“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 6
Quotes 6+
Latin 2
Historical 5
Saved without Assurance 1
Reflexive Act of Faith 2
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.
Ward, Samuel – ‘The Faithful can be Certain of the Remission of Sins with the Certainty of Faith’ in Theological Determinations in Works of Samuel Ward, ed. Seth Ward (d. 1643; Gallibrand, 1658), pp. 49-54
Ward (1572–1643) was an English academic and a master at the University of Cambridge. He served as one of the delegates from the Church of England to the Synod of Dort.
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
Durham, James – ch. 9, Lecture 1, ‘Concerning the comfortless grounds that Popery lays down for the comforting of poor afflicted consciences’ in A Commentary upon the Book of the Revelation (Edinburgh, 1658), pp. 445-46
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
Ward, Samuel – Treatise on Justifying & Special Faith, also on the Certitude of Grace in Works of Samuel Ward: Theological Determinations, a Treatise on Justification, Lectures on Original Sin, ed. Seth Ward (d. 1643; Gallibrand, 1658), pp. 204-391
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
A. Burgess
Voet
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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Anthony Burgess
The True Doctrine of Justification Asserted & Vindicated, from the Errours of Papists, Arminians, Socinians & more especially Antinomians in 30 Lectures (London: Miller, 1651), Lecture 29, on Acts 3:19, pp. 259-61
“These things thus premised, I come to show the grounds or particulars wherein our pardon of sin is thus completed.
And first, in our sense and feeling: for howsoever God pardon a sin perfectly, yet our faith which receives it is weak. This jewel is taken with a trembling and shaking hand. Hence it is that we have not full faith and confidence in our spirits. We may see this in David; though Nathan told him his sins were forgiven him, yet his faith was not so vigorous and powerful as wholly to apply this to his own soul, and therefore he had much anguish and trouble of heart afterwards. But now, at the last day, all these fears, diffidence and darkness will be quite removed out of our hearts. There shall be no more disturbance in our souls than there can be corruption in the highest heavens; we shall then have such a gourd as no worm can devour. Our souls shall not then know the meaning of sitting in darkness, and wanting God’s favour. There will then be no complaints, ‘Why has the Lord forsaken me?’ Well may God’s children be called upon to lift up their heads, when such a redemption draws nigh; and well may that day be called the times of refreshment, seeing the people of God are so often scorched with the fiery darts of Satan.
Secondly, pardon of sin will at that day be perfected. Because all the effects of pardon will then be accomplished and not so much as any scars remain, the wound will be so fully healed. Although God does fully pardon sin, yet the effects of this are delayed; many chastisements and sad afflictions are to be undergone: howsoever, death itself, and the corruption in the grave must seize upon justified persons; now these are the fruit of sin, and howsoever the sting of these be taken away, yet they are not wholly conquered till that Last Day. Then therefore may we justly say, sin is pardoned, when there shall be no more grave, no more death, no more corruption, but all shall be swallowed up in immortality and glory.
Thirdly, then, and not till then may we say remission of sins will be completed, because then shall no more iteration of pardon be. Here in this life, because the root of corruption abides in us, there are daily pullulant [sprouting] branches of sins, and so frequent guilt is contracted; whereby as we have daily sores, so we need daily plasters. It is with original corruption in us, as in that tree in Dan. 4:14-15; although the branches be cut off, yet the stump is still in the earth, and that sprouts out too fast by the temptations that are always by it. Hence it is that we always pray, ‘Forgive us our sins;’ and because of these failings the apostle, 2 Cor. 5:20, writes to, and exhorts the godly Corinthians, who were already reconciled to God, to be further reconciled to Him. But then this petition shall wholly cease; then there will be no serpent to sting us, nor will the eye of justifying faith to look upon the brazen serpent exalted be necessary any more. The Lord will not only wipe away the tear of worldly grief, but also of godly sorrow at that time. Then, and not till then, will it be true, that God sees no sin in his children. Then will the Church be without wrinkles, or any spot within her. In this respect it is, the Church of God prays so earnestly for the Bridegroom’s coming. For this it is they look for and hasten in their prayers that day.
