eclare and assert, that
although there may be much darkness, and manifold doubts and fears,
seated in the same soul where true and saving faith is: and although
true believers may wait long before they know themselves to be
believers, and be assured that they are really in a state of grace; and
even, after they have arrived at a subjective assurance of their
salvation, may have it much shaken, clouded and intermitted; that yet
there is no doubting, no darkness, in the saving acts of a true and
lively faith: but in all the appropriating acts of saving faith, there
is an objective assurance, an assured confidence and trust in Jesus
Christ, and the promise of life in which he is revealed to the soul;
according to Isa. 1, 10; Mark ix, 24; 1 John v, 13; Psal. lxxvii, 1 to
11; Psal. lxxxviii, throughout; Gal. ii, 20; Mark xi, 24; Confess, chap.
18 throughout; Larg. Cat. ques. 72, 80, 81; Short. Cat. question 86.

XII. OF THE PERSEVERANCE OF THE SAINTS.--They further assert and
declare, that whosoever, of any of the children of men, in all ages,
have attained salvation, did believe in, and receive the Lord Jesus
Christ, the promised Messiah, and only Savior from sin, to whom all the
prophets bear witness, in whom all the promises and lines of salvation
do center; and particularly, that however much the faith of the
disciples and apostles of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in him, as
their only Redeemer, might be at any time overclouded, yet it was never
totally subverted; and that the noble grace of faith in the souls of
believers cannot be totally lost; but that such is the immutability of
God's decrees, and his unchangeable love; such the efficacy of their
Redeemer's merit, and constant abiding of the spirit of holiness in
them; and such the nature of the new covenant, that, notwithstanding of
various temptations and afflictions, the prevailing of remaining
corruption in them, they must all and every one of them, certainly and
infallibly persevere in a state of grace unto the end, and be at last
saved with an everlasting salvation; as appears from Heb. xi, 13; John
iv, 42; Phil. i, 6; John x, 28, 29; 1 Pet. ii, 9; Jer. xxxiv, 4;
Confess, chap. 8, Sec. 1, chap. 14, Sec. 2, and chap. 17 throughout.

XIII. OF LIBERTY OF CONSCIENCE.--They further assert and declare, that
the noble faculty of conscience, God's deputy in the soul of man, over
which he alone is absolute Lord and Sovereign, is not subjected unto the
authority of m