‘I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure
is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished
my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid
up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the
righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to
me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing’
(2 Tim. 4:6-8).
In the words of Scripture which head this page, we see the apostle Paul
looking three ways: downward, backward, forward — downward to the
grave, backward to his own ministry, forward to that great day, the day
of judgement!
It will do us good to stand by the apostle’s side a few minutes, and
mark the words he uses. Happy is that soul who can look where Paul
looked, and then speak as Paul spoke!
a. He looks downward to the grave and he does it without fear. Hear
what he says: ‘I am ready to be offered.’ I am like an animal brought to
the place of sacrifice and bound with cords to the very horns of the
altar. The drink offering, which generally accompanies the oblation, is
already being poured out. The last ceremonies have been gone through.
Every preparation has been made. It only remains to receive the
death-blow, and then all is over.
‘The time of my departure is at hand.’ I am like a ship about to
unmoor and put to sea. All on board is ready. I only wait to have the
moorings cast off that fasten me to the shore, and I shall then set sail,
and begin my voyage.
These are remarkable words to come from the lips of a child of
Adam like ourselves! Death is a solemn thing, and never so much so as
when we sec it close at hand. The grave is a chilling, heart-sickening
place, and it is vain to pretend it has no terrors. Yet here is a mortal
man, who can look calmly into the narrow ‘house appointed for all
living’, and say, while he stands upon the brink, ‘I see it all, and am not
afraid.’
b. Let us listen to him again. He looks backward to his ministerial
life, and he does it without shame. Hear what he says: ‘I have fought a
good fight.’ There he speaks as a soldier. I have fought that good fight
with the world, the flesh and the devil, from which so many shrink and
draw back.
‘I have finished my course.’ There he speaks as one who has run for a
prize. I have run the race marked out for me. I have gone over the
ground appointed for me, however rough and steep. I have not turned
aside because of difficulties, nor been discouraged by the length of the
way. I am at last in sight of the goal.
‘I have kept the faith.’ There he speaks as a steward. I have held fast
that glorious gospel which was committed to my trust. I have not
mingled it with man's traditions, nor spoiled its simplicity by adding
my own inventions, nor allowed others to adulterate it without
withstanding them to the face. ‘As a soldier, a runner, a steward,’ he seems
to say, ‘I am not ashamed.’
That Christian is happy who, as he quits the world, can leave such
testimony behind him. A good conscience will save no man, wash away
no sin, not lift us one hair’s breadth towards heaven. Yet a good
conscience will be found a pleasant visitor at our bedside in a dying
hour. There is a fine passage in Pilgrims Progress which describes old
Honest’s passage across the river of death. ‘The river,’ says Bunyan, ‘at
that time overflowed its banks in some places; but Mr Honest in his
lifetime had spoken to one Good Conscience to meet him there; the
which he also did, and lent him his hand, and so helped him over.’ We
may be sure, there is a mine of truth in that passage.
c. Let us hear the apostle once more. He looks forward to the great
day of reckoning, and he does it without doubt. Mark his words:
‘Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the
Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me
only, but unto all them also that love His appearing.’ ‘A glorious
reward’ he seems to say, ‘is ready and laid up in store for me — even
that crown which is only given to the righteous. In the great day of
judgement the Lord shall give this crown to me, and to all beside me
who have loved Him as an unseen Saviour, and longed to see Him face
to face. My work on earth is over. This one thing now remains for me
to look forward to, and nothing more.’
Let us observe that the apostle speaks without any hesitation or
distrust. He regards the crown as a sure thing, as his own already. He
declares with unfaltering confidence his firm persuasion that the
righteous Judge will give it to him. Paul was no stranger to all the
circumstances and accompaniments of that solemn day to which he
referred. The great white throne, the assembled world, the open books,
the revealing of all secrets, the listening angels, the awful sentence, the
eternal separation of the lost and saved — all these were things with
which he was well acquainted. But none of these things moved him. His
strong faith overleaped them all, and only saw Jesus, his all-prevailing
Advocate, and the blood of sprinkling, and sin washed away. ‘A crown,’
he says, ‘ is laid up for me.’ ‘The Lord Himself shall give it to me.’ He
speaks as if he saw it all with his own eyes.
Such are the main things which these verses contain. Of most of
them I shall not speak, because I want to confine myself to the special
subject of this paper. I shall only try to consider one point in the
passage. That point is the strong ‘assurance of hope’, with which the
apostle looks forward to his own prospects in the day of judgement.
I shall do this the more readily because of the great importance
which attaches to the subject of assurance and the great neglect with
which, I humbly conceive, it is often treated in this day.
But I shall do it at the same time with fear and trembling. I feel that
I am treading on very difficult ground, and that it is easy to speak
rashly and unscripturally in this matter. The road between truth and
error is here especially a narrow pass; and if I shall be enabled to do
good to some without doing harm to others, I shall be very thankful.
There are four things I wish to bring forward in speaking of the
subject of assurance, and it may clear our way if I name them at once.
1. First, then, I will try to show that an assured hope, such as Paul
here expresses, is a true and scriptural thing.
2. Secondly, I will make this broad concession: that a man may
never arrive at this assured hope, and yet be saved.
3. Thirdly, I will give some reasons why an assured hope is
exceedingly to be desired.
4. Lastly, I will try to point out some causes why an assured hope is
so seldom attained.’
I ask the special attention of all who take an interest in the great
subject of this volume. If I am not greatly mistaken, there is a very
close connection between true holiness and assurance. Before I close
this paper I hope to show my readers the nature of that connection. At
present, I content myself with saying, that where there is the most
holiness, there is generally the most assurance.
1. An assured hope is a true and scriptural thing
First, then, I will try to show that an assured hope is a true and
scriptural thing.
Assurance, such as Paul expresses in the verses which head this paper,
is not a mere fancy or feeling. It is not the result of high animal spirits,
or a sanguine temperament of body. It is a positive gift of the Holy
Ghost, bestowed without reference to men's bodily frames or
constitutions, and a gift which every believer in Christ ought to aim at
and seek after.
In matters like these, the first question is this: ‘What saith the
Scripture?’ I answer that question without the least hesitation. The
Word of God appears to me to teach distinctly that a believer may
arrive at an assured confidence with regard to his own salvation.
I lay it down fully and broadly, as God’s truth, that a true Christian,
a converted man, may reach such a comfortable degree of faith in
Christ, that in general he shall feel entirely confident as to the pardon
and safety of his soul, shall seldom be troubled with doubts, seldom be
distracted with fears, seldom be distressed by anxious questionings and,
in short, though vexed by many an inward conflict with sin, shall look
forward to death without trembling, and to judgement without
dismay.1 This, I say, is the doctrine of the Bible.
Such is my account of assurance. I will ask my readers to mark it
well. I say neither less nor more than I have here laid down.
Now such a statement as this is often disputed and denied. Many
cannot see the truth of it at all.
The church of Rome denounces assurance in the most unmeasured
terms. The Council of Trent declares roundly, that a ‘believer’s
assurance of the pardon of his sins is a vain and ungodly confidence’,
and Cardinal Bellarmine, the well-known champion of Romanism, calls
it ‘a prime error of heretics’.
The vast majority of the worldly and thoughtless Christians among
ourselves oppose the doctrine of assurance. It offends and annoys them
to hear of it. They do not like others to feel comfortable and sure,
because they never feel so themselves. Ask them whether their sins are
forgiven, and they will probably tell you they do not know! That they
cannot receive the doctrine of assurance is certainly no marvel.
But there are also some true believers who reject assurance, or shrink
from it as a doctrine fraught with danger. They consider it borders on
presumption. They seem to think it a proper humility never to feel
sure, never to be confident, and to live in a certain degree of doubt and
suspense about their souls. This is to be regretted and does much harm.
I frankly allow there are some presumptuous persons, who profess to
feel a confidence for which they have no scriptural warrant. There are
always some people who think well of themselves when God thinks ill,
just as there are some who think ill of themselves when God thinks
well. There always will be such. There never yet was a scriptural truth
without abuses and counterfeits. God’s election, man’s impotence,
salvation by grace — all are alike abused. There will be fanatics and
enthusiasts as long as the world stands. But, for all this, assurance is a
reality and a true thing; and God’s children must not let themselves be
driven from the use of a truth, merely because it is abused.2
My answer to all who deny the existence of real, well-grounded
assurance, is simply this: ‘What saith the Scripture?’ If assurance be not
there, I have not another word to say.
But does not Job say, ‘I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He
shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: and though after my skin
worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God’? (Job
19: 25, 26.)
Does not David say, ‘Though I walk through the valley of the
shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me; Thy rod and
Thy staff they comfort me’? (Ps. 23:4.)
Does not Isaiah say, ‘Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose
mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee’? (Isa. 26:3.)
And again, ‘The work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect
of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever’? (Isa. 32:17.)
Does not Paul say to the Romans, ‘I am persuaded that neither
death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things
present. nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other
creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in
Christ Jesus our Lord’? (Rom. 8:38, 39.)
Does he not say to the Corinthians, ‘We know that if our earthly
house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an
house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens’? (2 Cor. 5:1.)
And again, ‘We are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at
home in the body, we are absent from the Lord’? (2 Cor. 5:6.)
Does he not say to Timothy, ‘I know whom I have believed, and am
persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed to
Him’? (2 Tim. 1:12.)
And does he not speak to the Colossians of ‘the full assurance of
understanding’ (Col. 2:2), and to the Hebrews of the ‘full assurance of
faith’, and the ‘full assurance of hope’? (Heb. 10:22; 6:11.)
Does not Peter say expressly, ‘Give diligence to make your calling
and election sure’? (2 Peter 1:10.)
Does not John say, ‘We know that we have passed from death unto
life’? (1 John 3:14.)
And again, ‘These things have I written unto you that believe on the
name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life’?
(1 John 5:13.)
And again, ‘We know that we are of God’? (1 John 5:19.)
What shall we say to these things? I desire to speak with all humility
on any controverted point. I feel that I am only a poor fallible child
of Adam myself. But I must say that in the passages I have just quoted
I see something far higher than the mere ‘hopes’ and ‘trusts’, with
which so many believers appear content in this day. I see the language
of persuasion, confidence, knowledge — nay, I may almost say, of
certainty. And I feel, for my own part, if I may take these Scriptures
in their plain obvious meaning, the doctrine of assurance is true.
But my answer, furthermore, to all who dislike the doctrine of
assurance, as bordering on presumption, is this: it can hardly be
presumption to tread in the steps of Peter and Paul, of Job and of John.
They were all eminently humble and lowly-minded men, if ever any
were; and yet they all speak of their own state with an assured hope.
