OWN SELVES; KNOW YE NOT YOUR OWN SELVES, HOW THAT JESUS . CHRIST IS IN YOU, EXCEPT YE BE REPROBATES?

2 CORINTHIANS XIII. 5.

HAVING in a long series of Discourses considered the doctrine of regeneration, its antecedents, attendants, and consequents; I shall now proceed to another interesting subject of theology; viz. the evidences of regeneration.

In the text, the apostle commands the Corinthian Christians. to examine and prove themselves;' and states the purpose of this examination to be to determine whether they were in the faith.' He then inquires of them, Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?' In the original, except ye be adoxo, unapproved ; unable to endure the trial of such an examination. From this passage of Scripture it is plain, that it was the duty of the Corinthians to examine themselves concerning their Christian character; and that this examination was to be pursued by them so thoroughly, as to prove, so far as might be, whether they were, or were not, in the faith; whether Christ did or did not dwell in them by his Holy Spirit.

That which was the duty of the Corinthians is the duty of all other Christians. That which is the duty of all Christians, it is the duty of every minister to aid them in performing. To unfold the evidences of religion in the heart is therefore, at times, the duty of every minister; and to learn them, that of every Christian.

In attempting to perform this duty at the present time, I shall endeavour to point out,

I. Some of the imaginary evidences of religion.

II. Some of its real evidences.

III. Some of the difficulties which attend the application of the real evidences of religion to ourselves.

I. I shall endeavour to point out some of the imaginary evidences of religion.

By imaginary evidences, I intend those which are sometimes supposed to be proofs of its existence, but have this character through mistake only; evidences which may be, and often are, found in the hearts and lives both of the saint and the sinner; things on which it is dangerous to rely, because they do not evince in any degree either a holy or an unholy character. It will not be expected that I should enter into a minute and detailed account of a subject which has occupied formal treatises, and filled volumes. Considerations of particular importance can alone find a place in such a system of Discourses. To them therefore I shall confine myself; and even these I must necessarily discuss in a summary manner. With these preliminary remarks, I observe,

1. That nothing in the time, place, manner, or other circumstances, of a supposed conversion, furnishes ordinarily any solid evidence that it is, or is not, real.

It is not uncommon for persons, and for Christians among others, to dwell, both in their thoughts and conversations, on these subjects; and to believe that they furnish them with comforting proofs of their piety. Some persons rest not a little on their consciousness of the time at which they believe themselves to have turned to God. So confident are they with regard to this subject, that they boldly appeal to it in their conversation with others, as evidence of their regeneration. "So many years since," one of them will say, "my heart closed with Christ. Christ was discovered to my soul.

The arm of mercy laid hold on me. I was stopped in the career of iniquity. I received totally new views of divine things." Much other language, of a similar nature, is used by them; all of which rests ultimately on their knowledge of the time at which they suppose themselves to have become the subjects of the renewing grace of God.

There is reason to believe, derived however from other sources, that these apprehensions may sometimes be founded in truth; in other instances there is abundant proof that they are founded in falsehood. But that which may easily be either false or true, as in the present case it plainly may, can never safely be made the ground of reliance; especially in a concern of such moment.

Other persons appeal with the same confidence to the manner and circumstances of their supposed conversion, as evidences of its reality. Thus one recites, with much reliance, the strong convictions of sin under which he was distressed for a length of time; the deep sense which he had, of deserving the anger and punishment of God; his disposition readily to acknowledge the justice of the divine law in condemning him, and of the divine government in punishing him; his full belief that he was among the worst of sinners; and the state of despair to which he was brought under the apprehension of his guilt. Of all these things it may be observed, that, although convictions of sin generally, of the nature here referred to, always precede regeneration; yet, in whatever form or degree they exist, they are not regeneration. They cannot therefore be proofs of regeneration. He who has them, in whatever manner he has them, will, if he proceed no farther, be still in the gall of bitterness.'

