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Chapter 18. Of the Assurance of Grace and Salvation

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Chapter 18. Of the Assurance of Grace and Salvation

I. Although hypocrites and other unregenerate men may vainly deceive themselves with false hopes and carnal presumptions of being in the favor of God and estate of salvation,359 which hope of theirs

shall perish:360 yet such as truly believe in the Lord Jesus, and love him in sincerity, endeavoring to walk in all good conscience before him, may in this life be certainly assured that they are in a state of grace,361 and may rejoice in the hope of the glory of God, which hope shall never make them ashamed.362

II. This certainty is not a bare conjectural and probable persuasion, grounded upon a fallible hope;363 but an infallible assurance of faith, founded upon the divine truth of the promises of salvation,364 the inward evidence of those graces unto which these promises are made,365 the testimony of the Spirit of adoption witnessing with our spirits that we are the children of God:366 which Spirit is the earnest of our inheritance, whereby we are sealed to the day of redemption.367

III. This infallible assurance doth not so belong to the essence of faith, but that a true believer may wait long, and conflict with many difficulties before he be partaker of it:368 yet, being enabled by the Spirit to know the things which are freely given him of God, he

may, without extraordinary revelation, in the right use of ordinary means, attain thereunto.369 And therefore it is the duty of every one to give all diligence to make his calling and election sure;370 that thereby his heart may be enlarged in peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, in love and thankfulness to God, and in strength and cheerfulness in the duties of obedience, the proper fruits of this assurance:371 so far is it from inclining men to looseness.372

IV. True believers may have the assurance of their salvation divers ways shaken, diminished, and intermitted; as, by negligence in preserving of it; by falling into some special sin, which woundeth, the conscience, and grieveth the Spirit; by some sudden or vehement temptation; by God's withdrawing the light of his countenance, and suffering even such as fear him to walk in darkness and to have no light:373 yet are they never utterly destitute of that seed of God, and life of faith, that love of Christ and the brethren, that sincerity of heart and conscience of duty, out

of which, by the operation of the Spirit, this assurance may in due time be revived,374 and by the which, in the mean time, they are supported from utter despair.375

Footnotes

  1. 359

    Job viii. 13, 14; Micah iii. 11; Deut. xxix. 19; John viii. 41.

  2. 360

    Matt. vii. 22, 23; [Am. ed. Job viii. 13].

  3. 361

    1 John ii. 3; iii. 14, 18, 19, 21, 24; v. 13.

  4. 362

    Rom. v. 2, 5.

  5. 363

    Heb. vi. 11, 19.

  6. 364

    Heb. vi. 17, 18.

  7. 365

    2 Pet. i. 4, 5, 10, 11; 1 John ii. 3; iii. 14; 2 Cor. i. 12.

  8. 366

    Rom. viii. 15, 16.

  9. 367

    Eph. i. 13, 14; iv. 30; 2 Cor. i. 21, 22.

  10. 368

    1 John v. 13; Isa. l. 10; Mark ix. 24; Psa. lxxxviii. throughout; lxxvii. to ver. 12.

  11. 369

    1 Cor. ii. 12; 1 John iv. 13; Heb. vi. 11, 12; Eph. iii. 17–19.

  12. 370

    2 Pet. i. 10.

  13. 371

    Rom. v. 1, 2, 5; Rom. xiv. 17; xv. 13; Eph. i. 3, 4; Psa. iv. 6, 7; cxix. 32.

  14. 372

    1 John ii. 1, 2; Rom. vi. 1, 2; Titus ii. 11, 12, 14; 2 Cor. vii. 1; Rom. viii. 1, 12; 1 John iii. 2, 3; Psa. cxxx. 4; 1 John i. 6, 7.

  15. 373

    Cant. v. 2, 3, 6; Psa. li. 8, 12, 14; Eph. iv. 30, 31; Psa. lxxvii. 1–10; Matt. xxvi. 69–72; Psa. xxxi. 22; lxxxviii. throughout; Isa. l. 10.

  16. 374

    1 John iii. 9; Luke xxii. 32; Job xiii. 15; Psa. lxxiii. 15; li. 8, 12; Isa. 1. 10.

  17. 375

    Micah vii. 7–9; Jer. lii. 40; Isa. liv. 7–10; Psa. xxii. 1; lxxxviii. throughout.