CHAPTER 18; OF THE ASSURANCE OF GRACE AND SALVATION
Paragraph 1. Although temporary
believers and other unregenerate men, may vainly deceive themselves with
false hopes and carnal presumptions of being in the favor of God and in
a 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
1 Job 8:13,14; Matt.
7:22,23
2 1 John 2:3, 3:14,18,19,21,24,
5:13
3 Rom. 5:2,5
Paragraph 2. 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
4 Heb. 6:11,19
5 Heb. 6:17,18
6 2 Pet. 1:4,5,10,11
7 Rom. 8:15,16
8 1 John 3:1-3
Paragraph 3. This infallible
assurance does not so belong to the essence of faith, but that a true believer
may wait long, and struggle with many difficulties before he be 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 his 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
9 Isa. 50:10; Ps.
88; Ps. 77:1-12
10 1 John 4:13; Heb.
6:11,12
11 Rom. 5:1,2,5,
14:17; Ps. 119:32
12 Rom. 6:1,2; Titus
2:11,12,14
Paragraph 4. 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 wounds the conscience and grieves 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
13 Cant. 5:2,3,6
14 Ps. 51:8,12,14
15 Ps. 116:11; 77:7,8,
31:22
16 Ps. 30:7
17 1 John 3:9
18 Luke 22:32
19 Ps. 42:5,11
20 Lam. 3:26-31