“But ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God”
Rom. 8:15,16
“The Lord has not revealed the names of the elect saved, but He has revealed the name of the elect Savior.”
John ‘Rabbi’ Duncan
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Subsection
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Order of Contents
Articles 16+
Books 5
Quotes 6
Latin 2
Historical 5
Saved without Assurance 1
Means of Assurance; Regularly Given in Using 2
Rutherford’s Assertions
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Articles
Anthology of the Post-Reformation
Heppe, Heinrich – ch. 23, ‘The Fixity of the Covenant of Grace, or the Perseverance of the Saints’ in Reformed Dogmatics ed. Ernst Bizer, tr. G.T. Thomson (1861; Wipf & Stock, 2007), pp. 581-90
Heppe (1820–1879) was a German reformed theologian.
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1500’s
Vermigli, Peter Martyr – 3. ‘Of Faith & the Certainty thereof; & how Faith may Agree with Fear’ in The Common Places… (d. 1562; London: Henrie Denham et al., 1583), pt. 3, pp. 56-89
Calvin, John – Institutes of the Christian Religion tr. Henry Beveridge (1559; Edinburgh: Calvin Translation Society, 1845), vol. 2, bk. 3
16. ‘Refutation of the Calumnies by which it is attempted to throw odium on this doctrine’ 385
Musculus, Wolfgang – Common Places of the Christian Religion (1560; London, 1563), ‘Remission & Forgiveness of Sins’
Whether all sins be forgiven 242.a
Whether when forgiveness of sins is once gotten, it may be void again? 242.b
Beza, Theodore
A Brief & Pithy Sum of the Christian Faith made in Form of a Confession (London, 1565), Ch. 4
8. To be assured of our salvation by faith in Jesus Christ is not arrogancy or presumption
20. Remedies against the last and most dangerous temptation, which is whether we be saved or not
pp. 88-89 in A Book of Christian Questions & Answers… (London, 1574)
‘An Excellent Treatise of Comforting Such as are Troubled about their Predestination, Taken out of the Second Answer of Mr. Beza to Dr. Andreas, in the Act of their Colloquy at Mompelgart, etc.’ 4 pp. appended to William Perkins, A Golden Chain: or The Description of Theology Containing the Order of the Causes of Salvation & Damnation… Whereunto is Adjoined the Order which Mr. Theodore Beza used in Comforting Afflicted Consciences (Cambridge, 1600)
Viret, Pierre – A Christian Instruction… (d. 1571; London: Veale, 1573), A Familiar Exposition of the Principal Points of the Catechism
1st Dialogue, Of the Assurance of the Conscience by the Word of God, and what commodity comes thereby to man
14th Dialogue, Of the Forgiveness of Sins, and of the assurance of the conscience by the same
Prime, John – ‘Of the Certainty of grace and salvation by faith and hope in every particular man’ in A Fruitful & Brief Discourse in Two Books: the One of Nature, the Other of Grace, with Convenient Answer to the Enemies of Grace, upon Incident Occasions Offered by the Late Rhemish Notes in their New Translation of the New Testament, & Others (London, 1583), bk. 2
Prime (c.1549-1596) was a reformed Anglican clergyman and Oxford scholar.
Ursinus, Zachary – The Sum of Christian Religion: Delivered… in his Lectures upon the Catechism… tr. Henrie Parrie (Oxford, 1587)
Of Everlasting Life, 7. Whether we can be assured in this life of everlasting life
3rd Part of the Creed, Of the Holy Ghost the Sanctifier, 10. How we may know that the Holy Ghost dwells in us
Of the True Comfort of the Godly
Perkins, William
3. Certainty of Salvation in A Reformed Catholic… ([Cambridge] 1598)
ch. 6, How a man may be in conscience assured of his own salvation? in The Whole Treatise of the Cases of Conscience… (Cambridge: Legat, 1606), bk. 1, pp. 73-87
A Golden Chain (Cambridge: Legat, 1600)
50. Errors of the Papists in their distributing of the Causes of Salvation, 17.Man knows not but by special revelation whether he be predestinated or not
Appendices
A Treatise tending unto a Declaration whether a Man be in the Estate of Damnation or in the Estate of Grace, and if he be in the first, how he may in time come out of it: if in the second, how he may discern it and persevere in the same to the end
Consolations for the Troubled Consciences of Repentant Sinners
A Grain of Mustard-Seed: or, the Least Measure of Grace that is, or can be Effectual to Salvation
6. The foresaid beginnings of grace are counterfeit, unless they increase
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1600’s
Hooker, Richard – ‘Semon of the Certainty & Perpetuity of Faith in the Elect’ on Hab. 1:4 in Works, 2 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1890), vol. 2, pp. 587-99
Alsted, Johann H. – 5. ‘On the Perseverance of the Saints & the Certainty of Savlation’ in Polemical Theology, exhibiting the Principal Eternal Things of Religion in Navigating Controversies, pt. 2, 4-6 (Partial) tr. by AI by Onku (Hanau, 1620; 1627), pt. 6, sect. 1, Of the Dogmas of Jacob Arminius & his Disciples, pp. 118-20 Latin
Davenant, John – Question 3, ‘True Believers can be Sure of their Own Salvation’ in The Determinations, or Resolutions of Certain Theological Questions, Publicly Discussed in the University of Cambridge trans. Josiah Allport (1634; 1846), pp. 226-34 bound at the end of John Davenant, A Treatise on Justification, or the Disputatio de Justitia... trans. Josiah Allport (1631; London, 1846), vol. 2
Rutherford, Samuel
Rutherford’s Examination of Arminianism: the Tables of Contents with Excerpts from Every Chapter tr. Charles Johnson & Travis Fentiman (1638-1642; 1668; RBO, 2019), ch. 14
section 3, ‘Whether the Arminians rightly deny there to be any certainty of our salvation? We deny against the same.’, pp. 115-16
section 4, ‘Whether or not a greater certainty is required by us than that which the nature of a free act itself bears? We affirm against the Remonstrants.’, pp. 117-18
ch. 14, ‘Concerning the Certainty of Salvation’ in Examination of Arminianism tr. by AI by Monergism (1639-1642; Utrecht, 1668; 2024), pp. 580-95
1. Whether any can be certain that he himself is truly justified, in the grace of God, and will continue to be saved? We affirm against the Papists and Remonstrants.