Fourthly, at that day will pardon of sin only be completed, if you consider the nature of justification. For what is that, but an overcoming the accusing adversary, and clearing of us against every charge? Now this is most eminently and fully done in those last assizes. The Syriac word to justify is also to conquer and overcome, because when a man is justified, he overcomes all those bills and indictments which were brought in against him; now this is manifestly done in the Day of Judgment, when God shall before men and angels acquit and absolve his people: and if the apostle say in this life, Rom. 6:7, of a godly man dead in Christ, he is justified from his sins, in respect of sanctification, that sin does not conquer him, but he sin, how much more will this be true at that day, when all the guilt and filth of sin shall be totally removed? Oh what a glorious conquest will that be over sin, hell, and the devil, when the Judge of the whole world shall pronounce them free from all sin, and command them to enter into his glorious rest!”
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Gisbert Voet
Disputation 30, ‘On Regeneration’, pt. 2 (1639) tr. AI by Roman Prestarri in Select Theological Disputations (1655), vol. 2, pp. 447ff. Latin at Confessionally Reformed Theology
“X. That our own regeneration can and ought to be known with certainty a posteriori from ourselves, or from those things which we feel in ourselves, 2 Cor. 13:5 with Rom. 8:5, 9, 11, 15–16.
But that of other adults is known with the interposed judgment of charity, that is, with hypothetical certainty only, not absolute. Therefore the certainty of faith or of experience does not have place here, unless God has peculiarly revealed it to someone.
XI. That its [regeneration’s] primordial or infantile acts or effects in the second moment seem not rarely to be both more numerous and more perfect, at least more sensible and with greater commotion, than those which are elicited in adolescence or in adult age.
Problems:
1. Whether they are more perfect in themselves, or more sensible, with sensible commotion, devotion, sweetness, and taste?
2. Whence is this? Whether also from the novelty of the thing, or the nearness of the opposite (namely, of the state and acts of corruption), so that contraries placed next to each other may more easily shine forth—as immediately after disease health is more vehemently felt, after darkness light? Whether God wishes to affect and attract the tender infancy of His own with tastes and sweetness of sensible devotion more than adult age?”
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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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Louis Le Blanc de Beaulieu
Theological Theses, vol. 2 3rd ed. tr. by AI by Colloquia Scholastica at Discord (1675; London, 1683), ‘On Justifying Faith’, pt. 1, pp. 142-45, 171-75 Latin
“XXXII. Christophorus Wittichius, previously mentioned, distinguishes between acts preceding faith, essential acts of faith, and accidental acts of faith, which are only applicable to strengthened faith…
The second essential act of faith is sincere love for Christ, which arises as soon as Christ is known as a suitable object and is thus apprehended through this fiducial assent. The third is confidence, by which we persuade ourselves that we will receive certain aid from Christ the saviour in all distresses and temptations, relying on the promises made to all who flee to Him.
The accidental acts, which are only applicable to strengthened faith, are firstly, confidence in the forgiveness of sins obtained from God; secondly, solid joy arising from this feeling; thirdly, peace and tranquility of conscience.
Expanding on this, he notes that for the essence of salvific faith, or its formal nature, it is not necessary to have confidence in the forgiveness of sins, either in the past or in the future, but that it is more the effect of strengthened and full faith. Because experience teaches that some weak believers truly have faith, as they have hunger and thirst for righteousness, yet due to their frailty, they cannot yet persuade themselves that they have or will obtain the forgiveness of sins. In Theologia Pacifica, ch. 11.2.138.
