the frame of the Gospel is erected; that very Jesus whom the Virgin conceived of the Holy Ghost, whom Simeon embraced in his arms,1 whom Pilate condemned, whom the Jews crucified, whom the Apostles preached, he is Christ, the Lord, the only Saviour of the world: "other foundation can no man lay." 2 Thus I have briefly opened that principle in Christianity, which we call the foundation of our faith. It followeth now that I declare unto you, what it is directly to overthrow it. This will better appear,d if first* we understand, what it is to hold the foundation of faith.

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24. There are which defend, that many of the Gentiles, who never heard the name of Christ, held the foundation of Christianity and why? they acknowledged many of them the providence of God, his infinite wisdom, strength, and power; his goodness, and his mercy towards the children of men; that God hath judgment in store for the wicked, but for the righteous that seeks him rewards, &c. In this which they confessed, that lieth covered which we believe; in the rudiments of their knowledge concerning God, the foundation of our faith concerning Christ lieth secretly wrapt up, and is virtually contained therefore they held the foundation of faith, though they never heard it. Might we not with as good colour of reason defend, that every ploughman hath all the sciences, wherein philosophers have excelled? For no man is ignorant of the first principles, which do virtually contain whatsoever by natural means either is or can be known. Yea, might we not with as good reason affirm, that a man may put three mighty oaks wheresoever three acorns may be put? For virtually an acorn is an oak. To avoid such paradoxes, we teach plainly, that to hold the foundation is, in express terms to acknowledge it.

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25. Now, because the foundation is an affirmative proposition, they all overthrow it, who deny it; they directly overthrow it, who deny it directly; and they overthrow it by consequent, or indirectly, which hold any one assertion whatsoever, whereupon the direct denial thereof may be necessarily concluded. What is the question between the Gentiles and us, but this, Whether salvation be by Christ?

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What between the Jews and us, but this, Whether by this Jesus, whom we call Christ, yea or no? This to be the main point whereupon Christianity standeth, it is clear by that one sentence of Festus concerning Paul's accusers: "They brought no crime of such things as I supposed, but had certain questions against him of their own superstition, and of one Jesus, which was dead, whom Paul affirmed to be alive." Where we see that Jesus, dead and raised for the salvation of the world, is by Jews P denied, despised by a Gentile, and by a Christian apostle maintained. The Fathers therefore in the primitive church when they wrote; Tertullian, the book which he calleth a Apologeticus; Minutius Felix, the book which he entitleth Octavius; Arnobius, his seven books against the Gentiles; Chrysostom, his orations against the Jews; Eusebius, his ten books of evangelical demonstration: they stood in defence of Christianity" against them, by whom the foundation thereof was directly denied. But the writings of the Fathers against Novatians, Pelagians, and other heretics of the like note, refel positions, whereby the foundation of Christian faith was overthrown by consequent only. In the former sort of writings the foundation is proved; in the latter, it is alleged as a proof, which to men that had been known directly to deny it, must needs have seemed a very beggarly kind of disputing. All infidels therefore deny the foundation of faith directly by consequent, many a Christian man, yea whole Christian churches, have denied it, and do deny it at this present day. Christian churches denying the foundation of Christianity? Not directly, for then they cease to be Christian churches; but by consequent, in respect whereof we condemn them as erroneous, although, for holding the foundation, we do and must hold them Christian.

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26. We see what it is to hold the foundation; what directly, and what by consequent, to deny it. The next thing which followeth is, whether they whom God hath chosen to obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, may, being once effectually called, and through faith truly justified, afterwards fall so far, as directly to deny the foundation which their hearts have before embraced with joy and comfort in the Holy Ghost; for such is the faith, which

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indeed doth justify. Devils know the same things which we believe, and the minds of the most ungodly may be fully persuaded of the truth; which knowledge in the one and persuasion in the other, is sometimes termed faith, but equivocally, being indeed no such faith as that whereby a Christian man is justified. It is the spirit of adoption which worketh faith in us, in them not; the things which we believe, are by us apprehended, not only as true, but also as good, and that to us: as good, they are not by them apprehended; as true, they are. Whereupon followeth a third a difference; the Christian man the more he increaseth in faith, the more his joy and comfort aboundeth: but they, the more sure they are of the truth, the more they quake and tremble at it. This begetteth another effect, wherein * the hearts of the one sort have a different disposition from the other. "Non ignoro plerosque conscientia meritorum, nihil se esse post mortem magis optare quam credere ; malunt enim exstingui penitus, quam ad supplicia reparari. " 1 I am not ignorant, saith Minutius, that there are too many, who being conscious what they are to look for, do rather wish that they might, than think that they shall, cease to be, when they cease to live; because they hold it better that death should consume them unto nothing, than God receive them untoi punishment. So it is in other articles of faith, whereof wicked men think, no doubt, many times they are too true: on the contrary side, to the other, there is no grief nork torment greater, than to feel their persuasion weak in things, whereof, when they are persuaded, they reap such comfort and joy of spirit: such is the faith whereby we are justified; such, I mean, in respect of the quality. For touching the principal object of faith, longer than it holdeth that foundation whereof we have spoken, it neither justifieth, nor is; but ceaseth to be faith when it ceases to believe, that Jesus Christ is the only Saviour of the world. The cause of life spiritual in us, is Christ, not carnally or corporally inhabiting, but dwelling in the soul of man, as a thing which (when the mind apprehendeth it) is said to inhabit and " m possess the mind. The mind conceiveth Christ by hearing the doctrine of Christianity. As the light of nature does cause the mind to apprehend those

