Assurance

“A good conscience and a good confidence go together.”

“What is honor, and riches, and the favor of creatures, so long as I lack the favor of God, the pardon of my sins, a saving interest in Christ, and the hope of glory! O Lord, give me these, or I die!”

“A well-grounded assurance is always attended with three fair handmaids: love, humility, and holy joy.”

“Much faith will yield unto us here our heaven, but any faith, if true, will yield us heaven hereafter.”

“There are five things that God will never sell at a cheap rate: Christ, truth, his honour, heaven, and assurance.”

“Assurance makes most for your comfort, but holiness makes most for God's honor.”

“The first great work that men are to attend in this world is the eternal safety and security of their souls; the next great work is to know, to be assured, that it shall go well with their souls forever.”

“Though you want the comfortable sense and assurance of this, yet be not discouraged; but do you exercise faith, go out of yourselves, rely upon Christ and that mercy which is to be found in God.”

“Weak faith will as surely land the Christian in Heaven as strong faith, for it is impossible the least grain of true grace should perish.”

“Oh, it is sad for a poor Christian to stand at the door of the promise, in the dark night of affliction, afraid to draw the latch, whereas he should then come boldly for shelter as a child into his father's house.”

“We have peace with God as soon as we believe, but not always with ourselves. The pardon may be past the prince's hand and seal, and yet not put into the prisoner's hand.”

“In the time of His presence we have the sense of His love to us. But in the time of His absence then He sees, and we ourselves have the sense of, our love to Him.”

“We do not live by feeling, but by faith: it is the duty of a Christian to begin with faith, and so to rise up to feeling: you would begin with feeling, and so come down to faith; but you must begin with faith, and so rise up to feeling.”

“A man may too soon think that he is in Christ; and that is when it is not so indeed.”

“Never man perished with his face towards Jesus Christ.”

“The greatest sorrow and burden you can lay on the Father, the greatest unkindness you can do to Him, is not to believe that He loves you.”

“The Comforter gives a sweet and plentiful evidence and persuasion of the love of God to us, such as the soul is taken, delighted, satiated withal.”

“Without the diligent use of the grace of obedience, we shall never enjoy the graces of joy, peace and assurance.”

“He may discover some probabilities of pardon; he may indulge some flickering hopes—but these occasional flashes from the dark sky do not soothe his fears.”

“Some talk of the comforting Spirit, who never had the sanctifying Spirit.”

“Again, a man may know his faith to be true by his willingness to search himself, and to be searched by others.”

“Sometimes you doubt of your acquaintance with God, and that leads you to doubt of your access to God, and acceptance with God.”

“When a traveller sees the sun almost down, he would make haste; so if we believed that the time of grace is short, we would begin to make our calling and election sure.”

“In a sense the Spirit acts as the signet ring of the divine King.”

“By the very contemplation of the mercies of God in Christ, and his inviting them to receive them, the Spirit of God will be wrought in the soul, whereby they may have confidence to come to God as a Father.”

“There is one way of obtaining the full assurance of hope, which is almost always successful—it is, by growing in grace.”

“If you are not so much as smoking flax, then why do you not renounce your interest in Christ, and disclaim the covenant of grace?”

“And therefore, as the promises of other temporal good things are not absolute, no more are the promises to give assurance to a believer absolute, as those to give him heaven and salvation are.”

“Let us labour to maintain this assurance of salvation from God's love.”

“I will add this farther, that wheresoever on good title we can say, ‘I am God’s,’ there is a reflect act of the soul to say, ‘God is mine’.”

“I have cause now to trust Christ's promise more than His gloom.”

“O what a blessed, happy, comfortable state has he now brought my soul into!”

“They shall never perish, neither shall any one pluck them out of His hand.”

“Why? 'He hath loved me, and given himself for me;' and I feel so much to my soul's comfort, therefore I will wholly depend upon him, in life, in death, and for ever.”

“Just as the tomb of Christ was sealed to prevent desecration by thieves and robbers, so we are sealed to prevent the evil one from snatching us from the arms of Christ.”

“And now, if God will give all spiritual and all eternal good things to his people, how can he then but sooner or later give a clear and satisfactory evidence into his people's bosoms that he is their portion?”

“If ever you will get above the power of your own fears in a suffering day make haste to clear your interest in Christ, and your pardon in his blood before that evil day come.”

“There are many who are exceeding inquisitive to know whether their names are written in heaven or not.”

“Who would be afraid to pass through an army, though all the soldiers should turn their swords and guns toward him, if the commander of that army were his friend or father?”

