Secondly, Let me apply myself to those who deceive themselves with false hopes of salvation. Some, through the influence of a good education, or other providential restraints, have not run into the same excess of riot with other men, and they think they have no need to receive the Holy Ghost, but flatter themselves that they are really born again. But do you show it by bringing forth the fruits of the Spirit? Do you pray without ceasing? Do you not commit sin? Have you overcome the world? And do you love your enemies, and all mankind, in the same manner, as Jesus Christ loved them? If these things, brethren, be in you and abound, then may you have confidence towards God; but if not, although you may be civilized, yet you are not converted: no, you are yet in your sins. The nature of the old Adam still reigns in your souls; and unless the nature of the second Adam be grafted in its room, you can never see God.George Whitefield, "Sermon XLII: Marks of Having Received the Holy Ghost," in The Works of the Reverend George Whitefield (London: Printed for Edward and Charles Dilly, 1772), 6:171.
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