Surely this should teach us that deep humility and strong assurance are
perfectly compatible, and that there is not any necessary connection
between spiritual confidence and pride.3
My answer, furthermore, is, that many have attained to such an
assured hope as our text expresses, even in modem times. I will not
concede for a moment that it was a peculiar privilege confined to the
apostolic day. There have been in our own land many believers, who
have appeared to walk in almost uninterrupted fellowship with the
Father and the Son, who have seemed to enjoy an almost unceasing
sense of the light of God's reconciled countenance shining down upon
them, and have left their experience on record. I could mention
well known names, if space permitted. The thing has been, and is — and that
is enough.
My answer, lastly, is: it cannot be wrong to feel confidently in a
matter where God speaks unconditionally, to believe decidedly when
God promises decidedly, to have a sure persuasion of pardon and peace
when we rest on the word and oath of Him that never changes. It is an
utter mistake to suppose that the believer who feels assurance is resting
on anything he sees in himself. He simply leans on the Mediator of the
New Covenant, and the Scripture of truth. He believes the Lord Jesus
means what He says, and takes Him at His word. Assurance after all is
no more than a full-grown faith, a masculine faith that grasps Christ's
promise with both hands, a faith that argues like the good centurion, ‘If
the Lord “speak the word only”, I am healed. Wherefore then should I
doubt?’ (Matt. 8:8.)4
We may be sure that Paul was the last man in the world to build his
assurance on anything of his own. He who could write himself down
‘chief of sinners’ (1 Tim. 1:15), had a deep sense of his own guilt and
corruption. But then he had a still deeper sense of the length and
breadth of Christ's righteousness imputed to him. He who could cry, ‘O
wretched man that I am’ (Rom. 7:24), had a clear view of the fountain
of evil within his heart. But then he had a still clearer view of that other
Fountain which can remove ‘all sin and uncleanness'. He, who
thought himself ‘less than the least of all saints’ (Eph. 3:8), had a lively
and abiding feeling of his own weakness. But he had a still livelier
feeling that Christ's promise, ‘My sheep shall never perish’ (John 10:28),
could not be broken. Paul knew, if ever man did, that he was a poor,
frail bark, floating on a stormy ocean. He saw, if any did, the rolling
waves and roaring tempest by which he was surrounded. But then he
looked away from self to Jesus, and was not afraid. He remembered
that anchor within the veil, which is both ‘sure and steadfast’ (Heb
6:19). He remembered the word and work and constant intercession of
Him that loved him and gave Himself for him. And this it was, and
nothing else, that enabled him to say so boldly, ‘A crown is laid up for
me, and the Lord shall give it to me,’ and to conclude so surely, ‘The
Lord will preserve me: I shall never be confounded.5
I may not dwell longer on this part of the subject. I think it will be
allowed I have Shown some good ground for the assertion I made, that
assurance is a true thing.
2. A believer may never arrive at this assured hope, and yet be saved
I pass on to the second thing I spoke of. I said, a believer may never
arrive at this assured hope, which Paul expresses, and yet be saved.
I grant this most freely. I do not dispute it for a moment. I would
not desire to make one contrite heart sad that God has not made sad, or
to discourage one fainting child of God, or to leave the impression that
men have no part or lot in Christ, except they feel assurance.
A person may have saving faith in Christ, and yet never enjoy an
assured hope, such as the apostle Paul enjoyed. To believe and have a
glimmering hope of acceptance is one thing; to have ‘joy and peace’ in
our believing, and abound, in hope, is quite another. All God’s children
have faith; not all have assurance. I think this ought never to be
forgotten.
I know some great and good men have held a different opinion. I
believe that many excellent ministers of the gospel, at whose feet I
would gladly sit, do not allow the distinction I have stated. But I desire
to call no man master. I dread as much as anyone the idea of healing
the wounds of conscience slightly; but I should think any other view
than that I have given a most uncomfortable gospel to preach, and one
very likely to keep souls back a long time from the gate of life.6
I do not shrink from saying that by grace a man may have sufficient
faith to flee to Christ — sufficient faith really to lay hold on Him, really
to trust in Him, really to be a child of God, really to be saved and yet
to his last day be never free from much anxiety, doubt and fear.
‘A letter,’ says an old writer, ‘may be written, which is not sealed; so
grace may be written in the heart, yet the Spirit may not set the seal of
assurance to it.’
A child may be born heir to a great fortune and yet never be aware
of his riches, may live childish, die childish, and never know the
greatness of his possessions. And so also a man may be a babe in
Christ’s family, think as a babe, speak as a babe and, though saved,
never enjoy a lively hope, or know the real privileges of his inheritance.
Let no man mistake my meaning, when I dwell strongly on the
reality, privilege and importance of assurance. Do not do me the
injustice to say, I teach that none are saved except such as can say with
Paul, ‘I know and am persuaded . . . there is a crown laid up for me.’ I
do not say so. I teach nothing of the kind.
Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ a man must have, beyond all question,
if he is to be saved. I know no other way of access to the Father. I see
no intimation of mercy, excepting through Christ. A man must feel his
sins and lost estate, must come to Jesus for pardon and salvation, must
rest his hope on Him, and on Him alone. But if he only has faith to do
this, however weak and feeble that faith may be, I will engage, from
Scripture warrants, he shall not miss heaven.
Never, never let us curtail the freeness of the glorious gospel, or clip
its fair proportions. Never let us make the gate more strait and the way
more narrow than pride and the love of sin have made it already. The
Lord Jesus is very pitiful, and of tender mercy. He does not regard the
quantity of faith, but the quality: He does not measure its degree, but
its truth. He will not break any bruised reed, nor quench any smoking
flax. He will never let it be said that any perished at the foot of the
cross. ‘Him that cometh to Me,’ He says, ‘I will in no wise cast out’
(John 6:37).7
Yes! Though a man's faith be no bigger than a grain of mustard seed,
if it only brings him to Christ, and enables him to touch the hem of His
garment, he shall be saved — saved as surely as the oldest saint in
paradise, saved as completely and eternally as Peter or John or Paul.
There are degrees in our sanctification. In our justification there are
none. What is written is written, and shall never fail: ‘Whosoever
believeth on Him’, not whosoever has a strong and mighty faith,
‘Whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed’ (Rom. 10:11).
But all this time, be it remembered, the poor believing soul may have
no full assurance of his pardon and acceptance with God. He may be
troubled with fear upon fear, and doubt upon doubt. He may have
many an inward question, and many an anxiety, many a struggle and
many a misgiving, clouds and darkness, storm and tempest to the very
end.
I will engage, I repeat, that bare simple faith in Christ shall save a
man, though he may never attain to assurance; but I will not engage it
shall bring him to heaven with strong and abounding consolations. I will
engage it shall land him safe in harbour; but I will not engage he shall
enter that harbour in full sail, confident and rejoicing. I shall not be
surprised if he reaches his desired haven weather-beaten and
tempest-tossed, scarcely realizing his own safety, till he opens his eyes in glory.
I believe it is of great importance to keep in view this distinction
between faith and assurance. It explains things which an inquirer in
religion sometimes finds it hard to understand.
Faith, let us remember, is the root, and assurance is the flower.
Doubtless you can never have the flower without the root; but it is no
less certain you may have the root and not the flower.
Faith is that poor trembling woman who came behind Jesus in the
press, and touched the hem of His garment (Mark 5:25). Assurance is
Stephen standing calmly in the midst of his murderers and saying, ‘I see
the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of
God’ (Acts 7:56).
Faith is the penitent thief, crying, ‘Lord, remember me’ (Luke
23:42). Assurance is Job, sitting in the dust, covered with sores, and
saying, ‘I know that my Redeemer liveth’ (Job 19:25). ‘Though He slay
me, yet will I trust in Him’ (Job 13:15).
Faith is Peter’s drowning cry, as he began to sink: ‘Lord, save me!’
(Matt. 14:30.) Assurance is that same Peter declaring before the council
in after times, ‘This is the stone which was set at nought of you
builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there
salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given
among men, whereby we must be saved’ (Acts 4:11, 12).
Faith is the anxious, trembling voice: ‘Lord, I believe: help Thou
mine unbelief’ (Mark 9:24). Assurance is the confident challenge:
‘Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? Who is he that
condemneth?’ (Rom. 8:33, 34.) Faith is Saul praying in the house of
Judas at Damascus, sorrowful, blind and alone (Acts 9:11). Assurance is
Paul, the aged prisoner, looking calmly into the grave, and saying, ‘I
know whom I have believed. There is a crown laid up for me’ (2 Tim.
1:12; 4:8).
Faith is life. How great the blessing! Who can describe or realize the
gulf between life and death? ‘A living dog is better than a dead lion’
(Eccles. 9:4). And yet life may be weak, sickly, unhealthy, painful,
trying, anxious, weary, burdensome, joyless, smileless to the very end.
Assurance is more than life. It is health, strength, power, vigour,
activity, energy, manliness, beauty.
It is not a question of ‘saved or not saved’ that lies before us, but of
‘privilege or no privilege’. It is not a question of peace or no peace,
but of great peace or little peace. It is not a question between the
wanderers of this world and the school of Christ: it is one that belongs
only to the school: it is between the first form and the last.
He that has faith does well. Happy should I be, if I thought all
readers of this paper had it. Blessed, thrice blessed are they that believe!
They are safe. They are washed. They are justified. They are beyond
the power of hell. Satan, with all his malice, shall never pluck them out
of Christ’s hand. But he that has assurance does far better — sees more,
feels more, knows more, enjoys more, has more days like those spoken
of in Deuteronomy, even ‘the days of heaven upon the earth’ (Deut.
11:21).8
3 Reasons why an assured hope is exceedingly to be desired.
I pass on to the third thing of which I spoke. I will give some reasons
why an assured hope is exceedingly to be desired.
I ask special attention to this point. I heartily wish that assurance
was more sought after than it is. Too many among those who believe
begin doubting and go on doubting, live doubting and die doubting, and
go to heaven in a kind of mist.
It would ill become me to speak in a slighting way of ‘hopes’ and
‘trusts’. But I fear many of us sit down content with them, and go no
further. I should like to see fewer ‘peradventurers’ in the Lord’s family,
and more who could say, ‘I know and am persuaded.’ Oh, that all
believers would covet the best gifts, and not be content with less! Many
miss the full tide of blessedness the gospel was meant to convey. Many
keep themselves in a low and starved condition of soul, while their Lord
is saying, ‘Eat and drink abundantly, O beloved.’ ‘Ask and receive, that
your joy may be full’ (S. of S. 5:1; John 16:24).
1. Let us remember then, for one thing, that assurance is to be
desired, because of the present comfort and peace it affords.
