Part 8

V. The last thing that goes to make up holiness, is a hearty love to all men, and especially to the saints. This is a noble ingredient of eternal life; this is a divine and heavenly temper; this is a beautiful part of the image of God communicated to the soul of man. That God who is the original and foundation of eternal life, is a glorious pattern of this love; he makes his sun to rise, and his rain to fall on the just and on the unjust, and leaves not himself without witness of his divinity, by filling the hearts of men with food and gladness: See Mat. v. 45. Acts xiv. 17. He shews his love to enemies and rebels, in forgiving millions of offences, and pardoning crimes of the largest size and deepest aggravations, and he loves his saints with peculiar tenderness. Our Lord Jesus Christ, who also is the true God and eternal life, came down from heaven to exemplify his divine love. It was his love to mankind that persuaded him to put on flesh and blood, and prevailed with him to suffer pains, agonies, and death, that his enemies might obtain salvation and life. O glorious example of love! Now this is in some measure wrought into the make of every true christian, and imitated in the practice of every true believer: He is obliged, by one of the chief rules of his religion to love his neighbour as himself: that is, to do that to others, which he thinks just and reasonable that they should do to him; Mat. xxii. 39. Luke vi. 31. He is bound to forgive freely those that offend him, as he hopes for forgiveness of his offences against God; Mat. vi. 14, 15. He rejoices in the welfare of his fellow-creatures, without repining: He loves his enemies, does good to them that hate him, blesses those that curse him, and prays for his persecutors and spiteful foes; Luke vi. 27. He pities all that are miserable, but takes a peculiar delight in his fellow-christians; (the christians must be known by this, that they love one another.) _He does good to all but especially to the household of faith_; Gal. vi. 10.

Other religions know nothing of so generous and diffusive a love; the men of heathenism were _hateful, and hating one another, and spent their lives in malice and envy_; Tit. iii. 3. They did not so much as aspire to so divine a virtue as the love of enemies; this is the noble singularity of our gospel. The heathen professions encouraged revenge, and made it one ingredient of a hero: But envy and malice, wrath and revenge, must be banished from the heart and practice of a christian, to whom the kindness and love of God our Saviour has appeared; these vices must stand aloof from the saint, and thus bear a testimony to the truth and divinity of the doctrine of Christ.

I grant that every one of these instances, and all these parts of eternal life which I have now described, are not to be found equally in all believers; nor are they in every believer in a very eminent and evident degree. But if we take all of them together, pardon of sin, peace of conscience, the favour of God, and a sense of his love, a pleasurable harmony of all our powers, an aversion to all sin, and hatred of every iniquity, a holy contempt of this world, in the pleasures, as well as in the pains and sorrows of it; delight in the worship of God, and desire after his enjoyment; zeal and activity in service for God, with a sincere aim for his glory, and a hearty love to fellow-creatures and fellow-christians: I say, if we join all these together, we shall find that the christian religion has a witness far superior to all other doctrines that ever pretended to divinity. We shall find that every believer has something of all these qualities wrought in his heart, and it is exemplified in his life. Truly, where none of these are found, that person cannot profess himself a christian with any just ground of hope: Where there is not such a witness as this to the truth of christianity, where there is not this eternal life begun in some sensible measure and manner, that person’s profession of christianity is but vain; and his practice and his course contradict the words of his lips, when he pronounces himself a believer in the Son of God.

I might here take notice, that the three that bear witness on earth to the truth of the gospel, _viz._ the spirit, 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 of Christ. The water, may intend the sanctification and purifying of our natures from sinful appetites and practices, as by the washing of water: And the spirit may imply that 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 christianity; though others are of opinion, that the Spirit in his miraculous operations, the water, or purity of the nature and life of Christ, and the blood, or his violent death, and the attendants on it, are the three witnesses on earth which the apostle designs; nor can I absolutely determine which is the right.

Before I conclude, I would lay down one caution and one reflection.

