% INWARD WITNESS TO CHRISTIANITY. PART t, words, ke that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself; viz. he hath a proof within himself that eternal life is in the Son, ver. II. and is to be obtained by our believing in him. It is to the truth of this doctrine that the three bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost; and the three on earth,; the spirit, and thewater, and the blood.. And though the proof of the sincerity and truth of our faithnowmay be derived from hence by a further consequence, yet the first and direct design of the apostle is to spew, that the truth and divinity of our religion has an inward witness to it in the heart of every believer. Here give me leave to put you in minci, that it is necessary for you, as it was for the primitivechristians, to settle your pro- fession of christianity upon solid grounds ; otherwise you are christians but for the same reason that makes a Turk a dis- ciple of Mahomet, or a heathen a worshipper of the Gods of his country; that is, because you were born in such a climate, and under such a meridian. Andcan you be contented with so poor apretence to the noblest, religion ? and lay so sandy a founda- tión for your eternal hopes ? Besides, the day in which we live, threatens you with bold temptations ; and how will you stand if you have no surer grounds ? Infidelity is a growing weed ; the contempt and ridicule of revealed religion, flourish and become fashionable among the gaypart of the world ; and if you are not furnished with some solid proofs of the gospel of Christ,, you may be in great danger of losing your faith ; you may be tempted to yield up your religion to a witty,jest,'and be-. come a heathen for company. I might say another thing to awaken you to acquaint your- selves with some arguments that will justify and support your belief of the gospel. Suppose you think you havecomplied with the rules of your religion, and have raised your hopes of heaven to a high degree ; shouldSatan the tempterspread-his darkness round your souls, arid in a melancholy and gloomy-hour assault your faith with such bold questions as these, How do you know that ehristianiiy is the true religion? What tokens have you to shew that it camefrom God 2 If you have no other answer to make, bntthatit is the religionofyour country, that you are born and bredup in it, think with yourselves how your spirits will be; surprized, your comfortslanguish, and all your highbuilt hopes totter to the ground ;, unless theSpirit ofGod, by his uncommon and sovereign grace, shouId give in an answer to the temptation, and by some immediate and convincing argument support your faith : but if you are negligent to lay a góod foundation at first, you have no reason to expect such a divine favour. Let the importance of this concern thereforekeep your atten- tion awake, while I briefly run over some of the proofs öf nhris..
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