take place under the light of the gospel, were to prove genuine. The five foolish virgins in the parable, seem to represent those professors, who think they have experienced a gracious change of heart: who flatter themselves, that though dull now, nothing is wanting but to trim their lamps, to make them burn and shine. The stony ground, in the parable of the sower, represents those who appear to have a joyful conversion, yet they have no root in themselves. The dog disgorging his vomit, and then returning to it again; and the washed sow returning to her wallowing in the mire, represent apparent, but not genuine conversions. Perhaps, we ought to rank among this class those spoken of in the sixth chapter of Hebrews, as having been once enlightened, and tasted of the heavenly gift.

Instances are frequent, even up to the present day, of delusive conversions, as is proved by the fruit which follows; for bad fruit is proof of a bad tree. To fill the world full of such conversions, and the church full of such converts, "hell is stirred from beneath." The wiles of the devil in this one thing are multiform. Satanic conversions are of many sorts: but they all agree in this, that they are false and worthless. They resemble a true conversion in this, that there is first an alarm sounded, the conscience is awakened, and fears of future punishment are excited; and then succeed peace, joy and hope. In these conversions there is no real change of nature. The devil well knows that it is the nature of every sinful creature to love himself supremely, and to be pleased with his own exaltation. He knows

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also that our hearts are deceitful above all things.. He knows that a sinner, under the greatest alarm about the concerns of another world, has still a perfect aversion to disinterested religion, or a real change of heart; and yet that he would give all the wealth of the Indies, if they were his, to purchase a state of peace and safety. With great anxiety and distress of soul, the sinner cries out, What shall I do to be saved ? Satan hears his groans, and sees his tears, and is anxious to afford him speedy relief, not that he might be saved; but that by means of a false confidence of his salvation, he might make his damnation the more sure, This arch-deceiver knows that all which is necessary to allay the alarm of the sinner, and give ease to his troubled mind, is to make him believe that he is not to be miserable, but happy, in another world. To effect this he has many very subtle devices. Could we have a true history of all his delusive conversions, there would no doubt be an almost endless variety inthem. But the most of the spurious conver. sions are capable of being classed under a few general heads. The following may be some of them,

1. Dreams. There is reason to conclude, that very many have been deceived with a dreaming conversion. Dreams are either common, coming, as the wise man observes, through the multitude of business; or they are extraordinary, being impressed by other agents upon our senses while we are asleep. They may be produced immediately by the supreme Agent; or by the instrumentality of good, or of evil spirits. From the scripture we learn, that the Lord

has frequently revealed himself to men by dreams. This manner of revealing himself, has not been confined to good men. Wicked men have had such communications, and remained wicked still. Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and his chief butler and baker, had such communications made to them, without their hearts being thereby re newed. It is perfectly within the reach of Satan's power, to help us to a dream; and he can help us to a pleasant, as well as an uncomfortable dream; and for the sake of deceiving us, it is natural to expect that he will do it. If he can make any impressions on the imagination, he can as easily impress the image of light, as of darkness; of heaven, as of hell; of Christ, as of himself. He knows, that dreaming of light, does not make us children of the light; that dreaming of heaven, will not prepare us for that holy place; and that dreaming of Christ, will not make us christians. But he hopes that by such pleasant dreams, and especially by an assemblage of them, we shall fancy ourselves the favorites of heaven. Suffer me, my hearers, on such an interesting subject, to be very particular. Suffer me to expose the wiles of the devil, by introducing some cases which have fallen within my knowledge, in which, I think, there is much reason to believe, his subtilty has been concerned. I recollect the case of a man, who had a very extraordinary dream concerning the invisible world, first having hell, and then heaven discovered to him, with an assurance, that he should at length come to heaven. And to make it more remarkable, he had the same dream twice in the same night. He was very much affected with his dream. It produced at first quite a sen. sible effect upon his conduct. Among other ef. fects, I believe, it was the means of introducing prayer into his family. He sought the company of the Lord's people, and was admitted into their holy communion: But from what I have since learned, the enduring fruit, that great evidence of a thorough change, has not been evident. Suffer me here to mention another similar case. I knew a man in the western country, who had been quite inattentive to religion, and not very moral in his life, who, in a time of some religious attention, dreamed that he saw a rock with pure water proceeding from the bottom of it. He thought a heavenly messenger directed him to drink; and that upon doing this, he was greatly refreshed. He was then directed to go and invite a particular neighbor of his, whose name was mentioned to him, to come and drink. When he awoke he was much affected with his dream; he went to his neighbor pointed out to him in the dream, and to others, to invite them to drink of the rock. All thought, Surely this man must be a new creature. But it took but a little time to make it manifest, that the water which he drank did not flow from the Rock, Christ; because it did by no means prove to be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. There is very little reason to doubt, but that this dream was produced by him, of whom our text speaks, as transformed into an angel of light. His design, in producing such an image upon the mind of this man while asleep,

was evidently this; to make him think that he had drunk of the water of life. And his making this water appear to spring from the foot of a rock, was peculiarly calculated to deceive; since the scripture represents grace as water flowing from Christ, who is called a Rock. But though the dream was specious, where was there any thing solid in it? Does it need a change of nature, to dream of a rock, and of water proceeding from it, and of our being refreshed by drinking of this water? Where in all the word of God, is such a thing mentioned, as an evidenee, that a man is born of the Spirit? It is in view of dreams, put in opposition to the word of God, that we have this solemn question, "What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the Lord.”

2. Visionary discoveries made to those awake, is a satanic wile, by which many graceless souls are led to entertain raised hopes of their interest in the promises. This was probably among the ways in which Satan tempted Christ, when he showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. By the frequent instances, which occurred when Christ was on earth, of persons possessed of the devil, it is clear, that evil spirits have some power to affect the animal nature of man. The imagination is eminently the seat of their temptations. They can so work on the brain, the seat of all the five senses, that sudden and transient effects will be produced like seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling and feeling. These may be termed visionary appearances. There is nothing of a holy nature in them, however many, and wonderful, and unexpected they