SERMON XV.

ASSURANCE.

2 TIM. i. 12.

"I KNOW WHOM I HAVE BELIEVED, AND AM PERSUADED THAT HE IS ABLE TO KEEP THAT WHICH I HAVE COMMITTED UNTO HIM AGAINST THAT DAY."

HAVING Considered, in the former discourse, the exercise of the sinner in committing his soul to Christ, I now proceed to speak of the persuasion which the believer has of the safety of his deposit. "I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day;" i.e. I am assured of the safety of my soul in his hands, or that I shall be saved in the day of his glorious appearing. Let us then endeavour to open up the nature, grounds, and effects of a scriptural assurance of complete and final salvation.

I begin with premising that this assurance is no apostolical gift, or extraordinary attainment, confined to the first age of the gospel, or to a favoured class of Christians. Judas, though an apostle, did not possess it: and Paul never speaks of it as a privilege of office, or an effect of inspiration. He does not say on this as he says on another subject, "Am I not an apostle? have not I seen the Lord ?" He does not "come to visions and revelations of the Lord," he does not speak as one caught up to the third heavens ;" for he knew that he might have enjoyed all these privileges, and yet "be a castaway." It was as a sinner-the "chief of sinners," that he committed his soul to Christ: and it is as a believer, and on grounds common to all believers in every age, that he expresses the persuasion in the text. What he here avows as an

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individual he elsewhere expresses in the name of all believers "We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God." And all the saints at Rome he associates with himself in that triumphant passage, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? I am persuaded that neither life nor death, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." God forbid, that we should cut off the streams of Christian consolation, and dry up the most fertile source of Christian holiness, by confining this attainment either to apostolical men, or to the primitive Christians. This were not to "follow their faith, considering the end of their conversation, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever." Their minds might be more deeply imbued with the Spirit of truth; but we having the same Spirit of faith, according as it is written, "I have believed and therefore have I spoken," we may believe and so speak. Every believer in Christ possesses this persuasion in some degree, and may attain to the full assurance of understanding, and faith, and hope.

The enquiry is of no minor importance in itself, and it claims particular attention at present, when a disposition is evinced to run to opposite extremes as to the doctrine of Christian assurance. What I have to advance will fall in under the illustration of the following propositions,-—that it is an intelligent and enlightened persuasion; that it rests on the surest grounds, as laid down in the word of God; that it is strengthened by Christian experience; that it will stand the severest test; and that it exerts a powerful and extensive influence on the Christian life.

I. It is an intelligent and enlightened persuasion. "I know-and am persuaded," says the apostle. How, and whence he knew this, will afterwards be noticed; in the mean time, it is proper to observe at the very outset, that he bases his persuasion on knowledge. What is said of it in all the riches of its full-grown strength, is true of it in its greenest and least advanced state-it is the "assurance of understanding." It differs essentially and totally from all blind impulses,

all enthusiastic imaginations, all sudden impressions made on the mind, but of which the person can give no intelligent or satisfactory account. It is not the result of dreams or visions. It is not produced by immediate suggestions of the Spirit. It is not grafted on texts of Scripture ill-understood, and broken off from their connexion, which have been forcibly injected into the mind, or selected by a kind of spiritual lottery. "This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you," Christian; but is to be suspected of delusion, nourishing pride and self-conceit, and creating a fanciful and presumptuous confidence, accompanied with a feverish tumult in the affections, which bursts out into extravagance of sentiment and irregularity of conduct, and then gradually subsides and sinks to the point of freezing indifference and incredulity.

