9 4 ermon 4. wrong grounds ; yet, I fay,in fome particulars he may be deluded ; as in taking fuch or fuch an error to be a truth; and fo the firft three grounds and rifes of a deluded Confci. ence, which we formerly affigned, may agree to him : As, he may lay too much weight on carnal reafon,and on com- mon gifts, as fore of the Galatians did, and the apoffles themfelves were in hazard to do ; and therefore our Lord faith to them, Luke io. zo. Rejoice not in this, that the fpi- rits are fubjecg to you, but that your names are written in heaven. He may alto lay too much weight on fenfe or comfort ; and the reafon may be, becaufe, when God gra- cioufly condefcendeth to give them now and then fome proof that he loveth them, they being in fo far defected, draw a conclufion quite crofs to the defign and end of that manìfefation, as if he approved them in that particular wherein they are miffaken : For, as a believer,when he is right, may think himfelf to be wrong, becaufe of the want of fenfe ; fo, by the rule of contraries,he may think himfelf to be right, becaufe he hath much fenfe, when yet he may be wrong. I (hall, for further clearing, inftance it in five or fix Cafes : As, t . When a believer hath been in fome tender frame, praying to God fincerely, and bath got- ten a hearing, and when force fmiling providence meet- eth him, and inviteth him to fide with fuch or fuch a thing, he is ready to think that God calleth him to that thing : Or, it may be the Chriftian, after prayer, meets with a fcripture that holdeth out that thing which he bath been praying for,whence he rafhly draweth the conclufion, that he will obtain it, and is ready to think, that therein he walks according to reafon, if the thing look rational- like to him, and fuit the nature of his prayer ; we may fee fomething of this,or very like it,in Samuel, if we com- pare the 15. and 16. Chapters of the firft book of Samuel together ; in the end of the i 5. Chapter he bath very pro - bably been praying when he mourned; and, chap. 16 v. 1. he is fent by God to Bethlehem, to anoint one of Jeffs s fens to be king ; and when, v. 6. he looketh on Eliab, he prefently,and foniewhat rashly, yet very confidently,faith, surely the Lord's anointed is before him : He having been praying, and the thing looking fo rational and purpofe- like, was perfwaded that he was right; but the proverb
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