A30243:240
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 1 › Sermon 10
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.
And the first is Rom. 8. 16. The Spirit it self beareth witness with our spirit, that 1we are the sons of God. In which words we may observe the Author of the testimony, the manner, and the object of it. The Author is said to be The Spirit it self, where the Apostle makes it no Presumption or Arrogance for the people of God, to call God Father, because they are encouraged and emboldened hereunto by the Spirit of God. It is not a delusion from the Devil, but an Assurance from Gods Spirit. In the next place there is the Manner of the Testimony, it is a conjoined Testimony, not a single Witness; Therefore it is said [Greek or Hebrew], it witnesseth with. It is true, Grotius takes the word, though compounded, for a simple, [Greek or Hebrew] for [Greek or Hebrew], alleging two places for a parallel, 1 Cor. 2. 17. 1 Cor. 2. 2. where the Apostle speaketh of the Conscience bearing witness, but these Texts are not cogent, for the conscience in testifying doth witness with another, which is God, and therefore it is called [Greek or Hebrew], so that the witness of the conscience is not a single Testimony. It being therefore to be understood of a Joint-witness, the Question is, What is the other partner that is joined with Gods Spirit in this action? Some understand the spirit of a man not to be the cowitnesser, but the subject only receiving the Testimony, and they render it thus, The Spirit beareth witness to our spirit, not with our spirit, and then, some make the joint-witness to be Christ, that as vers. 10. the Apostle had affirmed, Christ dwelleth in us, then his Spirit, and that the Spirit made us to cry Abba Father; so here, the Spirit, with Christ, and the Father also supposed, as if it were the same with that 1 John 5. 7. There are three that bear witness in heaven. But others refer it to that Voice caused in us by Gods Spirit, and that is to be understood of the gift of Regeneration. Thus Chrysostom, The Spirit of God, by or in that gift, which he bestoweth on us; and in this sense it will be all one whether we translate it, to or with our spirit. So then the meaning is, The Spirit of God beareth witness unto us, with those gifts and graces that are the fruit of the same Spirit.
And the first is