8o What dre no Signs PART. IL them, are very affeé°ing and pleaftng to the truly Godly, and fuch as greatly gain their Charity, and win their Hearts. The true Saints have not fuck a Spirit of difcerning, that they can certainly determine who are godly, and who are not. For tho' they know experimentally what true Religion is, in the internal Exercifes of it;; yet thefe are what they can, neither feel, nor fee, in the Heart of another -I-. There is nothing in others, that comes within their View, but outward Manifeftations and Appearances ; but the Scrip- ture plainly intimates that this Way of judging what is in Men by outward Appearances, is at .beft uncertain, and liable to Deceit ; i Sam. 16. 7. T.he Lordfeeth not as ManTeeth ; for Man looketh on the - outward iippearance, but theLord looketh on the Heart. Ifai. it. 3. He ' /hall not judge after the Sight of his Eyes, neither reprove after the Hear- ing ofhis Ears *. They commonly are but poor Judges, and dan- gerous Counfellors in Soul Cafes, who are quick and peremptory in determining Perfons States, vaunting themfelves in their extraordinary Faculty of difcerning and: diffinguifhing, in thefe great Affairs ; as tho' all was open and clear to them. They betray one of thefe three Things ; either that they have had but little Experience ; or are Perfons of a weak Judgment ; or that they have a great Degree of Pride and Self - Confidence, and fo Ignorance- of themfelves. Wife and experienced Men will proceed with great Caution in fuch an Affair. " Men may have the Knowledge of their own Converfion : 4G The Knowledge that other, Men have of it is uncertain ; be- " caufe no Man can look into the Heart of another, and fee " the Workings of Grace there." Stoddard's Nat. of faving c Cony. Chap. 15. at the Beginning. Mr. Stoddard obferves That all vfble Signs are common to con- verted and unconverted ken ; and a Relation ofExperiences among . the reft. appeal to the Learned, p. 7 r. 46 O how hard is.it for the Eye. of Man to difcern betwixt Chaff " and Wheat ! And how manyupright Hearts are now cenfur- CC ed, whom God -will clear ! How many falle Hearts are now " approved whom God will condemn ! Men ordinarily have 44 no convictive Proofs, but only probable Symptoms ; which at moft beget but a conjectural Knowledge of another's State. And' they that (hall peremptorily judge either Way, may " pofbly wrong, the Generation of the Upright, or on the o- ther Side, abfolve and juftify the Wicked. And truly, " confidering what bath beenfaid, 'tis no Wonder that dan- " gerous Miftakes are fo frequently made in this Matter." Flavel's Hufb, fpir. Chap. 12. . When
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