Jonathan Edwards on Assurance
From Part III of Religious Affections by Jonathan Edwards.
ls it not God’s design that men should obtain assurance in any other way than by mortifying corruption, and increasing in grace, and obtaining the lively exercises of it. And although self-examination be a duty of great use and importance, and by no means to be neglected, yet it not to be the principal by which the saints do get satisfaction of their good estate. Assurance is not to be obtained so much by self-examination as by action. The Apostle Paul sought assurance chiefly this way, even by “forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus; tf by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead” (Phil. 3:13-14,11). And it was by this chief means that he obtained assurance: 1 Corinthians 9:26 “Therefore I run thus, not with uncertainty.” He obtained assurance of winning the prize more by running than by considering. The swiftness of his pace did more towards his assurance of a conquest than the strictness of his examination. Giving all diligence to grow in grace, by adding faith, virtue, and so on, is the direction the Apostle Peter gives for “making our calling and election sure, and for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into Christ’s everlasting kingdom;” signifying to us, that withouth this, our eyes will be dim, and we shall be as men in the dark, that cannot plainly see things past or to come, either the forgiveness of our sins past, or our heavenly inheritance that is future and far off, 2 Peter 1:5-11.