Doubts and fears have power to spoil much of the happiness of a
true believer in Christ. Uncertainty and suspense are bad enough in any
condition — in the matter of our health, our property, our families, our
affections, our earthly callings — but never so bad as in the affairs of
our souls. And so long as a believer cannot get beyond ‘I hope,’ and ‘I
trust’, he manifestly feels a degree of uncertainty about his spiritual
state. The very words imply as much. He says, ‘I hope,’ because he
dares not say, ‘I know.’
Now assurance goes far to set a child of God free from this painful
kind of bondage, and thus ministers mightily to his comfort. It enables
him to feel that the great business of life is a settled business, the great
debt a paid debt, the great disease a healed disease, and the great work a
finished work; and all other business, diseases, debts and works are
then by comparison small. In this way assurance makes him patient in
tribulation, calm under bereavements, unmoved in sorrow, not afraid of
evil tidings, in every condition content, for it gives him a fixedness of
heart. It sweetens his bitter cups; it lessens the burden of his crosses;
it smooths the rough places over which he travels; it lightens the valley
of the shadow of death. It makes him always feel that he has something
solid beneath his feet and something firm under his hands — a sure
friend by the way, and a sure home at the end.9
Assurance will help a man to bear poverty and loss. It will teach him
to say, ‘I know that I have in heaven a better and more enduring
substance. Silver and gold have I none, but grace and glory are mine,
and these can never make themselves wings and flee away. Though the
fig tree shall not blossom, yet I will rejoice in the Lord’ (Hab. 3:17, 18).
Assurance will support a child of God under the heaviest
bereavements, and assist him to feel ‘It is well.’ An assured soul will say,
‘Though beloved ones are taken from me, yet Jesus is the same, and is
alive for evermore. Christ, being raised from the dead, dieth no more.
Though my house be not as flesh and blood could wish, yet I have an
everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure’ (2 Kings 4:26; Heb.
13:8; Rom. 6:9; 2 Sam. 23:5).
Assurance will enable a man to praise God, and be thankful, even in
prison, like Paul and Silas at Philippi. It can give a believer songs even in
the darkest night, and joy when all things seem going against him (Job
35:10;Ps. 42:8).10
Assurance will enable a man to sleep with the full prospect of death
on the morrow, like Peter in Herod’s dungeon. It will teach him to say,
‘I will both lay me down in peace and sleep, for Thou, Lord, only
makest me dwell in safety’ (Ps. 4:8).
Assurance can make a man rejoice to suffer shame for Christ’s sake,
as the apostles did when put in prison at Jerusalem (Acts 5:41). It will
remind him that he may ‘rejoice and be exceeding glad’ (Matt. 5:12),
and there is in heaven an exceeding weight of glory that shall make
amends for all (2 Cor. 4:17).
Assurance will enable a believer to meet a violent and painful death
without fear, as Stephen did in the beginning of Christ’s church, and as
Cranmer, Ridley, Hooper, Latimer, Rogers and Taylor did in our own
land. It will bring to his heart the texts: ‘Be not afraid of them which
kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do’ (Luke
12:4). ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit’ (Acts 7:59).11
Assurance will support a man in pain and sickness, make all his bed,
and smooth down his dying pillow. It will enable him to say, ‘If my
earthly house fail, I have a building of God’ (2 Cor. 5:1). ‘I desire to
depart and be with Christ’ (Phil. 1:23). ‘My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever’ (Ps.
73:26)."12
The strong consolation which assurance can give in the hour of death
is a point of great importance. We may depend on it, we shall never
think assurance so precious as when our turn comes to die. In that
awful hour there are few believers who do not find out the value and
privilege of an ‘assured hope’, whatever they may have thought about it
during their lives. General ‘hopes’ and ‘trusts’ are all very well to live
upon while the sun shines and the body is strong; but when we come to
die, we shall want to be able to say, ‘I know’ and ‘I feel.’ The river of
death is a cold stream, and we have to cross it alone. No earthly friend
can help us. The last enemy, the king of terrors, is a strong foe. When
our souls are departing, there is no cordial like the strong wine of
assurance.
There is a beautiful expression in the Prayer Book service for the
visitation of the sick: ‘The almighty Lord, who is a most strong tower
to all them that put their trust in Him, be now and evermore thy
defence, and make thee know and feel that there is none other name
under heaven, through whom thou mayest receive health and salvation,
but only the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.’ The compilers of that
service showed great wisdom there. They saw that when the eyes grow
dim, and the heart grows faint, and the spirit is on the eve of departing,
there must then be knowing and feeling what Christ has done for us, or
else there cannot be perfect peace.13
2. Let us remember, for another thing, that assurance is to be desired,
because it tends to make a Christian an active working Christian.
None, generally speaking, do so much for Christ on earth as those
who enjoy the fullest confidence of a free entrance into heaven, and
trust not in their own works, but in the finished work of Christ. That
sounds wonderful, I dare say, but it is true.
A believer who lacks an assured hope will spend much of his time in
inward searchings of heart about his own state. Like a nervous,
hypochondriacal person, he will be full of his own ailments, his own
doubtings and questionings, his own conflicts and corruptions. In short,
you will often find he is so taken up with his internal warfare that he
has little leisure for other things, and little time to work for God.
But a believer, who has, like Paul, an assured hope, is free from these
harassing distractions. He does not vex his soul with doubts about his
own pardon and acceptance. He looks at the everlasting covenant sealed
with blood, at the finished work, and never-broken word of his Lord
and Saviour, and therefore counts his salvation a settled thing. And thus
he is able to give an undivided attention to the work of the Lord, and
so in the long run to do more.14
Take, for an illustration of this, two English emigrants, and suppose
them set down side by side in New Zealand or Australia. Give each of
them a piece of land to clear and cultivate. Let the portions allotted to
them be the ‘same both in quantity and quality. Secure that land to
them by every needful legal instrument; let it be conveyed as freehold
to them and theirs for ever; let the conveyance be publicly registered,
and the property made sure to them by every deed and security that
man's ingenuity can devise.
Suppose then that one of them shall set to work to clear his land and
bring it into cultivation, and labour at it day after day without
intermission or cessation.
Suppose in the meanwhile that the other shall he continually leaving
his work, and going repeatedly to the public registry to ask whether the
land really is his own, whether there is not some mistake, whether after
all there is not some flaw in the legal instruments which conveyed it to
him.
The one shall never doubt his title, but just work diligently on. The
other shall hardly ever feel sure of his title, and spend half his time in
going to Sydney or Melbourne or Auckland, with needless inquiries
about it.
Which now of these two men will have made most progress in a
year's time? Who will have done the most for his land, got the greatest
breadth of soil under tillage, have the best crops to show, be altogether
the most prosperous?
Anyone of common sense can answer that question. I need not
supply an answer. There can only be one reply. Undivided attention
will always attain the greatest success.
It is much the same in the matter of our title to ‘mansions in the
skies’. None will do so much for the Lord who bought him as the
believer who sees his title clear, and is not distracted by unbelieving
doubts, questionings and hesitations. The joy of the Lord will be that
man's strength. ‘Restore unto me,’ says David, ‘the joy of Thy salvation,
then will I teach transgressors Thy ways’ (Ps. 51:12).
Never were there such working Christians as the apostles. They
seemed to live to labour. Christ's work was truly their meat and drink.
They counted not their lives dear to themselves. They spent and were
spent. They laid down ease, health, worldly comfort, at the foot of the
cross. And one grand cause of this, I believe, was their assured hope.
They were men who could say, ‘We know that we are of God, and the
whole world lieth in wickedness’ (1 John 5:19).
3. Let us remember, for another thing, that assurance is to be
desired, because it tends to make a Christian a decided Christian.
Indecision and doubt about our own state in God’s sight is a grievous
evil, and the mother of many evils. It often produces a wavering and
unstable walk in following the Lord. Assurance helps to cut many a
knot, and to make the path of Christian duty clear and plain.
Many, of whom we feel hopes that they are God’s children, and have
true grace, however weak, are continually perplexed with doubts on
points of practice. ‘Should we do such and such a thing? Shall we give
up this family custom? Ought we to go into that company? How shall
we draw the line about visiting? What is to be the measure of our
dressing and our entertainments? Are we never, under any circumstances, to
dance, never to touch a card, never to attend parties of pleasure?’ These
are a kind of questions which seem to give them constant trouble. And
often, very often, the simple root of their perplexity is, that they do
not feel assured they are themselves children of God. They have not yet
settled the point which side of the gate they are on. They do not know
whether they are inside the ark or not.
That a child of God ought to act in a certain decided way, they quite
feel; but the grand question is, ‘Are they children of God themselves?’
If they only felt they were so, they would go straightforward, and take
a decided line. But not feeling sure about it, their conscience is for ever
hesitating and coming to a dead lock. The devil whispers, ‘Perhaps after
all you are only a hypocrite: what right have you to take a decided
course? Wait till you are really a Christian.’ And this whisper too often
turns the scale, and leads on to some miserable compromise, or
wretched conformity to the world!
I believe we have here one chief reason why so many in this day are
inconsistent, trimming, unsatisfactory, and half-hearted in their conduct
about the world. Their faith fails. They feel no assurance that they are
Christ’s, and so feel a hesitancy about breaking with the world. They
shrink from laying aside all the ways of the old man, because they are
not quite confident they have put on the new. In short, I have little
doubt that one secret cause of ‘halting between two opinions’ is want
of assurance. When people can say decidedly, ‘The Lord, He is the
God,’ their course becomes very clear (1 Kings 18:39).
4. Let us remember, finally, that assurance is to be desired, because
it tends to make the holiest Christians.
This, too, sounds wonderful and strange, and yet it is true. It is one
of the paradoxes of the gospel, contrary at first sight to reason and
common sense, and yet it is a fact. Cardinal Bellarmine was seldom
more wide of the truth than when he said, ‘Assurance tends to
carelessness and sloth.’ He that is freely forgiven by Christ will always do
much for Christ’s glory, and he that enjoys the fullest assurance of this
forgiveness will ordinarily keep up the closest walk with God. It is a
faithful saying and worthy to be remembered by all believers: ‘He that
hath this hope in Him purifieth himself, even as He is pure’ (1 John
3:3). A hope that does not purify is a mockery, a delusion, and a
snare.15
None are so likely to maintain a watchful guard over their own
hearts and lives as those who know the comfort of living in close
communion with God. They feel their privilege and will fear losing it. They
will dread falling from the high estate, and marring their own comforts,
by bringing clouds between themselves and Christ. He that goes on a
journey with little money about him takes little thought of danger, and
cares little how late he travels. He, on the contrary, that carries gold
and Jewels will be a cautious traveller. He will look well to his roads, his
lodgings and his company, and run no risks. It is an old saying, however
unscientific it may be, that the fixed stars are those which tremble
most. The man that most fully enjoys the light of God's reconciled
countenance, will be a man tremblingly afraid of losing its blessed
consolations, and jealously fearful of doing anything to grieve the Holy
Ghost.
