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54
INWARD
IIITNESS
TO
CHRISTIANITY.
{SEAM.
III..
ed,
nor
could, nor
did they
so
gloriously
practise
the
duties
of
love
and
forgiveness to men, as the
Christian
religion requires, and
works in
the
hearts
of
sincere be-
lievers.
Qd
remark. You learn
here
{,n
excellent
rule
for
self-examination, whether
you have
true
faith
or
no.
If
you have,
it
will
be
accompanied
with this
evidence
for this
eternal
life
begun in the soul, does
not merely
prove that
christianity
is
a
true doctrine, but it
proves
also
that
the faith
of
that
person
is
true, where this
eter-
nal
life
is
begun.
This
is
mentioned
in
the foregoing
sermon,
therefore
I
shall pass
it
over
briefly.
The
apos-
tle asserts this
sufficiently, ver.
13.
These
things
have
I
written
to
you
who believe
in the
name
of
the
Son
of
God,
that
ye
may
know
ye
have
eternal
life.
The du-
ties
of
morality, both
of the
first
and
second table, will
be written
upon
the heart,
and
will,
in some degree,
be
practised
in
the
life,
where the
gospel
is
written
in
the
heart, and
where
christianity
is
wrought
in its power
in
the
soul. But,
.
on the
other hand, those
who
neglect
the duties
of
the
first table,
or indulge themselves in
a
very careless
performance
of them; 'those
who pass
by
the
duties of
the second table,
and
those
relative
en-
gagements, which they
lie
under
to
their neighbour
by
the
law
of G
od,
can never have
the evidence within
themselves,
neither of
the
truth of
christianity,
nor of
the
truth of
their
own
faith
:
They
may be
heathens,
they
may be heroes, they may be
philosophers, they
may
be any
thing
but
Christians.
3d
remark. Learn the
true
method
of
confirming
your
souls
in
the christian faith
:
seek
daily
greater
de-
grees
of
this divine
life
wrought
in you.
This
advice
is
also
hinted
by
the apostle
John,
in
the:
13th
verse,
I
have written these things
to you
concerning the
witness
of
christianity,
that
consists
in
having
eternal
life
begun
in
you,
not
only
that
ye may know ye
have
it,
but
that
ye may
'go
on
to believe
on
the name
of
the Son
of
God.
We
have
need
in
our
day to
be
well
seasoned with argu-
ments against the dangers
of
the times,
and the tempta-
tions
of
the
age in which
we
dwell.
Christianity
begins
to be
a stumbling
-
block,
and
the
doctrine
of
the
gospel
is
called folly;
it
is
reproached
to
a
very
great
and
shameful
degree, in
a
nation,
which in
public
professes