A30243:2234
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 10 › Sermon 87
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.
Secondly, A gracious fleshy heart doth readily bow and yield to God in all afflictions and chastisements for sin. The stubborn oak, that will sooner break then bow; ⟨p. 519⟩1but the tender with, that will move every way, as it is desired: and thus it is here, Men of stony hearts, unbroken hearts, if any ways afflicted or chastised for sin, how full of rage, discontent, fury, and all manner of vexation, fretting even at God himself and all his instruments! but the tender fleshy heart that presently accepts of the punishment of its sin, as God calls upon, Levit. 26. 41. It saith with the Church, I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him. It wholly studieth to clear and justify God, but to condemn and accuse it self: O then let the people of God in the midst of all the waves and tempests that rise in their soul, remember to allay all by this, that they are fleshy and not stone. That as God made it an argument to take off his afflicting hand, because it was frail weak flesh; Gen. 6. My spirit shall not always strive with man, because he is flesh: so he may also abate his anger, because thou art gracious and tender flesh. This is a precious symptom of grace, when thy soul afflicted, is like a box of precious ointment broken, or like sweet flowers pounced, many precious and fragrant graces discover themselves. As the fire doth discover the metals, whether good or bad; and tempests and winds, whether trees be well rooted or no; so do calamities, whether men be gracious or no; and in nothing doth thy grace more manifest it self then justifying God, and abhorring thy self. Have any frettings, any repinings made a commotion in thy heart? quiet all, and remember, the work of grace is to make a man yielding and readily submitting.
Secondly, A gracious fleshy heart doth readily bow and yield to God in all afflictions and chastisements for sin. The stubborn oak, that will sooner break then bow; ⟨p. 519⟩1but the tender withe, that will move every way, as it is desired: and thus it is here, Men of stony hearts, unbroken hearts, if any waies afflicted or chastised for sin, how full of rage, discontent, fury, and all manner of vexation, fretting even at God himself and all his instruments! but the tender fleshy heart that presently accepts of the punishment of its sin, as God calls upon,