A30243:1569
Spiritual refining
Spiritual refining: or A treatise of grace and assurance Wherein are handled, the doctrine of assurance. The use of signs in self-examination. How true graces may be distinguished from counterfeit. Several true signs of grace, and many false ones. The nature of grace under divers Scripture notions or titles, as regeneration, the new-creature, the heart of flesh, vocation, sanctification, &c. Many chief questions (occasionally) controverted between the orthodox and the Arminians. As also many cases of conscience. Tending to comfort and confirm saints. Undeceive and convert sinners. Being CXX sermons preached and now published by Anthony Burgess sometime fellow of Emanuel College in Cambridge, and now pastor of the church of Sutton-Coldfield in Warwickshire.Spiritual refining: or A treatise of grace and assurance Wherein are handled, the doctrine of assurance. The use of signs in self-examination. How true graces may be distinguished from counterfeit. Several true signs of grace, and many false ones. The nature of grace under divers Scripture notions or titles, as regeneration, the new-creature, the heart of flesh, vocation, sanctification, &c. Many chief questions (occasionally) controverted between the orthodox and the Arminians. As also many cases of conscience. Tending to comfort and confirm saints. Undeceive and convert sinners. Being CXX sermons preached and now published by Anthony Burgess sometime fellow of Emanuel Colledge in Cambridge, and now pastor of the church of Sutton-Coldfield in Warwickshire.
London: printed by A. Miller for Thomas Underhill, 1652
Title page typeset from the transcription.
A TREATISE OF GRACE and ASSURANCE; Being CXX. SERMONS. › Section 8 › Sermon 59
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Sixthly, Therefore they delude themselves in this weighty business, because they understand 1not the nature of faith and trusting in God. Come unto the vilest of men, when deaths stroke is upon them, when the fear of that surrounds them, even then though full of their sins, yet will say, They trust in Christ Jesus, they believe in him. But oh thou ignorant man; what is it to believe, and to trust in him? Is it not out of the sense of the bitterness of sin, and a deliberate forsaking of it, obedientially resigning up our selves to Christs commands, and therewith relying on Christ the Mediator, is not this to believe? Doth not the same faith, which with one hand receiveth Christ, with another purify the soul, and carry it out to all the fruits of righteousness: presumption indeed that is easy; to lay hold upon Christ for pardon, with an hand full of wickedness this is ordinary: but to trust in him according to Scripture direction, and that order which God hath inviolably prescribed men, that is rare. Faith therefore is the gift of God, and it is wrought by his Spirit in us; we can no more close with Christ, in a true Scripture-manner, as a Saviour, or the Promises revealed by God, than we can join with him as a Law-giver, or obey his Precepts. If therefore thou understoodst the Nature of trusting in God, and what it is to believe, thou wouldst not so easily persuade thy self thou dost trust in him, when thy Conscience tells thee of thy manifold sins. Hence the godly have found it so difficult to believe: they have been almost over-whelmed with doubts and fears; though Christ hath held out the Sceptre of grace to them, yet they have even fainted through fear and shame, when they came into his presence. How frequently doth David call upon his soul, to trust in God, and w•it on him? Psal. 42. 5. Whereas this carnal presumption finds no opposition at all. Consider of all these grounds which do so often delude thee, and they may do thee infinite good.
Sixtly, Therefore they delude themselves in this weighty businesse, because they understand 1not the nature of faith and trusting in God. Come unto the vilest of men, when deaths stroak is upon them, when the fear of that surrounds them, even then though full of their sinnes, yet will say, They trust in Christ Jesus, they believe in him. But oh thou ignorant man; what is it to believe, and to trust in him? Is it not out of the sense of the bitterness of sin, and a deliberate forsaking of it, obedientially resigning up our selves to Christs commands, and therewith relying on Christ the Mediator, is not this to believe? Doth not the same faith, which with one hand receiveth Christ, with another purifie the soul, and carry it out to all the fruits of righteousness: presumption indeed that is easie; to lay hold upon Christ for pardon, with an hand ful of wickedness this is ordinary: but to trust in him according to Scripture direction, and that order which God hath inviolably prescribed men, that is rare. Faith therefore is the gift of God, and it is wrought by his Spirit in us; we can no more close with Christ, in a true Scripture-manner, as a Saviour, or the Promises revealed by God, than we can joyn with him as a Law-giver, or obey his Precepts. If therefore thou understoodst the Nature of trusting in God, and what it is to believe, thou wouldst not so easily perswade thy self thou dost trust in him, when thy Conscience tells thee of thy manifold sinnes. Hence the godly have found it so difficult to believe: they have been almost over-whelmed with doubts and fears; though Christ hath held out the Scepter of grace to them, yet they have even fainted through fear and shame, when they came into his presence. How frequently doth David call upon his soul, to trust in God, and wit on him?