A30243:2944
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 12 › Sermon 117
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 third general head is, From those places where the people of God have plainly 1declared their assurance: That therefore which the children of God have attained unto, must needs be possible, and we ought to imitate them in. Hezekiah is without question in this point, 2 Kings 20. 3. Remember how I have walked before thee in truth, and with a perfect heart: He doth not speak this arrogantly, but humbly, making use of his sincerity, as a testimony to confirm him in his prayer to God. Now Hezekiah could not make use of such an Argument as this, had he not been assured, that he was not deceived in what he uttered to God: And thus David is often in his Psalms, professing his love to God with his whole heart, and the uprightness of his heart, which had been a vain brag, and sinful ostentation, if he had not known it had been so. In the New Testament Paul is often speaking of his assurance and confidence; and lest it might be thought he had this by immediate revelation, he speaks as in the person of all believers, The spirit witnesseth with our spirit, Rom. 8. and so John, We know that we know, 1 John 2. He doth not make this a peculiar privilege vouchsafed to some favourites, but such a mercy as all Believers are capable of. So when our Saviour asked some, If they did believe with their whole heart; it had been a vain question, to which no man could have returned any answer, if they could not be certain whether they did believe or no; and that man, who said, Lord I believe, help my unbelief: He showed the certainty he had of his faith in the first place, as the weakness of it in the latter.
The third general head is, From those places where the people of God have plainly 1declared their assurance: That therefore which the children of God have attained unto, must needs be possible, and we ought to immitate them in. Hezekiah is without question in this point, 2 Kings 20. 3. Remember how I have walked before thee in truth, and with a perfect heart: He doth not speak this arrogantly, but humbly, making use of his sincerity, as a testimony to confirm him in his prayer to God. Now Hezekiah could not make use of such an Argument as this, had he not been assured, that he was not deceived in what he uttered to God: And thus David is often in his Psalms, professing his love to God with his whole heart, and the uprightness of his heart, which had been a vain brag, and sinful ostentation, if he had not known it had been so. In the New Testament Paul is often speaking of his assurance and confidence; and lest it might be thought he had this by immediate revelation, he speaks as in the person of all believers, The spirit witnesseth with our spirit,