The caution is this: That though I exclude all human religions from the honour, power, and glorious effects of christianity, as being utterly incapable of them, yet the Jewish religion, and that of the 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 evidence as under the christian. And indeed Judaism was but a sort of infant christianity, a veiled gospel. The christian religion is Judaism fulfilled, or the gospel standing in open light. All that holiness and happiness which was found among the Jews 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; and which wrought powerfully this divine life in their souls, through all those types, but with feebler conviction, and in a fainter light.

Besides, it should be observed here also, that since the christian religion has received its full authority and divine establishment, the Jewish dispensation ceases, and is no longer owned, or aided by the Spirit of God, to produce these wonderful effects. The types and shadows of that state have now no power to speak peace and pardon to the guilty soul, or to purify our sinful natures, and begin eternal life in them. These are abolished by divine appointment, and God will bear witness to them no more. They who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, are deceivers; 2 John 7. _He that hath not the Son of God hath not life_; 1 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 years; and as there have been multitudes of witnesses to the truth of it, multitudes of souls in the first, and all the succeeding ages, who have felt eternal life wrought in them by the power of the gospel, so there is no other religion ever since can produce and shew such divine testimony; for there _is salvation in no other name_; Acts iv. 12.

The only reflection I shall make, is this: We may derive hence a solid and infallible rule for self-examination, whether we are christians or no. Have we in ourselves this divine witness of our christianity? Have we eternal life wrought in our own hearts? Have we desired peace of conscience and any hope of pardoning grace by trusting in the Son of God? Have we found any satisfaction of soul in drawing near to God by Jesus the Mediator? Do we find a sincere love to God kindled in our souls by the hope of his special favour? Is there any thing of the holiness or happiness of the heavenly state begun within us? Have we an aversion to all sin in some degree answerable to what the saints and angels have in heaven? Have we a holy contempt of this world? Have we overcome the world as those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and have put their trust in him? Do we live above it, as those that are within sight of eternal blessedness? Are we come to mount Sion, the city of the living God, to the innumerable company of angels, and the church of the first-born, &c. in this respect? Do we look down upon the tempting vanities of this life with a sacred disdain, something like those that dwell on high in the full possession of life eternal? Is there any similitude between our life and theirs, between our hearts and theirs? Do we delight in the worship of God? Is his presence our joy? Is his enjoyment the object of our desires? Are we zealous for his service? Are our aims set for his glory? Are we active in the discharge of the duties that he hath appointed to us, and the several provinces of service that he has ordained us to be engaged in, in this world? Do we do the will of our heavenly Father on earth, in some measure as it is done in heaven? How stand our hearts affected toward our fellow-creatures? Do we love our neighbour, by dealing with him as we desire he should deal with us? Can we forgive enemies? Do we rejoice in the welfare of others without envy, and take delight in the holiness and peace of our fellow-creatures, and give the poor and mean followers of Christ, a large share in our hearts and kindest affections? If this be the character and temper of our spirits, and this the conduct of our lives, then eternal life is begun in us; then we may say to our own souls, This is the record that God hath given concerning his Son, that there is eternal life in him; 1 John v. 11. and we are sure we build our hopes on a solid foundation, for this life is already begun in our hearts, and the Spirit of God, who has begun this work, will carry it on, and make it perfect in the days of eternity. _Amen._

SERMON III. _The Inward Witness to Christianity._ 1 JOHN v. 10—He that believeth on the Son of God, hath the witness in himself. THE THIRD PART.

Many and glorious are the outward testimonies that God has given to our religion, both in the days when his Son Jesus dwelt on earth, and in the time of the ministration of the apostles who followed their blessed Lord. The miracles wrought, the prophecies fulfilled, and the various glories attending the ministration of the gospel, conspire to confirm our faith; each of them are evidences of the truth and divinity of this doctrine; and all of them joined together, bear such a testimony as cannot be resisted. We live now in these later days at a long distance from those seasons wherein these miracles were wrought, and wherein God appeared in so immediate a manner from heaven, to witness to the truth of the gospel of his Son; but God has taken care to furnish every true believer with a sufficient witness of christianity; we are not left void of evidence at this day. He that believeth, hath the witness in himself. There is an internal testimony given to the gospel of Christ in the heart of every one that receives it in truth. There are the beginnings of that eternal life wrought in the soul, which the Son of God bestows on all believers; he that hath the Son hath life. The spiritual life of a christian runs into eternity; it is the same divine temper, the same peaceful and holy qualities of mind communicated to the believer here in the days of grace, which shall be fulfilled and perfected in the world of glory; and this is a blessed witness to the truth of christianity; it proves with abundant evidence, that it is a religion sufficient to save souls, for the salvation is begun in every man that receives it.

