The rule of faith, or, An exposition of the Apostles Creed so handled as…

1. To examine themselves whether they have the Holy Ghost or not, 2 Cor. 13. 5. Rom. 8. 9. Now the Holy Ghost doth discover himself to be in the heart of a man by these signs, all or some of them. As first, by the combat it raiseth in the heart against the flesh, Gal. 5. 17. if there be an internal worker within us, that doth constantly oppose and strive against the secret corruption that is in our nature, without doubt it is the Holy Ghost. Secondly, by the taste and savour it breeds in us about spiritual things: for if the Holy Ghost be in a man, his taste for earthly things is marred, and he hath a sensible taste of the things of the Spirit, accounting nothing more savoury than holy things; such as are the Word, Prayer, Sacraments, godly society, and such like, Rom. 8. 5. Thirdly, by the victory over the power of sin: If the Holy Ghost be in us, though we may have sin, yet we are freed from the law of sin; our corruptions do not rule and reign as they were wont to do, Rom. 8. 2. The body is dead in respect of sin, Rom. 8. 10. The Holy Ghost doth daily set us a work in killing of sin, one after another as they arise, Rom. 8. 13. and this is done by the duties of mortification; thus we are washed in the tears of repentance by the Holy Ghost, 1 Cor. 6. 11. and this sign is the more clear, when it reacheth not only to the deeds of the body, but to the sins of the heart. It is an infallible sign of the Holy Ghost, if a man have felt the circumcision of the heart, that is, if he have voluntarily implied himself, in the painful resisting and cutting off, of secret evil in the ⟨p. 551⟩mind and affections,