I commend these four points to the serious consideration of all
professing Christians. Would you like to feel the everlasting arms
around you, and to hear the voice of Jesus daily drawing nigh to your
soul, and saying, ‘I am thy salvation’? Would you like to be a useful
labourer in the vineyard in your day and generation? Would you be
known of all men as a bold, firm, decided, single-eyed, uncompromising
follower of Christ? Would you be eminently spiritually-minded and
holy? I doubt not some readers will say, ‘These are the very things our
hearts desire. We long for them. We pant after them: but they seem far
from us.’
Now, has it never struck you that your neglect of assurance may
possibly be the main secret of all your failures, that the low measure of
faith which satisfies you may be the cause of your low degree of peace?
Can you think it a strange thing that your graces are faint and
languishing, when faith, the root and mother of them all, is allowed to remain
feeble and weak?
Take my advice this day. Seek an increase of faith. Seek an assured
hope of salvation like the apostle Paul’s. Seek to obtain a simple,
childlike confidence in God’s promises. Seek to be able to say with Paul, ‘I
know whom I have believed: I am persuaded that He is mine, and I am
His.’
You have very likely tried other ways and methods and completely
failed. Change your plan. Go upon another tack. Lay aside your doubts.
Lean more entirely on the Lord’s arm. Begin with implicit trusting. Cast
aside your faithless backwardness to take the Lord at His word. Come
and roll yourself, your soul and your sins, upon your gracious Saviour.
Begin with simple believing, and all other things shall soon be added to
you.16
4. Some probable causes why an assured hope is so seldom attained
I come now to the last thing of which I spoke. I promised to point
out some probable causes why an assured hope is so seldom attained, I
will do it very shortly.
This is a very serious question and ought to raise in all of us great
searchings of heart. Few, certainly, of Christ's people seem to reach up
to this blessed spirit of assurance. Many comparatively believe, but few
are persuaded. Many comparatively have saving faith, but few that
glorious confidence which shines forth in the language of St Paul, That
such is the case, I think we must all allow.
Now, why is this so? Why is a thing, which two apostles have
strongly enjoined us to seek after, a thing of which few believers have
any experimental knowledge in these latter days? Why is an assured
hope so rare?
I desire to offer a few suggestions on this point, with all humility. I
know that many have never attained assurance, at whose feet I would
gladly sit both in earth and heaven. Perhaps the Lord sees something in
the natural temperament of some of His children, which makes
assurance not good for them. Perhaps, in order to be kept in spiritual
health, they need to be kept very low. God only knows. Still, after
every allowance, I fear there are many believers without an assured
hope, whose case may too often be explained by causes such as these.
1. One most common cause, I suspect, is a defective view of the
doctrine of justification.
I am inclined to think that justification and sanctification are
insensibly confused together in the minds of many believers. They
receive the gospel truth, that there must be something done in us as well
as something done for us, if we are true members of Christ: and so far
they are right. But then, without being aware of it, perhaps, they seem
to imbibe the idea that their justification is, in some degree, affected by
something within themselves. They do not clearly see that Christ’s
work, not their own work — either in whole or in part, either directly
or indirectly — is the only ground of our acceptance with God; that
justification is a thing entirely without us, for which nothing whatever
is needful on our part but simple faith, and that the weakest believer is
as fully and completely justified as the strongest.17
Many appear to forget that we are saved and justified as sinners, and
only sinners, and that we never can attain to anything higher, if we live
to the age of Methuselah. Redeemed sinners, justified sinners and
renewed sinners doubtless we must be — but sinners, sinners, sinners, we
shall be always to the very last. They do not seem to comprehend that
there is a wide difference between our justification and our
sanctification. Our justification is a perfect finished work and admits of no
degrees. Our sanctification is imperfect and incomplete, and will be so
to the last hour of our life. They appear to expect that a believer may
at some period of his life be in a measure free from corruption, and
attain to a kind of inward perfection. And not finding this angelic state
of things in their own hearts, they at once conclude there must be
something very wrong in their state. And so they go mourning all their
days, oppressed with fears that they have no part or lot in Christ, and
refusing to be comforted.
Let us weigh this point well. If any believing soul desires assurance
and has not got it, let him ask himself, first of all, if he is quite sure he
is sound in the faith, if he knows how to distinguish things that differ,
and if his eyes are thoroughly clear in the matter of justification. He
must know what it is simply to believe and to be justified by faith
before he can expect to feel assured.
In this matter, as well as in many others, the old Galatian heresy is
the most fertile source of error, both in doctrine and in practice. People
ought to seek clearer views of Christ and what Christ has done for
them. Happy is the man who really understands ‘justification by faith
without the deeds of the law’.
2. Another common cause of the absence of assurance is
slothfulness about growth in grace.
I suspect many true believers hold dangerous and unscriptural views
on this point; I do not, of course, mean intentionally, but they do hold
them. Many appear to think that, once converted, they have little more
to attend to, and that a state of salvation is a kind of easy chair, in
which they may just sit still, lie back and be happy. They seem to fancy
that grace is given them that they may enjoy it, and they forget that it
is given, like a talent, to be used, employed and improved. Such persons
lose sight of the many direct injunctions to increase, to grow, to
abound more and more, to add to our faith, and the like; and in this
little-doing condition, this sitting-still state of mind, I never marvel that
they miss assurance.
I believe it ought to be our continual aim and desire to go forward,
and our watchword on every returning birthday and at the beginning of
every year, should be ‘more and more’ (1 Thess. 4:1): more
knowledge, more faith, more obedience, more love. If we have brought forth
thirtyfold, we should seek to bring forth sixty; and if we have brought
forth sixty, we should strive to bring forth a hundred. The will of the
Lord is our sanctification, and it ought to be our will too (Matt. 13:23;
1 Thess. 4:3).
One thing, at all events, we may depend upon — there is an
inseparable connection between diligence and assurance. ‘Give
diligence,’ says Peter, ‘to make your calling and election sure’ (2 Peter
1:10). ‘We desire,’ says Paul, ‘that every one of you do show the same
diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end’ (Heb. 6:11). ‘The
soul of the diligent,’ says Solomon, ‘shall be made fat’ (Prov. 13:4).
There is much truth in the old maxim of the Puritans: ‘Faith of
adherence comes by hearing, but faith of assurance comes not without
doing.’
Is any reader of this paper one of those who desire assurance, but
have not got it? Mark my words. You will never get it without
diligence, however much you may desire it. There are no gains without
pains in spiritual things, any more than in temporal. ‘The soul of the
sluggard desireth and hath nothing’ (Prov. 13 :4).18
3. Another common cause of a want of assurance is, an inconsistent
walk in life.
With grief and sorrow I feel constrained to say that I fear nothing
more frequently prevents men attaining an assured hope than this. The
stream of professing Christianity in this day is far wider than it
formerly was, and I am afraid we must admit at the same time it is
much less deep.
Inconsistency of life is utterly destructive of peace of conscience.
The two things are incompatible. They cannot and they will not go
together. If you will have your besetting sins, and cannot make up your
minds to give them up, if you will shrink from cutting off the right
hand and plucking out the right eye when occasion requires it, I will
engage you will have no assurance.
A vacillating walk, a backwardness to take a bold and decided line, a
readiness to conform to the world, a hesitating witness for Christ, a
lingering tone of religion, a clinching from a high standard of holiness
and spiritual life, all these make up a sure receipt for bringing a blight
upon the garden of your soul.
It is vain to suppose you will feel assured and persuaded of your own
pardon and acceptance with God, unless you count all God's
commandments concerning all things to be right, and hate every sin, whether
great or small (Ps. 119:128). One Achan allowed in the camp of your
heart will weaken your hands, and lay your consolations low in the
dust. You must be daily sowing to the Spirit, if you are to reap the
witness of the Spirit. You will not find and feel that all the Lord's ways
are ways of pleasantness, unless you labour in all your ways to please
the Lord.”19
I bless God that our salvation in no wise depends on our own works.
By grace we are saved — not by works of righteousness — through faith,
without the deeds of the law. But I never would have any believer for a
moment forget that our sense of salvation depends much on the manner
of our living. Inconsistency will dim our eyes and bring clouds
between us and the sun. The sun is the same behind the clouds, but you
will not be able to see its brightness or enjoy its warmth, and your soul
will be gloomy and cold. It is in the path of well-doing that the
day-spring of assurance will visit you and shine down upon your heart.
‘The secret of the Lord,’ says David, ‘is with them that fear Him, and
He will show them His covenant’ (Ps. 25:14).
‘To him that ordereth his conversation aright, will I show the
salvation of God’ (Ps. 50:23).
‘Great peace have they which love Thy law, and nothing shall offend
them’ (Ps. 119:165).
‘If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one
with another’ (1 John 1:7).
‘Let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth;
and hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our
hearts before Him’ (1 John 3:18, 19).
‘Hereby we do know that we know Him, if we keep His
commandments’ (1 John 2:3).
Paul was a man who exercised himself to have always a conscience
void of offence towards God and towards man (Acts 24:16). He could
say with boldness, ‘I have fought the good fight, I have kept the faith.’
I do not therefore wonder that the Lord enabled him to add with
confidence, ‘Henceforth there is a crown laid up for me, and the Lord
shall give it me at that day.’
If any believer in the Lord Jesus desires assurance, and has not got
it, let him think over this point also. Let him look at his own heart,
look at his own conscience, look at his own life, look at his own ways,
look at his own home. And perhaps when he has done that, he will be
able to say, ‘There is a cause why I have no assured hope.’
I leave the three matters I have just mentioned to the private
consideration of every reader of this paper. I am sure they are worth
examining. May we examine them honestly. And may the Lord give us
understanding in all things.
1. And now in closing this important inquiry, let me speak first to
those readers who have not yet given themselves to the Lord, who have
not yet come out from the world, chosen the good part and followed
Christ.
I ask you then to learn from this subject the privileges and comforts
of a true Christian.
I would not have you judge of the Lord Jesus Christ by His people.
The best of servants can give you but a faint idea of that glorious
Master. Neither would I have you judge of the privileges of His
kingdom, by the measure of comfort to which many of His people attain.
