Assurance of salvation

“ And therefore it is the duty of everyone to give all diligence to make his calling and election sure, that thereby his heart may be enlarged in peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, in love and thankfulness to God, and in strength and cheerfulness in the duties of obedience, the proper fruits of this assurance; so far is it from inclining men to looseness.
IV. True believers may have the assurance of their salvation divers ways shaken, diminished, and intermitted; as, by negligence in preserving of it, by falling into some special sin which woundeth the conscience and grieveth the Spirit ”

“ Sureness
'The work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever.' (Isaiah xxxii. 17.)
One reason why I glory in teaching Full Salvation is that it includes a religion of certainty. It brings a man to a place of sureness as to his religious relationships. A soul just awakened to a sense of responsibility is naturally full of wonderment and anxiety, and this must be disposed of. So that when we speak of a man obtaining Salvation, we say 'he found peace'. ”

“ That principle imparts the knowledge or the rock of revelation upon which the Savior declared His people should be established; and we constitute the only religious community which dares assume this Scriptural position; and our realization of the Savior's promise, "that hell shall not prevail against" a people thus established, affords us peace, tranquility, unshaken confidence, and a cheering and happy assurance of security in the midst of all kinds of threatened ruin and overthrow. ”

“ Assurance is the believer's full conviction that, through the work of Christ alone, received by faith, he is in possession of a salvation in which he will be eternally kept. And this assurance rests only upon the Scripture promises to him who believes. ”

“ It is the duty, it is the privilege of the minister of Christ to speak comfort to those who require comfort.”
“Can you tell me,” cried Mark, with a great effort, “the way for sinners—to be saved?”
“The Saviour is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, the Gate by which alone we enter into salvation. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. The just shall live by faith.” ”

“ He knew there was only one name under heaven whereby men might be saved; that obedience to this law was a prime necessity to salvation, for "in vain do ye say, Lord, Lord, and do not the things I command you." ”

“ If Christ has merited eternal salvation for all men, why, then, are not all saved?
Because not all do, on their part, what is necessary for obtaining salvation; that is, because they do not all believe, keep the Commandments, and use the means of grace. ”

“ He is mighty to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him; and no one will deny that the righteous come unto him. How then can their eternal salvation be denominated scarce? Impossible. How then are the scriptures to be reconciled with our text, when they declare eternal life to be the gift of God—that we are saved by grace—that help is laid upon one mighty to save—that his arm is not shortened that it cannot save; and that the power of God is to be exerted at the resurrection in making them equal unto the angels? ”

“ Do we find where Jesus ever said one word about the Garden of Eden, the fall of Adam, original sin, total depravity, vicarious atonement, the mode of baptism, the Trinity, the possession of the Holy Spirit, or any form of ecclesiastical organization or church polity?
Salvation, and Jesus so taught, pertains to this life exclusively. It simply means to save this life,—not from physical death, nor hell hereafter,—but to its proper function, use and purpose, according to the will of God, as revealed in nature and human experience. ”

“ Salvation and life everlasting are before us; it is our business to secure them in the kingdom of our God, and to prepare for the restoration of the inhabitants of the earth who have slept without the Gospel. ”

“ This received, embraced, and relied upon, will overcome all guilt, depravity, and misery—“They overcame by the blood of the Lamb;”—this is a receipt in full of all demands; so that whatever the Law or conscience says, our advocate steps in, and shews his hands and his side—this is enough for us.—By this same light we see in God’s word, the wonderous plan of salvation—p. 40the stability of the covenant—the eternity of God’s love—the Person of Jesus, as our representative in heaven for us—with many precious promises, and God’s faithfulness to them. ”

“ By evangelical sentiments, we understand, among others, a belief in the guilty and lost condition of all men without a Saviour; the Supreme Deity, Incarnation and Atoning Sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the only Saviour of the world; the necessity of regeneration by the Holy Spirit, repentance, faith and holy obedience in order to salvation; the immortality of the soul; and the retributions of the judgment in the eternal punishment of the wicked, and salvation of the righteous. ”

“ By interpreting God as a corporeal Saviour but not as the saving Principle, or divine Love, we shall continue Salvation is through reform to seek salvation through pardon and not through reform, and resort to matter instead of Spirit for the cure of the sick. ”

“ To provide a Savior, and the means of salvation, is God's part: to accept this Savior, laying hold on the hope set before us, is ours. Those who refuse the way and means of salvation must perish; those who accept of the great Covenant Sacrifice cannot perish, but shall have eternal life. ”

“ Does not this view of sin, as primarily a fall-back to past levels of conduct and experience, a defeat of the spirit of the future in its conflict with the undying past, give us a fresh standpoint from which to look at the idea of Salvation? We know that all religions of the spirit have based their claim upon man on such an offer of salvation: on the conviction that there is something from which he needs to be rescued, if he is to achieve a satisfactory life. ”

“ The most experienced Christians have to acknowledge that salvation is the free and unmerited gift of God. “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; which he shed on us abundantly, through Jesus Christ our Saviour.” ”

“ But first, I will remark, that God has but one method of saving men. The scheme of salvation is an unchangeable scheme, both as respects the atonement of Christ, and the conditions required of men. Jesus Christ is the only name under heaven whereby men can be saved.—Acts iv. ”

“ We must not forget that God's plan is to save the lost, through the instrumentality of those who were themselves once lost, but are now saved from sin. If we would have a great testimony meeting in the city of the skies, and all of the countless hosts there should one by one stand up to tell how they were brought from sin to Jesus, each one of them would point out some person who had been the chief instrument in his or her salvation. There is this one characteristic of all who are truly saved—they desire the salvation of all souls. ”

