198 LIVES OF THE PURITANS. dissect the old man. He understood well the mystery of iniquity without us, of Satan and antichrist; and, by his knowledge of these mysteries, he was able to advance the kingdom and honour of our Lord Christ in the hearts and lives of his hearers ; to discover Satan's depths, and to dis, appoint his plots and devices. There was one thing more which added very much unto him and to his labours in preaching, and made him successful in clearing dark places, and searching further into the deep mines of the word, and that was his constant recourse to the originals, in which he hadgood skill. By these means he went beyond most of his brethren in the work of the ministry ; so that his sermons had always something above the ordinary reach, and a certain strain answering the advantage and happiness of the age in which he lived. There was so great a weight, both of words and sense, in this our author's sermons, and so much of worth, that they appeared as good upon a narrow disquisition as they seemed to be when they were delivered. `The igno- rance or want of a clear knowledge of the doctrine of the covenant of grace, God's rich and free grace in the business of our salvation, was formerly, and is still, the cause of many 6rrors in the Church. The author of these sermons had arrived to an excellency and height in this doctrine, beyond the most that I ever read or knew. Had he lived to have perfected his labours about the covenant of grace, I pre- Sume I may say they had surpassed all that went before. Though his adversaries did .very much endeavour to asperse him, yet he proved them to be unjust and false. He was as happy in the purity and innocency of his life as he was for the fervour which, through grace, he erected in his preach- 'Mr. George Griffith, in his preface to Mr. Strong's sermons, entitled, " The Heavenly Treasure," 1656, gives the following account of the author : " It is abundantly mani- fest to most of the godly through the nation, but more especially in the city of London, with what singular ability, strong affection, and good success, Mr. Strong employed and spent himself in the service of the gospel. He did the work of him who sent him while it was day ; because, as he often said, the night was coming when no man can work. While he had the opportunity, neither the flatteries nor the frowns of men could hinder him from, his beloved exercise. He preached the word with much freedom and boldness, and Wilkinson's Preface to Mr. Strong's Thirty-one Sermons.
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