it is added, "from the experience of the saints. Many of them have been brought to assurance in this immediate way; and not merely by reflection upon marks, and signs, and qualifi cations within, which is the Spirit's witnessing by water or sanctification.' ."* The greater part of divines, however, concur in the opinion, that the Spirit witnesses by means of his operations, or by the effects produced by him in the hearts of believers. They reject the idea of an immediate testimony, and hold that the work of the Spirit is the testimony which he gives, assuring believers of their adoption and consequent safety. President Edwards speaks very decidedly and strongly against the opinion, that the Spirit witnesses by way of im mediate suggestion or revelation, and declares that many mischiefs have arisen from this false and delusive notion. "What has misled many," says he, "in their notion of that influence of the Spirit of God we are speaking of, is the word WITNESS, its being called the witness of the Spirit. Hence they have taken it, not to be any effect or work of the Spirit upon the heart, giving evidence from whence men may argue that they are the children of God; but an inward immediate suggestion, as though God inwardly spoke to the man, and testified to him, and told him that he was his child, by a kind of secret voice, or impression: not observing the manner in which the word witness or testimony, is often used in the New Testament; where such terms often signify, not only a mere declaring and asserting a thing to be true, but holding forth evidence from whence a thing may be argued and proved to be true. Thus (Heb. ii. 4), God is said to bear witness, with signs and wonders, and divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost. Now these miracles, here spoken of, are called God's witness, not because they are of the nature of assertions, but evidences and proofs. So also Acts xiv. 3; John v. 36; x. 25. So the water and the blood are said to bear witness, (1 John v. 8,) not that they spake or asserted anything, but they were proofs and evidences." "Indeed the apostle, when in that (Rom. viii. 16), he speaks of the Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are the children of God, does sufficiently explain himself, if his words were but attended to. What is here expressed is connected with the two preceding verses, as resulting from what the apostle had there said, as every reader may see. The three verses together are thus: * R. Erskine's Sermons, Ser. 143, vol. ix., pp. 199, 200. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God; for ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; 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.' Here what the apostle says, if we take it together, plainly shows that what he has respect to, when he speaks of the Spirit's giving us witness or evidence that we are God's children, is his dwelling in us, and leading us, as a spirit of adoption, or spirit of a child, disposing us to behave towards God as to a Father."* More recent authors take the same view of this subject, and it is satisfactory to find such harmony among the most eminent theological writers upon a point so interesting. "The Spirit bears testimony to the sonship of believers," says Dr. Dick, "when he brings to light, by his operations upon their souls, the evidences of their adoption; and thus makes their relation to God as manifest as if he assured them of it with an audible voice."+ "There is one very obvious way," says Dr. Chalmers, "in which the Spirit may bear witness with our spirit that we are the children of God; or in which, according to the translation of many, the Spirit may bear witness to, or attest to our spirit that we are God's children. It is he who worketh a work of grace in our souls, and that work may become manifest to our own consciences. We may read the lineaments of our own renovated character, and it may be regarded as an exercise of our own spirit, that by which we become acquainted with the new features or the new characteristics that have been formed upon ourselves. And we may, furthermore, read in the Bible, what be the Scripture marks of the new creature; and as all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, this is one way in which a joint testimony may be made out between God's Spirit and our spirit upon the subject; or in which a communication may be made to pass from the one to the other, so that they both shall concur in one and the same sentence, that we are indeed God's children. The part that the Spirit of God hath had in this matter is, that he both graves upon us the lineaments of a living epistle of Christ Jesus, and tells us in the epistle of a written revelation what these * Edwards' Treatise concerning Religious Affections, pp. 131, 137. See also Flavel's 4th Sac. Med. vol. ii., pp. 455, 456; M'Lcod's (New York) Life and Power of True Godliness, p. 264. + Dick's Theological Lectures, vol. iii., p. 415. lineaments are. The part which our own spirit has is, that, with the eye of consciousness, we read what is in ourselves; and, with the eye of the understanding, we read what is in the book of God's testimony. And upon our perceiving that such as the marks of grace which we find to be within, so are the marks of grace which we observe in the description of that word without that the Spirit hath indited, we arrive at the conclusion, that we are born of God. But what is more, it is the work of the Spirit to make one see more clearly in both of these directions, to open one's eyes both that he might behold the things contained in the Bible with brighter manifestation, and, also that he might behold the things which lie