259, 263.
The Gospel According to Historic Christianity
. . . It is not God's design that men should obtain assurance in any other way than by mortifying corruption, 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 is not the principal means, by which the saints do get satisfaction of their good estate. Assurance is not to be obtained so much by selfexamination, as by action. The apostle Paul sought assurance chiefly this way, even by forgetting the things that were behind, and reaching forth unto those things that were before, pressing towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus; if by any means he might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. And it was by this means chiefly that he obtained assurance, 1 Cor. ix. 26. "I therefore so run, as not uncertainly." He obtained assurance of winning the prize more by running than considering. . . . Giving all diligence to grow in grace, by adding to faith, virtue, etc., is the direction that the apostle Peter gives us, for making our calling and election sure, and having an entrance ministered to us abundantly into Christ's everlasting kingdom. Without this, our eyes will be dim, and we shall be as men in the dark; we cannot plainly see either the forgiveness of our sins past, our heavenly inheritance that is future, and far off, 2 Pet. i. 5 – 11.32
John Gill, a British Baptist minister, wrote in 1767:
Th e foundation of sanctifi cation is laid in regeneration; as it is a holy principle, it is fi rst formed in that; the new creature, or new man, is created in righ teous ness and true holiness; and it appears in eff ectual vocation, which is an holy calling; and is to be seen in conversion, which is a turning of men from their iniquities: and that holiness which is begun in regeneration, and is manifest in eff ectual calling and conversion, is carried on in sanctifi cation, which is a gradual and progressive work, and issues and is fi nished in glorifi cation.33
Describing genuine believers, Gill wrote:
In subjection to him, as King of saints; they not only receive him as their Prophet, to teach and instruct them, and embrace his doctrines; and as their Priest, by whose sacrifi ce their sins are expiated; but as their King, to whose laws and ordinances they cheerfully submit; esteeming his precepts,
32. Edward Hickman, ed., Th e Works of Jonathan Edwards (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1979), 237, 259, 263. 33. John Gill, A Body of Divinity (Grand Rapids: Sovereign Grace, 1971), 552.