Forum

In the Introduction to the book's third part, Edwards asks the reader to keep three things in mind as he describes the distinguishing sings of truly gracious and holy affections (and here I'm relying on Sam Storms' excellent summaries of these points):

1. There will never be a time or system or standard of analysis of such issues that will yield infallible results. We will never be able to claim that we can, without error, discern who is a believer and who is not.
2. We should not expect to find biblical signs that will enable a backslidden person to reassure himself that he is in a good way with God. It is God's design that backslidden persons should have no assurance of their salvation.
3. We should not expect that the signs by which we hope to differentiate between true and false affections will ever prove sufficient to convince those who are hypocrites and who have been deceived about their salvation.

Keeping these things in mind, we'll turn in the following weeks to the twelve signs which will allow us to distinguish true religion from false religion.