f9RT I. SERMON I. tianity, and thus lead you down to the surest and best of them, which is contained inmy text. Many are the outward testimonies which Godhath given tò the góspel of his Son; many witnesses have confirmed it from the time that Christ appeared in the flesh, to the daywhen St. Johnwrote this epistle. If we trace hislife from the cradle in the manger to his cross and the grave, we shall find the rays oí' divinity still shining round his doctrine and his works, still pointing to his ,person, and proving his commission with a con- tinting and resistless light. At his birth the witnessing angels appeared in much brightness, and while the Son of God lay art infant below, his record was on high > for there appeared a strangenewstar, and was his witness in heaven. The wise men of the East were hiswitnesses, when they came from afar, and paid tributes andofferings, gold and incense tothe God, the king of Israel. Simeon and Anna in the temple, by the Spirit of pròphecy witnessed to the holy child Jesus. And the doctors with whom he disputed at twelve years old, were his witnesses that there was somethingin him more than man. Athis baptism the Father and the Spirit witnessed to the Son Of God ; they told the world that this was He, the Messiah : The Father by a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son in whom I amwell pleased ; and the Spirit descending upon him like a dove: His life was a life ofwonders, and each of them witnessed to the truth,of his commission;. and to the divinity of his doctrine. Everyblind eye that he opened, saw and witnessed Jesus, and declared his divine power. Everyone of the dead that he raised Were his witnesses. They came from the land ofsilence to speak hisglory, and to give a loud testimony to his mission from hea- ven. The devils themselves, when he drove them out of their possessions, confessed that hewas Christi The holy one of God; but hehad no mind to accept their witness, and therefore forbade themto speak. Miraclesattended him to the cross and the grave and opened the grave again for him, and made a passage for him to his Father's right hand. Nor did the witnesses of his person and of his doctrine then cease for that salvation which began to be spoken by Jesus the Lord, was afterwards published by those that heàrd lam, God himself bearing them witness with signs andwonders ; as inHeb: ii. 3, 4. But all these still were outwardwitnesses to convincean un- believing world. There is an inward witness thatlnÿ text speaks of, that belongs to every true christian: He that believeth on the on of God bath the Witness in himself: And let us prepare now to examine whether our religion be true, and whether we are believers on the Son of God in truth, by searching after this 2 r
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