Many think it is like some voice, or suggestion, or inspiration within them, saying, Thou art the Child of God. And so many Christians languish in terrors, that feel no such persuading Spirit in them. And many Hypocrites are deluded ⟨p. 513⟩by the persuasions of their own imaginations. But in Scripture, the word witness is oft taken for [evidence] or an objective testimony: And the Spirits being a witness, and being a seal, an earnest, a pledge, a white stone, a new name, &c. are all of the like signification: And the meaning is, By this we know that we are the children of God, or that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us, 1 John 3.10.24. & 4.13. And if any one have not the Spirit of Christ, the same is none of his, Rom. 8.9. As if he should say, have you the Spirit of Christ, or have you not? if you have, that is a seal, an earnest, a pledge of Gods Love, and of your heavenly inheritance, and a certain evidence or witness that you are his children, Gal. 4.6. He that loveth God as his Father in Christ, and is sanctified to God, hath the Spirit. Show this Love, and this Sanctification, and you produce the true witness that you are the heirs of life. Holiness, and Heavenliness, and Love, is the witness, seal and earnest; and not chiefly an inward persuasion that we are Gods children.
Many think it is like some voice, or suggestion, or inspiration within them, saying, Thou art the Child of God. And so many Christians languish in terrours, that feel no such perswading Spirit in them. And many Hypocrites are deluded ⟨p. 513⟩by the perswasions of their own imaginations. But in Scripture, the word witness is oft taken for [evidence] or an objective testimony: And the Spirits being a witness, and being a seal, an earnest, a pledge, a white stone, a new name, &c. are all of the like signification: And the meaning is, By this we know that we are the children of God, or that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us, 1 John 3.10.24. & 4.13. And if any one have not the Spirit of Christ, the same is none of his, Rom. 8.9. As if he should say, have you the Spirit of Christ, or have you not? if you have, that is a seal, an earnest, a pledge of Gods Love, and of your heavenly inheritance, and a certain evidence or witness that you are his children, Gal. 4.6. He that loveth God as his Father in Christ, and is sanctified to God, hath the Spirit. Shew this Love, and this Sanctification, and you produce the true witness that you are the heirs of life. Holiness, and Heavenliness, and Love, is the witness, seal and earnest; and not chiefly an inward perswasion that we are Gods children.