“ It is good for us to follow the example of those who have attained unto salvation; consequently if I wish to be saved, and be an instrument of pointing out the way to others, let me not only preach the doctrine of salvation, but set the example in my conduct, and plead with them to follow it. If our faith is one, and we are united to gain one grand object, and I, as an individual, can possibly get into the celestial kingdom, you and every other person, by the same rule, can also enter there. ”

“ Another class of religionists would save all in the kingdom of God—bring all into his presence indiscriminately, no matter whether they are in their sins or not; the plan of salvation, they say, is sufficient to save them all.
There is a plan whereby all who have not sinned the sin unto death may attain to a certain glory and salvation. There is a principle revealed in the great economy of Heaven by which we can act for another; whereby the generations which have died in ignorance of the Gospel may be administered for by the living, that they may be judged according to men in the flesh. ”

“ Inculpable or invincible ignorance has never been and will never be a means of salvation. To be saved, it is necessary to be justified, or to be in the state of sanctifying grace. In order to obtain sanctifying grace, it is necessary to have the proper dispositions for justification; that is, true divine faith in at least the necessary truths of salvation, confident hope in the divine Saviour, sincere sorrow for sin, together with the firm purpose of doing all that God has commanded, etc. ”

“ Well, now, so that we can understand what salvation is, we shall be enabled to comprehend the way in which we shall have to be saved. Salvation, like everything else, is something that we cannot make or create. ”

“ If the Saviour were to reappear on earth, he would calumniate no minister who preaches salvation by grace—he would break up the peace of no church which holds the unity of the faith—he would show his regard for the law of God by obeying its precepts, and unveil the glory of the gospel by proclaiming it among all people. ”

“ There, then, is both the foundation and the keystone of our trust. We may see all kinds of difficulties; there may be confusion, perplexity, and the cry of distress in every direction, but according to His divine power God has provided a divine Saviour, and in that Saviour we may rest, for He is the Son of God.
II. A Divine Salvation.
The whole plan from first to last is divine. The world is full of human plans, some of which are successful and some total failures. One man contrives one thing and one another, but God alone planned the great salvation. ”

“ It is as much as the best can do to secure the salvation of their souls; there are so many sufferings, temptations, and difficulties to be overcome, so many sins to be mortified, the gate is so strait and the way so narrow, that it is as much as the righteous can do to be saved. Let the absolute necessity of salvation balance the difficulty of it. Consider, Your difficulties are greatest at first; God offers his grace and help ”

“ Then if not before, will all know for themselves the truth of the doctrine of exclusive salvation. Then will it be manifest that those authorized of God, and those alone, have power to bind one earth and bind in heaven, to loose on earth and loose in heaven. Salvation will be confined exclusively to those who obeyed the warning voice of the duly empowered servants of God, and damnation will be poured out exclusively upon those who rejected the warning voice of those servants. ”

“ By salvation I mean, not barely deliverance from hell, or going to heaven, but a present deliverance from sin, a restoration of the soul to its primitive health, its original purity; a recovery of the Divine nature; the renewal of our souls after the image of God, in righteousness and true holiness, in justice, mercy, and truth. This implies all holy and heavenly tempers, and by consequence, all holiness of conversation.
“Faith is the sole condition of this salvation. Without faith we cannot thus be saved; for we cannot rightly serve God unless we love Him. ”

“ He has mercy upon them, he bears with them, he pleads with them by his Spirit, and occasionally sends his angels to administer to them. Marvel not, then, that I pray for every soul that can be saved. Are they yet upon saving ground? Many of them can yet be saved, if they will turn to the Lord. ”

“ To open the way, then, for man's purification and regeneration, and thus to render salvation possible to all who are willing to be saved—in a word, to effect the great work of man's Redemption, was the purpose for which the Saviour came into the world. ”

“ We profess to be Saints—to have received the Gospel of salvation; and if we have embraced it with pure motives, it is salvation to us—and that, too, at the present time. When we look at the world we find them talking about being saved; but all the salvation they are looking for is a long way from this, which I think will be the case. But we receive the Gospel for the purpose of being saved. It proposes salvation to us on the onset, at the commencement, and from that day to all eternity. ”

“ Preservation by God's power does not supersede man's endeavour and care for his own salvation; here are God's power and man's faith, which implies an earnest desire of salvation, a reliance upon Christ according to his invitations and promises, a vigilant care to do every thing pleasing to God and avoid whatever is offensive, an abhorrence of temptations, a respect to the recompence of reward, and persevering diligence in prayer. By such a patient, operating, conquering faith, we are kept under the assistance of divine grace, unto salvation ”

“ The first preachers of the Gospel, therefore, in conformity with these principles, would aim first, and directly, to convince their hearers of their sins, and in accomplishing this end, they would fasten upon those facts in which the guilt of their hearers more particularly consisted. And then, when men were thus convicted of their guilt, the salvation through Christ from sin, and its penalty, would be pressed upon their anxious souls; and they would be taught to exercise faith in Jesus, as the meritorious cause of life, pardon, and happiness. ”

“ To obtain the great salvation it is necessary that we understand and believe the things concerning the kingdom of God. Now, dear reader, do not persuade yourself that it is not necessary to have a correct view of this matter; for the things we are now to treat of are part of the gospel our Lord sent His apostles to preach, of which He said, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be condemned." ”