2. Whether the certainty which Arminians attribute to believers can consist with the Scriptures, or with faith and hope? We deny against the same.
3. Whether the Arminians rightly deny there to be any certainty of our salvation? We deny against the same.
4. Whether or not a greater certainty is required by us than that which the nature of a free act itself bears? We affirm against the Remonstrants.
Leigh, Edward – ch. 9. Whether one may be Certain of his Justification in A System or Body of Divinity… (London, A.M., 1654), bk. 7, pp. 524-28
Le Blanc de Beaulieu, Louis – Theological Theses Published at Various Times in the Academy of Sedan 3rd ed. tr. by AI by Colloquia Scholastica (1675; London, 1683) Latin
Certainty which belongs to faith 280-91
…
Certainty one can and should have about justification, pt. 1, Reformed view 419
. pt. 2, Roman opinion; state of the controversy is gathered and examined 426-45
Le Blanc (1614-1675) was a French reformed professor of theology at Sedan.
Turretin, Francis – Institutes of Elenctic Theology, tr. George M. Giger, ed. James Dennison Jr. (1679–1685; P&R, 1992)
vol. 1, 4th Topic
vol. 2, 16th Topic
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1700’s
à Brakel, Wilhelmus – ch. 94, ‘Unbelief Concerning One’s [Regenerate] Spiritual State’ in The Christian’s Reasonable Service, vol. 4 ed. Joel Beeke, tr. Bartel Elshout Buy (1700; RHB, 1992/1999), pp. 207-35
a Brakel (1635-1711) was a contemporary of Voet and Witsius and a major representative of the Dutch Further Reformation.
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Books
1500’s
Rhegius, Urbanus – A Necessary Instruction of Christian Faith & Hope for Christians to Hold Fast & to be Bolde[n] up on the Promise of God, & Not to Doubt of their Salvation in Christ (London, 1579) 58 pp. ToC
Gifford, George – Four Sermons upon the Seven Chief Virtues or Principal Effects of Faith & the Doctrine of Election: wherein Every Man may Learn whether He be God’s Child or No (London, 1582) 107 pp. ToC
Perkins, William – A Case of Conscience, the Greatest that ever was, how a Man may Know Whether he be the Son of God or No… Whereunto is added a Brief Discourse taken out of Jerome Zanchius [on the same subject] (Edinburgh, 1592) 75 pp. Also in RHB, 8.595-638
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1600’s
Love, Christopher – A Treatise of Effectual Calling & Election in 16 Sermons on 2 Peter 1:10, wherein a Christian may discern whether yet he be effectually called and elected and what course he ought to take that he may attain the assurance thereof (1655) 218 pp. Index
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1900’s
Berkhof, Louis – The Assurance of Faith: the Firm Foundation of the Christian Hope Buy 86 pp.
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Quotes
Order of
Alsted
Rutherford
Pascal
Hoornbeek
Haddington
Duncan
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1600’s
Johann H. Alsted
‘On Justification & Good Works in General’ in Theologia polemica, exhibens praecipuas huius aeui in religionis negotio controuersias sex in partes tributa studio (d. 1638) at Nosferatu’s Substack (2024)
“Controversy VI:
Can man be certain of his present justice or the divine grace received in Christ?
Thesis: The certainty of justice or justification in Christ is not a human conjecture but an infallible confidence that excludes final and total doubt and is based both on the promise of grace, which is universal for all believers, and on the special application and infallible testimony of the Holy Spirit.
[Romanist] Antithesis: No one in this life can affirm with certainty and infallibility that their sins have been forgiven without a special revelation. This is a vain confidence and a presumptuous heresy.
