A30243:259
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.
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 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 kinde of knowledge as it is most easie, so we are prone to, and the Spirit of God guideth us in this way, as being most sutable to our natures.
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Thirdly, Although a man may doubt of some Signs, yet it doth not follow he will 1doubt of all, because his temptation may be stronger about one Sign then another, and one Sign may be more easily perceived then another; And so a godly man may argue from that which is less known, to the other that is more known; even as in the matter of the Canon of the Scripture, some have doubted whether such books were Canonical or no, because the Arguments of Divine Authority were more irradiant in the other then in them, yet from those Books concerning the Authority of which they were not tempted, they were at last induced to believe the Authority of those that were controverted. In this manner it may be about the signs of grace. It is more difficult to find some of them in our selves then others, yet we are to proceed from those that are more facile, to those that are more difficult.