whatsoever; but have represented the sacred Three, the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit, in that light in which they seem to lie most open
to the common view of mankind in the word of God: And I am glad to find
what I have drawn out in this manner in seventeen propositions, appears
so agreeable to the general sense of our fathers in this article, that I
do not think any one of these propositions would be denied or disputed
by our divines of the last or present age, who have had the greatest
name and reputation of strict orthodoxy[21].
If I may express the substance of it in a few words, it is this: It
seems to me to be plainly and evidently revealed in scripture, “That
both the Son and the Holy Ghost have such a communion in the true and
eternal God-head, as to have the same names, titles, attributes and
operations ascribed to them, which are elsewhere ascribed to the Father,
and which belong only to the true God: And yet that there is such a
plain distinction between them, as is sufficient to support their
distinct personal characters and offices in the great work of our
salvation.” And this is what has been generally called the Trinitarian
Doctrine, or the doctrine of Three Persons and one God.
At the end of the latter sermons I have endeavoured to assist christians
in the devout collection of what they hear or read in a way of pious
converse with their own hearts, and with God. In most of those
meditations, the reader will find the principal heads of the foregoing
sermons rehearsed.
Where the sermons are too long to be read in a family at once, I have
marked out proper pauses, that the religious service may not be made
tedious. May the great God vouchsafe to send his own Almighty Spirit,
wheresoever his providence shall disperse these weak labours of mine in
the world, and attend them with his sovereign power and blessing for the
welfare of immortal souls! _Amen._
Footnote 17:
In the fifth edition the three volumes in 12mo were reduced into two
in octavo, and the prefaces abridged and united by the author.
Footnote 18:
21st February, 1720-21.
Footnote 19:
25th March, 1723.
Footnote 20:
They were first published 25th March, 1727.
Footnote 21:
In this complete collection of the author’s works there are large
additions, as well as many alterations inserted in this sermon ‘On the
Doctrine of the Trinity,’ from the author’s manuscripts. 1734.
SERMONS.
SERMON I.
_The Inward Witness to Christianity._
1 JOHN v. 10.—He that believeth on the Son of God, hath the Witness in
himself.
THE FIRST PART.
There are two points of great and solemn importance, which it becomes
every man to enquire into: _First_, Whether the religion he professes be
true and divine; and _then_, Whether he has so far complied with the
rules of this religion, as to stand entitled to the blessings thereof.
The christians of our age and nation, have been nursed up amongst the
forms of christianity from their childhood; they take it for granted
their religion is divine and true, and therefore seldom enter into the
_first_ enquiry: but when they come to think in good earnest about
religious affairs, their great concern is with the _second_, _viz._ to
know whether they have so far complied with the rules of the gospel of
Christ, as to obtain an interest in the promised blessings of it. And
when they hear such a text as this, _He that believeth, hath the witness
in himself_, they immediately expect that the meaning and design of it
should be to _witness_ the truth of their own faith, and consequently to
prove their own title to salvation.
But in the first christian age the case was far otherwise. The gospel
itself was not then universally established, and the disciples of this
new religion might have frequent doubts in their own minds concerning
the truth of it, while they saw it disallowed and opposed by the world
round about them. It was evidently necessary therefore for them to
enquire, whether it came from God or no? And it is with this view the
apostle John writes these words, _He 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. 11. 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 the water, and the blood_. And though
the proof of the sincerity and truth of our faith now may be derived
from hence by a farther consequence, yet the first and direct design of
the apostle is to shew, 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 mind, that it is necessary for you, as
it was for the primitive christians, to settle your profession of
christianity upon solid grounds; otherwise you are christians but for
the same reason that makes a Turk a disciple 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. And can you be contented with
so poor a pretence to the noblest religion? and lay so sandy a
foundation 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
gay part 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 become a heathen for company.
I might say another thing to awaken you to acquaint yourselves with some
arguments that will justify and support your belief of the gospel.
Suppose you think you have complied with the rules of your religion, and
have raised your hopes of heaven to a high degree; should Satan the
tempter spread his darkness round your souls, and in a melancholy and
gloomy hour assault your faith with such bold questions as these, _How
do you know that christianity is the true religion? What tokens have you
to shew that it came from God?_ If you have no other answer to make, but
that _it is the religion of your country_, that _you are born and bred
up in it_, think with yourselves how your spirits will be surprized,
your comforts languish, and all your high built hopes totter to the
ground; unless the Spirit of God, by his uncommon and sovereign grace,
should 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 good foundation at first, you have no reason to expect such a divine
favour.
Let the importance of this concern therefore keep your attention awake,
while I briefly run over some of the proofs of christianity, and thus
lead you down to the surest and best of them, which is contained in my
text.