Thesis:
1. Scripture teaches that the justified have peace (Romans 5) and are persuaded of God’s grace (Romans 8; 2 Timothy 3 and 4).
2. The testimony of the Holy Spirit in our hearts is infallible (John 16; Romans 8; Galatians 4), being the seal and guarantee with which believers are confirmed and sealed (2 Corinthians 1; Ephesians 1 and 4).
3. True faith confidently trusts and expels doubt or unease from the heart (Romans 4; James 1; Ephesians 2; Hebrews 10 and 11).
4. Through the study of external piety, as an infallible argument, we know that we have true faith (2 Peter 1; 1 John 3 and 4).
5. The promises of grace are universal for believers (John 3; Romans 10) and are conditioned on faith and repentance. Therefore, these promises apply to all who find that condition in themselves.
6. The Church Fathers teach the same. Augustine: “It is not arrogance but faith to proclaim what you have received.” Bernard: “Believe that your sins are forgiven. This is the testimony the Holy Spirit gives in our hearts, saying: ‘Your sins are forgiven.'”
[Romanist] Confirmation of the Antithesis:
1. “Who can say that their heart is pure?” (Proverbs 20).
2. “Man does not know whether he is worthy of love or hatred” (Ecclesiastes 9:3).
3. Job says he does not know if he is pure (Job 9).
4. Even when we are guilty, we often ignore it. “Who can discern their own errors?” (Psalm 19:12).
5. The apostle Paul says: “Nothing weighs on my conscience, but not for that am I justified” (1 Corinthians 4).
6. Conditions of faith and repentance are frequently required for salvation (Deuteronomy 4 and 30; Isaiah 1; Ezekiel 18; Luke 13; Acts 2 and 8). But no one can be sure they have turned to God with all their heart.
7. It is uncertain whether those who repent are immediately justified (Daniel 4; Joel 2; Jonah 3:9, where it says: “Who knows if God will turn and repent and turn away from us His fierce anger?”).
8. We are warned to work out our salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2; 1 Peter 1; 2 Peter 1).
9. The Church Fathers condemn this special certainty.
10. The heart of man is so unstable that it cannot know itself adequately.
11. This certainty breeds presumption and Phariseeism, diminishing the fear of God and true zeal for humility before God.
[The Reformed] Censure:
1.3.4.5. The passages deal with inherent purity, which has many defects even among the most holy, who sometimes err unknowingly.
6. The vulgar version is not approved. It speaks of external misfortunes, and the certainty of spiritual grace should not be judged from such events. It is different to speak of spiritual and eternal grace and deliverance, and of corporeal and temporal ones.
7. The expression “perhaps” is used to denote human difficulty as well as to encourage and elevate spirits to trust in God’s promises (Joshua 14:7, 12).
8. Not every fear is contrary to the certainty of faith, but servile fear (1 John 4:18).
9. The Church Fathers condemn the false persuasion of some hypocrites.
10. The heart of the natural man is like the unstable sea, but the heart washed in Christ’s blood and sanctified by the Holy Spirit is like the Pacific Ocean.
11. The effects of hypocritical certainty and carnal security are wrongly considered the effects of spiritual security.
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Controversy VII: Can a faithful man be certain of his election and final perseverance?
Thesis: A faithful man can be infallibly certain of his salvation in this life, though this certainty may be contested by various temptations.
[Romanist] Antithesis: The faithful cannot be convinced of their final perseverance and predestination to salvation except probably or extraordinarily; that is, if this is revealed to them.
Confirmation of the Thesis:
1. Election and faith are connected as cause and effect. For Scripture teaches that the children of God are elected and predestined for salvation (Romans 8). Believers are called the elect, holy, and chosen people (Matthew 24; Luke 18; 1 Peter 2). Therefore, from true faith as its own effect, divine election, its certainty, and consequently, final perseverance are rightly concluded.
2. True faith does not doubt (Matthew 14:31; Romans 4:20; Hebrews 11:1). These verses show that doubt is the fruit of unbelief.
3. God has given to all who believe in the name of Christ the power to become children of God (John 1).
4. The Holy Spirit testifies to our particular adoption (Romans 8:15, 16).
5. There is no blessedness for God’s children in this world if they do not know they are blessed, for true happiness consists in knowing that one is free from evil and abundant in good.
[Romanist] Confirmation of the Antithesis:
1. The mystery of predestination is so high and deep that the apostle says: “Who has known the mind of the Lord?” (Romans 11).
2. Scripture frequently exhorts to fear and concern for salvation (1 Corinthians 10; Romans 11; Philippians 1; Revelation 3).
3. Salvation depends on the condition of good works (Matthew 5: “Unless your justice exceeds”; 2 Timothy 2: “No one is crowned unless he competes lawfully”; Romans 8: “If we suffer with Him, we shall also be glorified with Him”). Therefore, the justice of works is necessary, as Calvin himself admits.
4; Many believe for a time and then fall away (Matthew 13; 1 Timothy 1:4 and 6; 2 Timothy 2).
