INWARD WITNESS TO CHRISTIANITY. [SRAM. 1. commission, and to the divinity of his doctrine. Every blind eye that he opened, saw and witnessed Jesus, and declared his divine power. Every one of the dead that he raised were his witnesses. They came from the land of silence to speak his glory, and to give a loud testi- mony to his mission from heaven.. The devils themselves,` when he drove themout of their possessions, confessed that he was Christ The holy one of God; but he had no mind to accept their witness, and therefore forbad them to speak. Miracles attended..him to the cross and the grave, and openedthe grave again for hire, 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 heard him, Godhimself bearing themwitness with signs and won- ders ; as in Heb. ii. 3, 4. But all these still were outward witnesses to convince an unbelieving world. There is an inward witness that my text speaks of, that belongs to every true christian : He that believeth on the Son of God, kath 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 inward . witness; which we shall endeavour to explain, bycon- sidering these three things : I. What believing on the Son of God means. II. What this inward witness is, that faith gives to, christianity. III. What sort of witness it is, and how it exceeds other testimonies in several respects. And, . Lastly, We shall make some. inferences. I. What is meant in my text by believing on the Son ofGod, I answer briefly under these two heads. It is, 1. A believingJesus Christ to be the Saviour of the world. 2. A trust in Christ Jesus as our Saviour. 1. It is a believing Jesus Christ to be the Saviour of theworld; and in this manner it is often expressed by our apostle in these epistles : a belief that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, who was foretold by all the prophets, and. represented by all the types and shadows of the old testament. This usually includes a belief of the most important things that are related in the gospel concern - 6
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