our receiving the Spirit: as in the first age it was a means of their receiving the spirit of miracles and wonders: and that spirit and holiness is again a means of our increased belief; even by testifying objectively to us the verity of the promise, which we find thus fulfilled in ourselves; and therefore God will have us to have the witness in ourselves.

Reas. 4. It is God's purpose, in possessing his people with his Spirit, to make them the living monuments of his truth and goodness, that they may bear upon them his image and superscription; and as he is honoured by the truth and purity which is found in his laws, so will he be by the like excellencies that are found in his saints. They shall also be everlastingly employed in his praises, which must proceed from a heart that is filled with the lively sense of his goodness, and from a clear understanding of that for which they praise him, and therefore they must have the witness in themselves.

Sect. IV.

Use. If all true believers, having the Spirit of Christ, have the witness of the truth of the Gospel in themselves, we may hence be informed, how great an advantage such true believers have, above all other men in the world, for the resisting and overcoming of temptations to infidelity, and for a clearer discerning, and faster holding of the truth of the christian doctrine. Among others, you may observe the difference in these particulars following.

1. Unbelievers have a testimony indeed without them, but it is but without them, and therefore not so near at hand for their use; but believers have it engraven on their very hearts, and as near to them as the very motions and inclinations of their own souls.

2. Unbelievers, therefore, have but an external light and object, without an inward light, or eye to discern them for this, which is the witness within, is also the power of discerning the testimony, which is without. But the sound believer hath this visive power, and the light within to fit him to receive that from without. Like will to like. You may easier draw water to water, and by a place where water is before, than to or by the dry ground. You may more easily kindle fire, where fire is before, than where is none. The first degrees dispose to the reception of more. There is something in the eye that hath a nearer likeness and connaturality to the light without us, pro

ceeding from the sun, than the hands or feet, or other parts have, or else the eye would see no more than they. And there is something in a holy, believing soul, which is thus kin to the truth of the Gospel, which is without us, and therefore doth fit the soul to entertain it.

3. The true believer, therefore, hath a double testimony; one without, and one within: but the unbeliever hath but the single external testimony alone.

4. The witness within us, is more sensible and affecting. That which lieth as near us as our own hearts, is liker to work more effectually and deeply, than that which is at a greater distance.

5. The witness within us is still at hand, when the temptation comes such Christians do carry their armour about them. They live still in arms. Whenever the tempter assaulteth them to stagger at God's promises, through unbelief, they have arguments in their own hearts to answer the temptation: so that they are not likely to be found unprovided, as other men are. Men's Bibles may be out of the way; their teachers may be out of the way; their memories may fail them, if they trusted only to these. The reasons which one day a little moved them, may be forgotten the next day; or they may forget where the chief strength of them lieth; or they may receive them with greater prejudice or disadvantage, as being staggered or perplexed with what is said or suggested to the contrary. But the settled, habituate testimony within us, is not so much liable to changes ; though, I know, that through temptations and distempers of soul, this also may sometime be much obscured. But yet it hath a great advantage of the other.

6. The witness within us is a permanent witness. It will go with us, which way soever we go; it will accompany us through all straits and difficulties to the end: but the external testimony may be taken from us. Men may take from us our Bibles, our teachers, and our friends; or they may imprison us, where we cannot enjoy them: but they cannot take from us the Spirit of Christ.

Consider, therefore, I beseech you, Christians, first, how great a mercy it is, that you have received; secondly, and how you ought to improve this mercy?

Sect. V.

1. And first, it may easily appear to you to be a very great mercy, if you do but consider these things following:

First, consider what it is that this testimony doth witness. within you. It is the doctrine of your redemption and deliverance, by the Son of God, and of your future glorification in the fulfilling of his promises. If the happy news of man's recovery by a Mediator, should not have been true, then were we all still in our sin, and our faith and hope were but vain and delusory. "If Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain; yea, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God, that he raised up Christ; whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not for if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised; and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins: then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ, are perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable: but now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first-fruits of them that slept." (1 Cor. xv. 14, 16, 17.) What hope or consolation have we, but what depends upon the truth of the Gospel. If these glad tidings should fail us, all fails us. What else doth give us assurance of a future felicity? And without that, how wretched and despicable a creature is man; and how low and base are all the transactions and passages of his life, if they be not ennobled by their respects unto that end! Even the blindest infidel that denieth the truth of the Gospel, methinks, should easily confess the goodness of its promised happiness; and therefore see cause to wish that it were true, unless, as he hath brought himself under its terrors.

