_c_. Our guilt is that of substituting _another spirit_ for Him: the _Anti-spirit_ in league with Anti-christ. It may be said that I go nigh to affirm that our work may possibly be the working of Satan, if it be not of the HOLY GHOST. My brethren, I mean quite to say it. For of all evil men, who are instruments of Satan for seduction, false apostles and ministers are the most so. And the more apparently holy they are, the more diligent to put on the form of godliness when they have not the power,—the more they _imitate_ the love, the meekness, the humility, the self-denial of CHRIST,—and profess, at the same time, that it is by the HOLY GHOST that hereunto they have attained; the more awful is their reception of Satan _for_ the HOLY GHOST. Am I not right in saying, that errors in principle and in doctrine are quite as full of guilt in the sight of GOD as sins of the flesh? They are sins of the mind, it is true: but are the sins of purely intellectual evil spirits less than the sins of men, because they are sins of minds and not of fleshly bodies? And is Satan to be gently dealt with, and not rather the more indignantly repulsed, when, and because, he comes as an angel of light? He is the very best imitator in the universe, and will be amiable in commending heresies to men. And you may take him to your hearts in the very resemblance of the SPIRIT of GOD Himself, and assume that you possess the holy anointing of that blessed SPIRIT; and hence may issue the most deadly perversions of the truth of GOD, under the most amiable guise. You may be making an unction to yourselves, _like_ unto the holy anointing oil, under that curse of GOD, that you “shall be cut off from His people.” {42} Consider the guilt and danger! * * * * * IV. We are now prepared to come to the consideration of our fourth point; _That the possession of some accrediting proofs of the presence of the HOLY GHOST is essential to our most important interests_. Am I a true minister of JESUS CHRIST, or am I not? And if I am, is all as it should be with me? Have _I full proof_ that _my_ ministry is a participation in the “ministration of the SPIRIT,” or have I not? Is He present with me at all? Is He present with me in all that fulness and power, that is most justly and rationally and earnestly to be desired? What are the most certain credentials or proofs of this?