no new articles proposed to them, but what they believed before, viz. that he was the Messiah, the Son of God, sent from the Father; though of his manner of proceeding, and his sudden leaving of the world, and some few particulars, he made them understand something more than they did before. But as to the main design of the gospel, viz. that he had a kingdom, that he should be put to death, and rise again, and ascend into heaven to his Father, and come again in glory to judge the world; this he had told them and so had acquainted them with the great counsel of God, in sending him the Messiah, and omitted nothing that was necessary to be known or believed in it. And so he tells them himself, John xv. 15, " Henceforth I call you "not servants: for the servant knoweth not what his "Lord does: but I have called you friends; for ALL "THINGS that I have heard of my Father, I have made "known unto you;" though perhaps ye do not so fully comprehend them, as you will shortly, when I am risen and ascended.

To conclude all, in his prayer, which shuts up this discourse, he tells the Father, what he had made known to his apostles; the result whereof we have John xvii. 8, I have given unto them the words which thou gavest

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me, and they have received them, and THEY HAVE "BELIEVED THAT THOU DIDST SEND ME." Which is, in effect, that he was the Messiah promised and sent by God. And then he prays for them, and adds, ver. 20, 21, "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them "also who shall believe on me through their word." What that word was, through which others should believe in him, we have seen in the preaching of the apostles, all through the history of the Acts, viz. this one great point, that Jesus was the Messiah. The apostles, he says, ver. 25, "know that thou hast sent me; " i. e. are assured that I am the Messiah. And in ver. 21 and 23, he prays, "That the world may believe" (which, ver. 23, is called knowing) " that thou has sent me. So that what Christ would have believed by his disciples, we may see by this his last prayer for them, when

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 re-instated in an happy immortality.

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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 king"dom 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 re"ceive 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.

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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 un"derstand 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 re"pentance 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.

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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.

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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

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all, among whom I have gone preaching the king"dom of God, shall see my face no more." What 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 publickly, 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

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[Paul] a day, there came many to him into his lodg "ing; to whom he expounded and testified the king"dom 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

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"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."

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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