and power of it, but as touching the efficacy of it, for the
gospel is a word of life only, because it speaks of him who is the life
and the light of men. It is but a report of the true life, as John said,
"I am not that light, but am sent to bear witness of that light," John i.
8. So the gospel, though it be called "the power of God to salvation,"
(Rom. i. 16.) and "the savour of life," and "the gospel of salvation,"
(Eph. i. 13.) yet it is not that true life, but only a testimony and
declaration of it. It hath not life and immortality in itself, but only
the bringing of those to light, and to the knowledge of men, 2 Tim. i. 10.
It is a discovery where these treasures are lying, for the searching and
finding.

To speak of this Word of life, Jesus Christ, according to his eternal
subsistence in the infinite understanding of the Father, would certainly
require a divine spirit, more elevated above the ordinary sphere of men,
and separate from that earthliness and impurity that makes us incapable of
seeing that holy and pure Majesty. Angels were but low messengers for
this. For how can they express to us what they cannot conceive themselves,
and therefore wonder at the mystery of it? I confess, the best way of
speaking of these things, which so infinitely surpass created capacities,
were to sit down in silence, and wonder at them, and withal to taste such
a sweetness, in the immense greatness and infinite mysteriousness of what
we believe, as might ravish the soul more, after that which is unknown,
than all the perfections of the world known and seen to the bottom can do.
This doctrine of the holy Trinity hath been propagated from the beginning
of the world, even among the heathens, and derived by tradition from the
first fathers, or the Hebrews, to neighbour nations; and therefore they
speak many divine things of that infinite, supreme Being, who is the
foundation of the whole creation, and that he created all things by his
most divine Word, and that his blessed Spirit is the union and bond of
both, and of all things besides. It is known what mysteries the
Pythagoreans(226) apprehended in the number of three, what perfection they
imagined to be in it, so much was let out, as might either make them
without excuse, or prepare the world to receive readily the light, when it
should be clearly revealed. It is commonly held forth, that this eternal
Word is the birth of the infinite understanding of God, reflecting upon
his own