Alas, we are most of us poor creatures! We come short, very short, of
the blessedness we might enjoy. But, depend upon it, there are glorious
things in the city of our God, which they who have an assured hope
taste, even in their lifetime. There are lengths and breadths of peace and
consolation there, which it has not entered into your heart to conceive.
There is bread enough and to spare in our Father’s house, though many
of us certainly eat but little of it, and continue weak. But the fault
must not be laid to our Master’s charge: it is all our own.
And, after all, the weakest child of God has a mine of comforts
within him, of which you know nothing. You see the conflicts and
tossings of the surface of his heart, but you see not the pearls of great
price which are hidden in the depths below. The feeblest member of
Christ would not change conditions with you. The believer who
possesses the least assurance is far better off than you are. He has a
hope, however faint, but you have none at all. He has a portion that
will never be taken from him, a Saviour that will never forsake him, a
treasure that fadeth not away, however little he may realize it all at
present. But, as for you, if you die as you are, your expectations will
all perish. Oh, that you were wise! Oh, that you understood these
things! Oh, that you would consider your latter end!
I feel deeply for you in these latter days of the world, if I ever did. I
feel deeply for those whose treasure is all on earth, and whose hopes are
all on this side the grave, Yes! When I see old kingdoms and dynasties
shaking to the very foundation; when I see, as we all saw a few years
ago, kings and princes and rich men and great men fleeing for their
lives, and scarce knowing where to hide their heads; when I see
property dependent on public confidence melting like snow in spring,
and public stocks and funds losing their value — when I see these things,
I feel deeply for those who have no better portion than this world can
give them, and no place in that kingdom which cannot be removed.20
Take advice of a minister of Christ this very day. Seek durable
riches, a treasure that cannot be taken from you, a city which hath
lasting foundations. Do as the apostle Paul did. Give yourself to the
Lord Jesus Christ, and seek that incorruptible crown He is ready to
bestow. Take His yoke upon you, and learn of Him. Come away from a
world which will never really satisfy you, and from sin which will bite
like a serpent, if you cleave to it, at last. Come to the Lord Jesus as
lowly sinners, and He will receive you, pardon you, give you His
renewing Spirit, fill you with peace. This shall give you more real
comfort than the world has ever done. There is a gulf in your heart
which nothing but the peace of Christ can fill. Enter in and share our
privileges. Come with us, and sit down by our side.
2. Lastly, let me turn to all believers who read these pages, and
speak to them a few words of brotherly counsel.
The main thing that I urge upon you is this: if you have not got an
assured hope of your own acceptance in Christ, resolve this day to seek
it. Labour for it. Strive after it. Pray for it. Give the Lord no rest till
you ‘know whom you have believed’.
I feel, indeed, that the small amount of assurance in this day, among
those who are reckoned Gods children, is a shame and a reproach. ‘It
is a thing to be heavily bewailed,’ says old Traill, ‘that many Christians
have lived twenty or forty years since Christ called them by His grace,
yet doubting in their life.’ Let us call to mind the earnest ‘desire’ Paul
expresses, that ‘every one’ of the Hebrews should seek after full
assurance; and let us endeavour, by God’s blessing, to roll this reproach
away (Heb. 6:11).
Believing reader, do you really mean to say that you have no desire
to exchange hope for confidence, trust for persuasion, uncertainty for
knowledge? Because weak faith will save you, will you therefore rest
content with it? Because assurance is not essential to your entrance into
heaven, will you therefore be satisfied without it upon earth? Alas, this
is not a healthy state of soul to be in; this is not the mind of the
apostolic day! Arise at once and go forward. Stick not at the
foundations of religion: go on to perfection. Be not content with a day
of small things. Never despise it in others, but never he content with it
yourself.
Believe me, believe me, assurance is worth the seeking. You forsake
your own mercies when you rest content without it. The things I speak
are for your peace. If it is good to be sure in earthly things, how much
better is it to be sure in heavenly things! Your salvation is a fixed and
certain thing. God knows it. Why should not you seek to know it too?
There is nothing unscriptural in this. Paul never saw the book of life,
and yet Paul says, ‘I know and am persuaded.’
Make it then your daily prayer that you may have an increase of
faith. According to your faith will be your peace. Cultivate that blessed
root more, and sooner or later, by God’s blessing, you may hope to
have the flower. You may not perhaps attain to full assurance all at
once. It is good sometimes to be kept waiting: we do not value things
which we get without trouble. But though it tarry, wait for it. Seek on,
and expect to find.
There is one thing, however, of which I would not have you
ignorant: you must not be surprised if you have occasional doubts,
after you have got assurance. You must not forget you are on earth,
and not yet in heaven. You are still in the body, and have indwelling sin;
the flesh will lust against the spirit to the very end. The leprosy will
never be out of the walls of the old house till death takes it down. And
there is a devil, too, and a strong devil — a devil who tempted the Lord
Jesus, and gave Peter a fall, and he will take care you know it. Some
doubts there always will be. He that never doubts has nothing to lose.
He that never fears possesses nothing truly valuable. He that is never
jealous knows little of deep love. But be not discouraged; you shall be
more than conqueror through Him that loved you.21
Finally, do not forget that assurance is a thing which may be lost for
a season, even by the brightest Christians, unless they take care.
Assurance is a most delicate plant. It needs daily, hourly watching,
watering, tending, cherishing. So watch and pray the more when you
have got it. As Rutherford says, ‘Make much of assurance.’ Be always
upon your guard. When Christian slept in the arbour, in Pilgrim's
Progress, he lost his certificate. Keep that in mind.
David lost assurance for many months by falling into transgression.
Peter lost it when he denied his Lord. Each found it again undoubtedly,
but not till after bitter tears. Spiritual darkness comes on horseback,
and goes away on foot. It is upon us before we know that it is coming.
It leaves us slowly, gradually, and not till after many days. It is easy to
run downhill. It is hard work to climb up. So remember my caution —
when you have the joy of the Lord, watch and pray.
Above all, grieve not the Spirit. Quench not the Spirit. Vex not the
Spirit. Drive Him not to a distance, by tampering with small bad habits
and little sins. Little jarrings between husbands and wives make
unhappy homes, and petty inconsistencies, known and allowed, will
bring in a strangeness between you and the Spirit.
Hear the conclusion of the whole matter.
The man who walks with God in Christ most closely will generally
be kept in the greatest peace.
The believer who follows the Lord most fully and aims at the highest
degree of holiness will ordinarily enjoy the most assured hope and have
the clearest persuasion of his own salvation.
1‘Full assurance that Christ hath delivered Paul from condemnation, yea, so full
and real as produceth thanksgiving and triumphing in Christ, may and doth
consist with complaints and outcries of a wretched condition for the indwelling of
the body of sin.’ (Rutherford: Trial and Triumph of Faith, 1645.)
2
‘We do not vindicate every vain pretender to “the witness of the Spirit"; we are
aware that there are those in whose professions of religion we can see nothing but
their forwardness and con?dence to recommend them. But let us not reject any
doctrine of revelation through an over-anxious fear of consequences.‘ (Robinson:
Christian System.)
‘True assurance is built upon a Scripture basis: presumption hath no Scripture
to show for its warrant; it is like a will without seal and witnesses, which is null
and void in law. Presumption wants both the witness of the Word and the seal of
the Spirit. Assurance always keeps the heart in a lowly posture; but presumption
is bred of pride. Feathers ?y up, but gold descends; he who hath this golden
assurance, his heart descends in humility.’ (Thomas Watson: A Body of Divinity,
Banner of Truth Trust, 1974.)
‘Presumption is joined with looseness of life, persuasion with a tender
conscience; than dares sin because it is sure, this dares not for fear of losing
assurance. Persuasion will not sin, because it cost her Saviour so dear; presumption
will sin, because grace doth abound. Humility is the way to heaven. They
that are proudly secure of their going to heaven do not so often come thither as
they that are afraid of going to hell.’ (Adams on ‘Second Epistle of Peter’. 1633.)
3
‘They are quite mistaken that think faith and humility are inconsistent; they
not only agree well together, but they cannot be parted.’ (Robert Traill.)
4
‘To be assured of our salvation’, Augustine saith, ‘is no arrogant stoutness; it is
our faith. It is no pride; it is devotion. It is no presumption; it is God’s promise.’
(Bishop Jewell: Defence of the Apology, 1570.)
‘If the ground of our assurance rested in and on ourselves, it might justly be
called presumption; but the Lord and the power of His might being the ground
thereof, they either know not what is the might of His power, or else too lightly
esteem it, who account assured confidence thereon presumption.’ (Gouge: Whole
Armour of God, 1647.)
‘Upon what ground is this certainty built? Surely not upon anything that is
in us. Our assurance of perseverance is grounded wholly upon God. If we look
upon ourselves, we see cause of fear and doubting; but if we look up to God, we
shall find cause enough for assurance.’ (Hildersam on ‘John 4’. 1632.)
‘Our hope is not hung upon such an untwisted thread as, “I imagine so,"
or “It is likely”; but the cable, the strong rope of our fastened anchor, is the oath
and promise of Him who is etemal verity. Our salvation is fastened with God's
own hand, and Christ‘s own strength, to the strong stake of God’s unchangeable
nature.’ (Samuel Rutherford: Letters, Banner of Truth Trust, 1973.)
5
‘Never did a believer in Jesus Christ die or drown in his voyage to heaven. They
will all be found safe and sound with the Lamb on Mount Zion. Christ loseth
none of them; yea, nothing of them (John 6:39). Not a bone of a believer is to
be seen in the field of battle. They are all more than conquerors through Him that
loved them‘ (Rom. 8:37). (Robert Traill.)
6
The reader who would like to hear more about this point is referred to a note at
the end of this paper, in which he will ?nd extracts from several well-known
English divines, supporting the view here maintained. The extracts are too long
for insertion in this page.
7
‘He that believeth on Jesus shall never be confounded. Never was any; neither
shall you, if you believe. It was a great word of faith spoken by a dying man, who
had been converted in a singular way, betwixt his condemnation and execution.
His last words were these, spoken with a mighty shout: “Never man perished with
his face towards Christ Jesus." ’ (Robert Traill: Works, Banner of Truth Trust,
1975.)
8
‘The greatest thing that we can desire, next to the glory of God, is our own
salvation; and the sweetest thing we can desire is the assurance of our salvation.
In this life we cannot get higher than to be assured of that which in the next life is
to be enjoyed. All sains shall enjoy a heaven when they leave this earth; some
saints enjoy a heaven while they are here on earth.‘ (Joseph Caryl. 1653.)
9
‘It was a saying of Bishop Latimer to Ridley, “When I live in a settled and
steadfast assurance about the state of my soul, methinks then I am as bold as a
lion. I can laugh at all trouble: no affliction daunts me. But when I am eclipsed in
my comforts, I am of so fearful a spirit that I could run into a very mouse-hole." '
(Quoted by Christopher Love. 1653.)
