i Matt. 26: 70, 72; 74. k Psal. 51, title, and verse 14. 1 Isa. 64: 5, 7, 9; 2 Sam. 11 : 27. m Eph. 4 30. n Psal. 51: 8, 10, 12; Rev. 2: 4; Cant. 5: 2, 3, 4, 6. o Isa. 63; 17; Mark, 6: 52, and 16 14. P Psal. 32: 3, 4, and 51: 8. 9 2 Sam. 12: 14. r Psal. 89 31, 32; 1 Cor. 11: 30, 31, 32. s 1 Pet. 1:5; 1 Thes. 5: 23. CHAP. XVIII. OF THE ASSURANCE OF GRACE AND SALVATION. a I. b ALTHOUGH temporary believers, and other unregenerate men may vainly deceive themselves with false hopes and carnal presumptions of being in the favor of God, and state of salvation, which hope of theirs' shall perish; yet such as truly believe in the Lord Jesus, and love him in sincerity, endeavoring to walk in all good conscience before him may in this life be certainly assured that they are in the state of grace, and may rejoice in the hope of the glory of God, which hope shall never make them ashamed.d a Job, 8: 13, 14; Mic. 3: 11; Deut, 29: 19; John, 8; 41. b Matt. 7: 22, 23. c 1 John, 2 : 3, and 3: 14, 18, 19, 21, 24, and 5: 13. d Rom. 5: 2, 5. II. This certainty is not a bare conjectural and probable persuasion, grounded upon a fallible hope; but an infallible assurance of faith, founded on the blood and righteousness of Christ revealed in the Gospel,f and also upon the inward evidences of those graces, unto which promises are made, and on the immediate witness of the Spirit, testifying our adoption, and as the fruit thereof, leaving the heart more humble and holy.i e Heb. 6 11, 19. Pet. 1: 4, 5, 10, 11; 1 John, 2 : 3, and 3: 14; 2 Cor. 1: 12. h Rom. 8: 15, 16. i Psal. 51. 12, 17; 2 Cor. 7: 1. fHeb. 10: 19, 20; Rom. 3:22. g 2 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; yet being enabled by the Spirit to know the things which are freely given him of God, he may without extraordinary revelation, in the right use of ordinary means, attain thereunto.1 And therefore it is the duty of every one, to give all diligence to make their calling and election sure,m that thereby his heart may be enlarged in peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, in love and thankfulness to God, and in strength and cheerfulness in the duties of obedience, the proper fruits of this assurance so far is it from inclining men to looseness." n k 1 John, 5: 13; Isa. 50: 10; Matt. 9: 24; Psal. 88, per tot. and 77: to 12. 11 Cor. 2: 1, 2; 1 John, 4: 13; Heb. 6: 11, 12; Eph. 3: 17, 18, 19. m 2 Pet. 2: 10. n Rom. 5: 1, 2, 5, and 14: 7, and 15: 3; Eph. 1: 3, 4; Psal. 4. 6, 7, and 119: 32. 01 John, 3:2, 3; Psal. 1: 3, 4: 1 John, 2: 1, 2; Rom. 6: 12; Tit. 2: 11, 12, 14; 2 Cor. 7:1; Rom. 8: 1, 12; 1 John, 1 : 6, 7. IV. True believers may have the assurance of their salvation divers ways shaken, diminished, and intermitted; as by negligence in preserving of it, by falling into some special sin, which woundeth the conscience and grieveth the Spirit by some sudden or vehement temptation, by God's withdrawing the light of his countenance, suffering even such as fear him to walk in darkness and to have no light; P yet are they neither utterly destitute of that seed of God and life of faith, that love of Christ and the brethren, that sincerity of the heart and conscience of duty, out of which, by the operation of the Spirit, this assurance may in due time be revived, and by the which, in the mean time, they are supported from utter despair." p Cant. 5: 2, 3, 6; Psal. 51: 8, 12, 14; Eph. 4:30, 31; Psal. 77: 1 to 10; Matt. 26: 69, 70, 71, 72; Psal. Isa. 51: 10. 31: 22, and 88, per tot.; q 1 John, 3:9; and 51: 8, 12; Isa. 54: 7.8, CHAP. XIX. OF THE LAW OF GOD. I. GOD gave to Adam a law of universal obedience written in his heart, and a particular precept of not eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, as a covenant of works; by which he bound him and all his posterity to personal, entire, exact, and perpetual obedience; promised life upon the fulfilling, and threatened death upon the breach of it, and endued him with power and ability to keep it." a Gen. 1: 26, 27, and 2: 17; Rom. 2: 14, 15; and 10: 5, and 5: 12, 19; Gal. 3: 10, 12; Eccl. 7: 29; Job, 28: 28. II. This law, so written in the heart, continued to be a perfect rule of righteousness after the fall of man, and was delivered by God on Mount Sinai in ten commandments, and written in two tables; the four first commandments, containing our duty towards God, and the other six our duty to man.o b b Jam. 1: 25, and 2: 8, 10, 11, 12; Rom. 13: 8, 9; Deut. 53, and 10: 4; Exod. 34: 1. c Matt. 22: 37, 38, 39, 40. III. Besides this law, commonly called moral, God was pleased to give the people of Israel, as a church under age, ceremonial laws, containing several typical ordinances, partly of worshipping, prefiguring Christ, his graces, actions, sufferings, and benefits, and partly holding forth divers instructions of moral duties. All which d ceremonial laws, being appointed only to the time of reformation, are by Jesus Christ, the true Messiah and only Lawgiver, who was furnished with power from the Father for that end, abrogated and taken away. d Heb. 9 and 10: 1. Gal. Cor. 5: 7; 2 Cor. 6: 17; Jam. 4: 12; Heb. 7:12; 27; Eph. 2: 15, 16. 4: 1, 2, 3; Col. 2: 17. e 1 Jude, 23. f Heb. 9: 10, 11: Col. 2:14, 16, 17; Dan. 9: IV. To them also he gave sundry judicial laws, which expired together with the state of that people, not obliging any now by virtue of that institution, their general equity only being still of moral use.g g Exod. 21, and 22: 1 to 29; Gen. 49: 10, with 1 Pet. 2:13, 14; Matt. 5: 17, with 38, 39; 1 Cor. 9: 8, 9, 10. h V. The moral law doth forever bind all, as well justified persons as others, to the obedience thereof; and that not only in regard of the matter contained in it, but also in respect of the authority of God the Creator, who gave it. Nei |