Genuine Assuarance

Thomas Brooks,
"The Crown and Glory of Christianity,or, HOLINESS, the Only Way to Happiness", 1662

Genuine holiness will yield you a heaven hereafter; but genuine assurance will yield you a heaven here. He who has holiness and knows it, shall have two heavens

--a heaven of joy, comfort, peace, contentment, and assurance here--and a heaven of happiness andblessedness hereafter.


Genuine assurance will be a spring of joy and comfortin you. It will make heavy afflictions light, long afflictions short, and bitter afflictions sweet. It will make you frequent, fervent, constant, and abundant in the work of the Lord. It will strengthen your faith, raise your hope, inflame your love, increase your patience, and brighten your zeal. It will make every mercy sweet, every duty sweet, every ordinance sweet,and every providence sweet. It will rid you of all your sinful fears and cares. It will give you ease under every burden,
and make death more desirable than life. It will make you more strong to resist temptation, more victorious over opposition, and more silent in every difficult condition.


Genuine assurance will turn . . .
  every winter night into a summer's day,
  every cross into a crown, and
  every wilderness into a paradise.

Genuine assurance will be . . .
  a sword to defend you,
  a staff to support you,
  a cordial to strengthen you,
  a medicine to heal you, and
  a star to lead you.


Well, remember this--next to a man's being saved, it is the greatest mercy in this world--to know that he is saved.