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IERM.
IiI.]
INWARD WITNESS
TO
CHRISTIANITY.
35
t
you
read of Jonathan,
in
the day
when
he was
faint in
pursuing
his
enemies, he
tasted
of
the honey, and
his
eyes were
enlightened,
1
Sam. xiv.
27.
Just
so will
it
be
with
the
soul
that
bath tasted
of
the gospel
of
Christ,
this
food
of
eternal
life
;
he
will
discover
it
in his
lan-
guage, in
his
behaviour;
and
it
is
a
shame
to
those
that
profess to
be
believers,
that
in
all things they look so
much like the men
of
this world,
and
do
not
discover
it
in
their
lives,
and
witness
what they have
in
their hearts,
even the
beginning
of
eternal
life
:
If
we
are the
epistle
of
Christ,
we
shall
be,
in some
measure, known
and
read of
all men,
2
Cor.
iii.
2, 3.
Christianity
in
the
soul,
eternal
life
begun in the heart,
will be
like
the
sweet
ointment
of
the
right
-hand,
that
bewrays itself,
and cannot
be
hid,
Prov.
xxvii.
16.
Ye christians, ye
are
the
light
of
the
earth,
ye believers
are the salt
of
the
world
;
ye
must
not
appear
like
others,-
if
you
would
be
like yourselves
;
the
honour of God your
Saviour
de-
mands
some sensible
and
important
difference.
Ye must
not
be
too much
like
the
world,
if
ye
mean to
give
glory
or evidence
to
the religion
of
Christ,
John
xv. 19.
Rom.
xii.
2.
III.
Though
this inward evidence
of
the
truth
of
chris-
tinity
be
of
a
spiritual nature, and spring
from
pious
experience, yet it
is
a very
rational
evidence
also,
and
may be made
out
and
justified
to
the strictest reason.
It
is no vain, fanciful,
and enthusiastic business; for
while
every believer
feels
the
argument
working strong
in
his
heart
and
soul, he finds also
the convincing force
of
it
upon
his
understanding;
While
he feels his
inward
powers
sweetly
inclined to
virtue and
holiness, which by
nature
had
strong inclination
to
sensuality and
sin,
and
knows
that
this
was
wrought
in
him
purely
by
the gos-
pel
of
Christ;
he
cannot but
infer,
that
must
be
a
di-
vine
principle
which has
such divine
effects.
He
knows
that
he was
once blind
and
dead
in
trespasses
and
sins,
but
now he
is
awake, and alive to
God
and to
righte-
ousness
;
he
is
born
again, he
dwells, as
it
were, in
a
new
world,
there
is
a
mighty
and surprising
change
past
upon
him,
even from
death
to
life
;
and thence
he
con-
cludes,
by
the
justest
rules
of
reasoning,
that
it must
be
a
doctrine
of
divine wisdom
and
power,
that
gave
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