and inquiry force us to give, but he never can be the Saviour of our immortal souls.

3dly, The apostle assures us, that he who believes in a saving manner hath the witness in himself. Not the witness of "the Spirit with his spirit, that he is born of God;" for if we read the whole verse, we shall find that St. John is speaking to another point. "He that believeth," says he, "on the Son of God, hath the witness in himself; he that believeth not God hath made him a liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son." And what is this record? It is the Bible. Is it not, then, the meaning of the writer, that he who believes the Bible properly, has an assurance from on high, that it is the word of God? Such being, as we suppose, the import of the passage, it is proper to say one word concerning the nature of this assurance. As it is not the witness of the Spirit with our spirits that we are united to Christ, what kind of witness is it? Some, perhaps, will imagine, that it is one and the same thing with faith. But this cannot be strictly true, because there are times when a Christian's faith is very weak, and his hopes low and expiring, and yet his belief of the sacred Scriptures will be as strong as ever. We shall see, however, brethren, by a moment's reflection, that this witness, although not faith itself, is a necessary result from it. For as long as I firmly believe a thing, it is plain there can be no uncertainty respecting it in my own mind. Now, if I believe the sacred Scriptures in a saving manner, and if this belief be the gift of God, does it not follow, that God, at the same time that He imparts the belief, must also remove from my mind all uncertainty respecting the sacred Scriptures, or, in other words, must give me an assurance that they are true? And here we find an answer to a celebrated objection against professors of religion. "If," says the objector, "an infidel. should be reasoning with a Christian against the sacred

Scriptures, and if the Christian should be fairly beaten in the argument, why does he not, as an honest man, give up the Bible, till he can find better grounds on which to defend it?" Because, my brethren, that Christian has the witness in himself. No matter how illiterate he may be, or how easily puzzled in maintaining his opinions, he cannot doubt what he has been taught by the Spirit of God. Nor is this wilful stubbornness; it arises from the construction of the human mind, and in similar cases the result will always be the same. Suppose, for example, a person were now to appear, who should pretend to a knowledge of the heart; sup. pose he were to tell one of you all the purposes you had formed, all the secret thoughts and desires you had cherished from the cradle, could any arguments, however specious, or any facts, however unanswerable, convince you that this man was an impostor? No; the whole world could not do it. This, then, is one important reason of the Christian's settled belief in the sacred Scriptures. They show him his own heart, its propensities and its guilt; they inform him exactly what he has been, and what he now is; they exhibit just such a Saviour as he wants; in a word, they teach him more about God, and about himself, than he had ever imagin. ed before. And all these truths, too, are impressed on him by the Holy Spirit. No wonder he cannot doubt. His confidence is a gift of the covenant of grace. It grows out of the nature of religious things, and is fixed as the everlasting hills. For these reasons, seconded by the testimony of sacred Scriptures, we lay down the assertion again, that every pious man has an infallible witness in himself of the truth of Christianity. And indeed, brethren, might we not presume beforehand, that if God designed to give a revelation to His creatures, adapted to the capacities and conditions of all, He would accompany it with some such witness? For how few men are there who can, at a moment's warning, marshal the great principles of reasoning against the objections of scepticism and wit? Where would be our Chris. tians, if each of them must be able in subtlety, argument, or intelligence, to contend with David Hume or Lord Shaftes. bury? No! when we read that God is no respecter of per. sons; that to the poor the gospel is preached, and not merely to the disputers of this world, it is the dictate of common sense, that this gospel must in some way carry the stamp of its own divinity with it. Suppose our salvation depended upon believing the science of astronomy, can you imagine that the majority of men could investigate the evidences of the revolution of the earth, the fixedness of the sun, or any similar truth? If not, they must either yield a blind assent, or the Creator must impart to this truth some quality which shall be in itself convincing. Let us, then, apply this to the subject of religion. Let us contemplate the actual construc. tion of society, and ask if, instead of being astonished that the Christian has the witness in himself, we should not rather be astonished if God had left him without it.

Thus much for antecedent probability. With this accords the whole scope of inspiration. It is the "Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth." "But ye have not so learned Christ, if so be that ye have heard him, and been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus." "God hath revealed unto us by His Spirit the things that He hath prepared for them that love Him." "It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God." But we need not multiply proof. If our text stood alone in the sacred volume, it would remain eternally true, that "He that believeth hath the witness in himself." And what, my brethren, has experience to say on the point at issue? I am pressing this subject farther, for the use of those with whom a Christian's faith, especially if found in the lower classes of society, passes for enthusiasm; who stigmatize him with the name of bigot, fanatic, adherent of the Church, and a thousand other epithets, as foolish as they are profane:-just as if the joke of impiety, or the sneer of laughing ignorance could move a Hope anchored on the Rock of Ages.

We repeat it then,-What has experience to say? Examine the testimony of pious men from the first century to this very Sabbath. I do not mean all who have laid claim to piety, but I mean those who are known by their fruits,-men of that cool and cautious character which does not affirm things at random, -men, in a word, whose assertion the boldest infidelity dares not disbelieve. Ask them, if they have not, in their own breasts, a witness of the truth which no enthusiasm could occasion and no reasoning impart? They will answer yes. They will say, that whatever doubts they may have of their personal piety, they are never permitted deliberately to doubt the Bible. And shall their reiterated and overwhelming testimony go for nothing? If it does, we must abandon the common rules of judging, and be infidels in spite of ourselves. Cast your eyes one moment over the annals of our religion. Either the witness of which we speak must have been granted to the children of God, or Christian history is an exhibition of human nature, totally new and unheard of. Begin with the apostolic age, and inquire what kind of evidence that must be which was sealed with so much suffering and death. Behold the cells of Roman dungeons, crowded with the incarcerated disciples of Jesus. Survey the preparations of the wheel, the scourge, the instrument of stifling, and every refinement of torture which ingenuity could devise. See the stake thronged by primitive martyrs, writhing amidst its fires. And follow up the course of events-I had almost said, follow it by the track of blood: every-where you may find the friends of the Redeemer hunted down with prices on their heads; every-where you may see Heathen altars covered and smoking with Christian holocausts; and this, too, with a cessation horribly rare, from the middle of the first century to the opening of the fourth, when the fury of the tempest was in mercy arrested. Now, let me ask, why does that man, enfolded in flames, leave his dying testimony to the truth of the Gospel? Why does another, with every limb dislocated, with his eyes starting from their sockets, with his nerves and arteries torn up by the pincers, with weeping, entreating, imploring relatives around him,-why does he persist in his opinions, and expire with Blessed be God on his lips? And these men in every other situation are sober, judicious, and well-informed men! It is because they have the witness in themselves. Let it not be retorted against this reasoning, that Pagan religions, as well as our own, have had their martyrs. The two cases are not parallel. To die in attestation of what we can fairly prove to be true, and to die in attestation of what may be fairly proved to be false, are different things; for, in believing something which is really false, we must, as to that point, be ignorant. And hence it is, that Heathen martyrdoms, (and we appeal to history for what we say) in every country, and every age, have been owing to the most deplorable ig. norance. Only let the disciple of Juggernaut be once instructed, and he never will think of throwing himself under the wheels of his idol. But what instruction will you give a Christian for such a purpose? Has not Christendom always been the most enlightened portion of mankind, and from it have not Christian martyrs been selected? And yet, with all their light, all their advantages, all their good sense, multitudes of the pious have been compelled, and the rest have held themselves ready, to seal their faith in the Gospel with their blood. Is it then remarkable, to believe