5. The opposite doctrine extinguishes humility.
6. Faith and the word of God are correlative. Where there is no word, there is no faith. But there is no word that says: “You, Peter, you, Cornelius, shall be saved.”
7. In no article of faith are we commanded to believe in the salvation of each individual in particular.
8. If we were certain of salvation, Christ would not have commanded us to pray daily for the forgiveness of our sins. Certainly, perseverance is made uncertain and doubtful by the sins of the righteous.
9. The Church Fathers teach this, as Bernard says: “Who can say: ‘I am of the elect’?”
[The Reformed] Censure:
1. No one knows the mind of the Lord, that is, the reasons for His counsels and acts. Otherwise, the faithful know their election directly and indirectly. Directly, insofar as the Holy Spirit reveals it to them; indirectly, insofar as they infer the cause from the effects.
2. The certainty of salvation does not exclude pious concern and holy fear.
3. Salvation does not depend on the condition of works as a meritorious cause. Furthermore, the condition of faith and piety is not unknown to the truly pious.
4. The passage deals with temporary faith.
5. The effort for humility is not incompatible with the certainty of election and the sure hope of perseverance. Humility is an effect of faith.
6. The word of God is general or special, and it is triple. The general word is applied by the internal voice of the Holy Spirit, by the ministers of the word, and by the use of the sacraments.
7. Each article of faith includes a special faith. Particularly, this applies to the article on the forgiveness of sins and eternal life.
8. We pray for the increase and sense of this certainty. Our heart is like a narrow vessel that can only be filled gradually. Furthermore, this certainty does not depend on faith or anything else in us but on divine election and God’s unchangeable benevolence towards His own.
9. The words of the Church Fathers should be understood relatively, referring to the false persuasion of hypocrites, the certainty of the final experience, or the vision or evidence that is without signs, as is the certainty of things perceived by the senses.”
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Samuel Rutherford
A Free Disputation Against Pretended Liberty of Conscience… (1649), ch. 1, p. 14
“For Dr. [Tobias] Crisp and the Libertines [Antinomians] of New England, whose doctrine subverts the faith, say, there can be no marks of saving grace from whence we can draw either comfort or peace, ‘be it universal obedience, sincerity, love to the Brethren, but it may be in hypocrites, in a Jew following the righteousness of the law, Rom. 10:1, and renouncing Christ.’
Surely if works of saving grace speak no other thing than hypocrites and devils may have, then:
First, holy walking is no ground of comfort and a good conscience has no more to yield David, Job, Hezekiah, Paul, the apostles and martyrs when they suffer for Christ and his truth, and are in heavy afflictions and chains than it can yield to the vilest of men.
2. A man, a Christian shall never find any grounds of certainty of his adoption in anything, save in the hidden decrees of election and reprobation, and if some immediate testimony of a Spirit, which may be [a] great doubt to many who walk as many Antinomians do, according to the flesh.
3. All their rejoicing in simplicity and godly sincerity, 2 Cor. 1:12, is empty fancies and delusions, for they rejoice in that in which hypocrites and reprobates may have as deep a share as they. But that there is also some immediate testimony of the Spirit, though never separated from the fruits of the Spirit, I hope to prove elsewhere.”
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Blaise Pascal
Pensees, section 14, Appendix: ‘Polemical Fragments’ in Pensees – The Provincial Letters in The Modern Library (d. 1662; NY: Modern Library, 1941), p. 304
“There is a pleasure in being in a ship beaten about by a storm, when we are sure that it will not founder. The persecutions which harass the Church are of this nature.”
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Johannes Hoornbeek
Theological Disputation on the State of Grace (Leiden: Johann Elsevir, 1664) Latin
“VIII. You will say, ‘How may I know that I am in a state of grace, since it is so important to discern this?’ Surely the apostle did not warn in vain that we should take care not to seem to have received the grace of God in vain (2 Cor 6:1). But they have received it in vain, who, seeming to have received it, either experience or show no power of it, or even fall away from that which they seemed to have received (Heb 12:15). Therefore you will know in this way that you are what you profess:
1. If you know through faith that you are in Christ, the fount and origin of grace (Rom 5:1 – Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 8:1 – There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus).
2. From a sense of reconciliation with God in your soul, whence also we approach the throne of grace with confidence (Rom 4:16, Luke 1:30 – you have found favor with God, Acts 7:46).
3. From the testimony of the Holy Spirit certifying the soul of it (Rom 8:16, Eph 4:30).
4. Finally from the holiness of life agreeing with the state of grace. For grace is a sanctifying grace, and is so incompatible with sin that the kingdom of grace and of sin cannot abide in the same seat, nor can anyone be at the same time under grace and under sin (Rom 6:14 – For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace, v.22 – But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification). Jude v. 4 – ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality.”
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1700’s
John Brown of Haddington (†1787), speaking to a dear, older Christian lady on her death bed.
Robert Mackenzie, John Brown of Haddington (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1918), pp. 101-2
‘Janet,’ he asked, ‘what would you say if, after all He has done for you, God should let you drop into hell?’ ‘Even as He likes,’ came the answer, ‘if He does, He’ll lose more than I’ll do.’
