festations which are professedly derived from such sources. We may also say, that nothing certain can be known from any direct impressions of the Spirit of God upon the mind. We are far from affirming that no such impressions are ever made : for there can be no doubt but that God " sheds abroad his love in the hearts of his people/' and gives them " a spirit of adoption, whereby they cry, Abba, Father," and " by his Spirit witnesses' with their spirits that they are the children of God," and even " seals them by the Holy Spirit of promise unto the day of re- demption." But still, great and glorious as these operations of the Spirit are, they are not sufficient of themselves to prove that God has shewn mercy to our souls : they must have the concurring evidence of good works resulting from them : the feelings themselves may be so closely imitated by Satan, that it shall be impossible for man certainly to dis- tinguish between them : a person of a warm ima- gination and a confident mind may easily be wrought upon by that subtle spirit, so that he shall appear both to himself and others to be eminently distin- guished by manifestations from God, whilst yet he is only under the influence of a Satanic delusion. The evidences whereby alone the work of God upon the soul can be satisfactorily ascertained are,
1. The exercise of gracious affections —
[Love, joy, peace, with aU the train of Christian virtues, are the fruits of God's Spirit alone. They cannot for any length of time be counterfeited : not even Satan himself can produce them. Hence we are told, by our blessed Lord, to look to them as the only certain marks and evidences whereby his people can be distinguished : " By their fruits ye shall know them." Would you then know for certain whether God has had mercy on your souls, and whether the supposed mani- festations of God's love to your souls are genuine, see how the dispensation operates on your hearts and lives. If it lead you to a sense of lively gratitude to God, if it fill you with a deter- mination to serve and glorify liim with all your powers, if it encourage you to commit your every concern to his all-vdse disposal, and if it stimulate you to seek by all possible means the welfare of your fellow-creatures, you may confidently say, " He that hath wrought us to the selfsame thing is God."]