Quesnel: Moral Reflections on the Gospels Vol 1

PREFACE.
teries, and of the holiness of the evangelical perfec-
tion. We must disengage our minds from the love
of carnal and perishing things, and we must love
those which are heavenly and eternal, to qualify us
to take delight in a book, the whole design whereof
is, to destroy the former sort of love, and to establish
the latter upon the ruins thereof. For it is called
by Jesus Christ, *' the Gospel," or, *' the Gospel
of the kingdom," as St. Matthew has it ; " the
Gospel of the grace of God," by the Apostle of
grace ; " the Gospel of the glory of Christ," and
" the Gospel of peace," by -the same Apostle in
other places. And it is called by these appellations
on no other account, but because it declares to us
the accomplishment of the spiritual promises, and
informs us, that Jesus Christ, the high-priest of good
things to come, appeared at last in the world, to im-
part to us his grace and his Spirit, thereby to con-
duct us in his ways to our heavenly country, and
there put us into the possession and enjoyment of
those good things in the bosom of God, which are
reserved for his elect.
Not that the Gospel may not, and ought not to be
read even by those whose lives are irregular and dis-
orderly. On the contrary, such are to be invited to
seek after remedies in this holy book for their blind-
ness and concupiscence. And who can tell but that
it is the design of God to make use of some of these
words to open their eyes, and to convert them to
himself, as he heretofore touched the heart of St.
Anthony, and changed it in a moment, by one word
of the Gospel, which he heard as he entered into
the church ; and as he converted St. Augustine by
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