which shall answer all the cavils of men; why they believe christianity, through the weakness of their knowledge, yet their faith in Christ is strong; for they are sure the doctrine is divine, because of the sweet and sanctifying influence it has upon them. How condescending is God to poor sinners, to give such a religion to be saved by, that every one who receives it shall have an intallible witness in himself of the truth of it, without the learning of the schools, and the knowledge of tongues! Their chief argument for it is, they have divine holiness, and diviue peace.

VIII. This inward witness of the truth of christianity, is, or should be, always growing and improving. The testimony Increases as the divine love increases; the greater the degree of of holiness we arrive at, the more are we confirmed in the truth of christianity the testimony grows stronger, 2 Cor. iii. 18. You find that text approves of what I have now argued. When the apostle had been distinguishing between the religion of the law, and that of the gospel; that the one was covered with a veil, but under the other this veil was taken away: We, says he, under the gospel, with open face beholding, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory. We who behold the face of Christ Jesus in his gospel, we who here see a God reconciled in and by the death of his Son, we who see the holiness of Christ here described, copied, and exemplified, we are changed into the same image. The image of Christ is transcribed upon our natures, we go on from one degree of it to another; we are changed from glory to glory, from one degree of glorious holiness to another: thereby the gospel appears to have a fairer, a brighter, and a stronger evidence.

Thence it comes to pass, that when christians have grown to a good degree of strength in faith, and great measures of holiness in this world, all the temptations that they meet with to turn them aside from the doctrines of Christ, are esteemed but as straw and stubble; they cannot move nor stir them from the faith that is in Jesus, because the evidence hath grown strong with years: and as they have attended long upon the ministration of this gospel, they have found more and more of this eternal life wrought in their hearts; they have got nearer to heaven, they have pressed on continually towards perfection, they have found sweet assurance of the pardon of sin in their conscience, and diviner sensations of the love of God communicated to them, and their own love both to God and man increasing; they have found their hearts more averse to all iniquity, they have felt themselves rising higher and higher above this world, as they have come nearer to the end of their days; and a holy contempt of this world has grown

bolder: They take greater delight in God, and more gustful satisfaction in his worship, and in his company: Their zeal for his honour is warmer and stronger; they are perpetually employing themselves in contrivances for the glory of God among men. Thus in every part of this spiritual life the testimony increases, the evidence grows brighter, as eternal life advances in them.

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In the last place: As it is a growing witness, so it is such an one as never can be utterly lost; and that character of it is derived from the very name, for it is eternal life. Where it is once wrought in the soul, it shall be everlasting, it shall never die. The seed of God abides in those that are born of God; 1 John iii. 9. for they are born not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, even the word of God, which lives and abides forever; 1 Pet. i. 23. His gospel, which is an everlasting gospel, continues that heavenly work in the soul, which that gospel did first begin. It may be darkened indeed, it may be hidden for a season; sometimes the violent temptations of the evil one, may, as it were stop mouth of this divine witness; and sometimes, defiling lusts rising upon the face of the soul, may darken these evidences, but can never entirely blot them out. Eternal life must abide for ever, according to the name and nature of it. Though the evidence for a season may be obscure, and may seem to be silent through the power of iniquity, and the strength of temptation; yet this life will resume its activity, and discover itself, because its nature is eternal. It is Christ Jesus living in the soul by the power of his own Spirit; Christ Jesus, who is the eternal principle of life, and his Spirit, which is the eternal Spirit: and where he hath begun to dwell, he shall forever inhabit. This evidence shalt continue to all eternity, and shall give many a sweet reflection to the saints in heaven. "I feel now (says every saint there) that this was a true gospel I trusted in, in the days of my flesh; and this religion was divine, for it hath raised me to these mansions of blessedness. I feel now it was a doctrine came down from heaven, and that Christ Jesus was not an imposter, but the Son of God indeed, for he has brought me to his Father's house by this doctrine; he has seated me upon his own throne, even as he is seated upon the throne of his Father: he hath made me an overcomer by believing this doctrine, even as he himself has overcome." Eternal life itself, in the perfection of it in the future world, shall be a standing and everlasting evidence of the truth of the gospel.

I will now endeavour to draw some few inferences or remarks from the discourse, and then conclude.

1. The first remark is very obvious, how glorious is the gospel of our Lord! How preferable to all other religions! Those

which men have invented, are not to come into competition with. it; let none of them be named. Even that religion which God himself invented, the religion of the Jews, had not snch honourable characters belonging to it, as this of our Saviour hath. Many expressions that are used in the epistles of St. Paul, to shew the superiority of the gospel above the law, are such as give it an infinite advantage and preference: As in point of glory, so in point of evidence too. One was the letter; the other is the spirit; one was the ministration of condemnation, the other of salvation; one the ministration of death, the other of life and as life, spiritual or eternal life, is represented as the peculiar effect and prerogative of the gospel, so it carries more light of evidence with it to confirm its heavenly original; it brings the believing soul much nearer to heaven.

