Each of these Divine 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 acquiescence in him as the Saviour of men ; and requiring us at the peril of our souls to "hear" and receive him in that character11. Moreover, in raising Christ from the dead, he yet more em- phatically 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 hime."
The Lord Jesus Christ continually bore witness to himself. When asked, " If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly ;" he an- swered, " I have told you, and ye believe me notf." " Before Pontius Pilate he witnessed the same good confession g," though he knew that it would issue in his death. After his resurrec- tion, 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 hellh."
The Holy Spirit also bore witness to him, when he descended 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 give1; and at this very day, when any are converted to the faith, it is owing to the testi- mony which the Holy Spirit bears to Christ ; " the Spirit tes- tifies of him," and thereby produces conviction or consolation in the soulk.
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
d Matt. iii. 17. and xvii. 5. and John xii. 28. e Rom. i. 4. { John x. 24, 25. s I Tim. vi. 13.
h Rev. i. 18. and iii. 14. ' Acts x. 44, 45.
k John xv. 26. and xvi. 7—11.