A30243:2293
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 11 › Sermon 90
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.
The grace promised in this Text hath been dispatched, viz. The putting of Gods Spirit in the converted. The next thing considerable is, The subject recipient; The subject wherein this grace is put, and that is briefly but very emphatically expressed, Within you. And indeed the English doth not rise up to the efficacy of the Hebrew, which is, in the midst, or the inward deep parts of you. Hence it's translated in intimo vestri: So that there is a great deal of weight lieth upon this Hebrew phrase, for it supposeth the work of grace to go deep into a man. Its an hearty rooted work, it excludeth all superficial, formal or notional, and mere brain-work in godliness: And its good to observe, how in parallel places this promise doth still relate to that intimate deep working of grace upon the heart, Ezek. 11. 19. there is the same promise repeated, with this Emphasis; so that you may see the excellency of this promise for conversion to God, in the repetition of it, as if the Prophet delighted to mention nothing but this. The Prophet Jeremiah also doth twice or thrice declare this grace here promised in the Text; and Chap. 31. 33. with this Emphatical description, I will put my law in their inward parts. Oh this is the main thing; All outward profession, all parts, all notions, all enlargements, if these be not accompanied with grace in the inward parts of a man, they are but a blaze: they are a tinkling cymbal. Such mens Religion is like Davids great men in the world, compared to grass upon the house top, with which the mower filleth not his hand.
THe grace promised in this Text hath been dispatched, viz. The putting of Gods Spirit in the converted. The next thing considerable is, The subject recipient; The subject wherein this grace is put, and that is briefly but very emphatically expressed, Within you. And indeed the English doth not rise up to the efficacy of the Hebrew, which is, in the midst, or the inward deep parts of you. Hence it's translated in intimo vestri: So that there is a great deal of weight lieth upon this Hebrew phrase, for it supposeth the work of grace to go deep into a man. Its an hearty rooted work, it excludeth all superficiall, formall or notionall, and meer brain-work in godlinesse: And its good to observe, how in parallel places this promise doth still relate to that intimate deep working of grace upon the heart, Ezek. 11. 19. there is the same promise repeated, with this Emphasis; so that you may see the excellency of this promise for conversion to God, in the repetition of it, as if the Prophet delighted to mention nothing but this. The Prophet Jeremiah also doth twice or thrice declare this grace here promised in the Text; and Chap. 31. 33. with this Emphaticall description, I will put my law in their inward parts. Oh this is the main thing; All outward profession, all parts, all notions, all inlargements, if these be not accompanied with grace in the inward parts of a man, they are but a blaze: they are a tinkling cymball. Such mens Religion is like Davids great men in the world, compared to grasse upon the house top, with which the mower filleth not his hand.