7° What are no Signs PART H. from their Confidence, how great and firong foever it Teems to be. If we fee a Man that boldly calls God his Father, and commonly 'peaks in the muff bold,familiar and appropriatingLanguage in Prayer, illy Father, my dear Redeemer, my fweet Saviour, my Beloved, and the like,--and it is a common Thing for him to tire the moll confident Exprel ions before Men, about the Goodnefs of his State ; filch as, I know certainly that God is my Father ; I know fo furely as there is a God in Heaven, that he is my God ; I know Ifhall go to Heaven, as well as ifI were there ; I know that God is now manif f irg himfelf to my Soul,and is now frilling upon me : And feems to have done forever with any Enquiry or Examination into his State, as a Thing fufficiently known, and out of Doubt, and to contemn all that fo much as inti- mate or fuggeft that there is fame Reafon to Doubt or Fear whether all is right ; fuch Things are no Signs at all that it is indeed fo as he is confident it is *. Such an over-bearing, high- handed and violent Sort " fidence of your Integrity : All this may be right, for ought " that I, or (it may be) you know : But yet,it is poffible it may GC be falle allo. You have fometimes judged your felves, and " pronounced your felves upright ; but remember your final 4,G Sentence is not yet pronounced by your Judge. And what " if God weigh you over again, in his more equal Balance, and ci fhould fir, Mane, Tekel. Thou art weighed in the Balance, " and art found wanting ? What a confounded Man wilt thou " be, under fuch aSentence ! . use fplendert inGonfpeRuHominis, " fordent in Confpet7u fudicis ; Things that are highly efteerned " of Men, are an Abomination in the Sight of God : He feeth " not as Man Teeth. Thy Heart may be falle, and thou not " know it : Yea, it may be falle, and thou ftrongly confident " of its Integrity ". Flavel's l àuclyione of Sincerity, Chap. 2. See. 5. " Some Hypocrites are a great deal more confident than many " Saints ". Stoddard's Difcourfe on the [Fay to know Sincerity and Hypocrify, p. 128. " Doth the Work of Faith in fume Believers, bear upon its top " Branches, the full ripe Fruits of a bleffed Affurance ? Lo, " what ftrong Confidence, and high-built Perfwafions of an In- " tereft in God, have fometimes been found in unfandtified cc Ones. Yea, fo ftrong may this falle Affurance be, that they " dare boldly venture to go to the Judgment Seat of God, and " there defend it. Doth the Spirit of God fill the Heart of the " affured Believer with Joy unfpeakable and full of Glory, gi- virig them, thro' Faith, a-Prelibation or Foretafte of Heaven " it
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