‘Assurance will assist us in all duties: it will arm us against all temptations; it
will answer all objections; it will sustain us in all conditions into which the saddest
of times can bring us. “If God be for us, who can be against us?"' (Bishop
Reynolds on ‘Hosea 14’. 1642.)
‘We cannot come amiss to him that hath assurance. God is his. Hath he lost a
friend? — His Father lives. Hath he lost an only child? — God hath given him His
only Son. Hath he scarcity of bread? — God hath gven him the ?nest of the
wheat, the bread of life. Are his comforts gone? — He hath a Comforter. Doth he
meet with storms? — He knows where to put in for harbour. God is his Portion,
and heaven is his haven.‘ (Thomas Watson, A Body of Divinity, Banner of Truth
Trust, 1974.)
10
These were John Bradford's words in prison, shortly before his execution: ‘I
have no request to make. If Queen Mary gives me my life, I will thank her;if she
will banish me, I will thank her; if she will burn me, I will thank her; if she will
condemn me to perpetual imprisonment, I will thank her.’
This was Rutherford 's experience, when banished to Aberdeen: ‘How blind are
my adversaries, who sent me to a banqueting house, and not to a prison or a place
of exile.’ ‘My prison is a palace to me, and Christ’s banqueting house.‘ (Samuel
Rutherford: Letters, Banner of Truth Trust, 1973.)
11
These were the last words of Hugh Mackail on the scaffold, at Edinburgh, 1666:
‘Now I begin my intercourse with God, which shall never be broken off. Farewell,
father and mother, friends and relations;farewell, the world and all its delights;
farewell, meat and drinks; farewell, sun, moon and stars. Welcome, God and Father;
welcome, sweet Lord jesus, the Mediator of the new covenant; welcome, blessed
Spirit of grace, and God of all consolation; welcome, glory; welcome, eternal life;
welcome, death. O Lord, into Thy hands I commit my spirit; for Thou has redeemed
my soul, O Lord God of truth!’
12
These were Rutherford’s words on his deathbed: ‘O that all my brethren did
know what a Master I Have served, and what peace I Have this day! I shall sleep in
Christ, and when I awake I shall be satis?ed with His likeness.’ (166l.)
These were Baxter's words on his deathbed: ‘I bless God I have a well-grounded
assurance of my eternal happiness, and great peace and comfort within.’ Towards
the close he was asked how he did? The answer was, ‘Almost well.’ (1691.)
13
‘The least degree of faith takes away the sting of death, because it takes away
guilt; but the full assurance of faith breaks the very teeth and jaws of death, by
taking away the fear and dread of it.’(Fairclough: Sermon in the Morning Exercises.)
14
‘Assurance would make us active and lively in God's service: it would excite
prayer, quicken obedience. Faith would make us walk, but assurance would make
us run - we should think we could never do enough for God. Assurance would be
as wings to the bird, as weights to the clock, to set all the wheels of obedience
a-running.‘ (Thomas Watson, A Body of Divinity, Banner of Truth Trust, 1974.)
‘Assurance will make a man fervent, constant and abundant in the work of the
Lord. When the assured Christian hath done one work, he is calling out for
another. “What is next, Lord?” says the assured soul, “What is next?" An assured
Christian will put his hand to any work, hewill put his neck in any yoke for
Christ; he never thinks he hath done enough, he always thinks he hath done too
little; and when he hath done all he can, he sits down, saying, “I am an
unpro?table servant." ’ (Thomas Brooks.)
15
‘The true assurance of salvation which the Spirit of God hath wrought in any
heart hath that force to restrain a man from looseness of life, and to knit his heart
in love and obedience to God, as nothing else hath in all the world. It is certainly
either the want of faith and assurance of God's love, or a false and carnal
assurance of it, that is the true cause of all the licentiousness that reigns in the
world.‘ (Hildersam on ‘The 51st Psalm'.)
‘None walk so evenly with God, as they who are assured of the love of God.
Faith is the mother of obedience, and sureness of trust makes way for
strictness of life. When men are loose from Christ, they are loose in point of duty,
and their ?oating belief is soon discovered in their inconstaney and unevenness of
walking. We do not with alaerity engage in that of the success of which we are
doubtful and, therefore, when we know not whether God will accept us or not,
when we are off and on in point of trust, we are just so in the course of our lives,
and serve God by ?ts and starts. It is the slander of the world to think assurance
an idle doctrine.’ (Manton: Exposition of James. 1660, Banner of Truth Trust,
1962.)
‘Who is more obliged, or who feels the obligation to observance more cogently
— the son who knows his near relation, and knows his father loves him, or the
servant that hath great reason to doubt it? Fear is a weak and impotent principle,
in comparison of love. Terrors may awaken; love enlivens. Terrors may "almost
persuade,” love over-persuades. Sure am I that a believer’s knowledge that his
Beloved is his, and he is his Beloved‘s (S. of S. 6:3), is found by experience to lay
the most strong and cogent obligations upon him to loyalty and faithfulness to
the Lord Jesus. For, as to him that believes Christ is precious (1 Peter 2:7), so to
him that knows he believes Christ is so much the more precious, even the
“chiefest of ten thousand"’ (S. of S. 5:10). (Fairclough: Sermon in Morning
Exercises. 1660.)
‘Is it necessary that men should be kept in continual dread of damnation, in
order to render them circumspect and ensure their attention to duty? Will not the
well-grounded expectation of heaven prove far more efficacious? Love is the
noblest and strongest principle of obedience; nor can it be but that a sense of
God’s love to us will increase our desire to please Him.’ (Robinson: Christian
System.)
16
‘That which breeds so much perplexity is, that we would invert God’s order.
“If I knew," say some, “that the promise belonged to me, and Christ was a
Saviour to me, I could believe,” that is to say, I would first see and then believe.
But the true method is just the contrary: “I had fainted," says David, “unless I
had believed to see the goodness of the Lord." He believed it first, and saw it
afterwards.’ (Archbishop Leighton.)
‘It is a weak and ignorant, but common thought of Christians, that they ought
not to look for heaven, nor trust Christ for eternal glory, till they be well
advanced in holiness and meetness for it. But as the first sanctification of our
natures ?ows from our faith and trust in Christ for acceptance, so our further
sanctification and meetness for glory ?ows from the renewed and repeated
exercise of faith on Him’ (Robert Traill: Works, Banner of Truth Trust, 1975.)
17
The ‘Westminster Confession of Faith gives an admirable account of
justification: ‘Those whom God effectually calleth, He also freely justifieth — not
by infusing righteousness into them, but by pardoning their sins, and by accouning
and accepting their persons as righteous; not for anything wrought in them or
done by them, but for Christ’s sake alone; not by imputing faith itself, the act of
believing, or any other evangelical obedience, to them, as their righteousness; but
by imputing the obedience and righteousness of Christ unto them, they receiving
and resting on Him and His righteousness by faith.’
18
‘Whose fault is it that thy interest in Christ is not put out of question? Were
Christians more in self-examination, more close in walking with God, and if they
had more near communion with God and were more in acting of faith, this
shameful darkness and doubting would quickly vanish.’ (Robert Traill: Works,
Banner of Truth Trust, 1975.)
‘A lazy Christian shall always want four things: viz., comfort, content,
con?dence and assurance. God hath made a separation between joy and idleness,
between assurance and laziness; and, therefore, it is impossible for thee to bring
these together that God hath put so far asunder.’ (Thomas Brooks.)
‘Are you in depths and doubts, staggering and uncertain, not knowing what is
your condition, nor whether you have any interest in the forgiveness that is of
God? Are you tossed up and down between hopes and fears, and want peace,
consolation and establishment? Why lie you upon your faces? Get up: watch, pray,
fast, meditate, offer violence to your lusts and corruptions; fear not, startle not at
their crying to be spared; press unto the throne of grace by prayer, supplications,
importunities, restless requests — this is the way to take the kingdom of God.
These things are not peace, are not assurance; but they are part of the means God
hath appointed for the attainment of them.’ (John Owen on ‘The 130th Psalm’,
The Forgiveness of Sin, Baker Book House, 1977.)
19Would’st thou have thy hope strong? Then keep thy conscience pure: thou
canst not de?le one without weakening the other. The godly person that is loose
and careless in his holy walking will soon find his hope languishing. All sin
disposeth the soul that tampers with it to trembling fears and shakings of heart.‘
(William Gurnall.)
‘One great and too common cause of distress is the secret maintaining of some
known sin. . . It puts out or dims the eye of the soul, and stupifies it, that it
can neither see not feel its own condition. But especially it provokes God to
withdraw Himself, His comforts and the assistance of His Spirit.’ (Richard Baxter:
The Saints 'Everlasting Rest, Evangelical Press, 1979.)
‘The stars which have least circuit are nearest the pole; and men whose hearts
are least entangled with the world are always nearest to God and to the assurance
of His favour. Worldly Christians, remember this. You and the world must part, or
else assurance and your souls will never meet.’ (Thomas Brooks.)
20‘They are doubly miserable that have neither heaven nor earth, temporals not
eternals, made sure to them in changing times.’ (Thomas Brooks.)
21‘None have assurance at all times. As in a walk that is shaded with trees and
chequered with light and shadow, some tracks and paths in it are dark and others
are sunshine. Such is usually the life of the most assured Christian.’ (Bishop
Hopkins.)
‘It is very suspicious, that that person is a hypocrite that is always in the same
frame, let him pretend it to be never so good.‘ (Robert Traill.)
NOTE
(REFERRED TO IN NOTE 6)
Extracts from English divines, showing that [here is a difference between faith
and assurance; that a believer‘ may be justified and accepted with God, and yet
not enjoy a comfortable knowledge and persuasion of his own safety, and that the
weakest faith in Christ, if it be true, will save a man as surely as the strongest.
1. ‘The mercy of God is greater than all the sins in the world. But we
sometimes are in such a case that we think we have no faith at all; or if we have
any, it is very feeble and weak. And therefore these are two things: to have faith,
and to have the feeling of faith. For some men would fain have the feeling of
faith, but they cannot attain unto it; and yet they must not despair, but go
forward in calling upon God, and it will come at the length. God will Open their
hearts, and let them feel His goodness.’ (Bishop Latimer; Sermons, 1552.)
2. ‘Weak faith may fail in the applying, or in the apprehension and
appropriating of Christ's benefits to a man‘s own self. This is to be seen in
ordinary experience. For many a man there is of humble and cont-rite heart, that
serveth God in spirit and truth, yet is not able to say, without great doubtings
and waverings, “I know and am fully assured that my sins are pardoned." Now
shall we say that all such are without faith? God forbid.
