Chapter 18
Of the Assurance of Grace and Salvation
- Although temporary believers, and other unregenerate men, may vainly deceive themselves
with false hopes, and carnal presumptions, of being in the favour of God, and the state of
salvation, which hope of theirs shall perish;1 yet such as truly
believe in the Lord Jesus, and love Him in sincerity endeavouring to walk in all good
conscience before Him, may in this life be certainly assured, that they are in the state
of grace, and may rejoice in the hope of the glory of God,2 which hope
shall never make them ashamed.3
- This certainty is not a bare conjectural and probable persuasion, grounded upon a
fallible hope, but an infallible assurance of faith,4 founded on the
blood and righteousness of Christ revealed in the Gospel;5 and also
upon the inward evidence of those graces of the Spirit unto which promises are made,6 and on the testimony of the Spirit of adoption, witnessing with our
spirits, that we are the children of God;7 and, as a fruit thereof
keeping the heart both humble and holy.8
- 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 a partaker of
it;9 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
means attain thereunto;10 and therefore it is the duty of every one to
give all diligence to make their calling and election sure, that thereby his heart may be
enlarged in peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, in love and thankfulness to God, and in
strength and cheerfulness in the duties of obedience, the proper fruits of this assurance;11 so far is it from inclining men to looseness.12
- True believers may have the assurance of their salvation divers ways shaken, diminished
and intermitted; as by negligence in preserving of it,13 by falling
into some special sin, which woundeth the conscience, and grieveth the Spirit;14 by some sudden or vehement temptation;15 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,16 yet are they never destitute of the
seed of God17 and life of faith,18 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;19
and by the which, in the meantime, they are preserved from utter despair.20
Footnotes:
1. Job 8:13-14; Mt 7:22-23.
2. 1Jn 2:3; 3:14,18-19,21,24; 5:13.
3. Ro 5:2,5.
4. Heb 6:11,19.
5. Heb 6:17-18.
6. 2Pe 1:4-5,10-11.
7. Ro 8:15-16.
8. 1Jn 3:1-3.
9. Isa 50:10; Ps 88:1-18; Ps 77:1-12.
10. 1Jn 4:13; Heb 6:11-12.
11. Ro 5:1-2,5; 14:17; Ps 119:32.
12. Ro 6:1-2; Tit 2:11-12,14.
13. SS 5:2-3,6.
14. Ps 51:8,12,14.
15. Ps 116:11; 77:7-8; 31:22.
16. Ps 30:7.
17. 1Jn 3:9.
18. Lk 22:32.
19. Ps 42:5,11.
20. La 3:26-31.