PART a SERMON II. 32 earth to the truth ofthe gospel, viz. thespirit, 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 ofChrist. The water, may intendthe sanctifi- cation andpurifying of our natures from sinful appetites and prac- tices, as by the washingof water : And the spirit may implythat efficacious influence which a believer receives from the Holy Spirit, both toward the pacification of his conscience, and the purification of his soul. All these witness to the truth of Chris- tianity ; though others are of opinion, that the Spirit in his mira- culous operations, the water, or purity of the nature and life of Christ, and theblood, or his violent death, and the attendants on it, are the three witnesses on earth which the apostle designs; nor can I absolutely détermine which is the right. Before Iconclude, I would lay downone caution andonere- flection. The caution is this vThat thoughI exclude all human reli- gions from the honour, power, and gloriouseffects of christianity, as being utterly incapable of them, yet the Jewish religion, and that ofthe ancient patriarchs, which were divine, are not hereby totally excluded from this honour, and these characters, but only in part: For there were many souls in whom these beginnings of eternal life were wrought under those dispensations, but not with that glory and evidenceas under thechristian. And indeed Judaismwas but a sort of infant christianity, a veiled gospel. Thechristian religion is Judaism fulfilled, or thegospel standing in open light. that holiness and happinesswhich was found among theJew or patriarchs, is entirely Owing to Christ and his gospel, to the sacrifice, and the spirit, and grace of Jesus, which were typified by the legal atonements, and blood, sprinklings and washings ; andwhich wrought powerfully this divine life in their souls, throughall those types, but with feebler conviction, and in a fainter light, Besides, it should be observed here also, thatsince the chris- tian religion has received its full authority and divineestablish- ment, theJewishdispensation ceases, and is no longer owned, or aidedbythe SpiritofGod, toproduce these wonderfuleffects. The types and shadowsof that state have now no power to speak peace and pardon to the guilty soul, or topurify our sinful natures, and begin eternal life in them. These are ' abolished by divine ap- pointment, and Godwill bear witness to them no more. They who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, are de- ceivers ; 2 John 7. He that hat/a not the Son of God bath not life; i John v. 12. So that the doctrine of Christ is the only religion which we know of, that is practised in the world, that has had the stamp of divine authority above sixteen hundred
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