PART In. SERMON III. $g Writing ? And hadnot everysincere believer, every true convert, this blessed witness in himself, that christianity was fromGod ? Eight or ten years had past away, after the ascension of Christ, before any part of the New Testament was written, (as learned menconceive) and what unknown multitudes of christian converts were born again by the preaching of the word, and raised to a divine and heavenly life, long ere this book was half finishedor known, and that among heathens as well as Jews ? And though the scriptures of the Old Testament might prepare the mindsof some of these to receive the gospel ; yet we have reason tobe. Sieve, that greatnumbers, especially of the Gentileworld, were convinced by miracles and tongues, andsome, perhaps by mere narratives and exhortations, and became holy believers ; each of them the epistle ofChrist written in the heart, andbearingabout within them a noble and convincing proof that this religion was divine, and that without a written gospel, without epistles, and without a bible. Again, In the firstages of Christianity, for sevéral hundred years together, how few among the common people were able to read ? How few could get the possessionof the use of a bible, when allsacredaswell as profane booksmust becopiedbywriting ? Pow few ofthe populace, in a large town or city, could obtain or could use any small part of scripture, before the art of printing made the word of God so common ? And yet millions of them were regenerated, sanctified, and saved by the ministration of thisgospel. The sum, and sense, and substance of this divine doctrine communicatedto the nations in various forms of speech, and in different phrases, made adivine impressionon their minds, being attended by the power of _tile blessed Spirit ; and whileit stamped its own sacred image on their souls, it trans- formed their natures 'into holy and heavenly, and created so manynew witnesses tothe truth of the gospel, for itbegun eternal We in them, Consider theii, ehristians, and be convinced, that the gospel has a morenoble inward witness belonging to it, than is derived from ink andpaper, from preciseletters andsyllables : Andthough God, in his great wisdom and goodness, saw it necessary that the NewTestament should be written, to preserve these holy doc- trines uncorrupted through all ages ; and though he was pleased to appoint the writtenword to be the invariable and authentic rule of our faith and practice, and make it a gloriousinstrument of instructing ministers and people to salvation inall these later times : Yet'ehristianity has a secret witness in the hearts of be- lievers, that does not depend on their knowledge and proof of the authorityof the scriptures, nor ofany of the Controversies that VoL.1. p.
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