I shall repeat no more of the foregoing discourses, but proceed immediately to answer the last question there proposed, _viz._ What sort of witness this is, which true faith gives to the gospel of Christ, and what are the remarkable properties of this testimony.

I answer, I. It is a witness that dwells more in the heart than in the head. It is a testimony known by being felt and practised, and not by mere reasoning; the greatest reasoners may miss of it, for it is a testimony written in the heart; and upon this account it has some prerogatives above all the external arguments for the truth of christianity. This inward argument is always at hand, when a believer is in the exercise of his graces, and acting according to his new nature and life: It is an argument that is not lost through the weakness of the brain, the defect of the memory, and long absence from books and study, to which other arguments are liable; it is an argument that cannot be forgotten, while true religion remains in the heart, for it is graven there in lasting characters.

Those words of St. Paul to the Corinthians, in his second epistle, chap. iii. ver. 2, 3. have a reference to our present case: _Ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart._ We have a glory in our religion, that distinguishes it from, and advances it above the Jewish dispensation; their law was written in tables of stone, and afterwards Moses wrote it out at large in a book: But ye have something (says the apostle) written in your hearts, that proves the truth of your religion, and of my divine commission, ye who are converted by my gospel; ye Corinthians, who were once vile as the vilest, and upon whose souls the devil, by his temptations and by his power, had inscribed many dark characters, and seemed to seal you over, and mark you to damnation, ye are now the epistle of Christ, ye have those dismal characters rased out, and ye have golden and bright ones inscribed. The image of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is eternal life, appears fairly written on your souls: Ye are the epistle of Christ, and eternal life is begun in you, and thus the gospel witnesses its own truth and divinity by an internal evidence.

The gospel of Christ is like a seal or signet, of such inimitable and divine graving, that no created power can counterfeit it; and when the Spirit of God has stamped this gospel on the soul, there are so many holy and happy lines drawn or impressed thereby; so many sacred signatures and divine features stamped on the mind, that gives certain evidence both of a heavenly signet, and a heavenly operator.

A christian, who has well studied the doctrines and proofs of christianity, can give sufficient reasons for the truth of them, and for his believing them. He finds what is sufficiently satisfactory, to confirm his belief in the outward testimonies, in the miracles wrought in the world, and the prophecies fulfilled: I have (says he) in my understanding many arguments and evidences of the truth of the gospel, and my reason is convinced that it is a divine religion. But there is a miracle wrought in my heart that is of more efficacy than this, and is to me a more convincing proof of the gospel of Christ; eternal life is begun in me. I find my conscience, that was disturbed with the guilt of sin, established in peace, upon solid hopes of pardon. I have an interest in the love of God, and lively sensations of that love; I have a hatred of all sin, I live above the world, and have a holy contempt of the trifles, businesses, and cares of this life: I delight in the company of him that dwells in heaven: I find in my soul that I love him, and love those who are like him; I walk, as seeing him, who is invisible; I have a zeal for his glory, and with active diligence I am employed for the honour of his name in the world. These things I find wrought in me by the gospel of Christ: The discoveries of the nature and works of God, by his gospel, have filled my soul with holy wonder, and bowed my spirit down to adore him. The revelations of his amazing condescension and love, have raised and fired my heart to love him; the examples of superlative piety I meet with in this gospel, have excited my holy imitation; and the motives proposed here, are so awful and so alluring, that all my powers of hope and fear are joined and engaged to constrain my obedience to the excellent and divine precepts of this religion. I feel that I am quite altered from what once I was, I am a new creature, and the change is divine and heavenly.—There is something within me, that bears witness, that my religion is from God.