Genuine Christian assurance proceeds from spiritual illumination by means of the word of God. It is the effect of the Spirit's "opening the understanding to understand the Scriptures," and to know what they testify of Christ. "The God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, give unto you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ, that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance." "We have known and believed the love of God to us." "The Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding that we may know him that is true." Faith is the act of an enlightened mind. The convinced sinner does not commit himself to the Saviour blindly, or in ignorance of his revealed character and qualifications. The weakest believer is always ready to give a reason of the hope that is in him." He cannot answer all the cavils of adversaries, but he can maintain his cause with the words of truth and soberness, and sometimes silence the caviller, by the reply of the man whose eyes the Lord opened, "Whether what you allege be true or no, I know not; but one thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see." This persuasion is coolly formed, and cautiously expressed, and it is so because it is enlightened. The Christian, especially at his first believing, is apt to suspect his perceptions, however clear and satisfactory, and to check his assurance, until he

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has dispassionately examined its grounds, and allowed the transport of his mind to subside. He is apt to go to the opposite extreme from the enthusiast: the latter is presumptuous, the former is jealous and diffident; the latter is satisfied with too little evidence, the former requires too much; the latter mistakes visions for realities, the former, like Thomas of old, suspects the reality to be a vision. The description given of the state of mind into which Peter was thrown, when he was suddenly relieved and led out of prison during the night by the hand of the angel, is illustrative of what the believer sometimes feels: "He wist not that it was true which was done by the angel, but thought he saw a vision. And when Peter was come to himself, he said, Now I know of a surety that the Lord hath sent his angel and hath delivered me out of the hand of Herod, and from all the expectation of the people of the Jews. And when he had considered the thing, he came to the house of Mary, where many were gathered together praying."

II. This assurance rests on the best and most stable of all grounds. "I know whom I have believed." I know who he is the great God, who made all things, and upholds them by the word of his power, and therefore is mighty to save. I know what he became for the salvation of sinners-he became a man, a partaker of flesh and blood, like the children whom he came to redeem, that by wearing their nature, he might be qualified for appearing as their substitute, and doing and enduring what was necessary for their liberation. I know him to be Immanuel, the man God's fellow, who would lay his hand upon both parties, and by mediation reconcile them. I know that he hath magnified the law, finished transgression, propitiated justice, and obtained eternal redemption, by the sacrifice of himself, which he offered once for all upon the cross; and I know that, made perfect through suffering, he is now on the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens, bearing "the keys of hell and death," and invested by his Father with

*Acts, xii. 9, il, 12.

power over all flesh to give eternal life to as many as he hath given him. Knowing this, the apostle could say, and every believer may say, "I am persuaded that he is able to keep what I have committed to him against that day." Nor does this merely mean that he can, if he will. It is expressive of moral as well as natural ability,-of all the qualities, personal and official, legal and spiritual, which are requisite to give security to those who confide in him for everlasting salvation. It includes the good-will and mercy and faithfulness and sympathy of the Redeemer, as well as his authority and power, the fulness of the Spirit resident in him, as well as the riches of his merits; the perfection of his atonement, the power of his resurrection, the plenitude of his dominion, the prevalence of his intercession, and the perpetuity of his life and love.

But upon what evidence does the Christian's persuasion of all this rest? Upon the word and promise of Him that cannot lie. Nothing short of a divine testimony and assurance could have induced the awakened sinner to intrust Christ with his eternal welfare; and nothing less will sustain the confidence of a believer, who has obtained a clearer and ever-increasing insight into the preciousness of the redemption of his soul, or preserve him from distracting doubts and fears amidst the temptations and infirmities by which he feels himself daily surrounded and oppressed. Wo to his peace of mind, and to his hopes of maintaining the struggle against the devil, the world, and the flesh, escaping the evils of life, and triumphing over death and the grave, if his confidence were built on any thing below the word of the Eternal, who hath confirmed it by his oath, "that by two immutable things, wherein it is impossible for God to lie, they might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before them." Wo to the continuance of his peace, if it were based on any act, exercise, or attainment of his own, if it ebbed and flowed under a secondary influence, and if, after being relieved, quickened, and cheered by direct communication from the Fountain of Light, he were doomed henceforth to receive all his comfort by reflection from his own experience!