Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Edwards on assurance

"It is 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. . . . Assurance is not to be obtained so much by self-examination as by action."

Jonathan Edwards, The religious affections, pt. 3, sec. 1 ((Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1986 [1961]), 123). More to the point, "It is not God's design that men should obtain assurance in any other way than by mortif[ication]".

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