REMARKS.

From these observations we learn,

1st. That we ought to exercise the utmost care and caution in examining the evidences of our Religion.

How many professors of Christianity have considered the things which I have specified, as decisive proofs, that themselves were good men! Yet, if I mistake not, it has been clearly shown that all of them, united, furnish no solid evidence of this fact. We are just as liable to be deceived as others; and, unless peculiarly guarded, by the very same means. Others have rested their hopes of salvation on these things, as proofs of their religious character, and have been deceived. If we rest on them, we shall be deceived also: for we may possess all these things, and yet not be Christians. In a case of this moment, nothing ought voluntarily to be left at hazard. We are bound by our own supreme interest, as well as our duty to God, to fulfil the command of the text; to examine, and to prove, ourselves, whether we be in the faith; and in doing this, to make use of the best means in our power; to fasten, with as much care as possible, on those things which the Scriptures have made tests of a religious character; and earnestly to pray to God, that we may not be deceived, either by ourselves, or by any others.

2dly. From the same source we learn, also, the impropriety, and folly, of making these things the foundation of our judgment concerning the religious character of others.

Whenever we determine, that others are, or are not, Christians, because they exhibit these as evidences of their Christianity; we are plainly liable to gross error concerning this subject. All these things may be truly testified concerning himself by a Christian; and with equal truth by a person destitute of Christianity. They are, therefore, no proofs of his religion, or irreligion.

Still, a great multitude of professing Christians, many of whom, I doubt not, are really Christians; and all, or nearly all, enthusiastic professors; make these very things, or the want of them, the foundations of their favourable, or unfavourable, opinions of the religious character of others. They resort to them, as to an acknowledged and Scriptural standard, which they do not expect to find disputed; and to question which would not improbably be regarded by them as a proof of irreligion.

What is still more unhappy; among various classes of Christians in this country, these very things; particularly those, mentioned under the first, second, and fifth heads of this discourse; are, if I am not misinformed, not unfrequently made the objects of a public examination of candidates for admission to Christian communion, and the foundations of a public judgment concerning their religious character. To be able to remember the time, when convictions of sin began, with their attendant distresses, and the time, when

they were followed by hopes, consolations, and joys; to have had these occasioned by the sudden, uncontrived, and unexpected influx of certain passages of Scripture into the mind; especially, if, according to a pre-established and acknowledged scheme of Regeneration among themselves, these things have taken place in a certain order of succession; still more especially, if the sorrows and consolations have risen very high; and, most of all, if they are succeeded by distinguished zeal about things pertaining to Religion; are boldly pronounced ample evidence of the candidate's piety. In this manner, there is reason to fear, multitudes are miserably led astray, both by being induced beforehand to labour, that these things may be truly said of themselves; and by settling down in a state of security on this false foundation afterwards.

Nor is the case less unhappy, when persons rest their hopes on their exactness in performing the external duties of Religion and Morality. Yet vast numbers of mankind repose themselves on these, as on a bed of down; and feel satisfied, that God will not finally condemn persons, who have laboured so much in his service. All of them will, however, find in the end, that to such as have done all this, and nothing more, one thing is lacking: viz. an interest in Christ: a thing, without which they cannot be

saved.

3dly. We see the danger of being strongly confident in the piety of ourselves or others.

All, or nearly all, such confidence, so far as I have observed, has been derived from these supposed evidences of Religion; any part, or the whole, of which may be possessed by men totally destitute of Christianity. It is a fatal mark on them all, that the Scriptures have no where alleged them as proofs of religion. As they are not Scriptural proofs, they cannot be sound. To trust in them is to trust in a nullity. Accordingly, those who give the fairest proofs of Christianity in their life and conversation, never make these things the foundation of their hope; and are very rarely found to be strongly confident of their acceptance with God.

To pronounce boldly, that others are Christians, is, in many cases at least, equally hazardous. There are many persons, however, who roundly declare others, of whose life they have had little or no knowledge, to be Christians; and others not to be Christians, whose conduct and conversation give them at least as fair, and often fairer claims to this character. Nay, they will peremptorily make these assertions concerning Ministers of the Gospel; and pronounce some to be sanctified, and others unsanctified, from a sermon or a prayer; or even from the tones of voice, with which they are uttered. Judge not, saith our Saviour, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged; and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. Who art thou, saith St. Paul, that judgest another man's servant? To his own VOL. III.