Many are the outward testimonies which God hath given to the gospel of
his Son; many witnesses have confirmed it from the time that Christ
appeared in the flesh, to the day when St. John wrote this epistle. If
we trace his life from the cradle in the manger to his cross and the
grave, we shall find the rays of divinity still shining round his
doctrine and his works, still pointing to his person, and proving his
commission with a convincing and resistless light. At his birth the
witnessing angels appeared in much brightness, and while the Son of God
lay an infant below, his record was on high; for there appeared a
strange new star, and was his witness in heaven. The wise men of the
East were his witnesses, when they came from afar, and paid tributes and
offerings, gold and incense to the God, the king of Israel. Simeon and
Anna in the temple, by the Spirit of prophecy witnessed to the holy
child Jesus. And the doctors with whom he disputed at twelve years old,
were his witnesses that there was something in him more than man. At his
baptism the Father and the Spirit witnessed to the Son of God; they told
the world that this was He, the Messiah: The Father by a voice from
heaven, saying, _This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased_; and
the Spirit descending upon him like a dove. His life was a life of
wonders, and each of them witnessed to the truth of his commission, and
to the divinity of his doctrine. Every blind eye that he opened, saw and
witnessed Jesus, and declared his divine power. Every one of the dead
that he raised were his witnesses. They came from the land of silence to
speak his glory, and to give a loud testimony to his mission from
heaven. The devils themselves, when he drove them out of their
possessions, confessed that he was Christ, _The holy one of God_; but he
had no mind to accept their witness, and therefore forbade them to
speak. Miracles attended him to the cross and the grave, and opened the
grave again for him, and made a passage for him to his Father’s right
hand. Nor did the witnesses of his person and of his doctrine then
cease; for _that salvation which began to be spoken by Jesus the Lord_,
was afterwards published _by those that heard him, God himself bearing
them witness with signs and wonders_; as in Heb. ii. 3, 4.
But all these still were outward witnesses to convince an unbelieving
world. There is an inward witness that my text speaks of, that belongs
to every true christian: _He that believeth on the Son of God hath the
witness in himself._ And let us prepare now to examine whether our
religion be true, and whether we are believers on the Son of God in
truth, by searching after this inward witness; which we shall endeavour
to explain, by considering these three things:
I. What believing on the Son of God means.—II. What this inward witness
is, that faith gives to christianity.—III. What sort of witness it is,
and how it exceeds other testimonies in several respects. And, _Lastly_,
We shall make some inferences.
I. What is meant in my text by _believing on the Son of God_? I answer
briefly under these two heads. It is,—1. A believing Jesus Christ to be
the Saviour of the world.—2. A trust in Christ Jesus as our Saviour.
1. It is a _believing_ Jesus Christ _to be the Saviour of the world_;
and in this manner it is often expressed by our apostle in these
epistles: a belief that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, who was foretold by
all the prophets, and represented by all the types and shadows of the
Old Testament. This usually includes a belief of the most important
things that are related in the gospel concerning his person; such as
these, that he is true God and true man, _i. e._ that God and man are
united in him; that he was the Son of God before all ages, and the son
of man born in time. _That he was the seed of David after the flesh, but
declared to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the
dead_; Rom. i. 3, 4. That he is that eternal Word, who _in the beginning
was with God, and was God_, and who was in due time _made flesh and
tabernacled among us_, as in John i. 14. This is that _mystery of
godliness_ which we must believe, _God manifest in the flesh_; 1 Tim.
iii. 16.
It implies also our belief of his doctrine, as well as of the divinity
and humanity united in his person; _viz._ That we are all sinners
condemned by the law of God; enemies to God in our minds, transgressors
in our lives, and exposed to eternal death: That the divine law is so
strict, so perfect, so holy, and so just that no mere man since the fall
can fulfil it, nor yet can excuse or free himself from the condemnation
of it: That Christ himself came _to fulfil this law_, as he tells us in
Mat. v. 17, 18. That he came not only to perform the duties of it by an
active obedience, but to put himself under the curse and condemnation
for our sakes. Which the apostle to the Galatians expresses in this
language, that _in the fulness of time he was made under the law_ to
become _a curse for us_, that we who are under the law _might be
redeemed from the curse, and receive a blessing_; Gal. iii. 13. and iv.
5. That _he died for our offences_, that _he rose again for our
justification_; and that he has received the spirit of holiness, which
he sends into our sinful natures, to form us fit for that heavenly
inheritance which he hath purchased for us by his death. That without
this purification of our natures, we can have no hope of heaven, for
_without_ repentance and _holiness no man shall see God_. That Jesus
Christ our Lord shall raise the dead, shall come in the last day to
judge the world, and pass a decisive sentence, and shall then _reward
every one according to their works_. Though all these things were not so
plainly taught by our Saviour himself in his public ministry in the
world, yet these were the doctrines which his apostles preached
continually, and they received them from him by private instructions, or
the inspiration of his Spirit, so that they may be properly called the
doctrines of Christ.
