succeed great terrors, and dreadful fears of hell. Some persons lay considerable weight upon this circumstance, regarding great terrors as an evidence of a great work of the law wrought upon the heart, well preparing the mind for solid comfort; not considering that terror, and a conviction of conscience, are different things. For though convictions of conscience often produce terror, they do not consist in it: terrors not unfrequently arise from other causes. Convictions of conscience, produced by the Spirit of God, consist in conviction of the sinfulness, both of the heart and the practice; and of the dreadful guilt of sin, as committed against a God of infinite holiness and strict justice, and who therefore cannot allow it to go unpunished. But there are some persons who have frightful apprehensions of hell, who appear to have very slight convictions of the sinfulness of their hearts and lives. The devil, if permitted, can terrify men, as well as the Spirit of God: it is a work natural to him, and he has many ways of performing it so as to produce no good.

The terrors which some persons experience are very much owing to their particular constitutions and tempers. Nothing is more manifest than that some persons are of such a temper and frame of mind, that their imaginations are more strongly impressed with every thing that affects them, than the imaginations of others would be under similar circumstances. The impression on their imaginations re-acts on their affections and raises them still higher: and so affection and imagination operate reciprocally, till the latter is raised to an extravagant height. Such persons lose all possession of themselves.

Some professors speak of the clear view they have

of their wickedness, who, if we examine them, prove to have little or no convictions of conscience. They complain of a dreadfully hard heart, when in reality they feel none of those things wherein the hardness of the human heart consists. They complain of a dreadful load of sin, and of deep depravity, when they have no view of any thing wherein the heinous nature of sin, and the depravity of the human heart, consist. They tell us how their sins are set in order before them, when in reality they are not penitentially affected by any one sin of which they have been guilty.

If persons have great terrors, which really proceed from the awakening and convincing influence of the Spirit of God, it does not thence follow that their terrors must necessarily issue in true comfort. The unmortified depravity of the heart may quench the Spirit of God, and thus lead to presumptuous and self-exalting hopes.

Again; if comfort and joy not only follow great alarm and terror, but if there is also an appearance of such preparatory convictions and humiliation, arising very distinctly, in such order and in such a way as have frequently been observed in true converts-this is no certain proof that the light and comfort which follow are evangelical and saving; and for these reasons. (1.) As the devil can counterfeit the operations and graces of the Holy Spirit, so he can counterfeit whatever is preparatory to the communications of grace. If Satan can counterfeit those operations of the Spirit of God which are special and sanctifying, much more easily can he imitate those which are common, and of which men, while they are yet his own children, are not unfrequently the subjects. It is abundantly evident that there is false humility, as well as false comfort.

Saul, though a very wicked man, of a haughty spirit, and a great king, when brought, by the conviction of sin, to condemn himself before David, one of his subjects, and one whom he had long hated and treated as an enemy, cries out, "Thou art more righteous than I; for thou hast rewarded me good, whereas I have rewarded thee evil!" And at another time, "I have sinned—I have played the fool, and have erred exceedingly." 1 Sam. 24: 16, 17, and 26: 21. And yet Saul, at that time, seems to have had very little of the divine influences, this being after the Spirit of God had departed from him, and an evil spirit had troubled him. If, then, this proud monarch was brought to humble himself so low before a subject whom he hated, we may doubtless exhibit appearances of great conviction and humiliation before God, while we yet remain enemies to him. There is often, in men who are terrified through the fear of hell, a great appearance of being brought from a dependence on their own righteousness, when they are not in all respects brought from such dependence. They have only exchanged one way of trusting in their own righteousness for another, which is less obvious. Very often a great degree of discouragement, as to some things upon which they were accustomed to depend, is taken for humiliation, and denominated submission to God; though it is no real submission, but arises from some secret compromise which is difficult to be discovered.

(2.) If the operations of the Holy Spirit, in the conviction and comfort of real converts, may be counter feited, the order of them may also be counterfeited When counterfeits are made, no divine power is needed for the purpose of arranging them in a certain order; and therefore no order, or method of operation and experience, is any certain proof of their divinity

(3.) We have no decisive rule by which we can ascertain how far the Spirit of God may proceed in the work of conviction, without producing a real conversion. There is no necessary connection between any thing that a natural man may experience, and the saving grace of the Holy Spirit. And therefore we do not find that any legal convictions, or any comforts following such convictions, in any certain method or order, are ever mentioned in Scripture as a certain proof of grace, or any thing peculiar to the saints; although we do find that gracious operations and effects themselves, are so mentioned times almost without number. This should be enough with Christians: they should be willing to receive the word of God, rather than their own experience and conjectures, as their sufficient guide in judging of their state in the sight of God.

(4.) Experience very powerfully strengthens the conclusion, that persons seeming to have convictions and comfort following each other in such a method and order as may frequently be observed in true converts, is no proof of grace. I appeal, upon this subject, to those ministers who have had much to do with souls in the late extraordinary season. They will affirm, I have no doubt, that they have known many who do not prove well, who gave a fair account of their experience, and seemed to have been converted in that order and method which has generally been insisted on as the order in which the Spirit of God operates in conversion.

And as the appearance of this distinctness and regularity with regard to method, is no certain proof that a person is converted, so the absence of it is no

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decisive evidence that a person is not converted. For though it might be made evident, on Scripture principles, that a sinner cannot be brought heartily to receive Christ as his Savior, who is not convinced of his sin, his helplessness, and his just desert of eternal condemnation; and that therefore such convictions must be some way included in what is wrought in his soul; yet nothing proves it to be necessary, that all those things which are presupposed or implied in an act of faith in Christ, must be wrought in the soul in so many successive and separate works of the Spirit that shall each one be obvious and manifest; on the contrary, sometimes the change at first is like a confused chaos, so that we know not what to make of it. The manner in which the Holy Spirit operates in those who are born of God is very often exceedingly mysterious: the effects only of those operations are discernible. It is to be feared that some have gone too far in attempting to direct the Spirit of the Lord, and to mark out his footsteps for him. Experience clearly shows, that we cannot trace the operations of the Holy Spirit in the conversion of some who afterward prove the best of Christians. He does not proceed discernibly in the steps of any particular, established scheme, by any means so often as is imagined. A rule received and established by common consent, has very great, though to many persons an insensible influence in forming their notions of the process of their own experience. I know very well how they proceed as to this matter, for I have had frequent opportunities of observing their conduct. Very often their experience, at first appears like a confused chaos, but then those parts are selected which bear the nearest resemblance to such particular steps as are insisted on; and these