him " words, whereby he and all his household should be saved a." If that instance be thought doubtful, we will adduce two others that admit of no doubt. The Rich Youth in the Gospel thought he had " kept all the commandments from his earliest youth :" and Paul, while he was a Jew, " had walked before God in all good conscience," and had been, " touching the righteousness of the law, blameless." But neither the one nor the other of these was led by the Spirit: the one renounced Christ rather than his richesb ; and the other was converted only by a miraculous interposition of the Lord Jesus c. From hence it is evident that men may be honest, and upright, and conscientious, and yet have no just reason to conclude them- selves children of God.
Again, a person is not necessarily led by the Spirit because he has experienced a change in his views and affections. Doubt- less, every Christian has experienced such a change : but the like is said of "the stony-ground hearers;" who not only received the word so as to inform their understanding, but so as to kindle in their hearts a lively joy d. Though therefore we may be moved under a sermon, and find as much pleasure in it as Ezekiel's hearers e, yet this is no satisfactory evidence of our conversion to God.
Further, a person is not necessarily led by the Spirit, because he makes an open profession of religion. For though every true Christian will confess Christ openly, yet " the thorny-ground hearers " also do the same ; and it is worthy of notice, that they are represented as never relinquishing their profession^ Though therefore we may openly join ourselves to the Lord's people, and be numbered amongst them by others, and bear reproach for our attachment to them, and bring forth fruit which resembles theirs, yet all this will be no decisive proof that we are led by the Spirit, or that we have any part in the Christian's salvation.]
2. We will propose some marks which will distin- guish the true Christian from every other person under heaven —
[We may be sure that we are led by the Spirit, if we come daily to Christ as perishing sinners. No formalist or hypocrite can do this : he may talk about it, but he cannot do it : he has not that brokenness of heart, that contrition, that sense of his extreme need of mercy, which are necessary to bring him thus to Christ. There is in all unconverted persons an insuperable reluctance to come to him in such an humiliating way, a re- luctance that nothing but an Almighty power can overcome.
a Acts. xi. 14. b Matt. xix. 20 — 22. c Acts ix. 1 — 6.
d Matt. xiii. 20. e Ezek. xxxiii. 32. f Matt. xiii. 22.