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8
INWARD WITNESS
TO
CHRISTIANITY.
[SERM.
1.
or
evidence.
Nor
will
it create
any confusion to use
these words promiscuously in this discourse,
while we
distinguish them from the
thing
witnessed,
(which,
in
the
original,
is
also
wapivp,a)
and
is
translated the
record,
ver.-
10, 11.
Now
if
we
enquire what
is
that
testimony to christi-
anity,
or
that
inward
witness
that
every
believer
has
in
himself,
let
us
consider what
that
record
is
which
God
has testified concerning
his Son
Christ Jesus.
That
you
will find
in
the
context,
ver.
11,
12.
This
is
the record,
or
thing
witnessed,
that
God
hath
given
to
us
eternal
life,
and
this life
is
in his
Son;
he
that
hath
the
Son
of
God
hath
life,
and
he
that
hath
not the
Son
hath
not
life.
He
then
that
believes on
the
Son
of
God
hath
the
witness,
or
testimony to christianity,
in himself,
for he
bath
within him the
thing
testified.
He bath eternal
life
in
himself, he
bath
this
eternal
life
already
begun,
and it
shall be
carried
on
and
fulfilled in
the
days
of
eternity.
By
believing in Christ,
we
have
a glorious
testimony,
or
witness,
within ourselves,
that Christ
is
the
Son
of
God,
the Saviour
of
the
world,
and the
author of
eternal life;
that
his
person
is
divine,
that
his
doctrine
is
true, for eternal
life
is
begun in
us.
We
shall
make
this
more
fully
appear,
by
considering
what
is
eternal
life, and shewing
how
far
it
is
found in
every believer,
'and
how
it
becomes
a
witness
of
chris-
tianity
in his
heart.
Eternal
life consists in
happiness
and holiness;
it
is
made up
of
these
two,
and
there
is
such a necessary
con-
nection between
them,
that
they
run
into one
another;
but, for
order
-sake,
I
shall
distinguish them thus.
The
happiness of
eternal
life
consists in
the
pardon
of
sin, in
the special
favour of God, and
in
the pleasure
that
arises from the
regular operation
of
all
our
powers
and
passions.
Now
these
three
things are, in some
measure,
found
with every soul
that
believes in
Christ.
The
happiness
of eternal
life consists,
I.
In
the
pardon
of sin;
thence
arises peace
of
consci-
ence.
This
is
a
part
of
heaven; the
perfection
of
this
peace
belongs to the heavenly state.
Our
pardon
is
com-
plete
on
earth, but
the
sense
of
this
pardon
is
not
complete
znd
free from all doubts,
or
at
least
from all
danger
of