52 / 514
44
1sYWARD
WRfiNESS TO
CHRISTIANITY:
CSERrif.
they changed
my
nature,
they
subdued
my
sinful
appe-
tites,
they made
a new,
creature of
me,
and raised
-me..
from
death
to
life
;
they made
me
love
God
above
all
things,
and
gave me the lively and, well-
grounded hope
of
his love
:
Therefore
.I
cannot
doubt
but that
the
chief
principles
of
thistbook are
heavenly. and divine,
though
I
cannot
so well
prove
that
the very
words
and
syllables
of
it
are
so
too
;
for
it
is
The
sense
of
scripture, and
not
the
mere letters
of
it;
on which
I
.build
my
hope."
I
might
say
yet further,
3.
This inward
witness
gives
great support
in .hours
of
darkness and temptations
of
the
devil,
when
such
sud
-
den
thoughts
shall,
be
thrown into the
mind,
even
of
a
learned
christian
:
"What
if
the
scripture
should
not
be.
divine?
What
if
this
gospel and
the
other
epistle should
not
be
written
by
inspiration?.
What-
if
these
should
be
merely the words
of
men,
and
not
the
very
word
of
God
?"
The
believer,
who feels
a
renewed
nature, and
a
divine
life
working within
him,
can
boldly
repel these
fiery
darts
of
Satan, with
such a
reply
as
this
:
Though
I
cannot
at
present recollect
all
the
arguments.
that
prove
Matthew, Mark, and Luke,
to be
divine
historians,,
or
Peter
and
Paul
to
be
inspired writers
;
yet
'the
substance
and
chief
sense
of
their
gospels,
and their epistles,
must
needs be
divine,
and
Cod
is
the
author of
it,
for
-it
has
begun the spiritual and
eternal
life in
my
soul
;
and this
is
.my
witness
(or rather
the witn.ess.of
theSpirit,of
God
within me)
that Christ
is-
the
Son
of God,
the Saviour
of
sinners, and the
religion that
I
profess and practise
is
safe and divine."
And though
there are
many and sufficient
arguments
drawn
.from
criticism, history,
and human learning, to
prove
the sacred
authority
of
the
bible,
and
such
as
may
give
abundant
evidence
town honest enquirer, and
full
satisfaction
that
it
is
the word
of
God
;yet
this
is
the
chief
evidence
that
the
greatest-
part of
christians can
ever
attain of
the divine
original of
-the
holy scripture it-
self,
as.well
-as
the
truth
of
the doctrines
contained
in
it,
.That
:they.
have found such
a
-holy and heavenly
change
passed
upon
them,
by
reading
órhearing
the
pro-
positions,
the
histories, the promises, the
precepts, and
the
threatenings of
this
book:
And
thence they
are wont
to
infer,.
that
the God of truth
would
not attend
a
book,-