[Meaning: She would lose her eternal soul, but He would lose his faithfulness and veracity]
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1800’s
John ‘Rabbi’ Duncan
“Assurance is a grace, and like every other grace is sovereign.”
“Assurance is attainable. God does not call to what is in its own nature impossible.”
“We need a more forward-moving Christianity, with more of the plerophoria [fullness of faith] in it; which is not ‘in full assurance of faith’, but ‘in the full sail of faith’ — bearing right on with the wind; all canvas up.”
“Without holiness no man shall see the Lord — that principle you have to do with for evidence of your saintship, but the evidences will not do for the battle, you must go to the foundation [which is Christ].”
“Ah! confound not faith with assurance: confound not turning to God with what comes upon return to God, and comes more and more upon return to and close walking with God.”
“When the doctrine of assurance being necessarily contained in faith, so as to be essential to it, gets into a church, in the second generation it gets habituated to the use of the highest appropriating language by dead, carnal men.”
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Latin Articles
1600’s
Rutherford, Samuel – ch. 14, ‘On the Certainty of Salvation’ in The Examination of Arminianism ed. Matthew Nethenus (1639-1643; Utrecht, 1668), pp. 625-42
Voet, Gisbert – ‘On peace of conscience and tranquility’ in Select Theological Disputations, vol. 4 (Utrecht, 1667), 50. ‘A Syllabus of Questions on the Decalogue’, ‘On the 1st Commandment’, p. 776
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Historical
On the 1500’s
Articles
Cunningham, William – ‘The Reformers & the Doctrine of Assurance’ (1862), p. 111, 47 pp. from his Reformers & the Theology of the Reformation
ed. Foxgrover, David – Calvin, Beza & Later Calvinism: Papers Presented at the 15th Colloquium of the Calvin Studies Society April 7-9, 2006 (Calvin Studies Society, 2006)
Schreiner, Susan – ‘Calvin’s Concern with Certainty in the Context of the Sixteenth Century’, pp. 113-31
Thompson, John L. – ‘A Response’, pp. 132-35
Rosenthal, Shane – ‘Faith & Assurance in the Theology of Theodore Beza’ (2001) at Reformation Ink
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On the Post-Reformation
Books
Beeke, Joel – The Quest for Full Assurance: the Legacy of Calvin & his Successors Ref (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1999) 395 pp.
Master, Jonathan – A Question of Consensus: The Doctrine of Assurance after the Westminster Confession Pre (Fortress Press, 2015) ToC
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That a Person may be Saved and yet Lack Assurance
Order of Contents
Westminster
Quotes
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Westminster Confession 18.3
“III. This infallible assurance doth not so belong to the essence of faith, but that a true believer may wait long, and conflict with many difficulties, before he be partaker of it:[k]…
[k] 1 John 5:13. Isa. 50:10. Mark 9:24. Ps. 88 throughout. Ps. 77:1-12.”
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Quote
1600’s
Samuel Rutherford
Christ Dying & Drawing Sinners to Himself (London: 1647)
pp. 85-86
“2. But then all that are justified must be fully persuaded of their justification and that faith is essentially a persuasion and assurance of the love of God to me in Christ [as Antinomians taught], it’s more than I could ever learn to be the nature of faith, a consequent separable I believe it is.
3. If by ‘apprehending Christ and his righteousness’ be understood a relying and fiduciall acquiescing and recumbency on Christ for salvation: It is granted in this sense that faith is a bottom to our assurance of our being in Christ; but that it breeds assurance in a reflect knowledge always that a believer is in Christ, is not true: for:
1. I may believe and be justified and not know, yea positively doubt that I believe and am justified, as thousands have pardon and have no peace nor assurance of their pardon and have faith in Christ and in his free love, and have no feeling of Christ and of his free love. For we believe more truth of our own graces (and so of our faith and assurance of our pardon) than we can see or feel, which is God’s dispensation, that our life should be hid with Christ in God; therefore the life of faith, by which the just do live, is hid, and above the reach of feeling at all times.
2. As faith, which is the direct act of knowing and relying on Christ for pardon, is a work of the Spirit, above the reach of reason, so also the reflect act of my knowing and feeling, that I believe and am in Christ, which proceeds sometime from faith and the immediate testimony of the Spirit, sometime from our walking in Christ, 1 Jn. 2:3-4; 1 Jn. 3:14, is a supernatural work, above the compass and reach of our free-will, and is dispensed according to the spirations and stirrings of the free grace of God; and as the keeping of his commandements, actu primo [by the first act, as it is in itself], and in itself, gives testimony that the soul is in Christ and justified, even as the act of believing in itself does the same, yet that we actu secundo [by the second or following, exercised act], efficaciously know and feel that we are in Christ, from the irradiation and light of faith and sincere walking with God, is not necessary, save only when the wind of the actual motion and flowing of the Spirit concur with these means; just as the Gospel-promises of themselves are life and power, but they then only actually, actu secundo, animate and quicken whithered souls, when the Lord is pleased to contribute his influence in the shining of his Spirit. Otherwise I may walk in darkeness, yea believe, pray, love, die for pain of love and have no light, reflect-knowledge and feeling that I am in Christ, Isa. •0:10. I may be sick of love for Christ, call, knock, pray, confer with the watchmen, and daughters of Jerusalem, and be at a low ebb in my own sense; yea the beloved may to my feeling and actual assurance have withdrawn Himself, Cant. 3:1-5; 5:5-8, and all my inherent evidences cannot quicken me in any tolerable assurance.”