‘This weak faith will as truly apprehend God's merciful promises for the
pardon of sin as strong faith, though not so soundly, even as a man with a palsied
hand can stretch it out as well to receive a gift at the hand of a king as he that is
more sound, though it may be not so ?rmly and steadfastly.’ (Exposition of the
Creed by William Perkins, minister of Christ in the University of Cambridge.
1612.)
3. ‘This certainty of our salvation, spoken of by Paul, rehearsed by Peter, and
mentioned by David (Ps. 4:7), is that special fruit of faith, which breedeth
spiritual joy and inward peace, which passeth all understanding. True it is, all
God’s children have it not. One thing is the tree, and another thing is the fruit of
the tree; one thing is faith, and another thing is the fruit of faith. And that
remnant of God's elect which feel the want of this faith, have notwithstanding
faith.’ (Sermons by Richard Grecnham, minister and preacher of the Word of God.
1612.)
4. ‘Some think they have no faith at all, because they have no full assurance.
Yet the fairest fire that can be will have some smoke.‘ (The Bruised Reed, by
Richard Sibbes, Master of Catherine Hall, Cambridge, and preacher of Gray's Inn.
London. 1630, Banner of Truth Trust, 1973.)
5. ‘The act of faith is to apply Christ to the soul; and this the weakest faith
can do as well as the strongest, if it be true. A child can hold a staff as well,
though not so strongly, as a man. The prisoner through a hole sees the sun,
though not so perfectly as they in the open air. They that saw the brazen serpent,
though a great way off, yet were healed.
‘The least faith is as precious to the believer’s soul as Peter’s or Paul‘s faith was
to themselves; for it lays hold upon Christ and brings eternal salvation.’ (An
Exposition of the Second Epistle General of Peter, by the Rev. Thomas Adams,
Rector of St. Gregory’s, London. 1633.)
6. ‘Weak faith is true faith, as precious, though not so great, as strong faith:
the same Holy Ghost the Author, the same gospel the instrument.
‘If it never proves great, yet weak faith shall save; for it interests us in Christ,
and makes Him and all His bene?ts ours. For it is not the strength of our faith
that saves, but truth of our faith, nor weakness of our faith that condemns, but
the want of faith; for the least faith layeth hold on Christ and so will save us.
Neither are we saved by the worth or quantity of our faith, but by Christ, who is
laid hold on by a weak faith as well as a strong — just as a weak hand that can put
meat into the mouth shall feed and nourish the body as well as if it were a strong
hand, seeing the body is not nourished by the strength of the hand, but by the
goodness of the meat.’ (The Doctrine of Faith, by John Rogers, preacher of God's
Word, at Dedham, in Essex. 1634.)
7. ‘It is one thing to have a thing surely, another thing to know I Have it
surely. We seek many things that we have in our hands, and we have many things
that we think we have lost. So a believer, who hath a sure belief, yet doth not
always know that he so believeth. Faith is necessary to salvation; but full
assurance that I do believe is not of like necessity.’ (Ball on ‘Faith’. 1637.)
8. ‘There is a weak faith, which yet is true and, although it be weak, yet,
because it is true, it shall not be rejected of Christ.
‘Faith is not created perfect at the first, as Adam was, but is like a man in the
ordinary course of nature, who is first an infant, then a child, then a youth, then
a man.
‘Some utterly reject all weak ones, and tax all weakness in faith with
hypocrisy. Certainly these are either proud or cruel men.
‘Some comfort and establish those who are weak, saying, “Be quiet. Thou hast
faith and grace enough, and art good enough; thou needest no more, neither must
thou be too righteous" (Eccles. 7:16). These are soft. but not safe, cushions; these
are fawning flatterers, and not faithful friends.
‘Some comfort and exhort, saying, “Be of good cheer, He who hath begun a
good work will also finish it in you; therefore pray that His grace may abound in
you; yea, do not sit still, but go forward, and march on in the way of the Lord"
(Heb. 6:1). Now this is the safest and best course.’ (Questions, Observations, etc.,
upon the Gospel according to St Matthew, by Richard Ward, sometime student at
Cambridge, and preacher of the gospel in London. 1640.)
9. ‘A man may be in the favour-of God, in the state of grace, a justified man
before God, and yet want the sensible assurance of His salvation, and of the
favour of God in Christ.
‘A man may have saving grace in him, and not perceive it himself; a man may
have true justifying faith in him, and not have the use and operation of it, so far
as to work in him a comfortable assurance of his reconciliation with God. Nay, I
will say more: a man may be in the state of grace, and have true justifying faith in
him, and yet be so far from sensible assurance of it in himself, as in his own sense
and feeling he may seem to be assured of the contrary. Job was certainly in this
case when he cried unto God, “Wherefore hidest Thou Thy face and holdest me
for Thine enemy?" (Job 13:24.)
‘The weakest faith will justify. If thou canst receive Christ and rest upon Him,
even with the weakest faith, it will serve thy turn. Take heed thou think not it is
the strength of thy faith that justifieth thee. No, no. It is Christ and His perfect
righteousness which thy faith receiveth and resteth upon, that doth it. He that
hath the feeblest and weakest hand may receive an alms and apply a sovereign
plaster to his wound, as well as he that hath the strongest, and receive as much
good by it too.’ (Lectures upon the 51st Psalm, preached at Ashby-de~la-Zouch,
by Arthur Hildersam, minister of Jesus Christ. 1642.)
10. ‘Though your grace be never so weak, yet, if ye have truth of grace, you
have as great a share in the righteousness of Christ for your justification as the
strong Christian hath. You have as much of Christ imputed to you as any other.’
(Sermons by William Bridge, formerly Fellow‘of Emmanuel College, Cambridge,
and pastor of the church of Christ in Great Yarmouth. 1648.)
11. ‘There are some who are true believers, and yet weak in faith. They do
indeed receive Christ and free grace, but it is with a shaking hand; they have, as
divines say, the faith of adherence; they will stick to Christ, as theirs. But they
want the faith of evidence; they cannot see themselves as His. They are believers,
but of little faith; they hope that Christ will not cast them off, but are not sure
that He will take them up.’ (Sips ofSweemess, or Consolation for Weak Believers,
by John Durant, preacher in Canterbury Cathedral. 1649.)
12. ‘ “I know,” thou sayest, "that Jesus Christ came into the world to save
sinners, and that ‘whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have eternal
life‘ (john 3:15). Neither can I know but that, in a sense of my own sinful con-
dition, I do cast myself in some measure upon my Saviour, and lay some hold
upon His all-sufficient redemption, but, alas, my apprehensions of Him are so
feeble as that they can afford no sound comfort to my soul!”
‘Courage, my son. Were it that thou lookedst to be justified, and saved by the
power of the very act of thy faith, thou hadst reason to be disheartened with the
conscience of the weakness thereof; but now that the virtue and efficacy of this
happy work is in the object apprehended by thee, which is the infinite merits and
mercy of thy God and Saviour, which cannot be abated by thine infirmities, thou
hast cause to take heart to thyself, and cheerfully to expect His salvation.
‘Understand thy case aright. Here is a double hand, that helps us up toward
heaven. Our hand of faith lays hold upon our Saviour; our Savour's hand of mercy
and plenteous redemption lays hold on us. Our hold of Him is feeble and easily
loosed; His hold of us is strong and irresistible.
‘If work were stood upon, a strength of hand were necessary; but now that
only taking and receiving of a precious gift is required, why may not a weak hand
do that as well as a strong? As well, though not as forcibly.’ (Bishop Hall: Balm of
Gilead. 1650.)
13. ‘I find not salvation put upon the strength of faith, but the truth of faith;
not upon the brightest degree, but upon any degree of faith. It is not said, “if you
have such a degree of faith you shall be justified and saved"; but simply believing
is required. The lowest degree of true faith will do it, as Romans 10:9: ‘If thou
shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that
God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." The thief upon the
cross had not attained to such high degrees of faith; he by one act, and that of a
weak faith, was justified and saved (Luke 23:42). (Exposition of the Prophet
Ezekiel, by William Greenhill, rector of Stepney, London, and chaplain to the
Dukes of York and Gloucester. 1650.)
14. ‘A man may have true grace that hath not the assurance of the love and
favour of God, or the remission of his sins, and salvation of his soul. A man may
be God's, and yet he not know it; his estate may be good, and yet he not see it;
he may be in a safe condition, when he is not in a comfortable position. All may
be well with him in the court of glory, when he would give a thousand worlds that
all were but well in the court of conscience.
‘Assurance is requisite to the well-being of a Christian, but not to the being;
it is requisite to the consolation of a Christian, but not to the salvation of a
Christian; it is requisite to the well-being of grace, but not to the mere being of
grace. Though a man cannot be saved without faith, yet he may be saved without
assurance. God hath in many places of the Scripture declared that without faith
there is no salvation; but God hath not in any one place of Scripture declared that
without assurance there is no salvation.’ (Heaven on Earth, by Thomas Brooks,
preacher of the gospel at St Margaret’s, Fish Street Hill, London. 1654.)
15. ‘You that can clear this to your own hearts that you have faith, though it
be weak, be not discouraged, be not troubled. Consider that the smallest degree of
faith is true, is saving faith as well as the greatest. A spark of ?re is as true fire as
any is in the element of ?re. A drop of water is as true water as any is in the
ocean. So the least grain of faith is as true faith, and as saving as the greatest faith
in the world.
‘The least bud draws sap from the root as well as the greatest bough. So the
weakest measure of faith doth as truly ingraft thee into Christ, and by that draw
life from Christ, as well as the strongest. The weakest faith hath communion with
the merits and blood of Christ as well as the strongest.
‘The least faith marries the soul to Christ. The weakest faith hath as equal a
share in God's love as the strongest. We are beloved in Christ, and the least
measure of faith makes us members of Christ. The least faith hath equal right to
the promises as the strongest. And therefore let not our souls be discouraged for
weakness.’ (Nature and Royalties of Faith, by Samuel Bolton, D.D., of Christ's
College, Cambridge. 1657.)
16. ‘Some are afraid they have no faith at all, because they have not the
highest degree of faith, which is full assurance, or because they want the comfort
which others attain to, even joy unspeakable and full of glory. But for the rolling
of this stone out of the way, we must remember there are several degrees of faith.
It is possible thou mayest have faith, though not the highest degree of faith, and
so joy in the Spirit. That is rather a point of faith than faith itself. It is indeed
rather a living by sense than a living by faith, when we are cheered up with
continual cordials. A stronger faith is required to live upon God without comfort,
than when God shines in on our spirit with abundance of joy.‘ (Matthew
Lawrence, preacher at Ipswich, on ‘Faith’. 1657.)
