SERMON LXXXVIII.

EVIDENCES OF REGENERATION.-WHAT ARE NOT 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?

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; and

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,

1st. 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 conversation, 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 apprehensions 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 evidences, 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.

VOL. III.

3

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 Scriptare; of which however, as being of little importance to us, we take no notice.

Other persons depend much on the regularity of the process with which their distresses and consolations have existed; and in the conformity of them to such a scheme, and history, of these things, as they have found in books, or received from the mouth of acknowledged and eminent Christians. In the Sermon on the Antecedents of Regeneration, I observed, that this work is in its process almost endlessly various. But, in whatever manner it exist, the manner itself is of no consequence. Should we have exactly the same succession of distresses and consolations, experienced by ever so

many of the most distinguished saints, and yet our affections, instead of being Evangelical, be merely natural; the order of their existence could never prove, that we were Christians: for we should still be sinners. The nature of these affections, and not the order, is the great concern of all our self-examination.

2dly. Zeal in the cause of Religion is no evidence, that we are, or are not, Christians.

Men, we all know, are capable of exercising zeal in any case, in proportion to the degree of interest, which they feel in that case. We also know, that there is a zeal, which is not according to knowledge. All persons, naturally ardent, become zealous about every thing, in which they are once engaged; and, especially, when they are opposed. Christians are zealous in the cause of Religion: Deists and Atheists, in the cause of Infidelity: Jews, in that of Judaism: Heathen, in that of Idolatry. The Ephesians were zealous for the worship of the great Goddess Diana: St. Paul and his companions, for that of the true God: the Anabaptists at Munster, for the wild reveries taught by their leaders: and thus concerning innumerable others. Nothing is more evident, than that zeal was not, in the most of these cases, any proof of piety in those, by whom it was exercised.

As zeal itself, so the degree in which it exists, is no proof of vital religion. There have been multitudes of persons, whose zeal has prompted them to court persecution. It is not uncommon for members of small and despised sects to believe, that the sufferance of persecution is a decisive characteristic of the true Church of God;" and to solicit it, as decisive evidence, that they themselves are members of this Church. With these views, they sedulously construe all the kinds, and degrees, of opposition, with which they meet, into persecution. In this manner they regard the sober argumentation, with which their opinions are refuted; the most dispassionate exposures of their folly and their faults; the most just operations of law, directed either against their crimes, or to the preservation of the rights of others; nay, even that abstinence from communion with them in their worship, and that refusal to further their designs, which they, on their own part, claim as indefeasible rights of man. Such persons ought to remember, that all, or nearly all, classes of Christians, even those whom they most oppose, nay, that Infidels, and Atheists, have been persecuted, and that the modern Jews have been more persecuted, than any other sect, party, or people, now in existence. The sufferance or persecution, therefore, is no proof, that we belong to the true Church. Still more ought they to remember, that St. Paul hath said, Though I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing.

3dly. No Exactness in performing the External duties of Religion furnishes any evidence, that we are, or are not, Christians.