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p. 98
“Faith may be a persuasion in some sense, but that it is a persuasion that my faith or persuasion is true, not counterfeit, and so formally, is utterly denied. How many believe and love Christ with the heart who are not persuaded that they do so; yea, much doubt whether they believe with the heart and would give a world to know (if it were possible) that they truly love God? No divine who knows that a direct act of faith and to believe is, when there is no reflex act, can deny this.”
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There are means to attain assurance & assurance is regularly given, in various strengths of degree, in the use of the means, this general promise being in principle to all believers, as such, though the varied fulfillment & distribution of the blessings be qulaified by God’s Sovereignty, & a full, certain & infallible assurance, for whatever length of time(s), may only be given to some
Bible Verses
2 Pet. 1:4-11 “Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises… giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge… temperance, patience… godliness, brotherly kindness… charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ… give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.”
Jn. 14:21 “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me: and he that loveth Me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.”
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Quotes
Francis Turretin
Institutes, ed. James Dennison, Jr. (Presbyterian & Reformed, 1994), vol. 2, 15th Topic, question 17, ‘Whether the believer can and ought to be certain of his faith and justification by a divine and not merely conjectural certainty. We affirm…’
sections 7-8, pp. 618-19
“VII… a divine and infallible certainty which exists or can ordinarily exist in every believer… from the grace of the Spirit by the energy (energeian) of faith, which, resting upon the external promises of the Word and the internal testimony of the Holy Spirit, exerts itself in all more or less, but as much as suffices for true consolation.
(2) The question is not whether that certainty can be in the believer without the use of means (i.e., the desire for holiness and the exercise of repentance and the actual purpose of living piously… Fir we hold that these are not to be wrested apart from each other and that persuasion cannot proceed into act without the desire of holiness. For He gave his promises to those walking in that way alone, and there are the indubitable effects and signs (gnorismata) of true faith and justification.
VIII… For since it does not exist in us… without the use of means, it is certain that when these means are not used or when the contrary are used, the act itself cannot be put forth… But this does not prevent the foundation from always being in the believer and the principle from which (if he rightly considers his own state and the divine promise) he can deduce this actual full confidence (plerophorian).”
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section 18, p. 624
“…although the testimony of the Spirit cannot be granted in us without the use of means (i.e., the desire of holiness), it does not follow that it is doubtful and uncertain because even these means are promised to us by God and procured for us by the Spirit.”
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section 34, p. 630
“XXXIV. Since the certainty which we urge ought to be always ought to be always connected with the use of means, we search for it in vain in the impenitent sinner… He ought not to be ignorant that perseverence in sin is inconsistent (asystaton) with that certainty.”
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sections 36-37, pp. 630-31
“XXXVI. As the certainty of perseverance is the consolation of the laboring, not the mother of security… since it can be granted only to those walking in the path of holiness… This is properly the fruit of the soul confirmed in the Lord and of the exercised senses. Therefore those who are not as yet confirmed must press forward by degrees and perceptibly in the ways of the Lord…
XXXVII… Such is the holy security of the pious, which not only does not exclude watchfulness and the desire for piety, but necessarily supposes them as the certain means of their own preservation.”
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Samuel Rutherford’s Assertions
Christ Dying & Drawing Sinners to Himself (London: 1647)
pp. 82-94
“Hence these considerations for easing the afflicted conscience of a weak child of God:”
Assertion 1. The soul labouring under doubts whether God be his Father is to hold off two rocks: either confiding or resting on duties, or neglecting of duties.
Assertion 2. What, advise you then a deserted soul to go on in duties? and seek righteousnesse in himself? By no means; to seek righteousness in himself, that is highest pride: but will you call it pride for a starving man to beg? Is it self-denial for such a one to be stark dumb and to pray none in his famishing condition for food?
Assertion 3. Another counsel is: force not a lawsuit, seek not, buy not a plea against Christ. Conscience, a tender piece under jealousies, says, ‘O He loveth not me; Christ has forgotten me;’ Join not in such a quarrel with conscience. Have not cold and low thoughts of Christ’s love to you because He is out of sight: He is not out of languor of love for you.
Assertion 4. Unbelief is a witch, an enchantress and covers Christ’s face with a veil of hatred, wrath, displeasure. Examine what grounds of reason you have to misbelieve or break with Christ; say, He had broken with you, yet because you know it not, for suspicion, lose not such a friend as Christ, if you get never more of Him you may swear and vow to take to hell with you (if so He deale with you) the pawns and love-tokens you once received that they may be witnesses what Christ is and may be the remnants, seeds and leavings of the high esteem you once had of Him.
