St. John expressly makes it his conclusion (John 20:31), “These things are written, that you may know that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
My second argument is taken from the subjects of the sermons of the apostles, both whilst our Saviour lived on earth, and after His ascension. The apostles, in our Saviour’s time, were sent (Luke 9:2) “to preach the kingdom of God.” For neither there nor Matt. 10:7 giveth He any commission to them other than this, “As ye go, preach, saying, the kingdom of heaven is at hand”; that is, that Jesus is the “Messiah,” the “Christ,” the “King” which was to come. That their preaching also after His ascension was the same, is manifest out of Acts 17:6–7, “They drew,” saith St. Luke, “Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, these that have turned the world upside down are come hither also, whom Jason hath received; and these all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying, that there is another King, one Jesus.” And out of the 2nd and 3rd verses of the same chapter, where it is said that St. Paul, “as his manner was, went in unto them; and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures; opening and alleging that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead, and that this Jesus, whom he preached, is Christ.”
The third argument is from those places of Scripture, by which all the faith required to salvation is declared to be easy. For if an inward assent of the mind to all the doctrines concerning Christian faith now taught, whereof the greatest part are disputed, were necessary to salvation, there would be nothing in the world so hard as to be a Christian. The thief upon the cross, though repenting, could not have been saved for saying, “Lord remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom”; by which he testified no belief of any other article but this, that “Jesus was the king.” Nor could it be said (as it is, Matt. 11:30), that “Christ’s yoke is easy, and His burden light”; nor that “little children believe in Him,” as it is Matt. 18:6. Nor could St. Paul have said (1 Cor. 1:21), “It pleased God by the