26. Resolved, to cast away such things, as I find do abate my assurance.
If you think about it, why would you do anything to make yourself feel miserable by shaking your assurance?
Be careful here though, that I do not think Edwards is talking about your feeling of assurance only, as if he would avoid thinking about whether he was saved or not in case he would feel nervous about his salvation. That is not what Edwards would say or do. If in doubt, read the Religious Affections. He would think hard about whether he was saved or not quite a lot even knowing that he might feel nervous about his salvation and abate his assurance. But that's the point. He will figure out what is making him feel nervous about his salvation, usually some kind of repeating sins I bet, and he will do his utmost to get rid of those sins. See, it's about feelings, but not just feelings, it's a logical self assessment that he is trying to do, so that he can be more assured of God's salvation, not only in his feelings, but more importantly to be sure of with his mind, that he is standing on the solid Rock, whether he feels it or not right at that moment.
(Source: A Puritan's Mind)
[Note: blogspot's scheduled posting doesn't seem to be working properly. I planned to post this up last week, but didn't get posted automatically, so I'm doing it now.]
[Edit: added the source.]
No comments:
Post a Comment