Assertion 5. A time Christ must have to go and come, and therefore must be waited on. We give the sea hours to ebb and flow and the moon days to decrease and grow full; and the winter-sun and the summer-sun months to go away and return; and whether we will or no, God and nature take their time and ask us no leave.
Assertion 6. And though you were in Hell and He in heaven, He is worthy to be waited on; the first warm smile of a new return is sufficient to recompence all sorrow in his absence, to say nothing of everlasting huggings and embracings.
Assertion 7. Nor is this a good reason [to deny that good works are a ground of assurance]: I find sin rottenness, and so a deserved curse in all my works of sanctification; therefore why should I make them any bottom for assurance?
Assertion 8. To press duties out of a principle of faith is to press Christ upon souls, nor can the seeing of beams and light in the air, or of wine-grapes on the tree, be a denying of the sun to be in the firmanent or of life and sap to be in the vine-tree: to see and feel in ourselves grapes and fruits of righteousness, except we make the grace of Christ a bastard and misfather it, is no darkening of Christ and free grace, 1 Cor. 15:9-10.
Assertion 9. There is a great difficulty, yea an impossibility, when the Lord hides Himself and goes behind the mountain, to command the flowing and emanations of free grace.
1. Because desertion were not desertion if it were under the dominion of our free-will. For desertion as a punishment of sin cannot be in the free-will of him that is punished; every punishment as such is contrary to the will of the punished: and desertion as an act of free dispensation for trial must be a work of omnipotent dominion.
2. As in works of nature and art, so is it here, that God may be seen in both… Do not some rise early and go late to bed, eat the bread of sorrow; yet the armed souldier of God, extreme poverty, breaks in upon the house? Do not watchmen wake all the night, yet the city is surprised and taken in the dawning, because the Lord keeps not the city? The Lord does all this to show that He is the supreme and absolute Lord of all second causes. Why, but He has as eminent and independent a Lordship in the acts of his free departure and returns in the sense of his love.
3. The sense of Christ which is wanting in desertion cannot be enforced by persuasion, no more than you can by words persuade the deaf to hear.
Assertion 10. Though means must not be neglected, as praying and waiting on the watchtower for the breathings of renewed assurance, yet as touching the time, manner, way and measure of the speaking of the vision, God‘s absolute dominion is more to be respected here than all the stirrings and motions of the under wheels of prayer, preaching, conference.
Assertion 11. The soul should be argued with and convinced thus: Why will you not give Christ your good leave to tutor and guide you to heaven?
Objection: O but He is sparing in his grace, his love-visits are thin sown, as strawberries in the rock.
Answer: I answer for him: 1. The quantity of grace is a branch of his freedom. 2. Why do you not complain of your sparing improving of two talents, rather than of his niggard giving of one only. He cannot sin against his liberty in his measuring out of grace; you cannot but sin in receiving… 3. Think it mercy he made you not a gray-stone, but a believing saint: And there is no imaginable comparison between his free gifts and your bad deserving.
2. The way of his going and coming should not be quarrelled. The Lord walks here in a liberty of dispensation; a summer sun is heritage to no land.
3. Were assurance always full moon, as Christ‘s faith in his saddest soul-trouble was bank-full sea and full moon, and were our joy ever full, then should the saints’ heaven on earth and their heaven above the visible heavens differ in the accident of place, and happily, in some fewer degrees of glory; but there is a wisdom of God to be reverenced here. The saints in this life are narrow vessels; and such old bottles could not contain the new wine that Christ drinks with his in his Father’s Kingdom, Mt. 17.
Assertion 12. We do not consider that Christ absent has stronger impulsions of love than when present in sense and full assurance: as is clear in that large Song of the high praises of Christ, which is uttered by the Church, Cant. 5.
Assertion 13. Why, but then when the wheels are on moving and the longing after Christ awaked and on foot, we should pray Christ home again and love Him in to his own house and sigh him out of his place from beyond the mountain into the soul again, as the Spouse does, Cant. 3:1-5; if ever He be found when He is sought, it will be now, though time and manner of returning be his own.
Assertion 14. Nor are we to believe that Christ’s love is coy or humorous in absenting Himself, or that He is lordly, high, difficil, inexorable in letting out the sense, the assurance of his love or his presence, as we dream a thousand false opinions of Christ under absence; nor do we consider that security and indulgence to our lusts loses Christ, and therefore it’s just that as we sin in roses, we should sorrow in thorns.
Assertion 15. If the Lord’s hiding Himself be not formally an act of grace, yet intentionally on God’s part it is; as at his return again, He comes with two heavens, and the gold chain sodered is strongest in that link which was broken; and the result of Christ’s return to his garden, Cant. 5:1, is a feast of honey and milk, and refined wines… in the falls of the saints this is seen: David after his fall hearing mercy, feeling God had healed his bones that were broken, Ps. 51.