“They feel something which tells them that old things are passed away, and all things become new; that guilt is gone, that peace is restored; that Heaven’s door is open, and hell’s door is shut.”

“If all obedience in doing and suffering, that is pleasing, comes from faith and assurance, then what shall we think of such works as proceed not from it?”

“To the witness of conscience, God adds the witness of his Spirit; and in the mouth of these two witnesses our joy is confirmed.”

“Sometimes we are afraid God is departed from us, and it is merely because we are afflicted.”

“Saving faith hath Christ for its object, and so may the faith have that is not saving.”

“And Jesus Christ will not condemn them, for believers are His spouse; and Christ will not condemn His own spouse.”

“Therefore sue out the will of Christ, sue out that last legacy of his.”

“But this “due time” is properly meant to the life to come, which has two degrees: the first is at the day of death, when the soul enters into happiness.”

“Charnock says, "He who has many things to trust to, is in suspense which he should take hold of; but when there is but one left, with what greediness will he clasp about that.”

“Assurance will call a bloody death a safe passage to Canaan through the Red sea.”

“If you dare not deny a claim to Christ, and yet doubt of your salvation, you sin greatly; for he will lose none of his own, and hath confirmed it by his word and oath.”

“And though being in Christ, there is no danger—yet his heart hesitates and trembles.”

“And seeing the end is certain, we are thus afresh to enter into this ark, Jesus Christ.”

“It flashes no more curse, and rolls no more condemnation over the heads of those who are in Christ Jesus.”

“A believer is now an heir of this joy; let him wait until he is of age, and he shall be fully possessed of the joys of heaven.”

“Therefore, do you think your prayers are accepted at all, notwithstanding their weakness?”

“Now he that hath the Spirit of God knows the love of God in Christ to him; it reveals the love of God, the height, and breadth, and depth of it to our spirits.”

“To conclude, Did Christ endure all these things for me? then it is past doubt, he will never leave nor forsake me: It cannot be that after he has endured all this, he will cast off the souls for whom he endured it.”

“Happy is the state of a believer; to such, all things are for good.”

“If his hope of life make him not lively, he hath no hope of life at all.”

“In weakness of body some think grace dies, because their performances are feeble, their spirits, which are the instruments of their souls' actions, being weakened.”

“He justified thee when thou wert ungodly, and will he cast thee off since he hath been at such pains about thee, and written in thee a counterpart of his own divine nature in the work of grace?”

“Let us not be content however, without the evidence and sense of pardon.”

“Hast thou never an old tried evidence which hath been acknowledged and confirmed again and again in open court?”

“It is Christ, in whom the soul rests and hath comfort in, and not in its grace; so that the sight of a man’s grace is but a back-door to let faith in at, to converse with Christ, whom the soul loves.”

“If the sins of the godly be mentioned at the day of judgment, it will not be to shame them, but to magnify the riches of God's grace in pardoning them.”

“All we can say is that 'we have known and believed the love which God hath to us.' This is the only account which we can give of ourselves or of our wondrous change.”

“As Luther said, there is more force in pronouns, meum and tuum‚ than in any words.”

“In believing God's testimony to the blood; it becomes sprinkled upon us; and from that moment we are safe.”

“For the things of the life to come there are few of them but God's children have some experimental taste of them in this world.”

“Thus we should grow in assurance, exercising the increase and knowledge of our interest.”

“No man ever failed to find Christ all that the Bible says He is, and a thousand times better than he had been told before!”

“The deliverance of the godly is just as sure as the deliverance of our great Head from the cruel taunts of those who mocked Him in His extremest anguish.”

“He stablishes or confirms us in Him; knitting us more strongly; rooting us more deeply; fastening the stone more firmly to the foundation, that nothing may separate us.”

“And thus that last burnt-offering gave to the Church the assurance that the reconciliation was accomplished.”

“For if one promise do belong to thee, then all do, for every one conveys whole Christ, in whom all the promises are made, and who is the matter of them.”

“Just so, many do not possess salvation—but remain secure; they presume all is well, never seriously meditating whether they have oil or not.”

“You have been seeking the assurance of your salvation, but not in the path that has been most honoring to the Divine commands as a child of God.”

“A believing and converted person is and also always remains in a reconciled state; sins committed in the meantime can never undo this reconciliation.”

“If you have a saving interest in Jesus Christ, then you have FAITH.”

“The heart misgives secretly that God does not hear, nor will he grant.”