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Master he standeth, or falleth. It is sufficient, to show the impropriety and rashness of these unwarrantable decisions, that they are founded on no Scriptural or solid evidence. They are generally built on the very things, exploded in this discourse, or others, of still less importance; all of which, united, go not a single step towards proving a religious, or an irreligious character.

SERMON LXXXIX.

EVIDENCES OF REGENERATION.—WHAT ARE REAL EVIDENCES.

2 CORINTHIANS xiii. 5.-Examine yourselves whether ye be in the faith: prove your own selves; know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you except ye be reprobates?

IN the last discourse, I attempted to point out several things which furnish no real evidence of Regeneration, although they have been supposed to furnish it by multitudes in the Christian world. I now propose to mention several other things, which actually furnish such evidence.

By all who believe the doctrine of Regeneration, as formerly taught in these discourses, it must be admitted, that the disposition communicated when this work is accomplished in us, is new; and something, which before did not exist in the soul. If it were the mere increase, or some other modification, of the former disposition, man could not be said to be born again; to be created anew; to be a new creature; to be renewed in the spirit of his mind. It could not be said by St. Paul concerning persons, who were the subjects of Regeneration, that old things were passed away in them, and that all things had become new.

It must further be acknowledged, that this new disposition is, in its nature, opposite to that, which before existed in the mind. The former disposition is Sin; condemned, and punished, by the law of God: the new disposition is Holiness; required, and rewarded, by the same law. The former disposition is hateful in the sight of God: the new one lovely, and of great price.

The former disposition is frequently, and justly, styled Selfishness; as being perpetually employed in subordinating the interests of any, and all, others to the private, personal interests of the individual, in whom it prevails. The new disposition is with the same propriety styled Disinterestedness; Love; Good-will; Benevolence; a spirit, inclining him, in whom it exists, to subordinate his own private interest to the general welfare, and to find his own happiness in the common prosperity of the divine kingdom. The part, the place, and the enjoyments, which God assigns to him as a member of this kingdom, he is inclined to take, not with submission only, but with cheerfulness; as being that, which is ordered by infinite Wisdom, and is therefore the best, and most desirable. This new disposition is also opposed to the former, particularly, as it regards our Maker. The former, or carnal mind is enmity against God; opposed to his character, and to his pleasure the

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new one is conformed to his pleasure, and delighted with his character. He, in whom it exists, delights in the law of God after the inner man; and esteems it as more to be chosen than the most fine gold, and sweeter than honey and the honey-comb.

The former disposition is an impenitent devotion to sin; attended, at times, and after some of its grosser perpetrations, by remorse perhaps, and self-condemnation, but never by a real loathing of the sin itself, nor by that ingenuous sorrow for it, which is after a Godly sort. The new disposition is a real hatred of sin; a sincere, and, if I may so term it, an instinctive sorrow for every transgression of the divine commands, whenever such transgression is present to the view of the mind.

The former disposition was a general spirit of unbelief, or distrust, towards God, his invitations, promises, and designs: a distrust, especially exercised towards the Redeemer, and towards his righteousness as the foundation of our acceptance with God. The new one is a humble, steadfast, affectionate confidence in God, his declarations, and designs; exercised particularly towards Christ, as the Saviour of mankind, the propitiation for sin, and the true and living way to eternal glory. This confidence, or, as it is most usually termed in the New Testament, this faith, is a vital principle in the soul, producing every act of real obedience; every act, in man, which is pleasing to God.

In all these particulars, united, the new disposition is termed Godliness or Piety.

The former disposition is inclined to the indulgence of those lusts, or passions and appetites, which immediately respect ourselves; such as pride, vanity, sloth, lewdness, and intemperance. The new one is opposed to all these; is humble, modest, diligent, chaste, and temperate. In this view, it is styled Temperance, Moderation, or Self-government.

As, in all these things, the spirit, communicated in our regeneration, not only differs so greatly from that, which we possess by nature, but is so directly opposed to it; it must be admitted, that, in all its operations, it carries with it some evidence of its existence in the same manner, as our sinful disposition carries with it evidence of its existence. He who denies, that holiness, in a renewed mind, can be evidenced by its nature and operations, must also deny, either that any moral character whatever can be perceived to exist, or that a holy disposition is capable of the same proof as a sinful one. That this is philosophy, too unsound to be adopted by a sober man, is so evident, as to need no illustration. Indeed, it may be doubted whether any man will openly aver this doctrine; although multitudes assert that which involves it. Certainly, a Sinner, who examines his own heart and life, must discern, that he is sinful with equal certainty, an Angel must discern, that he himself is holy.