II. 6. By the present marks may we easily distinguish a child of God from a presumptuous self-deceiver. The Scriptures describe that joy in the Lord which accompanies the witness of His Spirit, as an humble joy; a joy that abases to the dust, that makes a pardoned sinner cry out, 'I am vile! What am I or my father's houes! Now my eye sees You, I abhor myself in dust and ashed!' And wherever lowliness is, there is meekness, patience, gentleness, long-suffering. This is a soft, yielding spirit; a mildness and sweetness, a tenderness of soul, which words cannot express. But do these fruits attend that supposed testimony of the Spirit in a presumptuous man? Just the reverse. The more confident he is of the favour of God, the more he is lifted up; the more he exalts himself, the more haughty and assuming is his whole behavior. The stronger witness he imagines himself to have, the more overbearing is he to all around him; the more incapable of receiving any reproof; the more impatient of contradiction. Instead of being more meek and gentle and teachable, more 'swift to hear and slow to speak,' he is more slow to hear and swift to speak; more unready to learn of any one; more fiery and vehement in his temper and eager in his conversation. Perhaps there will sometimes appear a kind of fiercenes in his air, his manner of speaking, his whole deportment, as if he were just going to take the matter out of God's hands and himself to 'devour the adversaries.'

7. Once more: the Scripture teach, 'This is the love of God,' the sure mark thereof, 'that we keep his commandments (1 John v.3). And our Lord Himself says, 'He that keeps My commandments, he it is that loves Me (John xiv 21). Love rejoices to obey; to do, in every point, whatever is acceptable to the beloved. A true lover of God hastens to do His will on earth as it is done in heaven. But is this the character of the presumptuous pretender to the love of God? No, but God's love gives him liberty to disobey, to break, not keep, the commandments of God. Perhaps, when he was in fear of the wrath of God, he did labour to do God's will. But now, looking on himself as 'not under the law' he thinks he is no longer obliged to observe it. He is therefore less zealous of good works; less careful to abstain from evil; less watchful over his own heart; less jealous over his tongue. He is less earnest to deny himself, and to take up his cross daily. In a word, the whole form of his life is changed, since he has fancied himself to be at liberty. He is no longer 'exercising himself unto godliness'; 'wrestling not only with flesh and blood, but with principalities and powers,' enduring hardships, 'agonizing to enter in at the strait gate.' No; he has found an easier way to heaven, a broad, smooth, flowery path, in which he can say to his soul, 'Soul, take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.' It follows, with undeniable evidence, that he has not the true testimony of the witness of his own spirit. He cannot be conscious of having those marks which he has not; that lowliness, meekness, and obedience: nor yet can the Spirit of the God of truth bear witness to a lie; or testify that he is a child of God, when he is manifestly a child of the devil.

8. Discover yourself, you poor self-deceiver!