You see, then, it is the best news that ever came to the ears of man, that is attested to you by the witness within you: it is that which may cause you to live in hope, and peace, and joy; and to die in hope, and peace, and joy, while you believingly look to a blessed immortality, and upon your resurrection, as secured in the resurrection of Christ, and his promise of yours. Other men may confess that the truth of this is desirable; but you have the truth of it witnessed in your own hearts: to carry about with you such a witness, is to carry about the matter of continual joy. The same Spirit which is your sanctifier is your comforter, at least, by maintaining in you the grounds and

fit matter of consolation. How happy is such a soul that hath not only the voice behind him, saying, This is the way, walk in it; but also the witness within him, that this voice is divine, and telling him of the end, which by that way he may attain. No wonder if the life of such a man be as a continual feast, and if he have a peculiar joy, as he hath a peculiar testimony, even such as the stranger meddleth not with.

Sect. VI.

Obj. But if all believers have such a consolatory witness in themselves, first, why are so many of them still troubled with doubtings, even about the truth of God's testimony? Secondly, Why are so many of them so dejected and disconsolate, and live as pensive, and sad a life as others?

Answ. 1. One reason is, because they do, by quenching and grieving the Spirit, too commonly hinder the fulness of the work, wherein this inward testimony doth consist; and so the Gospel is written on their hearts, in so small a character, that it is not easy to read and understand it; besides the many blots which it receives by some provoking transgressions. They that cheerfully obey the Spirit in his teaching and guidance, and receive the fuller character of the Gospel upon their hearts, and so are more fully conformed to their Head, "being transformed by the renewing of their minds, that they may prove what is the good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God." (Rom. xii. 2.) These have a stronger and more confirmed belief, and usually the sweet effects of that belief, in a greater measure than others do obtain.

2. Yet, because this testimony, which all believers still have, is but objective; that is, such a work on their own souls, which is a sufficient evidence of the truth of the Gospel; it may be often overlooked, and the belief and comforts not obtained, which yet, in its kind, it is sufficient to afford: for it is not in every kind, but in its own kind, that the evidence is sufficient; and therefore doth suppose the concurrence of other necessaries. There must be a studious observation of this record, and, to that end, a keeping it from blots: and the same spirit, which dwelleth in us for sanctification, must excite the soul to this observation and improvement, and help us to read these evidences in ourselves : so that in a neglected, distempered heart, when there is naturally still a remnant of sin, and confusion, and accidentally more confusion; and when men are so strange to themselves, as

most of us are, and so little addicted to self-converse, and so little acquainted with it, and cast also so many impediments in their own way, and draw a veil over their evidences. What wonder if we do too defectively reap the fruit of them, and if such have yet much staggerings at the promise of God, and much disquietness and sadness in themselves?

3. And for consolation, it is not the highest, nor the most necessary part of the Spirit's works; and therefore he oft layeth it by, when so doing is necessary to the promoting of our sanctification, and will oft trouble us, or suffer us to be troubled, that he may heal us of that which is the cause of our trouble, and would else trouble us for ever. Though it be his office to be the Comforter, yet he doth not always comfort, because he must, by sorrow, prepare for seasonable, well-grounded comfort. You may have an expert physician with you, who may go on. successfully in the cure, and yet not always give you present ease, but sometimes give you that which will irritate the disease, and increase your pain. Though the kingdom of God doth partly consist in joy in the Holy Ghost, yet as sorrow doth frequently prepare the way, so is it by sorrows frequently clouded and interrupted.

The witness within us, then, is a standing cause of consolation; but yet if through our folly we mar our own comforts, and make not use of the matter of them within us, or occasion the Spirit to leave us unto sadness, for the killing of some sin, and the promoting of our holiness; this is not a reason to question the inward testimony, but to reprehend our own folly and neglect.

Sect. VII.

2. It may further appear how great a mercy it is to have this witness in ourselves, by the earnest desires of believers to have more of it, when they have experience of the advantage of that measure, which they have obtained. When a Christian, in temptations, hath had recourse to the Gospel written in his heart, and hath had some support and confirmation by that witness in himself, though the voice were very low, and the characters but obscure, oh, how glad would he be of a further degree of that evidence! Could he hear that voice speak louder, and see the evidence of that transcript more clearly, it would be sweeter to him than to win the whole world. When the tempter would hide Christ and his grace from our eyes, what a comfort is