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SERMONS,
SERMON I.
THE
INWARD WITNESS TO CHRISTIANITY,
1
JOHN
V.
lo.
He that
believeth
on
the
Son
of
God,
hath the
Witness in himself,
THE
FIRST PART.
THERE
are
two
points
of
great
and solemn
import-
ance, which it becomes every
man to
enquire into:
First,
Whether
the religion
lie
professes
be
true and divine;
and
then,
Whether
he has
so
far complied with the
rules
of
this religion,
as to
stand entitled
to
the
blessings
thereof.
The
christians
of
our
age
and
nation, have been
nursed
up amongst
the forms
of
christianity
from
their
child-
hood
;
they take
it
for
granted their
religion
is
divine
and true, and therefore seldom
enter
into the
first
en-
quiry
:
but
when they come to
think
in good
earnest
about
religious
affairs,
their great
concern
is
with
the
second,
viz.
to know
whether they
have
so
far complied
with the rules
of
the gospel
of
Christ,
as
to obtain an in-
terest
in
the promised
blessings
of
it.
And when
they
hear
such
a
text
as this,
He
that
believeth,
hath
the
wit-
ness
in
himself; they immediately
expect
that
the
mean-
ing and
desigh
of it
should
be
to
witness
the
truth of their
own
faith,
and consequently
to
prove their
own
title to
salvation.
But
in
the
first
christian
age
the
case was
far other-
wise.
The
gospel
itself
was
not
then
universally estab-
lished, and the disciples
of
this
new
religion might have
frequent
doubts
in
their
own
minds
concerning the
truth
VOL.
I.
1$