Conversion and Assurance
Conversion and Assurance
If conversion was the task of the preacher, God himself was at work in the world chastising men and women through war, sickness, and other hardships to drive them from self‐centredness and unto him. Conscience also had its role to play, not as an independent entity, but as an internalization of the teaching of the Bible. This chapter relates the conversion stories of three different women who wrestle with the darkness of sin. Puritanism might call people to a sense of assurance of salvation but it also cautioned against ‘security,’ which might actually be a sense of false confidence, and so it encouraged an internal agitation that might drive some people toward suicide. Divines did, however, offer some signs of election, notably good works and love of true piety, by which the psychological distress might be quietened.
Keywords: conscience, election, good works, security
Oxford Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us .