But this is not all that is required of believers; for so much
knowledge, and so much faith as this is, the devils may have, and Simon
Magus the sorcerer might have as much as this when he believed. The
faith that is expressed in this epistle, and in other places of
scripture, is more than a bare assent to the great truths of the gospel;
for it is such a faith as _overcomes the world_, such a faith as _gains
a victory_ over things sensual, and over Satan; such a faith as
evidences a man _to be born of God_. And therefore something more must
be implied in it than a mere belief of the nature and person of Christ,
and the truth of his doctrine.
2. It therefore implies a _betrusting the soul into the hands of Christ,
that he may be our Saviour_. And I have sometimes thought that those
words in the Greek, which we render _faith_ and _believing_ are
continually used in the New Testament, to signify _faith_, a _saving
faith_; because they not only signify, in their natural sense, the
_believing of a truth_, but the _trusting in a person_. They signify
believing the doctrine of Christ, and committing the soul into his hands
as a Saviour, as it is expressed by St. Paul; 2 Tim. i. 12. _I know whom
I have believed, and I am persuaded he is able to keep what I have
committed to him._ To _believe on the Son of God_ therefore, is when a
person, from a sense of sin and danger of eternal death, and his
inability to escape any other way, applies himself unto Christ Jesus, as
the Son of God, the Saviour of the world. When the soul commits itself
into his hands, as one All-sufficient in himself to save, and one
appointed by the Father for this glorious purpose. When the soul is made
willing to be justified by the merits and righteousness of another,
seeing itself unable, by all its own works, to attain to a justifying
righteousness. When the soul is desirous to be sanctified by the grace
that is from above, because it sees the necessity of holiness, and yet
feels itself utterly incapable to renew its own nature, to mortify its
own sins, or to form itself fit for the enjoyment of God and heaven.
When the soul for these ends, puts itself under the care of Christ
Jesus, who is authorised and commissioned by the Father to take care of
sinful and guilty souls, to remove and cancel their guilt by his
sacrifice, and invest them with a perfect righteousness, to begin the
work of grace in them, to fill them with principles of holiness, and by
degrees to fit them for his glory: such a soul is a believer on the Son
of God, and such a soul has the witness in himself, that our religion is
divine, and that christianity is from above.
II. The second thing I proposed to consider, is, _What is the inward
witness that faith gives to the truth of christianity?_
At the first promulgation of the gospel, there were some souls
overpowered with present miracles, attended with a divine light shining
into them. This was such as they could not resist, such as carried
glorious evidence with it, and effectually wrought upon them to believe
that our religion was from heaven, that Christ was the Son of God, and
that his name was the only ground of hope for salvation. This was
miraculous and extraordinary, and not to be expected every day now; such
was the conversion of St. Paul to christianity, and many such instances
of miracles appeared in the first seasons of the gospel.
But the witness that the apostle John speaks of in my text, is such as
belongs to every believer. It is an universal proposition, _He that
believes, has the witness in himself_.
In order therefore to enquire into the nature of this testimony, I shall
not lead you, nor myself into the land of blind enthusiasm, that region
of clouds and darkness, that pretends to divine light. The apostle does
not mean here a strong impulse, an irrational and ungrounded assurance
that our religion is true. Many times these vehement impulses are but
the foolish fires of fancy, that give the enquiring traveller no steady
light or conduct, but lead him far astray from truth. Christianity has a
better witness than this; being such as belongs to every believer, it
must approve itself to the reason of men. And I will endeavour to
explain it thus according to scripture.
Let it first be noted here, that the word _witness_ is used frequently,
by our translators, to signify _testimony_, or _evidence_. Nor will it
create any confusion to use these words promiscuously in this discourse,
while we distinguish them from the _thing witnessed_, (which in the
original, is also μαρτυρια) and is translated the _record_, ver. 10, 11.
Now if we enquire what is that _testimony_ to christianity, or that
_inward witness_ that every believer has in himself, let us consider
what that record is which God has testified concerning his Son Christ
Jesus. That you will find in the context, ver. 11, 12. _This is the
record_ or thing witnessed, _that God hath given to us eternal life, and
this life is in his Son; he that hath the Son of God hath life, and he
that hath not the Son hath not life_. He then that _believes on the Son
of God hath the witness_, or testimony to christianity, in himself, for
he hath within him the _thing testified_. He hath eternal life in
himself, he hath this eternal life already begun, and it shall be
carried on and fulfilled in the days of eternity. By believing in
Christ, we have a glorious testimony, or witness, within ourselves, that
Christ is the Son of God, the Saviour of the world, and the author of
eternal life; that his person is divine, that his doctrine is true, for
eternal life is begun in us.