XXXIII. And he is not alone in thinking that the certainty one has about the forgiveness of their sins, either already obtained or certainly to be obtained, does not pertain to the essence of salvific faith, but only to its completion and perfection. Perkins teaches this in several places, especially in the controversy on implicit faith, which is the sixteenth in his Reformed Catholic. Where he mentions a certain mode of implicit and undistinguished faith in terms of apprehension; namely, when a person cannot say for certain and distinctly about themselves, “I believe my sins are forgiven,” which happens to many of God’s children who are endowed with weak faith. And such have faith, but it’s implicit; just as in a small and dry seed, leaves, flowers, and fruits are implicitly contained; and God nonetheless accepts such faith for their eternal salvation. Hence, he says that the instruction of some catechisms needs to be clarified, which seem to define faith in its highest and most perfect degree, when they say it is a certain and complete persuasion of the mind about God’s love and favour towards us in Christ. For although, he says, all faith by its nature is a certain persuasion, only perfect persuasion is firm and consummate faith.
And therefore, faith should be defined not only in general and in its highest degrees, but also its various degrees and measures should be declared; so that those who are weak can truly and correctly learn about their state. These are the same author’s words, which he extensively confirms in the treatise titled The Mustard Seed; where after asserting that firm faith is that which causes full apprehension and persuasion of God’s mercy in Christ and that this is not granted to all; therefore, there is a lower degree of faith, which is true faith, although weak and small, he adds the following words:
“Whoever has this weak faith can truly affirm that they believe all their sins are forgivable: And that they desire their condemnation, but they dare not yet affirm without doubt that they have been forgiven; nevertheless, divine mercy does not fail or forsake them.”
To confirm this, he brings forth testimonies of Bradford, Knox, Taffin, and others in the explanation and proof of the third Thesis.
[XXXIV duplicates sect. XXXIII]…
XXXV. Similarly, Ames, following in Perkins’ footsteps and considering the special assent by which one grasps actual possession of grace already given, says that this particular certitude of understanding is lacking in some for a time, who nevertheless have true faith hidden in their hearts during this time, and experience teaches this. In The Marrow of Theology, ch. 3, the last number, and in Bellarmine Enervated, he concedes that not all justified individuals are immediately certain of their justification, bk. 6 on Justification, ch. 2.11.
But especially, Peter du Moulin, the son of Peter du Moulin, Doctor of Theology, and Prebendary of Canterbury, known to pious souls for his very useful book On the Peace of the Soul and other pious works published by him in French, clearly and openly concedes this sentiment. About him, however, the writer who accuses the Reformers of subverting Christian ethics with their doctrine of Justification, speaks disdainfully and imprudently confuses him with Louis du Moulin, his brother. Therefore, in a French treatise on the form or nature of justifying faith, he teaches that justifying faith is not accurately and prudently defined by firm confidence and full certainty by which the faithful believe their sins to be forgiven through Christ; because this firm and full certainty, regarding one’s own salvation and the forgiveness of their sins, indeed indicates the supreme degree and utmost perfection of faith, but not the essential form of faith, which rather consists of these three things: 1. To embrace the merits of Christ; 2. To appropriate them for ourselves and make them our own; 3. Not to seek salvation outside Him, according to what the Belgic Confession asserts, affirming true Faith to be the one that embraces Jesus Christ with all His merits, claims Him as its own effect, and seeks nothing further outside Him. Article 22.
XXXVI. Peter du Moulin the elder, the father of the aforementioned Peter du Moulin, taught his son the same in this regard; for after discussing the persuasion by which one applies the promise of the Gospel to themselves, believing their sins to be forgiven through Christ, he adds the following words:
“Yet this does not go so far as to expunge from the book of the faithful those who have not yet attained this aspect of faith, which God does not give to everyone at the same time or in the same measure. But it is to teach us that this confidence is commanded by God, to be earnestly sought from Him, and to be diligently pursued in prayer and good works to be strengthened and grown. Moreover, weak but not feigned faith has its place and is even discernible to bleary eyes. Not all who looked at the bronze serpent were equally perceptive.” On Justification, pt. 2, Thesis 39.
