322 ~> PETER, 1. ID. [~2i23.
it, as Job did under a similar impression of the manifold grace of God, " If I had called to God, and lie had answered me (and told me by an audible voice from heaven that Christianity was true), yet would I not believe that he hearkened to my voiceV As Peter, when actually liberated from prison, "wist not that it was true, but thought he saw a vision," so, when we have the actual experience of the Gospel salvation in our own souls, it actually seems at times to be " a dream V But it is no dream, no cunningly- devised fable ; but a glorious reality. Of this the Apostle was well assured. He had received the most positive evidence of it from his owrn senses. He had seen his Lord transfigured upon the holy mount : and had heard the testimony which the Father had borne to him by an audible voice from heaven ; " This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well- pleased0." But, however satisfactory this evidence was to him, it could not be so convincing to others, because it depended solely on the testimony of him- self and the other two Apostles who were admitted to that sight, and because the inferences which he drew from what he had seen and heard would not commend themselves with the same force to others as they did to him. But there were other grounds on which all might feel the same assurance as he himself did. There was " a more sure word of pro- phecy," which every one might examine for himself, and of which every one who did examine it was com- petent to judge. This no man could weigh without being convinced by it : he might as well doubt his own existence, as doubt the truth of Christianity, if only he examined the prophecies with a candid mind.
It is my intention to shew you,
I. The evidence of our religion as founded on pro- phecy—
Verily it is " a sure word," that may well be
a Job ix. 16. b Ps. cxxvi. 1. c ver. 1G — 18.