Quesnel: Moral Reflections on the Gospels Vol 1

PREFACE. 5
The apostle having here a design to enhance the
greatness and excellency of the Christian religion
by a magnificent encomium, thought he could not
begin it by any thing more lofty than this— " That
God hath spoken unto us by his Son," and that
salvation has been preached to us by the Lord him-
self. Which is as much as to say, That it was
neither by a prophet, nor by Moses, nor by an an-
gel, that God was pleased to treat with us, and to
inform us concerning his will ; but by his own Son.
It is he who is the great prophet of the Christian
church, the legislator of the new law, the angel of
the eternal covenant, and the teacher of righteous-
ness, who came in person to teach the ways thereof
to his church ; and that not by speaking to her by
private inspirations, confused voices, obscure signs,
enigmatical figures, or mysterious dreams, but speak-
ing himself with his own mouth, as a friend speaks
to his friend, a brother to a brother, a father to his
children, and a master to his disciples.
But to the end that this great benefit and advan-
tage should not be confined only to those who saw
him with their eyes, and heard him with their ears,
in the days of his flesh, God was pleased to find out
a way to render present to us both the incarnate
person of his Son, in a spiritual manner, with all
the mysteries of his life and death, and likewise his
divine instructions : his person and adorable body
(spiritually set forth) in the sacrament of the eucha-
rist ; his life and his words, in the sacrament of the
holy Gospels, if I may be permitted to use that ex-
pression. And why may I not use it, taking the
word sacrament, in general, for the sign and con-