II. It is a witness that will, in some measure, appear in the life, wheresoever it is written in the heart: For eternal life is an active principle, it will be discovering and exercising itself. Is it possible, that a man should have the pardon of his sins, and sweet peace of conscience, a sense of the love of God, who is an infinite good, a joyful satisfaction in his heavenly favour, and manifest nothing of this in his aspect and behaviour? That he should shew no serenity of countenance, no sweetness of temper, no inward joy; Is it possible that he should have an utter aversion to sin, a hatred of all iniquity in his heart, and not make it appear in his life? That he should maintain a holy contempt of this world, and scorn of it, in comparison of the future glories that his eye is fixed upon, so warm a zeal for God, and so hearty a love to men, and not manifest it to the world? Surely his life will be above, where his heart is; and his heart will be in heaven, where his treasures are. _Our conversation is in heaven, says the blessed Paul, under the influence of this religion and these hopes_; Phil. iii. 20, 21.

It is true indeed, this is a testimony that cannot be communicated to others, in the same measure and manner that it is felt by the persons that believe. In this respect it is like the hidden manna, which none knows but that they taste of it; yet those that feed upon it daily, will discover it in some outward appearances; as you read of Jonathan, in the day when he was faint in pursuing his enemies, he tasted of the honey, and his eyes were enlightened; 1 Sam. xiv. 27. Just so will it be with the soul that hath tasted of the gospel of Christ, this food of eternal life; he will discover it in his language, in his behaviour; and it is a shame to those that profess to be believers, that in all things they look so much like the men of this world, and do not discover it in their lives, and witness what they have in their hearts, even the beginning of eternal life: If we are the epistle of Christ, we shall be, in some measure, known and read of all men; 2 Cor. iii. 2, 3. Christianity in the soul, eternal life begun in the heart, will be like the sweet ointment of the right-hand, that bewrays itself, and cannot be hid; Prov. xxvii. 16. Ye christians, ye are the light of the earth, ye believers are the salt of the world; ye must not appear like others if you would be like yourselves; the honour of God your Saviour demands some sensible and important difference. Ye must not be too much like the world, if ye mean to give glory or evidence to the religion of Christ; John xv. 19. Rom. xii. 2.

III. Though this inward evidence of the truth of christianity be of a spiritual nature, and spring from pious experience, yet it is a very rational evidence also, and may be made out and justified to the strictest reason. It is no vain, fanciful, and enthusiastic business; for while every believer feels the argument working strong in his heart and soul, he finds also the convincing force of it upon his understanding: While he feels his inward powers sweetly inclined to virtue and holiness, which by nature had strong inclination to sensuality and sin, and knows that this was wrought in him purely by the gospel of Christ; he cannot but infer, that must be a divine principle which has such divine effects. He knows that he was once blind and dead in trespasses and sins, but now he is awake, and alive to God and to righteousness: he is born again, he dwells, as it were, in a new world, there is a mighty and surprizing change past upon him, even from death to life; and thence he concludes, by the justest rules of reasoning, that it must be a doctrine of divine wisdom and power, that gave him this blessed resurrection: It is above and beyond nature, it is a miracle of grace, and none but God could work it.

And this is what I call the inward witness of the Spirit of God to the truth of the gospel, at least in these latter ages of christianity. The outward and more visible testimony of the spirit consists in those sensible miracles that were wrought, and those wondrous gifts of healing; of tongues, &c. that were bestowed on the first christians; Heb. ii. 4. Rom. xv. 19. But the Spirit’s inward testimony is the constant miracle of regeneration and converting grace. This witness, in my opinion, has been dishonoured by too many protestants, when they have explained it merely by inward impulses, and vehement impressions upon the mind, without the conduct of reason. This has tempted the profane world to call our devout efforts of christian piety mere enthusiasm and wild imagination, the flashes of a kindled blood and vapours, that are puffed about with every wind: But when the testimony of the spirit is explained in the manner I have described, it must approve itself to all the sober and reasonable part of mankind.