truths which are merely rational; so that saving truth, which is far above the reach of human reason, cannot otherwise, than by the Spirit of the Almighty, be conceived. All these are implied, wheresoever any one of them is mentioned as the cause of spiritual life. Wherefore when we read,P that1 the spirit is our life; or,2 "the Word of our life;" or,3 "Christ our life :" we are in every of these to understand, that our life is Christ, by the hearing of the Gospel apprehended as a Saviour, and assented unto by the power of the Holy Ghost. The first intellectual conceit and comprehension of Christ so embraced, St. Peter calleth the seed whereof we be new born: our first embracing of Christ, is our first reviving 5 from the state of death and condemnation. "He that hath the Son hath life," saith St. John, and he that hath not the Son of God, hath not life." If therefore he which once hath the Son, may cease to have the Son, though it be but a moment, he ceases for that moment to have life. But the life of them which live by the Son of God is everlasting, not only for that it shall be everlasting in the world to come," but because as 8 66 Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more, death hath no more power over him;" so the justified man, being alive to God in Jesus Christ our Lord, doth as necessarily from that time forward always live, as Christ, by whom he hath life, liveth always.9

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I might, if I had not otherwhere largely done it already, shew by sundry & manifest and clear proofs, how the motions and operations of life are sometimes so undiscernible, and secret, that they seem stone-dead, who notwithstanding are still alive unto God in Christ.

For as long as that abideth in us, which animateth, quickeneth, and giveth life, so long we live; and we know that the cause of our life abideth in us for ever. If Christ, the fountain of life, may flit and leave the habitation where once he dwelleth, what shall become of his promise, “I am with

you to the world's end?” If the seed of God, which containeth Christ, may be first conceived and then cast out; how doth St. Peter1 term it immortal? How doth St. John 2 affirm it abideth? If the Spirit, which is given to cherish and preserve the seed of life, may be given and taken away, how is the earnest 3 of our inheritance until redemption; how doth it continue with us for ever? If therefore the man which is once just by faith, shall live by faith, and live for ever, it followeth, that he which once doth believe the foundation, must needs believe the foundation for ever. If he believe it for ever, how can he ever directly deny it? 5 Faith holding the direct affirmation; the direct negation, so long as faith continueth, is excluded.

e But ye will say, "That as he which to-day is holy, may, to-morrow forsake his holiness, and become impure; as a friend may change his mind, and become an enemy; as hope may wither: so faith may die in the heart of man, the Spirit may be quenched, Grace may be extinguished, they which believe may be quite turned away from the truth."

The case is clear, long experience hath made this manifest, it needs no proof. I grant we are apt, prone, and ready, to forsake God; but is God as ready to forsake us? Our minds are changeable; is his so likewise? Whom God hath justified, hath not Christ assured, that it is

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1 I Pet. i. 23.

4 John xiv. 17.

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["Mr. Miller in his madness denied it, and yet died faithful as I Anonymous note in the Dublin MS. of this sermon.] ["Bolton's end in despair, after persecution suffered in Queen Mary's time." Ibid. Strype, Mem. iii. i. 576. "John Bolton, sometime of Reading, who lying in gaol for religion, grew mad, and in his raving fits railed upon Queen Mary; who thereupon was cruelly tormented in the said prison. Which Bolton becoming sober, and of a better mind, Thackham took pity upon the man, because he seemed to be of good religion, and . . . when by reason of the time, his very friends durst not become surety for such a traitor and rank heretic, as Bolton was then thought to be, he desired the mayor to take him alone with Bolton, which the mayor gently granted. And so this poor man was set at liberty and departed. But when the sessions came, Bolton left Thackham to pay the forfeiture." It seems by a letter among Strype's documents, Mem. iii. ii. 427, that this Bolton recanted so far as to attend mass, and yet afterwards printed a certain story of his own great trouble and another's recanting." He was a silk weaver in Long-lane, Smithfield.]

VOL. I.

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