XXXVII. Furthermore, the Anglican [Westminster] Confession of 1645 openly favours this opinion, as it discusses Salvific Faith and the certainty one has of being in God’s grace in separate chapters, suggesting these are different from each other. And in chapter 18, where it discusses this certainty, it states that it is not so essential to faith that a truly faithful person cannot lack it for a long time, wait for it, and struggle with many difficulties before becoming a participant in this certainty.
…
CXXXVII. Moreover, it’s evident that not all Reformed scholars agree that each believer should be as firmly and certainly persuaded of their righteousness before God and the forgiveness of their sins, thereby being assured of eternal salvation, as they are required to believe that Christ is the Son of God, the Redeemer of the world, and other fundamental Christian beliefs. This is evident because many Reformers, as shown, acknowledge that this certainty about one’s salvation and the forgiveness of their sins can be separated from faith, at least for a considerable time, and is not essential to salvific faith but only relates to its perfection.
Hence, it clearly follows, according to their view, that this should not be as firmly believed as the fact that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the world’s Redeemer. For certain belief in this article cannot be separated from true faith, nor can one be temporarily devoid of this belief and still remain truly faithful, according to the widely accepted and proven doctrine of the Reformed school.
CXXXVIII. Furthermore, the British theologians, representatives of the Anglican clergy at the Synod of Dort, express their views clearly and distinctly on this matter in their judgment on the fifth article of the Remonstrants’ doctrine, included in the Acts of the Synod. Speaking on behalf of their church, they state about the assurance that believers can have regarding their grace and personal salvation that this assurance does not possess a degree of certainty that forever excludes all fear of the contrary.
They explain that this assurance is sometimes vivid, sometimes weak, and sometimes, as in severe temptations, non-existent. They attribute the weakness of this assurance to its foundational dependence, which seems to fall below the certainty of dogmatic faith. They argue that the articles of catholic faith directly affect our assent as immediate and primary principles. However, the truth of personal faith is not deduced from these as a necessary consequence but is added as an assumption. Therefore, the certainty of the conclusion formed by this personal faith cannot be greater than the weaker certainty found in the premises. Since this assumption relies on experiential signs weighed by an individual’s conscience, which may sometimes be questioned for their genuineness or be obscured by the clouds of temptation, it’s no wonder that a lively and robust assurance of eternal salvation is not always readily available to the faithful.
CXXXIX. From the doctrine of these British theologians, whose views influenced the drafting of the Canons of the Synod of Dort and whose judgment was included in the Synod’s Acts, one can infer how justified the learned man is who critiques my theses for presenting the Synod’s words as if it had determined that the assurance believers have of their grace and personal salvation is of the same nature, firmness, and necessity as the divine faith with which we assent to the immediately revealed articles of faith. The learned man draws this conclusion from the words found in the fifth chapter on doctrine, article nine, which states:
“Concerning this preservation of the elect to salvation and the true perseverance of faith in the faithful, they can be certain according to the measure of faith, which they believe makes them true and enduring members of the Church, having forgiveness of sins and eternal life.”
These words alone do not define that the faith by which the faithful are certain of forgiveness of sins and eternal life is of equal certainty, firmness, and necessity as the divine faith with which we assent to the primary articles of faith. Is it likely that the learned man understands the Synod of Dort better than those who contributed to its decrees and were the first to endorse them?
CXL. Then, in agreement with the British theologians in this matter, Ames clearly shows his perspective in words that the learned man cites to support his argument. Bellarmine had defined the question of the certainty one can or should have of their justification and the forgiveness of their sins—if it is established without fallacy or ambiguity—as whether one can or should be as certain, without special revelation, of the forgiveness of their sins as they are of any divinely revealed truth. Ames responds:
“Without any fallacy or ambiguity, this state does not involve the certainty of divine faith; because Bellarmine does not distinguish between the levels of certainty with respect to principles that are directly revealed and the conclusions clearly drawn from them, and between the certainty of faith itself and that which comes from faith, either in perception or hope. But with these distinctions understood, we accept this question and will defend the affirmative against the negative of the Papists.”
