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AmmesmINI
(
16
)
SERMON
II.
THE
INWARD WITNESS TO CHRISTIANITY.
í
Jona
v. 10.
He
that
believeth
on
the
Son
of God, bath the
witness in
himself.
THE SECOND PART.
WHEN
such a
text
as
this
is
named for the
founda-
tion
of
discourse, some nicer
hearers
begin to
grow
jealous,
that
the
preacher
is
entering into
mystery
and
inward
light,
and they
expect
to
hear
no
clear and solid
reasoning,
nor
any
justness of
thought.
Thus blinded
by
their
own
prejudices, they
prevent their improvement
by
the ministry
of
the word
and because
they have
heard
the experiences
of
christians wittily ridiculed, they
resolve
to believe
that
nothing,
of
experimental religion
can
be
justified
to
strict
reason, or
have any
thin;'
to do
with
argument.
But
how impious,
and
how
unreasonable
a fancy
this
is,
will
sufficiently
appear,
if
it
can
be
proved
that
every
true
christian
has
a most rational and incontestable
evi-
dence
of
the
truth
of
his
religion, drawn from
the
change
that
is
hereby made in
his own
heart.
If
it
can
once
be
made evident,
that
eternal
life
is
begun in every
soul
that
believes in
Jesus
Christ, this
will
confirm
christianity
with a
high
hand, and confute
the wicked
scandal
for
ever.
I
have begun this
attempt
in
the
first discourse,
and
have
shewn
that eternal
life
is
composed
of
two
parts,
viz. holiness
and happiness.
The
happiness
of
it
consists in a
just
and comfortable
sense
of
the forgiveness
of
sin,
and
a lively
hope and
persuasion
of
the special
love
of
God, and
the
delightful
harmony
of
all
the
natural
powers,
viz,
reason, consci-
ence, the
will,
and
the passions.
Where
these
are found,
heaven
is
begun; eternal
life has
taken
possession
of
the
soul;
and
this
evidently proves the
doctrine that
effected
it
to be
divine.
Now,
if
an atheist,
a
heathen, or
a
Jew, should cavil
and
say,
"Are
not
all
your
hopes mere
presumption?