deeply, and to most, undiscoverably, hidden in the arcana of their own hearts." "I could not, without making my own doctrine outstrip my own experience, vouch for any other intimation of the Spirit of God than that which he gives in the act of making the word of God clear unto you, and the state of your own heart clear unto you. From the one you draw what are its promises; from the other, what are your own personal characteristics; and the application of the first to the second may conduct to a most legitimate argument, that you personally are one of the saved; and that not a tardy or elaborate argument either, but with an evidence quick and powerful as the light of intuition." SECTION 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:10 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." And, therefore, it is the duty of every one to give all diligence to make his calling and election sure;12 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 obe 10 1 John v. 13. Isa. 1. 10. Mark ix. 24. Ps. lxxxviii.; lxxvii. 1—12. 11 1 Cor. ii. 12. 1 John iv 13 Heb. * Chalmers' Lectures on the Romans, vol. iii., pp. 64-66, 68. dience,13 the proper fruits of this assurance: so far is it from inclining men to looseness.14 SECTION 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, and suffering even such as fear him to walk in darkness, and to have no light:15 yet are they never utterly destitute of that seed of God, and life of faith, that love of Christ and the brethren, that sincerity of heart and conscience of duty, out of which, by the operation of the Spirit, this assurance may in due time be revived,16 and by the which, in the meantime, they are supported from utter despair.1 17 13 Rom. v. 1, 2, 5; xiv. 17; xv. 13. Eph. i. 3, 4. Ps. iv. 6, 7; cxix. 32. 14 1 John ii. 1. 2. Rom. vi. 1, 2. Tit. ii. 11, 12, 14. 2 Cor. vii. 1. Rom. viii. 1, 12. 1 John iii. 2, 3. Ps. cxxx. 4. 1 John i 6, 7. 15 Cant. v. 2, 3, 6. Ps. li 8, 12, 14. Eph. iv. 30, 31. Ps. lxxvii. 1-10. Matt. xxvi. 69-72. Ps. xxxi. 22; lxxxviii. Isa 1. 10. 16 1 John iii. 9. Luke xxii. 32. Job xiii. 15. Ps. lxxiii. 15; li. 8, 12. Isa. 1. 10. 17 Micah vii. 7-9. Jer xxxii. 40. Isa. liv. 7-10. Ps. xxii. 1; lxxxviii. EXPOSITION. That the assurance that one is in a gracious state does not belong to the essence of faith, requires no proof. This assurance arises from the perception of the fruits and evidences of faith; and it is manifest that faith must exist before its evidences can be discerned. All faith is founded on testimony; but there is no testimony in the Scriptures declaring to any man that he is in a state of grace; this, therefore, cannot be an object of faith. This kind of assurance, as has been already shown, is ordinarily obtained by reflection, or by a process of reasoning. But, although the assurance described in this chapter is not essential to faith, yet there is an assurance which belongs to the essence of faith, and this our Confession recognizes in the chapter which treats of saving faith. It makes the principal acts of saving faith to consist in "accepting, receiving, and resting" on Christ for salvation; and it is impossible for one to rest on Christ for salvation without believing or trusting that he shall be saved by him. Whoever rests upon a person for doing a certain thing in his favour, must have a persuasion, or assurance, that he will do that thing for him. Indeed, assurance is so essential to faith, that without it there can be no faith, human or divine. To believe a report, is to be persuaded or assured of the truth of the report; to believe a promise, is to be persuaded or assured that the promiser will do as he has said. In like manner, to believe in Christ for salvation, is to be persuaded or assured that we shall be saved through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. That assurance which is essential to faith, is generally termed the assurance of faith; and the assurance of grace and salvation is termed the assurance of sense. By some the former is called an objective, and the latter a subjective assurance. There is a marked distinction between them; the former having for its object the faithfulness of God in the gospel testimony; whereas the latter has for its object the existence of a gracious work in the soul. The former arises from a single view of what is contained in the word of God; the latter, from a combined view of his word without us and of his work within us. The former is an assurance that God is presently giving Christ, with his salvation to us, in the free offer and promise of the gospel; the latter is an assurance that Christ and his salvation are already ours in real possession and enjoyment. That is inseparable from saving faith; this is both separable, and often actually separated, from the exercise of true faith. There are two extremes in reference to this subject, which ought to be avoided. The one is, that there is no assurance in the direct act of faith, and that assurance can only be derived from the marks and evidences of a gracious state; the other is, that the assurance of personal salvation is so essential to saving faith, that no one can be a genuine believer who has any doubts of his own salvation. We apprehend, on the one hand, that while the assurance which arises from marks and evidences of a gracious state does not belong to the essence of faith, yet there is an assurance in the direct act of faith, founded upon nothing about the person himself, but solely upon the word of God; and on the other hand, that though there is an assurance essential to faith, yet the believer may be often perplexed with doubts and fears concerning his personal salvation, because there is still much |