THE ESSAY ON THE SIGNS OF CONVERSION AND UNCONVERSION IN Ministers of the Church, TO WHICH THE SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE AND CHURCH UNION IN THE DIOCESE OF ST. DAVID'S ADJUDGED THEIR PREMIUM FOR THE YEAR 1811. SECOND EDITION. Lest having preached to others, I myself become a cast-away. BY SAMUEL CHARLES WILKS, A. M. OF ST. EDMUND HALL, OXFORD. London: PRINTED FOR J. HATCHARD, BOOKSELLER TO THE QUEEN, NO. 190, OPPOSITE ALBANY, PICCADILLY. PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. As a young man, an under-graduate, and a layman, the writer feels that some apology is necessary for the following publication. He can only observe, that it was very far from his intention to obtrude himself on the public as an author; but having been informed by the Bishop of St. David's, the President of the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge and Church Union in his Lordship's Diocese, that the Society had adjudged a premium to this Essay, and intended to publish it, he conceived that it would have been affectation, and not modesty, to have started objections on the subject. "Conversion, in a religious sense, has two significations. It means either conversion from Paganism to Christianity (with which this Essay has no concern); or conversion from one state of Christianity to another, which is the subject of this Essay. By Baptism we are redeemed, through the death and merits of Jesus Christ, from the curse of original sin; and are placed in a state of grace by admission into the Church of Christ, and to its inestimable privileges. From this state we may fall by sin committed after Baptism. From this fall we may also recover by repentance and newness of life, through the assistance of God's Holy Spirit. They who do not recover, are in an unconverted state. In this unconverted state, it is possible that a person may remain even to the time of his admission into holy orders. He may be unconscious of his state; it is therefore a matter of the highest moment and interest to him and to the people committed to his charge, to suggest the most probable means of exciting in the mind of such a Minister (if |