A30243:258
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.
Now to this we answer these things: First, That the Scripture giveth many 1Signs and Symptoms of grace; So that if a man cannot find all, yet if he discover some, yea, if but one, he may assuredly gather all the rest are there, for the whole harmony and connection of grace is compared to the image of God, which doth consist of all its due lineaments; so that it is hard if a Christian doubt of all, so that he can find nothing of Gods Spirit in him.
Now to this we answer these things: First, That the Scripture giveth many 1Signs and Symptomes of grace; So that if a man cannot finde all, yet if he discover some, yea, if but one, he may assuredly gather all the rest are there, for the whole harmony and connexion of grace is compared to the image of God, which doth consist of all its due lineaments; so that it is hard if a Christian doubt of all, so that he can finde nothing of Gods Spirit in him.
- 1Ans. 1.
Secondly, There is a two-fold Knowledge, one Distinct and Demonstrative, which 1is à priori, from the cause to the effect, and that is, when we know the principles and root of grace within us, and so proceed to the effects of it. The other is more General, and that is from the effect to the cause, and this is a knowledge à posteriori, we proceed from the streams to the fountain, and this kind of knowledge as it is most easy, so we are prone to, and the Spirit of God guideth us in this way, as being most suitable to our natures.
Secondly, There is a two-fold Knowledge, one Distinct and Demonstrative, which 1