Nor is their testimony at all more than the subject requires —
[If God himself had not revealed such things, who could ever hare imagined them P who could ever have thought of God becoming incarnate, and, by his own death, expiating the guilt of his own creatures ? Who could ever have devised a plan so calculated to exalt the perfections of God ; so suited to answer the necessities of man ; and so efficacious to renew
us after the Divine image ? Besides, supposing these
things to have been reported, ivho ivoidd ever have believed them, if they had not been thus Divinely attested ? Notwith- standing the testimonies given by the Sacred Three, there is yet reason to adopt that reiterated complaint, " \Mio hath believed our report * ? " Professions of faith indeed abound amongst us ; but a true Believer, whose feelings and conduct accord with his professions, is *' a sign and a wonder " in Christendom itself ^]
It remains yet to be declared,
III. In what manner they bear record —
Each
* ver. 11. ' Isai. liii. 1, John xii. 38. Rom. x. \6.
^ Isai. viiL 18.
Each of these Divme Persons has borne record at divers times, and in different manners —
[The Father thrice bore witness to Christ by an audible voice from heaven ; declaring at the same time his acqui- escence in him as the Saviour of men,; and requiring us at the peril of our souls to "hear" and receive him in that charac- ter ^ Moreover, in raising Christ from the dead, he yet more emphatically testified, that he had discharged the debt for which he had been imprisoned in the grave, and was " able to save to the uttermost all that should come unto God through him*^."
The Lord Jesus Christ continually bore witness to himself. When asked, " If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly ; " he answered, " I have told you, and ye believe me not *." " Be- fore Pontius Pilate he witnessed the same good confession V though he knew that it would issue in his death. After his resurrection, he called himself " the true and faithful witness," and testified, " I am he that was dead and am alive again, and have the keys of death and of hell ^."
The Holy Spirit also bore witness to him, when he de- scended in a bodily shape, like a dove, upon him : And again, when he came down in the likeness of fiery tongues upon the Apostles, and converted three thousand to the faith of Christ. Similar testimonies he still continued to give ^ ; and at this very day, when any are converted to the faith, it is owing to the testimony which the Holy Spirit bears to Christ ; " the Spirit testifies of him," and thereby produces conviction or consolation in the soul '.
Thus the Sacred Three bear record in heaven, and by their united testimony encourage our acceptance of the salvation offered us in the Gospel.]
Infer,
1. How unreasonable and dangerous is unbelief !
[If only men, who are credible and competent witnesses, attest a thing, we think it right to believe them. What an insult then is it to the Sacred Three to doubt their testimony ! Yet this, alas ! is the treatment which their record meets with in the world. Some reject it as " a cunningly-devised fable ;" while others, professing a regard to it in general, deny the most important part of it, the necessity of being saved by Christ alone. Even those who in their hearts approve the
Gospel,
•= Matt. iii. 1 7. & xvii. 5. & John xii. 28. ^ Rom. i. 4.
•John x.24,25. ' 1 Tim. vi. 13.
« Rev. i. 18. & iii. 14. ** Acts x.^4, -13.
' John XV. 26. & xvi. 7—11.