17. ‘If any person abroad have thought that a special and full persuasion of
the pardon of their sin was of the essence of faith, let them answer for it. Our
divines at home generally are of another judgement. Bishop Davenant and Bishop
Prideaux, and others, have shown the great difference between recumbence and
assurance, and they all do account and call assurance a daughter, fruit and
consequent of faith. And the late learned Arrowsmith tells us, that God seldom
bestows assurance upon believers till they are grown in grace: for, says he, there is
the same difference between faith of recumbence and faith of assurance, as is
between reason and learning. Reason is the foundation of learning, so, as there
can be no learning if reason be wanting (as in beasts), in like manner there can be
no assurance where there is no faith of adherence. Again, as reason well exercised
in the study of arts and sciences arises to learning, so faith being well exercised on
its proper object, and by its proper fruits, arises to assurance. Further, as by
negligence, non-attendance, or some violent disease, learning may be lost, while
reason doth abide, so, by temptation, or by spiritual sloth, assurance may be lost,
while saving faith may abide. Lastly, as all men have reason, but all men are not
learned, so all regenerate persons have faith to comply savingly with the gospel
method of salvation, but all true believers have not assurance.’ (Sermon by
R. Fairclough, Fellow of Immanuel College, Cambridge, in the Morning Exercises,
preached at Southwark. 1660.)
18. ‘We must distinguish between weakness of faith and nullity. A weak faith
is true. The bruised reed is but weak, yet it is such as Christ will not break.
Though thy faith be but weak, yet be not discouraged. A weak faith may receive
a strong Christ; a weak hand can tie the knot in marriage as well as a strong; a
weak eye might have seen the ‘brazen serpent. The promise is not made to strong
faith, but to true. The promise doth not say, “whosoever hath a giant faith that
can remove mountains, that can stop the mouth of lions, shall be saved," but
“whosoever believes," be his faith never so small.
‘You may have the water of the Spirit poured on you in sanctification, though
not the oil of gladness in assurance: there may be faith of adherence, and not of
evidence; there may be life in the root where there is no fruit in the branches,
and in faith in the heart where no fruit of assurance.’ (A Body of Devinity, by
Thomas Watson, formerly minister of St. Stephen's, Walbrook, London. 1660,
Banner of Truth Trust, 1974.)
19. ‘Many of God’s dear children for a long time may remain very doubtful as
to their present and eternal condition, and know not what to conclude, whether
they shall be damned or whether they shall be saved. There are believers of several
growths in the church of God — fathers, young men, children and babes; and as in
most families there are more babes and children than grown men, so in the church
of God there are more weak, doubting Christians than strong ones, grown up to a
full assurance. A babe may be born, and yet not know it; so a man may be born
again, and yet not be sure of it.
‘We make a difference betwixt saving faith, as such, and a full persuasion of
the heart. Some of those that shall be saved may not be certain that they shall be
saved; for the promise is made to the grace of faith, and not to the evidence of it
— to faith as true, and not to faith as strong. They may be sure of heaven, and yet
in their own sense not assured of heaven.’ (Sermon by Rev. Thomas Doolittle, of
Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, and sometime rector of St Alphege, London, in the
Morning Exercises, at Cripplegate. 1661.)
20. ‘Is it not necessary to justification to be assured that my sins are
pardoned, and that I am justified? No, that is no act of faith as it justifieth, but
an effect and fruit that followeth after justification.
‘It is one thing for a man to have his salvation certain, another thing to be
certain that it is certain.
‘Even as a man fallen into a river, and like to be drowned, as he is carried
down with the flood, espies‘ the bough of a tree hanging over the river, which he
catcheth at, and clings unto with all his might to save him, and seeing no other
way of succour but that, ventures his life upon it. This man, so soon as he has
fastened on this bough, is in a safe condition, though all troubles, fears and terrors
are not presently out of his mind, until he comes to himself, and sees himself
quite out of danger. Then he is sure he is safe; but he was safe before he was sure.
Even so it is with a believer. Faith is but the espying of Christ as the only means
to save, and the reaching out of the heart to lay hold upon Him. God hath spoke
the word, and made the promise to His Son; I believe Him to be the only Saviour,
and remit my soul to Him to be saved by His mediation. So soon as the soul can do
this, God imputeth the righteousness of His Son unto it, and it is actually justified
in the court of heaven, though it is not presently quieted and pacified in the court
of conscience. That is done afterwards: in some sooner, in some later, by the
fruits and effects of justification.’ (Archbishop Usher; Body of Divinty, 1670.)
21. ‘There are those who doubt, because they doubt, and multiply distrust
upon itself, concluding that they have no faith, because they find so much and so
frequent doubting within them. But this is a great mistake. Some doubtings there
may be, where there is even much faith; and a little faith there may be, where
there is much doubting.
‘Our Saviour requires and delights in a strong, ?rm believing on Him, though
the least and weakest He rejects not.’ (Archbishop Leighton’s Lectures on the first
nine chapters of St Matthews Gospel, 1670.)
22. ‘Many formerly, and those of the highest remark and eminency, have
placed true faith in no lower degree than assurance, or the secure persuasion of
the pardon of their sins, the acceptation of their persons and their future salvation.
‘But this, as it is very sad and uncomfortable for thousands of doubting and
deserted souls, concluding all those to fall short of grace who fall short of
certainty, so hath it given the papists too great advantage.
‘Faith is not assurance. But this doth sometimes crown and reward a strong,
vigorous and heroic faith, the Spirit of God breaking in upon the soul with an
evidencing light, and scattering all that darkness and those fears and doubts which
before beclouded it.’ (Bishop Hopkins on ‘The Covenants’ 1680.)
23. ‘A want of assurance is not unbelief. Drooping spirits may be believers.
There is a manifest distinction made between faith in Christ and the comfort of
that faith, between believing to eternal life and knowing we have eternal life.
There is a difference between a child's having a right to an estate and his full
knowledge of the title.
‘The character of faith may be written in the heart, as letters engraven upon a
seal, yet ?lled with so much dust as not to be distinguished. The dust hinders the
reading of the letters, yet doth not raze them out.’ (Discourses by Stephen
Charnock, of Emmanuel College, Cambridge. 1680.)
24. ‘Some rob themselves of their own comfort by placing saving faith in full
assurance. Faith, and sense of faith, are two distinct and separable mercies; you
may have truly received Christ, and not receive the knowledge or assurance of it.
Some there be that say, “Thou art our God," of whom God never said, “You are
my people”; these have no authority to be called the sons of God. Others there
are, of whom God saith, “These are my people,” yet they dare not call God “their
God"; these have authority to be called the sons of God, yet know it not. They
have received Christ, that is their safety; but they have not yet received the
knowledge and assurance of it, that is their trouble. . . . The father owns his child
in the cradle, who yet knows him not to be his father.’ (The Metbod of Grace, by
John Flavel, minister of the gospel at Dartmouth, Devon. 1680, Baker Book
House, 1977.)
25. ‘It is confessed weak faith hath as much peace with God, through Christ,
as another hath by strong faith, but not so much bosom peace.
‘Weak faith will as surely land the Christian in heaven as strong faith, for it is
impossible the least dram of true grace should perish, being all incorruptible seed;
but the weak, doubting Christian is not like to have so pleasant a voyage thither as
another with strong faith. Though all in the ship come safe to shore, yet he that is
all the way seasick hath not so comfortable a voyage as he that is strong and
healthful.’ (The Christian in Complete Armour by William Gurnall, sometime
rector of Lavenham, Suffolk. 1680, Banner of Truth Trust, 1979.)
26. ‘Be not discouraged if it doth not yet appear to you that you were given
by the Father to the Son. It may be, though you do not see it. Many of the given
do not for a long time know it; yea, I see no great danger in saying that not a few
of the given to the Son may be in darkness and doubts and fears about it, till the
last and brightest day declare it, and till the last sentence proclaims it.
‘If, therefore, any of you be in the dark about your own election, be not
discouraged: it may be, though you do not know it.’ (Sermons on the Lord’s Prayer,
by Robert Traill, minister of the gospel, in London, and sometime at Cranbrook,
Kent, 1690, Works., Banner of Truth Trust, 1979.)
27. ‘Assurance is not essential to the being of faith. It is a strong faith; but we
read likewise of a weak faith, little faith, faith like a grain of mustard seed. True
saving faith in Jesus Christ is only distinguishable by its different degrees; but in
every degree and in every subject, it is universally of the same kind.’ (Sermons, by
the Rev. John Newton, sometime vicar of Olney, and rector of St Mary Woolnoth,
London. 1767.)
28. ‘There is no reason why weak believers should conclude against
themselves. Weak faith unites as really with Christ as strong faith, as the least bud in
the vine is drawing sap and life from the root, no less than the strongest branch.
Weak believers, therefore, have abundant cause to be thankful; and while they
reach after growth in grace, ought not to overlook what they have already
received.‘ (Letter of Rev. Henry Venn. 1784.)
29. ‘The faith necessary and sufficient for our salvation is not assurance. its
tendency doubtless is to produce that lively expectation of the divine favour
which will issue in a full con?dence. But the confidence is not itself the faith of
which we speak, nor is it necessarily included in it; nay, it is a totally distinct
thing.
‘Assurance will generally accompany a high degree of faith. But there are
sincere persons who are endued with only small measures of grace, or in whom
the exercise of that grace may be greatly obstructed. When such defects or
hindrances prevail, many fears and distresses may be expected to arise.’ (The
Christian System, by the Rev. Thomas Robinson, vicar of St. Mary’s, Leicester.
1795.)
30. ‘Salvation, and the joy of salvation, are not always contemporaneous; the
latter does not always accompany the former in present experience.
‘A sick man may be under a process of recovery, and yet be in doubt
concerning the restoration of. his health. Pain and weakness may cause him to
hesitate. A child may be heir to his estate or kingdom, and yet unable to trace his
genealogy, or to read his title-deeds, and the testament of his father; or with a
capacity of reading them he may be unable to understand their import, and his
guardian may for a time deem it right to suffer him to remain in ignorance. But
his ignorance does not affect the validity of his title.
‘Personal assurance of salvation is not necessarily connected with faith. They
are not essentially the same. Every believer might indeed infer, from the effect
produced in his own heart, his own safety and privileges; but many who truly
believe are unskilful in the Word of righteousness, and fail of drawing the
conclusion from scriptural premises which they would be justified in drawing.‘
(Lectures on the 51st: Psalm, by the Rev. Thomas Biddulph, minister of St.
James’s, Bristol. 1890.)
