SELF ENQUIRY OF WHAT GOD HAS WROUGHT BY GEORGE WHITEFIELD

“It is God wounds the soul, and it is he that heals it; has he wrought in thee not only a deep and humbling sense of the outward acts of sin, but a humbling sense of the inward corruptions of thy heart? has he led thee be­yond the streams, through the powerful opera­tions of his Spirit, to the fountain head?”NUMBERS xxiii. ver. 23.‘According to this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, what hath God wrought?’WHEN I read you, my dear hearers, these words; when I consider what occasion, and by whom they were originally spoke, I cannot help thinking of that trium­phant expression of the royal Psalmist, Why do the heathen rage? When Pontius Pilate and the Jews conspire to destroy the cause of God, he that sitteth in heaven laughs them to scorn: the Lord not only has them in derision, but over­rules even their malice and violence (no thanks to them) to promote that very cause they at­tempted to destroy; so that 'tis a very wrong maxim, and argues great ignorance in us, to imagine that God never brings about his de­signs by the means and instrumentality of wicked men. This is the Papists objection a­gainst the reformation: great pains have been taken to blacken the reformers, and to make it believed that a reformation could not be good that was begun by people of bad charac­ter, and a king of an immoral life. But so far is this from eclipsing, that it illustrates the wisdom and goodness of divine Providence, in obliging the wicked to do what they never designed, and over-ruling their counsels for the fulfilling God's holy, wise, and sovereign decree. Now hath God wrought in you? hath even given this conviction to you; not a little flight now and then, or a qualm of thy conscience; the devil and natural con­science may do this; but when it is wrought in thy heart by the Spirit of God, it goes to the bottom, the arrow sticks fast, and a poor soul sometimes endeavours to pray, endeavours to pull it out, but in vain. Hath God wrought this in thy soul? now when God works this change in the soul, the devil is always busy in tempting the poor convicted sinner to despond if not despair. Ignorant formalists, who are some of the worst people under heaven, when a person is under conviction, think the devil is got into them, whereas the devil is in them­selves; for the devil hoodwinks people, and he endeavours to persuade them, that there [...] no harm done to God by sinning against him. It is God wounds the soul, and it is he that heals it; has he wrought in thee not only a deep and humbling sense of the outward acts of sin, but a humbling sense of the inward corruptions of thy heart? has he led thee be­yond the streams, through the powerful opera­tions of his Spirit, to the fountain head? when he has done so, then are we Christians indeed; and this cannot be the work of the devil, who never did, nor do I know whether he can, show a person the inward corruptions of his heart; it must be the Spirit of God: the devil may frighten a person, as to outward things, but I very much question whether it is in the power or will of the devil to show a person that he is totally depraved, that the whole fountain is corrupt; this cannot be, because this would make the devil omnipotent, of equal power with the Holy Ghost, who alone shows thee the guilt and corruption of thy heart. This I have found to be the fact, from thirty years observation and experience of thousands, thousands, thousands with whom I have spoken about their hearts. Some people think that they only lived in the times of the apos­tles. Do you know, vipers and toads have the most eggs and most numerous progeny? if you was to see the eggs of a…and the Pharisees are an in­creasing generation of vipers, which hatch and spread all over the world: if you want to know what a Pharisee is, he is one who pre­tends to endeavour, and talks about keeping the law of God, and does not know its spirit­uality;