Sect. 13. — How to attain to assurance.
Sect. 13. — How to attain to assurance.
But how are you doing, neighbour Neophytus; for I think you look very heavy-laden.
Neo. Truly, sir, I was thinking of that place in Scripture where the apostle exhorts us “to examine ourselves, whether we are in the faith or not,” 2Cor. 13.5. By this, it seems to me that a man may think he is in the faith, when he is not. Therefore, sir, I would gladly hear how I may be sure that I am in the faith.
Evan. I would not have you question it at all, since you have grounded your faith on such a firm foundation that it will never fail you. For the promise of God in Christ is a tried truth, and has never yet failed any man, nor ever will.
Therefore I would have you draw near to Christ in the promise, without questioning whether you are in the faith or not. For there is an assurance which rises from the exercise of faith by a direct act, and that is when a man, by faith, directly lays hold of Christ, and concludes his assurance from there.
Neo. Sir, I know that the foundation on which I am to ground my faith remains sure; and I think I have already built on it; yet, because I conceive a man may think he has done so when he has not, I would be glad to know how may I be assured that I have done so?
Evan. Well, now I understand what you mean; it seems you do not want a ground for your believing, but for believing that you have believed.
Neo. Yes, indeed, that is the thing I want.
Evan. Why, the next way to find out and know this, is to look back and reflect upon your own heart, and consider what actions have passed through there. For indeed this is the benefit that a reasonable soul has, that it is able to reflect upon itself, to see what it has done. The soul of a beast cannot do this. Consider then, I beg you, that you have been convinced in your spirit that you are a sinful man, and therefore you have feared the Lord’s wrath and eternal damnation in hell. And you have been convinced that there is no help for you at all in yourself, by anything that you can do. And you heard it plainly proved that “Jesus Christ alone is an all-sufficient help. And the free and full promise of God in Christ has been made so plain and clear to you, that you had nothing to object to why Christ did not belong to you in particular. And you have perceived a willingness in Christ to receive you, and to embrace you as his beloved spouse. And thereupon you have consented and resolved to take Christ, and to give yourself to him, whatever happens to you. And I am persuaded you have thereupon felt a secret persuasion in your heart, that God in Christ bears a love for you. And accordingly your heart has been inflamed towards him in loving him in return, manifesting itself in an unfeigned desire to be obedient and subject to his will in all things, and never to displease him in anything. Now tell me truly, I implore you, whether you have not found these things in yourself, just as I have said?
Neo. Yes, indeed, I hope I have in some measure.
Evan. Then I tell you truly, you have a sure ground to believe that you have believed; and as the apostle John says, “Hereby you may know that you are of the truth, and may assure your heart of it before God,” 1John 3.19.
Neo. Surely, sir, I can truly say this, that before now, when I thought about my sins, I conceived of God and Christ as a wrathful judge who would condemn all unrighteous men to eternal death. Therefore, when I thought about the Day of Judgment, and the torments of hell, I even trembled for fear, and as it were, hated God. I laboured to become righteous, so that I might escape his wrath; yet all that I did, I did unwillingly. But since I heard you make it so plain, that a sinner who sees and feels his sins, is to conceive of God as a merciful, loving, and forgiving Father in Christ that has committed all judgment to his Son, who did not come to condemn men but to save them — I think I do not now fear his wrath. Rather I apprehend his love towards me. And upon this love, my heart is inflamed towards him with such love, that I think I would willingly do or suffer anything that I knew would please him. I would rather choose to suffer any misery, than to do anything that I knew would displease him.
Evan. We read in the seventh chapter of Luke’s gospel, that when that sinful yet believing woman manifested her faith in Christ by her love for him in “washing his feet with her tears, and wiping them with the hairs of her head,’’ verse 38, he said to Simon the Pharisee, verse 47, “I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven her, for she loved much;” even so I may say to you, Nomista, in the same words concerning our neighbour Neophytus. And to you, Neophytus, I say as Christ said to the woman in verses 48-50, “Your sins are forgiven you, your faith has saved you, go in peace.”
Ant. But I ask you, sir, is his reflecting upon himself, to discover a ground for believing that he has believed, in fact turning back from the Covenant of Grace to the Covenant of Works, and from Christ to himself?
Evan. If he were to look at these things in himself, and conclude from them that because he had done them, God had accepted him. and justified him, and will save him, and so make them the ground of his believing — then indeed, this would be turning back from the Covenant of Grace to the Covenant of Works, and from Christ to himself But if he looks at these things in himself, and concludes from them that, because these things are in his heart, Christ dwells there by faith, and therefore he is accepted by God, and justified, and shall certainly be saved, and thus makes them the evidence of his believing, or the ground of believing that he has believed — then this is neither turning back from the Covenant of Grace to the Covenant of Works, nor turning from Christ to himself. So these things in his heart, being the daughters of faith and the offspring of Christ, even though they cannot at first produce or bring forth their mother, yet they may nourish her in time of need.