The Inward Witness to Christianity

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.

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