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.
©1998 Limerick Free
Baptist Church
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Free Baptist Church of Limerick