“If we have nothing better than Church-membership to rest upon we are in a poor plight—we have nothing solid beneath our feet.”

“Thus the pardoned believer, with an holy gallantry of spirit, derides and contemns his disarmed enemy death.”

“Are not we ambassadors from God to men, to unfold Christ's love in particular unto them: if they believe, then to tell them, that they may be assured of salvation?”

“I do not say by your constant liveliness, for this may be lacking at some times in true believers—but you may know it by your spiritual life.”

“Are we satisfied that the way has been opened, and the blood sprinkled, so as to make it safe for us to enter?”

“By these ten arguments it does evidently appear, that believers may in this life attain unto a well-grounded assurance of their everlasting happiness and blessedness.”

“Those who put their trust in him, shall be like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved.”

“Test your interest in Christ, the only Deliverer from future wrath—by these marks and evidences .”

“Christians! though you may be very near and dear to Christ, yet until you come to see your assurance, you will spend your days in doubting, mourning, and complaining.”

“If faith be not an apprehension that Christ is mine, wherein then lies that special application and appropriation of Christ, and the promise which is made to be in faith, and urged upon believers?”

“It makes clear that the man who belongs to Christ need not be the prey of continual remorse.”

“Prayer is nothing but the promise reversed, or God's Word formed into an argument.”

“I have been vile myself, but have obtained mercy; and I would have my companions in sin partake of mercy too; and therefore I have writ this little book.”

“Jesus Christ would have mercy offered in the first place to the biggest sinners.”

“His heart stands affected towards us, under all sorts of infirmities whatsoever, either of sin or misery.”

“But I am a great sinner, sayest thou. 'I will in no wise cast out,' says Christ. But I am an old sinner, sayest thou. 'I will in no wise cast out,' says Christ.”

“Words will not do with Jesus Christ. Coming is coming, and nothing else will go for coming with him.”

“Unbelief is the daughter of Ignorance.”

“Whensoever we would go down into our own hearts, and take a view of our graces, let us be sure first to look wholly out of ourselves unto Christ, as our justification, and to close with him immediately.”

“That which I have here endeavoured is to set forth to all sorts of believers, whether they have assurance or not, Christ as he is the object of our faith as justifying, and as the cause of justification to us.”

“A Christian may be stripped of anything but his God; he may be stripped of his estate, his friends, his relations, his liberty, his life, but he can never be stripped of his God.”

“He who has God for his portion enjoys all; and he who lacks a saving interest and propriety in God enjoys nothing at all.”

“There is more mercy in Christ than sin in us. It is better to go bruised to heaven than sound to hell.”

“Grace is little at the first; things of greatest perfection are longest in coming to their growth.”

“The strongest are readiest to bear with the infirmities of the weak.”

“Godliness is the sacred impression and workmanship of God in a man, whereby from being carnal he is made spiritual.”

“Godliness consists in an exact harmony between holy principles and practices.”

“Reason makes us men; godliness makes us earthly angels.”

“Weeds grow by themselves; flowers are planted.”

“Counterfeit piety is double iniquity.”

“Heaven is won or lost on earth; the possession is there, but the preparation is here.”

“The latter days of churches are always perilous days, days full of danger.”

“Unless we are upon our watch and guard, and cry mightily unto God for help and assistance, we shall be all overtaken with perils and dangers in the days wherein we live.”

“Rightly to fear the Lord is a sign of a gracious heart.”

“The whole of our service to God, and every part thereof, ought to be done by us with reverence and godly fear.”

“Seeking of Christ is the soul's duty; but Christ manifesting himself is the soul's comfort.”

“Many times Christ hath his face towards us, when we have our backs upon him; and therefore if thou wouldst find Christ, turn thyself to him.”

“Truths are often delivered to us like wheat in full ears, to the end we should rub them out before we eat them, and take pains about them before we have the comfort of them.”

“God has a long arm, and he can reach a great way further than we can conceive he can.”

“Grace is glory in the bud, and glory is grace at the full.”

“To have grace, and to be sure that we have grace, is glory upon the throne, it is heaven on this side heaven.”

“Communion consists in giving and receiving. Until the love of the Father be received, we have no communion with him therein.”

“Few can carry up their hearts and minds to this height by faith, as to rest their souls in the love of the Father; they live below it, in the troublesome region of hopes and fears, storms and clouds. All here is serene and quiet.”

“How shall a man know if he has a true and special interest in Christ, and whether he may lay claim justly to God's favour and salvation?”