Give diligence to make your calling and election sure.
2 Pet 1:10
Have all sanctified people assurance?
They have a right to it, and I incline to believe that all have it in some degree, before their last expiring; though their comfort may be so feeble, and their spiritual vitality so weak, that they cannot express what they feel. But I dare not positively affirm that all have assurance in the first moment of their sanctification. A letter may be written, when it is not sealed. Just so, grace may be written in the heart, and the Spirit may not set the seal of assurance to it. God is a free agent, and may give or suspend assurance as he pleases. Where there is the sanctifying work of the Spirit, he may withhold the sealing work, partly to keep the soul humble; partly to punish our careless walking. As when we neglect our spiritual watch, grow remiss in duty, and walk under a cloud—we quench the graces of the Spirit, and God withholds the comforts. And God may withold assurance partly, to put a difference between earth and heaven. This I speak, to bear up the hearts of God’s people, who are dejected because they have no assurance. You may have the water of the Spirit poured on you in sanctification, though not the oil of gladness in assurance. There may be the saving faith of reliance upon Christ—and not the strong faith of assurance. There may be life in the root—when there is no fruit in the branches to be seen. There may be faith in the heart, when no fruit of assurance.
Thomas Watson. A Body of Divinity.
