Let me further impress this subject on your minds, by adding,
1. A word of caution —
[The persons who most need to have this subject brought home to their own hearts, are the most backward to bestow a thought upon it ; so blinded are they by the very evil against which they ought to guard. But I would affectionately re- mind them, that confidence in error will not make error cease to be what it is ; and that a pertinacity in error may cause God to give them over to judicial blindness and hardness. We read, that " God gives over some to a strong delusion, to believe a lie, that they may be damned, because they believe not the truth, but obey unrighteousness3." Their " believing a lie" does not make it true ; nor does its being " a delusion" prevent their being " damned" for yielding to it. O brethren ! provoke not God so to abandon you ; but beg of him to give you more simplicity of mind, and to put " truth in your inward parts."]
a 2 Thess. ii. 11, 12.
2. A word of advice —
[You know, that in natural substances there are a great variety of component parts, which are hidden from the natural eye ; but which, as we have before hinted, may, by a chemical process, be brought to view. By the application of certain tests, the parts may be separated, and new combinations of them be formed. In like manner, by the application of tests to your souls, you may discover the hidden principles of your hearts. See what it is to which your mind has an affinity : mark what it embraces; and what, on coming into contact with some other thing, it is disposed to relinquish. There are both " flesh and spirit" in the renewed man; and, by diligent observation of the way in which they are called into action, and of the degree in which they operate, you may ascertain your real character before God. If the world drives out spiri- tual considerations, and more tenaciously occupies the mind, you will see reason for self-abasement before God. If, on the contrary, the blessed truths of the Gospel readily fill your mind, and exclude the world, then have you reason for gi-atitude and thanksgiving. We are assured that " they who are after the flesh, do mind, and savour, the things of the flesh ; but they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit." " Try then yourselves" by these tests, and " examine" carefully your state before Godb: for, "if your own heart condemn you, God is greater than your heart, and knoweth all things ; but if your heart condemn you not, then have you confidence towards God."]
b loKiixu'Cert, 2 Cor. xiii. 5. and again 1 Thess. v. 20.