Precious faith considered in its nature, working, and growth

And from hence he may have an experimental proof of Christs Incarnation, the Mystical Union being a proof of the Hypostatical, and God manifest in the Spirit of God manifest in the Flesh. St. John lays down this as a glorious Truth, That Jesus Christ is the Son of God, 1 John 5.5. and for proof of it he produces six Witnesses; Three in Heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, ver. 7. and Three on earth, the Spirit, and the Water, and the Blood, ver. 8. By the Spirit we may understand the holy Spirit breathing in the Scripture, and witnessing in the heart; by the Water the sanctifying Graces and those sealed in Baptism; and by the Blood the precious Sufferings of Christ which pacify the Conscience: A Believer may experience all these three Witnesses on Earth, and so may experience the Incarnation of Christ. But to go on unto this of the Incarnation, I shall add two instances more touching Christ; the ⟨p. 364⟩one is his Death, and the other is his Resurrection: The experiment of both is emphatically set forth by St. Paul, That I may know him, and the power of his Resurrection, and the fellowship of his Sufferings, being made conformable to his Death, Phil. 3.10. Tune recte cognoscitur Christus, saith Calvin, dum sentimus quid valeat Mors ejus & Resurrectio; Then we truly know Christ, when we feel the power of his Death and Resurrection in our own hearts. Jesus Christ died for us, His Soul was an offering for Sin, his Life [Greek or Hebrew], a Ransom for many; He satisfied Gods Justice, opened a door of Mercy, and procured the effusion of the holy Spirit; and all this Faith may experiment. In the calms of Conscience the Believer may feel the atoning Blood of Christ, purging his heart from dead works to serve the living God; In the mortifying of Lusts he may find a secret virtue from Christ crucified, enabling him for the work; In all the sweet gales and operations of the holy Spirit he hath a proof of that meritorious Passion which procured them; and when he stumbles and falls into sin and drives away that Spirit for a time, in its return he hath a proof, that Christ is a Priest after the Power of an endless life. The vexed grieved Spirit might utterly forsake such faltering backsliding Creatures as we are, and leave us desolate for an habitation of Devils and unclean spirits for ever;