But I, Robert, believe:
Therefore, I shall be saved.
The Minor is of my own making, not expressed in the Scripture; and so a human Conclusion, not a divine Position; so that my Faith and Assurance here is not built upon a Scripture Proposition, but upon an human Principle; which, unless I be sure of elsewhere, the Scripture gives me no Certainty in the Matter.
Again, If I should pursue the Argument further, and seek a new Medium out of the Scripture, the same Difficulty would occur: Thus,
He that hath the true and certain Marks of true Faith, hath true Faith:
But I have those Marks:
Therefore I have true Faith.
For the Assumption is still here of my own making, and is not found in the Scriptures; and by Consequence the Conclusion can be no better, since it still followeth the weaker Proposition. The inward Testimony of the Spirit the Seal of Scripture-Promises.This is indeed so pungent, that the best of Protestants, who plead for this Assurance, ascribe it to the inward Testimony of the Spirit, as Calvin, in that large Citation, quoted in the Former Proposition. So that, not to seek farther into the Writings of the primitive Protestants, which are full of such Expressions, even the Westminster Confession of Faith affirmeth, Chap. 18. Sect. 12. “This Certainty is not a bare Conjecture and probable Persuasion, grounded upon fallible Hope, but an infallible Assurance of Faith, founded upon the Divine Truth of the Promise of Salvation; the inward Evidences of these Graces, unto which these Promises are made; the Testimony of the Spirit of Adoption, witnessing to our Spirits that we are the Children of God; which Spirit is the Earnest of our Inheritance, whereby we are sealed to the Day of Redemption.”
Moreover, the Scripture itself, wherein we are so earnestly pressed to seek after this Assurance, doth not at all affirm itself a Rule sufficient to give it, but wholly ascribeth it to the Spirit, as Rom. viii. 16. The Spirit itself beareth Witness with our Spirit, that we are the Children of God. 1 John iv. 13. Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit; and Chap. v. 6. And it is the Spirit that beareth Witness, because the Spirit is Truth.