III. Some signs of Godliness

3. I have withstood the power of convictions a long time; and therefore I fear I shall be finally left of God. 4. I never shall be converted, without stronger convictions, and greater terrors of conscience. 5. I do not aim at the glory of God in any thing I do, and therefore I cannot hope for mercy. 6. I do not see the evil nature of sin, nor the sin of my nature; and therefore I am discouraged. 7. The more I strive, the more blind and hard my heart is, and the worse I grow continually. 8. I fear God never showed mercy to one so vile as I. 9. I fear I am not elected, and therefore must perish. 10. I fear the day of grace is past with me. 11. I fear I have committed the unpardonable sin. 12. I am an old sinner; and if God had designed mercy for me, he would have called me home to himself before now.

THIRD PAPER.

Some signs of godliness. The distinguishing marks of a true Christian, taken from one of my old manuscripts; where I wrote as I felt and experienced, and not from any considerable degree of doctrinal knowledge, or acquaintance with the sentiments of others in this point. 1. He has a true knowledge of the glory and excellency of God, that he is most worthy to be loved and praised for his own divine perfections. Psalm. cxlv..3. 2. God is his portion, Psal. lxxiii. 25. And God’s glory his great concern, Matt. vi. 22. 3. Holiness is his delight; nothing he so much longs for, as to be holy as God is holy. Phil. iii. 9-12. 4 Sin is his greatest enemy. This he hates, for its own nature, for what it is in itself, being contrary to a holy God, Jer. ii. 1. And consequently he hates all sin, Rom. vii. 24. 1 John iii. 9. 5. The laws of God also are his delight, Psal. cxix. 97. Rom. vii. 22. These he observes, not out of constraint, from a servile fear of hell; but they are his choice, Psal. cxix. 30. The strict observance of them is not his bondage, but his greatest liberty, ver. 45.

A SERMON 442