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iS
INWARD WITNESS
TÓ
CHRISTIANITY.
1SERM.Ih
I
grant that
every one
of
these instances,
and
all
these
parts of eternal
life which
I
have now described,
are
not
to be
found equally
in
all believers
;
nor
are
they. in
every believer in á very
eminent
and evident
degree.
But
if
we
take
all
of
them together,
pardon of
sin,
peace
of
conscience,
the favour
of God,
and
a
sense
of
his
love,
a pleasurable harmony of
all
our
powers, an
aver-
sion to all
sin,
and hatred
of
every
iniquity,
a
holy
con-
tempt of
this world, in the pleasures,
as well
as in
the
pains and sorrows
of
it;
delight
in the worship
of
God,
and desire after
his
enjoyment;
zeal
and activity
in
service
for God,
with
a sincere aim
for
his glory,
and
a
hearty
love to fellow-
creatures
and fellow
-
Christians
:
I
say,
if
we
join
all these together',
we
shall
find
that
the
Christian
religion has
a
witness
far
superior
to all
other
doctrines that
ever
pretended
to
divinity.
We
shall find
that
every believer
has something
of
all these
qualities
wrought
in his
heart, and
it
is
exemplified
in
his life.
Truly,
where none
of
these
are found,
that
person can-
not
profess himself a
Christian
with any
just
ground
of
hope:
Where there
is
not
such a witness as this
to the
truth of
christianity, where there
is
not 'this eternal
life,
begun in some sensible
measure and manner,
that per-
son's
profession
of
christianity
is
but
vain; and
his
prat-
tice
and
his
course
contradict
the words
of
his
lips,
when
he
pronounces himself a
believer in
the
Son
of
God.
I
might here take notice,
that
the
three
that
bear wit-
ness on
earth
to
the
trutlí
of
the gospel,
viz.
the spirit,
the
water,
and the blood,
may
be
expounded agreeably
to
the
foregoing
discourse.
The
blood
may signify
the
pacification
of
a
guilty conscience
by
the
atoning blood
of Christ.
The
water,
may
intend
the sanctification and
purifying
of
our natures
from sinful
appetites
and
prat
-,
tices, as
by
the washing
of
water
:
And the
spirit
may,
imply
that
efficacious influence which
a
believer
receives.
from the holy Spirit, both towards the pacification
of
his
conscience, and
the
purification
of
his soul. All these
witness to the
truth of
christianity;
though others are
of
opinion,
that
the Spirit
in his
Miraculous
operations,
the
water, or
purity of
the
nature
and
life
of
Christ,,
grid
the blood, or
his
violent death, and
the
attendants