BERM III. 'INWARD WITNESS TO CHRISTIANITY. SS truth of your religion, and of my divine commission, ye who are conmerted by my gospel; ye Corinthians, who were once vile as the vilest, and upon whose- souls the devil, by his temptations and by his power, had inscribed many dark characters, and seemed to seal you, over, and mark you to damnation, ye are now the epistle of Christ, ye have those dismal characters rksed out, and ye have 'golden and bright ones inscribed. The image of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is eternal life, appears fairly written on your souls: Ye are the epistle of Christ, and eternal life is, begun in you, and thus the gospel witnesses its own truth and divinity by an internal evidence. The gospel of Christ is like a seal or signet, of such inimitable and divine graving, that no created power can counterfeit it; and when the spirit of God has .stamped this gospel on the soul, there are so many, holy and .happy lines drawn or impressed thereby; só many sacred signatures and divine features stamped:on the mind, that give certain evidence both of a heavenly sig- net anda heavenly operator. A' christian, who has well studied the doctrines and proofs ofchristianity, can give sufficient reasons for the truth of them, and for his believing them. He : finds what is sufficiently satisfactory, to confirm his belief in the outward testimonies, in the miracleswrought in the world, and the prophecies fulfilled: I have. (says he) in my understanding many arguments and evidences of the truth of the gospel, and my reason is convinced that it is a divine religion. But there is a miracle wrought in my heart, that is of more efficacy than this, and is to me a more convincing proof of the gospel of Christ; eternal life is begun in me. I. find my conscience, that was disturbed with the guilt ofsin, established in peace, upon solid hopes of pardon. I have an interest in the love of God, and lively sensations of that love ; Í have a hatred of all sin, I live above the world, and have a holy contempt of the trifles, businesses, and cares of this life; I delight in the company of him that dwells in heaven; I find in my soul that I love him, and love those who are like him; I walk, as seeing him, who is invisible; I have a zeal for his glory, and kith active VOL. I. 19
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=