Ames’s meaning is clear to those well-versed in his teachings: not all that is believed by divine faith has the same level of certainty because divine faith not only applies to immediately revealed principles but also to conclusions evidently drawn from those principles. Therefore, faith does not embrace conclusions with the same level of certainty as it does the principles themselves. Hence, since the proposition “my sins are forgiven” is not directly revealed by God but is a conclusion drawn from revealed principles, faith accepts it, albeit with less certainty than it does the principles themselves.
CXLI. Furthermore, Ames indicates the need to distinguish between faith in itself, considered in respect of the acts required for its essence, and the confidence that arises from faith, through which we either grasp a present good or hope for a future one. He notes that the level of certainty in faith itself, and what is required of it, is greater than in the confidence that stems from faith, which assures us of either a present or future good, even though this confidence is also termed faith. According to Ames, when the faithful are said to be divinely certain of received grace or forthcoming salvation, it’s not the justifying and salvific faith in itself that is referred to but the confidence that arises from faith, through which we either recognize the forgiveness granted by God or hope for future salvation. Thus, according to Ames, this derived confidence possesses less certainty than faith considered in itself.
CXLII. It is therefore evident, according to the express teaching of many Reformers, that within the aspects related to faith, there are varying degrees of certainty because faith does not hold the same stance towards all of them. There are some matters where our assent relies uniquely and immediately on divine revelation, while others partly rest on divine revelation and partly on other kinds of evidence and arguments, like conclusions drawn from one revealed proposition and another known through constant report, reason, or internal or external sensory experience. Both types relate to faith, and each kind of assent is considered an act of faith among the Reformers. However, according to their view, the firmness and certainty are not the same in both cases: the greatest is in those relying solely on revelation, and in others, it is greater or lesser depending on the certainty and clarity in the proposition added to the revealed one to deduce this or that conclusion, as I previously explained in the theses criticized by the learned man, not just from my private opinion but from the clear stance of many doctors of the Reformed School. This shows how baseless his proof is when, from the fact that Reformers call it an act of faith, he infers that, according to the common belief of the Reformers, each believer must be as certain of their forgiveness of sins as they are that Christ is the Son of God and the Redeemer of the world.
CXLIII. Certainly, not only among the Reformers but also in the Roman School, not every assent referred to divine faith is immediately equated in firmness and certainty with the assent of Catholic or dogmatic faith. For example, in the Council of Trent, Catharinus argues that a just person can be divinely certain of their grace, and Jesuit Vasquez calls divine faith the confidence a penitent sinner has in obtaining forgiveness from God, and which a justified person can have about having obtained it. Yet, these men do not consider this personal faith to have the same certainty as Catholic faith. The Council of Trent, while defining that no one can know with the certainty of faith that they have achieved God’s grace, adds “to which no falsehood can be attached,” allowing Catharinus some leeway and not seeming to outright condemn his stance. Catharinus continued to hold his initial view and attempted to interpret the Council’s words according to his understanding.
CXLIV. The learned man’s attempt to use the testimonies of well-known Reformers, André Rivet and John Daille, to prove that they attributed the same certainty to the confidence one has in their grace and salvation as is due to the fundamental articles of faith, is in vain. It’s well-known that even the most learned individuals can inadvertently make statements during heated debates that later need to be softened or twisted somewhat to align with a good interpretation. I have no doubt that if these learned men had been challenged on this point, they would have clarified their stance in a way that aligns with the explanation already given.