We shall make this more fully appear, by considering what is _eternal
life_, and shewing how far it is found in every believer, and how it
becomes a witness of christianity in his heart.
Eternal life consists in _happiness_ and _holiness_; it is made up of
these two, and there is such a necessary connection between them, that
they run into one another; but for order-sake, I shall distinguish them
thus:
The happiness of eternal life consists in the pardon of sin, in the
special favour of God, and in the pleasure that arises from the regular
operation of all our powers and passions. Now these three things are, in
some measure, found with every soul that believes in Christ.
The happiness of eternal life consists,——I. _In the pardon of sin_;
thence arises _peace of conscience_. This is a part of heaven; the
perfection of this peace belongs to the heavenly state. Our pardon is
complete on earth, but the sense of this pardon is not complete and free
from all doubts, or at least from all danger of doubting, till we arrive
at full glory. When a soul is made sensible, that all its iniquities are
for ever cancelled, that God will never avenge any of his crimes upon
him, when he knows that this God, who has a right to punish with
everlasting revenge, is at peace, and will demand no more satisfaction
for his sins; this soul then has the beginning of heaven. This is a part
of final blessedness, and of complete eternal life.
Now this is, in some measure, found in believers here: They that have
trusted in the Son of God, begin to find peace in their own consciences,
they can hope God is reconciled to them through the blood of Christ,
that their iniquities are atoned for, and that peace is made betwixt God
and them. This belongs only to the doctrine of Christ, and witnesses it
to be divine: For there is no religion that ever pretended to lay such a
foundation of pardon and peace, as the religion of the Son of God does;
for he has made himself a propitiation; Jesus the righteous is become
our reconciler by becoming a sacrifice: Rom. iii. 25. _Him hath God set
forth for a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his
righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, that he might be
just, and the justifier of him that believes in Jesus: Therefore being
justified by faith, we have peace with God_, Rom. v. 1. _Behold the Lamb
of God, that takes away the sins of the world!_ was the language of
John, who was but the forerunner of our religion, and took a prospect of
it at a little distance: And much more of the particular glories and
blessings of this atonement is displayed by the blessed apostles the
followers of the Lamb.
Other religions, that have been drawn from the remains of the light of
nature, or that have been invented by the superstitious fears and
fancies of men, and obtruded on mankind by the craft of their
fellow-creatures, are all at a loss in this instance, and can never
speak solid peace and pardon.
1. The religion of the _Heathens_, and the best of philosophers, could
never assure us, _Whether God would pardon sin at all, or no_. The light
of nature indeed would dictate thus much, that God is, in his own
nature, gracious, and compassionate, and kind; but whether God would be
gracious to you or me, compassionate to such ill-deserving sinners, as
we are, the light of nature could never determine. It is only the Son of
God, that came down from the bosom of the Father, could so well inform
us how the Father’s heart worked towards such sinners, in the designs of
pardon and reconciliation.
2. Again, the light of nature could never tell us, _how often God would
pardon sinners_. Suppose it could be found out by reason that God is so
compassionate, that he could forgive offences, yet it could never be
inferred how often we would be forgiven; and if he had pardoned us once,
we might for ever despair if we had committed new iniquities: For who
but a divine messenger can tell us, that he will often repeat his
pardons?
3. The light of nature could never inform us _how great the offences
were that could be forgiven_; reason could never tell us, that
rebellions of the biggest size, and treasons of the blackest
aggravation, should be all cancelled; the light of nature could never
say, _All manner of sin, and blasphemy, shall be forgiven to men_. This
the Son of God hath only taught us, who came from the bosom of the
Father, and who laid a foundation for the brightest displays of
pardoning grace.
4. Reason, with all the principles of natural religion, could never
teach us _what we must do to obtain pardon_, and on what terms God would
forgive. Reason indeed might require us to repent of sin, but it could
never assure us, that _he that confesseth, and forsaketh his sins, shall
find mercy_. Nor could it shew us any mediator or reconciler between God
and man, nor how, or in what manner, we must address ourselves to him,
or to an offended God by him; reason could never start a thought of this
strange way of salvation, that we must believe, or trust in another’s
sufferings in order to the pardon of our own sins; that we must depend
on the merits and righteousness of one that died, in order to obtain
forgiveness and life; that _by faith, in the blood of Christ, God will
justify them that believe in Jesus_? What could the light of mere nature
teach us concerning this Jesus? And yet _there is no other name under
heaven whereby we can be saved_; Acts iv. 12.