Q-xxxvi: WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS WHICH FLOW FROM SANCTIFICATION?
A: Assurance of God’s love, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Ghost, increase of grace, and perseverance therein to the end.
The first benefit flowing from sanctification is assurance of God’s love.
‘Give diligence to make your calling and election sure.’ 2 Pet 1:10. Sanctification is the seed, assurance is the flower which grows out of it: assurance is a consequent of sanctification. The saints of old had it. ‘We know that we know him.’ I John 2:2. ‘I know whom I have believed.’ 2 Tim 1:12. Here was sensus fidei, ‘the reflex act of faith,: and ‘Christ has loved me.’ Gal 2:20. Here is faith flourishing into assurance. Aecolampadius, when sick, pointed to his heart, saying, Hic sat lucis, Here I have light enough, meaning comfort and assurance.
Have all sanctified persons assurance?
They have a right to it, and I incline to believe that all have it in some degree before their last expiring; though their comfort may be so feeble, and their vital spirits so weak, that they cannot express what they feel. But I dare not positively affirm that all have assurance in the first moment of their sanctification. A letter may be written, when it is not sealed; so grace may be written in the heart, and the Spirit may not set the seal of assurance to it. God is a free agent, and may give or suspend assurance pro licito, as he pleases. Where there is the sanctifying work of the Spirit, he may withhold the sealing work, partly to keep the soul humble; partly to punish our careless walking - as when we neglect our spiritual watch, grow remiss in duty, and walk under a cloud, we quench the graces of the Spirit, and God withholds the comforts; and partly to put a difference between earth and heaven. This I the rather speak to bear up the hearts of God’s people, who are dejected because they have no assurance. You may have the water of the Spirit poured on you in sanctification, though not the oil of gladness in assurance. There may be faith of adherence, and not of evidence; there may be life in the root, when there is no fruit in the branches to be seen; so faith in the heart, when no fruit of assurance.
What is assurance?
It is not any vocal or audible voice, or brought to us by the help of an angel or revelation. Assurance consists of a practical syllogism, in which the word of God makes the major, conscience the minor, and the Spirit of God, the conclusion. The Word says, ‘He that fears and loves God is loved of God;’ there is the major proposition; then conscience makes the minor, ‘But I fear and love God;’ then the Spirit makes the conclusion, ‘Therefore thou art loved of God;’ and this is what the apostle calls ‘The witnessing of the Spirit with our spirits, that we are his children.’ Rom 8:16.
Has a sanctified soul such an assurance as excludes all doubting?
He has that which bears up his heart from sinking, he has such an earnest of the Spirit, that he would not part with it for the richest prize; but his assurance, though infallible, is not perfect. There will be sometimes a trepidation, but he is safe amidst fears and doubts; as a ship lies safe at anchor, though shaken by the wind. If a Christian had no doubts there would be no unbelief in him; had he no doubts there would be no difference between grace militant and grace triumphant. Had not David sometimes his ebbings as well as flowings? Like the mariner, who sometimes cries out, stellam video, ‘I see a star,’ and then cries the star is out of sight. Sometimes we hear David say, ‘Thy lovingkindness is before mine eyes.’ Psa 26:6. At another time he is at a loss: ‘Lord, where are thy former lovingkindnesses?’ Psa 89:99. There may fall out an eclipse in a Christian’s assurance, to put him upon longing after heaven, where there shall not be the least doubting; where the banner of God’s love shall be always displayed upon the soul; where the light of God’s face shall be without clouds, and have no sun-setting; and where the saints shall have an uninterrupted assurance, and be ever with the Lord.
What are the differences between true assurance and presumption?
(1.) They differ in the method or manner of working. Divine assurance flows from humiliation for sin; I speak not of the measure of humiliation, but the truth. There are in Palermo reeds growing, in which there is a sugared juice; a soul humbled for sin is the bruised reed, in which grows this sweet assurance. God’s Spirit is a spirit of bondage before it is a spirit of adoption; but presumption arises without any humbling word of the Spirit. ‘How camest thou by the venison so soon?’ The plough goes before the seed be sown; the heart must be ploughed up by humiliation and repentance, before God sows the seed of assurance.
(2.) He who has a real assurance will take heed of that which will weaken and darken his assurance; he is fearful of the forbidden fruit; he knows, though he cannot sin away his soul, yet he may sin away his assurance; but he who has the ignis fatuus of presumption does not fear defiling his garments, he is bold in sin. ‘Wilt thou not cry unto me, My Father? Behold, thou hast done evil things as thou couldest.’ Jer 3:3, 5. Balaam said, ‘My God,’ yet was a sorcerer. It is a sign he has no money about him, who fears not to travel all hours in the night. It is a sign he has not the jewel of assurance, who fears not the works of darkness.