children of God and may confidently regard ourselves
as such, we do not learn from ourselves nor from the Law. We learn it
from the witness of the Spirit, who, in spite of the Law and of our
unworthiness, testifies to it in our weakness and assures us of it.
This witness is the experience within ourselves of the power of the
Holy Spirit working through the Word, and the knowledge that our
experience accords with the Word and the preaching of the Gospel. For
thou art surely aware whether or no, when thou art in fear and
distress, thou dost obtain comfort from the Gospel, and art able to
overcome thy doubts and terror; to so overcome that thy heart is
assured of God's graciousness, and thou no longer fleest from him,
but canst cheerfully call upon him in faith, expecting help. Where
such a faith exists, consciousness of help must follow. So Saint Paul
says, Rom 5, 4-5: "Stedfastness worketh approvedness; and
approvedness, hope: and hope putteth not to shame."

25. This is the true inward witness by which thou mayest perceive
that the Holy Spirit is at work in thee. In addition to this, thou
hast also external witnesses and signs: for instance, it is a witness
of the Holy Spirit in thee that he gives thee special gifts, acute
spiritual understanding, grace and success in thy calling; that thou
hast pleasure and delight in God's Word, confessing it before the
world at the peril of life and limb; that thou hatest and resistest
ungodliness and sin. Those who have not the Holy Spirit are neither
willing nor able to do these things. It is true, that even in the
Christian, these things are accomplished in great weakness; but the
Holy Spirit governs them in their weakness, and strengthens in them
this witness, as Paul says again: "The Spirit also helpeth our
infirmity." Rom 8, 26.

HEIRS OF GOD.

"And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with
Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also
glorified with him."

26. Here, then, thou hast the high boast, the honor and the glory of
the Christian. Leave to the world its splendor, its pride and its
honors, which mean nothing else--when it comes to the point--than
that they are the children of the devil. But do thou consider the
marvel of this, that a poor, miserable sinner should obtain such
honor with God as to be called, not a slave nor a servant of God, but
a son and an heir of God! Any man, yea the whole world, might well
consider it privil