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VI.

IT is a very serious and interesting question, wheth

er a believer may in this life attain to an infallible certainty of his ultimate salvation. Nor is the problem a new one. The times of the Reformation, three hundred years ago, were much occupied with this very inquiry. The finding of the genuine gospel among the old ruins of superstitious ceremonial and semipelagian dogmas, shed such a sunshine over the Christian world, that there were multitudes whose hope was so exalted as to expel all doubt. This was consolation indeed; for such a certainty of bliss was peculiarly suitable in a day when it was needful to suffer for Christ, and when martyrdoms began to reappear in the church. The reformers, one and all, testified that a man might be assured of his eventual salvation.

But this doctrine found many adversaries. It comported well with the denial of final perseverance, to deny this. The same persons were the opponents of both. In the first place, the Papists admitted no certainty concerning one's being in a state of grace, beyond what was conjectural. They even maintained that such a certainty was not desirable,

and that it tended to relaxation of morals. It would have been more candid, if they had maintained that it tended to relaxation of the priestly tie, and diminution of the papal majesty. For he who is assured of God's love, and hears his remission from his judge, will feel little concern about human absolution. Here is a death-blow to masses for the soul's health, supererogatory merits of saints laid up in store for the behoof of sinners, vows, pilgrimages, humiliations, indulgences, and universal monkery. There is no need of these to one who has the peace of God shed abroad in the heart.

There were other adversaries of triumphant grace, and they set themselves to deny assurance. The old Arminians (in this differing very much from the modern Wesleyans) united in holding that it was neither laudable nor useful to be placed above doubt. They admitted a conjectural certainty, or a conditional certainty, but none that was real. For how can they who admit the danger of falling from a state of grace have any assurance for eternity? They may fall away to-morrow. They may fall away under the next temptation. They may make shipwreck in the very haven, and lose Christ after they have become speechless in death.

It suited well with a slavish and legal system to deny the possibility of assurance. Having no knowledge of a method of grace, and the ingenuous, grateful, willing service which is rendered by a renewed soul, they dreaded ever to let the convinced come from under this yoke of bondage. They were sure

that the moment he was sure of escape from hell, he would disobey; that there could be no Christianity, save under the lash. The effect of such a scheme

is

apparent, to a melancholy degree, in the character of many estimable, and of some great men. A remarkable instance is that of the celebrated Dr. Johnson. It would be difficult to point out a more gloomy record of experience, than that which is contained in his religious meditations and diary. These extend through a period of forty-six years. They are solemn, affecting, and undoubtedly sincere. But they lack one thing, and that all-important, namely, the idea of free salvation by Jesus Christ. Dr. Johnson had learned that all assurance was enthusiasm. He knew no motive but fear. He is perpetually lamenting over sin, but never cherishing a sense of pardon. Almost until his latest hours, he was in bondage through fear of death. He never willingly allowed conversation in his presence to turn on this painful subject, and sometimes repressed it with his characteristic and boisterous indignation. Now how far did this absence of that assurance (which he so strenuously denied to be possible) tend to the development of Christian character? Let us read, amidst his lamentations over lost time, and his petty fasts and austerities, the record on his fifty-sixth birth-day, Sept. 18, 1764. "I have now spent fifty-five years in resolving, having from the earliest time almost that I can remember, been forming schemes of a better life. I have done nothing." It is pleasing to find reason for believing, that in the close of life, Dr.

Johnson opened his mind to some more gracious views of the plan of salvation. His error with regard to the certainty of final glory, is the error of thousands, who maintain the same scheme of partial grace.

In opposition to all this, the doctrine of the Reformed Theologians has uniformly been, that there is an assurance of God's love, which may be attained in the present life and it is the nature of this assurance which we shall now in the first place consider.

The word rendered full-assurance, is one of striking import. It carries with it the idea of fulness, such as of a tree laden with fruit, or of a vess. I's sails when stretched by a favouring gale. It is unwavering conviction, persuasion which defies all doubt, and expectation rising to certainty. And it stands distinguished from a conviction and persuasion of any or all the propositions of revealed truth, as involving an application of that truth to our own proper case. The former is called the assurance of faith; the latter (of which we are treating), the assurance of hope, and sometimes the full assurance of hope. Heb. 6: 11. As faith unfolds into hope, so the assurance or highest measure of faith into the assurance or highest measure of hope. They therefore often coexist; yet they are distinguishable. The assurance of faith is the acme of unwavering and undoubting confidence that the revealed propositions are the very truth of God;-a persuasion so firm, as to be the basis and resting-place of all Christian reliance. It is saving faith carried to its height.