Westminster Confession of Faith

Although hypocrites and other unregenerate men may vainly deceive themselves with false hopes, and carnal presumptions of being in the favour of God, and estate of salvation;³⁴⁹ which hope of theirs shall perish:³⁵⁰ yet such as truly believe in the Lord Jesus, and love Him in sincerity, endeavouring to walk in all good conscience before Him, may, in this life, be certainly assured that they are in the state of grace,³⁵¹ and may rejoice in the hope of the glory of God, which hope shall never make them ashamed.³⁵²

This certainty is not a bare conjectural and probable persuasion, grounded upon a fallible hope;³⁵³ but an infallible assurance of faith, founded upon the divine truth of the promises of salvation,³⁵⁴ the inward evidence of those graces unto which these promises are made,³⁵⁵ the testimony of the Spirit of adoption witnessing with our spirits that we are the children of God:³⁵⁶ which Spirit is the earnest of our inheritance, whereby we are sealed to the day of redemption.³⁵⁷

This infallible assurance doth not so belong to the essence of faith, but that a true believer may wait long, and conflict with many difficulties before he be partaker of it:³⁵⁸ yet, being enabled by the Spirit to know the things which are freely given him of God, he may without extraordinary revelation, in the right use of ordinary means, attain thereunto.³⁵⁹ And therefore it is the duty of everyone to give all diligence to make his calling and election sure;³⁶⁰ 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:³⁶¹ so far is it from inclining men to looseness.³⁶²

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; by some sudden or vehement temptation, by God's withdrawing the light of His countenance, and suffering even such as fear Him to walk in darkness and to have no light:³⁶³ yet are they never so utterly destitute of that seed of God, and life of faith, that love of Christ and the brethren, that sincerity of heart, and conscience of duty, out of which, by the operation of the Spirit, this assurance may, in due time, be revived;³⁶⁴ and by the which, in the mean time, they are supported from utter despair.³⁶⁵