The Jewish religion instituted by Moses, although, by the accompanying power of the Spirit of God, it wrought effectually, in the hearts of those that sincerely received it, and changed their natures in a saving manner; yet the brightness and glory of this sort of evidence, that belonged to that religion was derived from the gospel, which was hidden under the types of it: Nor could it be supposed to have equal brightness or force with the gospel itself, when unveiled, and shining in open light; as I have shewn in the second discourse.

The Jews, when they had offered all their sacrifices for the hope of pardon of their sins, and looked as far as they could look through the smoke and shadows, to see the Messiah at a distance, could never have their consciences so sweetly released from fears, and the sense of guilt, as christians under the gospel, may enjoy through the blood of Christ: never had they so much communion with God in love, as since it is manifested by Christ Jesus, the Son of his love, that came from his bosom. Never were they raised so high above the world, nor could any of the Jews be so high refined in their hopes and joys, and exult in the view of heavenly glories, as a christian may be, and do, since the veil is withdrawn, and life and immortality are brought to light by the gospel: 2 Tim. i. 10. Never could they triumph over all the terrors of death, and the horror and darkness of the grave, as St. Paul the christian often does, and teaches his fellow-saints the same triumphal song; 1 Cor. xv. 54, &c. I grant that a single person or two like David, might now and then, by the spirit of rapture and prophecy, be borne far above that dispensation itself, and might have noble views and joys; but the whole church, under that state had but dark apprehensions of things above this life, and beyond death; their spiritual things were so much mingled and interwoven with a worldly dispensation, and their sanctuary itself called a worldly sanctuary. So much carnality

entered into the scheme of their constitution, that they could not be raised so high above this world, and the things of this life, as christians under the gospel: they could never have such a sense of forgiving grace, nor so sweet a satisfaction in drawing near to God, as christians now have; nor were they so expressly commanded, 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 believers.

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2d remark. You learn here an 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 eternal life is begun. This is mentioned in the foregoing sermon, therefore I shall pass it over briefly. The apostle 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 that ye have eternal life. The duties 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 ehristianity 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, engagements which they lie under to their neighbour by the law of God, 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 degrees 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 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 arguments against the dangers of the times, and the temptations 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 christianity. When we therefore shall be attacked with arguments to baffle our faith, and when the wind of false doctrine shall grow strong, and shall carry away many; how shall we be abie to stand our ground, and hold fast our faith in Christ, if we have

not this inward witness, the beginnings of eternal life? Therefore it is that so many christians waver and are led away, sometimes to this new doctrine, sometimes to another, because they feel so little of the efficacy and power of the gospel in their hearts, so very little of holiness and eternal life within them.

If you cannot argue for the gospel with learning, nor from experience, what will ye do in an hour of temptation? For the most part, christians are too little bred up to those methods of knowledge, whereby they might be capable of giving large, and rational, and satisfactory answers to those that may set themselves to oppose the truth and progress of the gospel. What will you do in the darkness of such a temptation, when those that are learned and ingenious shall attack your faith, and say, "Why do you believe in Jesus?" If you have this answer ready at hand, "I have found the efficacy and power of the gospel on my heart;" this will be sufficient to answer all their cavils. It was one way whereby christianity was confirmed in the hearts of the martyrs of old, and whereby they were enabled to bear up against all oppositions, because they found such a divine efficacy attending the gospel, such a new and heavenly life wrought in them, as enabled them to go through great hardships for the sake of Christ. But this leads me to,

4. The fourth remark, viz. If there be this inward evidence belonging to the gospel, and those that truly believe, then you' have a strong encouragement to profess christianity under the greatest persecutions. It will bear you out, it carries its own evidence with it; christianity in the heart will give courage against temptation. Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial, says the apostle Peter, for in such a fiery trial the gospel hath secured thousands; therefore, says St. Paul, though I meet with reproaches wheresoever I go, though bonds and imprisonments await me, and death itself; Acts xx. 23. yet I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ; Rom. i. 16. for it is the power of God to salvation, to every one that believeth. Which is but the sense of my text in other words. Every one that believes it in truth, hath this evidence in himself, even eternal life: Therefore I count not my life dear to me, &c. for the gospel will bear me out in my profession of it, in my publication of it, and in my suffering for it. This is the way we shall learn to resist unto blood, and seal the truth of this gospel with our mortal lives, if we have the seal of this truth abiding in our souls.

5th remark. As from this doctrine you have strong encouragement to profess christianity, so you are here taught the best way to honour the gospel, and to propagate the christian religion in the world. Make this inward divine testimony appear to the