4. It is a transforming light : 2 Cor. iii, 18, ' We all, with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of our God.' A man that looketh upon the gospel in the light of parts and external tradition hath a model of truth in his brain ; but these find it impressed upon their hearts ; there is light and fire. Wait for this witness.
Sixthly, By the wonderful preservation of scriptures, even to our limes. There is no doctrine so ancient ; it describeth the whole history of the world from the very creation : Moses was ancienter than the gods of the heathens. No doctrine can produce such records of the original of the world. The doctrine of the gospel is as old as paradise, where God preached it to Adam : Gen. iii. 15, ' I will put
VeR. 17.] SERMONS UPON JOHN XVII. 449
enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed : It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel,' The foundation was laid long since, though it was more explicitly revealed upon the coming of Christ. None so much oppugned. We have some ancient writings of the heathens, though nothing so ancient as scripture. Other writings, by tract of time, have been much mangled, though they have been cherished by men, as not contrary to their lusts ; but the scripture is still opposed, persecuted, maligned, and yet it continueth : Ps. cxxix. 1, 2, ' Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth, may Israel now say. Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth : yet they have not prevailed against me.' The church hath been always bred up under affliction. Enmity against it began betimes, yet still it holdeth up its head ; errors are not long- lived : 1 Cor. iii. 12, 13, ' Now if any man build upon this founda- tion gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble ; every man's work shall be made manifest : for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire ; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.' The world hath had time enough to inquire into the scripture, and to discover the vanity and falsehood of it, if there Avere any. Nay, not only the main doctrine of the scripture hath been continued, but no part of it is falsified, corrupted, or destroyed. The world wanted not malice nor opportunity ; the powers of the world were bent against it, and corrupt persons in the church were always given to other gospelling : Gal. i. 6, 7, 'I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ, unto another gospel ; which is not another, but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ ;' 1 Tim. vi. 3, ' If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words,' &c. But still the scriptures are wonderfully preserved, as the three children in the furnace, not a hair was singed ; not a jot or tittle of the truth is perished or corrupted. If it were corrupted, it must be before Christ's time, or after it; not before, then Christ would have noted it ; not after, for then the parts would not agree ; but we find no such thing, but an exact harmony. Nor is there any lost, for here is a sufficient instruction and guide to happiness. Christ hath promised not a tittle shall fall to the ground. The word hath been in danger of being lost, but the miracle of preservation is therefore the greater. In Joshua's time there was but one copy of the law. In Dioclesian's time, there was an edict to burn their bibles, and copies were scarce and chargeable, and yet still it hath been kept.
Seventhly, By his judgments on those who have reviled, abused, and persecuted this truth. The records of all ages witness to this. The whole Jewish nation was destroyed for opposing the doctrine o[ the gospel. Aftel* the slaughter of the prophets, and murder of Christ, God let them alone for forty years, and then ' wrath came upon them to the uttermost ; ' the j)eople were carried captive, coif- trary to the Roman custom ; the land lost its fertility. Look into succeeding times, very few persecutors went to the grave by a natural death. Particular stories are full of the judgments of God executed on them. Julian, the apostate, confessed Christ had the best at last, Vicisfi GaliUee, and so died blaspheming. Lucian, that railed against
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450 SERMONS UPON JOHN XVII. [SeR. XXIX.
God and his word, as he returned from a supper, his dogs fell mad, and tore him to pieces, Eusebius reports of a certain Jew that took upon him to apply a sentence of the word to a profane end, to make a jest of scripture, was stricken with blindness till he made confession of his fault. Appion, scoffing at scripture and circumcision, had an ulcer growing in the place of circumcision, as Josephus reporteth. God is very angry when men are partial in the law, though they do many good things : Kev. xxii. 18, 19, ' For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book. And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.'