But the same person, perhaps, goes on farther; and declares, that while he was in this situation of distress, when he was ready to give himself up for lost, God discovered himself to him as a reconciled God; and filled his mind with new, sudden, and unspeakable joy; that he had a strong and delightful sense of the divine mercy in Jesus Christ, of the wonderful compassion of Christ in consenting to die for sinners, in being willing to accept of sinners, and particularly in being willing to accept of so great a sinner as himself; that he found his heart going forth in love to God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, to the word and ordinances of God, and to

the church of Christ; and that this state of mind was new to him, being constituted of emotions which he never felt before. On these things therefore he reposes, as supporting evidence that he is a Christian.

All this is, in my own view, a just account of what really' takes place in the conversion of multitudes; and, did it exist in no other case, would undoubtedly furnish the very evidence here relied on without any sufficient warrant. The defect in this scheme lies in the fact, that these very emotions are experienced by multitudes who are not Christians. That a person who has been the subject of extreme distress under convictions of sin and the fear of perdition should, whenever he begins to hope that his sins are forgiven, and his soul secured from destruction, experience lively emotions of joy, is to be expected as a thing of course: and that whether his hopes are evangelical, or false. All men must rejoice in their deliverance from destruction, whether truly or erroneously believed by them; and all men who have had a distressing sense of their guilt and danger will, under a sense of such a deliverance, experience intense emotions of joy. All men, also, who really believe that God is become their friend will love him. All will love the word of God who consider it as speaking peace and salvation to themselves. This joy and this love, it is evident, are merely natural; and are felt, of course, by every mistaking professor of religion. Love to God and to divine things is a delight in the nature of these objects, independently of any personal benefit to which we feel entitled from them.

Another person places confidence in the greatness of the effects which his sense of sin, and his hope of forgiveness, produced both on his body and mind. He will inform you, with plain consolation to himself, that his distressing apprehensions of his guilt sunk him in the dust, and caused him to cry out involuntarily; deprived him of his strength, and for a time perhaps of the clear exercise of his reason; caused him to swoon; and almost terminated his life. Much the same effects, he will also observe, were produced in him by his consequent discoveries of the divine mercy. These overwhelmed him with transport, as his convictions did with agony. The extraordinary nature, and especially the extraordinary degree, of these emotions, furnishes this man with the most consolatory proof that he is a child of God.

On this I shall only observe, that as these emotions may be, and often are, excited by natural as well as evangelical causes; so, when thus excited, they may exist in any supposable degree. The agonies and the transports, the agitations of body and of mind, prove indeed the intensity of the feelings experienced; but they do not in the least degree exhibit either their nature or their cause; and cannot therefore be safely relied on as evidences of religion.

A third person will tell you, that while he was in a state of absolute carelessness, and going on headlong in sin, he was suddenly alarmed concerning his guilt and danger by a passage of Scripture, which came to his mind in a moment, without any thought or contrivance of his own; and perhaps that, after he had long wearied himself to find an escape from the wrath of God, another text of Scripture, also without any contrivance of his own, came as suddenly to his mind, conveying to him bright views of the divine mercy and glorious promises of salvation. The reliance of this man is placed especially on the fact, that these texts came to his mind without any effort on his part, either to remember or to search after them. He therefore concludes that they were communicated to him directly by the Spirit of God; and that they conveyed to him a direct personal promise of eternal life. This is mere delusion. Passages of Scripture, and those just such as are here referred to, come often suddenly, and without any labour of theirs, to the minds of multitudes who are not Christians; and God is no more immediately concerned in bringing them to the mind in this case, than when we read them in the Bible, or hear them from the desk. What God speaks in the Bible he always speaks, and speaks to us; but he addresses nothing to us, when we remember, any more than when we read or hear his words. If we rely on the true import of what he says, we rely with perfect safety: but if we place any importance on the mode in which at any time that which is said comes to our minds, we deceive ourselves. The whole of our recollection in these cases is a merely natural process; and is the result of that association of ideas by which memory is chiefly governed, and which brings to our remembrance in the very same manner thousands of other things, as well as these texts of Scripture; of which however, as being of little importance to us, we take no notice.

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