Assertion 16. Nor is Christ so far departed at any time but you may know the soul He has been in; yea He stands at the side of the sickbed weeping for his pained child; yea your groans pierce his bowels, Jer. 31:20, ‘For since I spoke against him’ (says the Lord) ‘I do earnestly remember him;’ it’s not the less true that the head of a swooning son lies in the bosom and the two arms of Christ, that the weak man believes that he is utterly gone away.
Assertion 17. Nor will Christ more reckon in a legal way for the slips, mis-judgings and love-rovings of a spiritual distemper than a father can whip his child with a rod, because he mis-knows his father and utters words of folly in the height of a fever. Christ must pardon the fancy, and sins of sick love…
Assertion 18. Though hid jewels be no jewels, a lost Christ no Christ to sense, yet is there an invisible and an undiscerned instinct of heaven that hindered the soul to give Christ over.
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pp. 99-101
“Hence for that which infallibly persuades us, I say:”
Assertion 1. Our act of believing does no more persuade of itself that we do believe, except the Spirit breathe with the act of believing for actual illumination and persuasion than any other act of loving Christ, his saints, or universal intention, or sincerity of heart to obey does prove to us that we believe; for many believe who know not, yea, doubt of their believing because the Holy Ghost makes not the light of faith effectual to persuade that they truly believe.
Assertion 2. The testimony of the Holy Spirit is the efficacious and actual illumination and irradiation of the Sun of Righteousness and his Spirit assuring us that we are the sons of God. This light comes:
[1.] From inherent acts of grace in us: 1 Jn. 2:3-5; ch. 3:14.
(2) From the testimony and rejoicing which results from a good conscience: 2 Cor. 1:12; 2 Tim. 4:6-8; 1 Tim. 6:17-18; Heb. 13:18.
(3) From the experience they have had of the Lord’s dealing with their souls and the love of God spread abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost: Rom. 5:3-5.
(4) From a sincere aim and respect to all the commandments of God, Ps. 119:6; Acts 24:16; 1 Jn. 3:20-21; 1 Thess. 5:23; Phil. 4:12; Rev. 22:14-15.
(5) From the positive marks that Christ puts on his children as marks of true blessedness, Mt. 5:3-11; Ps. 119:1-2; Ps. 32:1-2.
(6) From the judgment that the saints make of themselves and their own begun communion with God, Ps. 73:25; 18:20-22; 26.3; 4:8; 40:9; 10:7-8; Job 29 & 31; Isa. 8:3; Ps. 42:1-2; Ps. 6•:1-4, 8; Ps. 84:2-5; Ps. 119:•0, 31, 40, 46, 50, 57, 60, 62, 63, 81, 82, 97, 98, 99, 101, 103, 111, 112, 125, 127, 128, 136, 139, 145, 148, 162, 164; Cant. 1:5; ch. 2:4-6, 16; ch. 3:1-5; ch. 5:6-12. All which were needless flourishes if they had neither peace, consolation, nor assurance from these, as from marks and signs which do infallibly convince (the light, breathings and irradiations of the Holy Ghost concurring with them) that they are in a saving condition who have these qualifications in them.
(7) Because by holy walking the saints make their calling and election sure and firm, not to God, but to themselves, 2 Pet. 1:10-12; vv. 5-7.
Assertion 3. As there is in the eye, lumen innatum; in the ear, aer internus; a certain inbred light to make the eye see lights and colors without and a sound and air in the ear within to make it discern the sounds that are without, so is there a grace, a new nature, an habitual instinct of heaven to discern the Lord’s Spirit immediately testifying that we are the sons of God, Rom. 8:16; 1 Cor. 1:12. Grace within knows Christ speaking without, the voice of my beloved. As the lamb knows by an internal instinct the mother, but for wakening and quickening of the instinct to apprehend this there is need of opened eyes and the presence of the mother to the eye, or of the bleating of the mother to a waking ear; for instincts cannot work in the sleep, if the Spirit speak, and the voice behind be heard, the soul knows what sound it hears, but not otherwise;
It is but curiosity so to compare the evidence by signs and marks of sanctification with that evidence that comes from the Spirit’s immediate voice or testimony, so as the former should be less sure, fallible, conjectural and the latter infallible, sure and efficaciously convincing. For the evidences are both supernatural, certain, divine and strongly convincing; if there be any deception in either it is because of the dulness of our apprehension or our imagination, which fancies we see what we see not, or from our unbelief who will not be convinced. For the Holy Ghost speaks the same thing by his operations of grace in holy walking that He speaks by either the Word preached or by the Word and immediate voice of the Spirit witnessing to our Spirit; and there is the same authority revealing to us a thing hid and the same thing revealed; it may be there be a variation of the degrees, of light and divine irradiation: Or the one may carry into the soul a more deep impression of God than the other, and the radiation of light in the subject may be more strong in the one than in the other, but of themselves they are both infallible, supernatural and convincing.”
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“Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises… and beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ… Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:”
2 Pet. 1:4-10
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