CXLV. However, for my purpose, there’s no need to soften or excuse their statements. Even if John Daille and André Rivet differed in this matter from Ames and the British theologians, whose views have been explained, and attributed the same certainty to the assurance individuals have of their forgiveness of sins as is due to the belief in the articles of faith, does that mean it can be attributed to the Reformers as a whole, that they all teach this unanimously? And who isn’t aware that both individuals held particular opinions which were challenged by many Reformers? And why should we measure the faith of the Reformers more by the opinion of these two men than by the doctrine of Ames and the British theologians speaking on behalf of the Church of England and appointed to the Synod of Dort?
CXLVI. Only one accusation remains where the learned man attempts to accuse me of slander. Specifically, it’s regarding my statement that it is slanderous to attribute to the Reformers, by common consensus, the teaching that every single person can and shouldbelieve with certainty that their sins are forgiven and that they are just before God. To achieve his goal, he interprets my words, suggesting that I mean by “every single person” every single believer. Then he proves from Pareus that this indeed is the common doctrine of the Reformers, that every believer can and should have certain faith that they are just before God and that their sins are forgiven, and thus it can be attributed to the Reformers without slander.
CXLVII. However, there was no need for the learned man to cite Pareus here. My own theses, which he chose to criticize, largely aim to prove according to the common doctrine of the Reformers:
1. Individual believers, without special revelation, can certainly believe they are in God’s grace.
2. Not only can individual believers believe this, but they should be convinced of it; if they are not, it indicates a deficiency and weakness in their faith.
3. This certainty is commonly referred to as the certainty of faith among the Reformers.
Thus, the learned man’s conjecture is mistaken. I did not mean by “every single person” only every single believer. Nor was it my intention to accuse Roman Church doctors of claiming that the Reformers teach that all people universally, without exception, are required to believe with certainty that they are in God’s grace. Rather, I referred to all individuals to whom the Gospel is proclaimed and who are in external communion with the Church, even if they live sinfully and indulge in vices.
CXLVIII. Nor did I assert that Roman Church doctors explicitly state in so many words that the Reformers teach that all individuals to whom the Gospel is preached and who are in external communion with the Church can and should believe with certainty, regardless of how they live, that they are just before God and their sins are forgiven. Instead, I suggested that this is clearly implied in their arguments against the Reformers. The learned man’s book provides ample evidence of this. What else does he emphasize throughout the book other than, according to the Reformers, even those who wallow in vices and are guilty of heinous crimes can and should firmly believe they have received God’s grace and their sins are forgiven; and that this belief constitutes the act of faith by which we are justified? If, according to the Reformers, even those who surrender themselves to lusts and vices are required to firmly believe their sins are forgiven, and this belief constitutes the formal act of faith through which we are justified, doesn’t their doctrine imply that all individuals in the external communion of the Church should believe this, regardless of their way of life, since they are required to elicit the formal act of justifying faith? Yet, it is utterly false, from the Reformers’ perspective, that all individuals in external communion with the Church, even though they live sinfully, should believe with certainty that they will be saved and their sins forgiven. Indeed, the Reformers teach that such individuals should believe they are on the path to perdition and can only attain life by genuinely and practically renouncing their sins and vices, believing with a faith that works through love. Only then, recognizing this faith in themselves, can and should they believe they are just before God and that God is reconciled to them through Christ. To suggest otherwise about the Reformers or to assume it without severe slander is false.”
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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
.
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
.
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 fiducial 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.”
.
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.”
.
.
On a Reflexive Act of Faith
Quotes
Order of
Rutherford
Spanheim
.
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 fiducial 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.”
.
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.”
.
Friedrich Spanheim, Sr.
Disputationum Theologicarum Miscellaneorum Pars Prima (d. 1649; Geneva: Chouët, 1652), ‘Miscellaneous Theological Disputation’, trans. AI by Roman Prestarri at Confessionally Reformed Theology Latin
“38. One act of faith is direct toward its object, another reflexive toward itself. Also the first act of faith is to believe, the second to work through charity and by means of it.”
.
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).”
.
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.”
.
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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“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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