Page:A Beacon to the Society of Friends.djvu/141

SER. VIII. baptized, shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned." Mark, xvi. 15, 16.

"These are written, that

ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, and that believing ye might have life through his name." Jno. xx. 31.

On the authority of the word, see further under Ser. II. Ex. 3.

It is moreover plain, from the following passage, that to believe on the Son of God is necessary, before we can have the witness [or evidence] in ourselves. "If we receive the witness of man, the witness of God is greater: For this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: He that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son."

Now what is "the record which God hath given of his Son?" Is it not the whole written revelation of the Spirit of God, concerning Jesus Christ our Lord, as the one appointed way to eternal life? And are not the expressions, believing on "the Son of God," and "believing the record which God hath given of his Son," equivalent? It is, however, to be feared that some persons suppose believing in Christ to be something very different from that belief of the concerning Christ, which implies its cordial reception into the heart, where working by love, it purifies the heart, and produces the "fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God."