain open words, before his crucifixion; and what it is he now makes them understand; and what it was that was to be preached to all nations, viz. That he was the Messiah that had suffered, and rose from the dead the third day, and fulfilled all things that were written in the Old Testament concerning the Messiah; and that those who believed this, and repented, should receive remission of their sins, through this faith in him. Or, as St. Mark has it, chap. xvi. 15, "Go into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature; he that believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved; but he that believeth not, shall be damned," ver. 16. What the

"Gospel," or "good news,' was, we have showed already, viz. The happy tidings of the Messiah being come. Ver. 20, And "they went forth and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following." What the "word" was which they preached, and the Lord confirmed with miracles, we have seen already, out of the history of their Acts. I have already given an account of their preaching every where, as it is recorded in the Acts, except some few places, where the kingdom of "the Messiah" is mentioned under the name of " the kingdom of God;" which I forbore to set down, till I had made it plain out of the evangelists, that that was no other but the kingdom of the Messiah.

What

It may be seasonable therefore, now, to add to those sermons we have formerly seen of St. Paul, (wherein he preached no other article of faith, but that " Jesus was the Messiah," the King, who, being risen from the dead, now reigneth, and shall more publicly manifest his kingdom, in judging the world at the last day) what farther is left upon record of his preaching. Acts xix. 8, at Ephesus, "Paul went into the synagogues, and spake boldly for the space of three months; disputing and persuading concerning the kingdom of God.' And, Acts xx. 25, at Miletus he thus takes leave of the elders of Ephesus: "And now, behold, I know that ye all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall see my face no more." this preaching the kingdom of God was, he tells you, ver. 20, 21, "I have kept nothing back from you, which was profitable unto you; but have showed you, and have taught you publicly, and from house to house; testifying both to the Jews, and to the Greeks, repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ." And so again, Acts xxviii. 23, 24, "When they [the Jews at Rome] had appointed him [Paul] a day, there came many to him into his lodging; to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of God; persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses, and out of the prophets, from morning to evening. And some believed the

things which were spoken, and some believed not." And the history of the Acts is concluded with this account of St. Paul's preaching: "And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, and received all that came in unto him, preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus the Messiah.” We may therefore here apply the same conclusion to the history of our Saviour, writ by the evangelists, and to the history of the apostles, writ in the Acts, which St. John does to his own Gospel, chap. xx. 30, 31, "Many other signs did Jesus before his disciples ;" and in many other places the apostles preached the same doctrine," which are not written" in these books; "but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in his name.

What St. John thought necessary and sufficient to be believed, for the attaining eternal life, he here tells us. And this not in the first dawning of the Gospel; when, perhaps, some will be apt to think less was required to be believed, than after the doctrine of faith, and mystery of salvation, was more fully explained, in the epistles writ by the apostles, for it is to be remembered, that St. John says this, not as soon as Christ was ascended; for these words, with the rest of St. John's Gospel, were not written till many years after not only the other Gospels, and St. Luke's history of the Acts, but in all appearance, after all the epistles writ by the other apostles. So that above threescore years after our Saviour's passion (for so long after, both Epiphanius and St. Jerom assure us this Gospel was written) St. John knew nothing else required to be believed, for the attaining of life, but that " Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God."

To this, it is likely, it will be objected by some, that to believe only that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah, is but an historical, and not a justifying, or saving faith.

To which I answer, That I allow to the makers of systems and their followers to invent and use what distinctions they please, and to call things by what names

they think fit. But I cannot allow to them, or to any man, an authority to make a religion for me, or to alter that which God hath revealed. And if they please to call the believing that which our Saviour and his apostles preached, and proposed alone to be believed, an historical faith; they have their liberty. But they must have a care, how they deny it to be a justifying or saving faith, when our Saviour and his apostles have declared it so to be; and taught no other which men should receive, and whereby they should be made believers unto eternal life: unless they can so far make bold with our Saviour, for the sake of their beloved systems, as to say, that he forgot what he came into the world for; and that he and his apostles did not instruct people right in the way and mysteries of salvation. For that this is the sole doctrine pressed and required to be believed in the whole tenor of our Saviour's and his apostles' preaching, we have showed through the whole history of the evangelists and the Acts. And I challenge them to show that there was any other doctrine, upon their assent to which, or disbelief of it, men were pronounced believers or unbelievers; and accordingly received into the church of Christ, as members of his body; as far as mere believing could make them so; or else kept out of it. This was the only Gospel-article of faith which was preached to them. And if nothing else was preached every where, the apostle's argument will hold against any other articles of faith to be believed under the Gospel, Rom. x. 14, "How shall they believe that whereof they have not heard?" For to preach any other doctrines necessary to be believed, we do not find that any body was sent.

Perhaps it will farther be urged, that this is not a "saving faith;" because such a faith as this the devils may have, and it was plain they had; for they believed and declared "Jesus to be the Messiah." And St. James, ch. ii. 19, tells us, "The devils believe and tremble; and yet they shall not be saved. To which I answer, 1. That they could not be saved by any faith, to whom it was not proposed as a means of salvation, nor ever promised to be counted for righteousness. This was an act