A30243:434
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 2 › Sermon 17
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.
It is true, the godly dispute, Whether a godly man be made partaker of the graces of Gods Spirit only, or besides these of the Spirit it self? The learned differ herein, but certainly these expressions do infer, That the godly do not only receive the graces of Gods Spirit, but the Spirit also it self, only how to explain this, seemeth to me very difficult, if not impossible.
It is true, the godly dispute, Whether a godly man be made partaker of the graces of Gods Spirit only, or besides these of the Spirit it self? The learned differ herein, but certainly these expressions do inferre, That the godly do not only receive the graces of Gods Spirit, but the Spirit also it self, only how to explain this, seemeth to me very difficult, if not impossible.
Secondly, As the Spirit of God doth thus dwell in his children, and thereby they 1have an habitual, supernatural, spiritual being, so is the same Spirit acting, leading and moving of them unto those things that are holy. Hence the godly are said to be led by the Spirit, Rom. 8. Gal. 5. which doth not denote the first enlivening of us; in which sense the poet said, Mens agitat molem, but a powerful continual inclination of our hearts unto those things that are spiritual; and this denoteth that even in the progress of Sanctification, we need a continual help and influence from Gods Spirit, according to that of Augustine, Et agis & ageris, & tunc benè agis, si à bono agaris, and when we obey these conducts of Gods Spirit, We are said to walk in the Spirit. Thus Gal. 5. 24. Living in the Spirit, and walking in the Spirit, are distinguished as the cause and the effect; we therefore walk in the Spirit, because we live in it, and the Greek word [Greek or Hebrew] doth import a careful, orderly, methodical walking; A spiritual walking is a methodical walking; so then, as original sin by the Scripture is described to be in us, not as a sluggish idle quality, but as always working, as a fountain always streaming, insomuch that though it be not peccatum actual, yet it is actuosum; Thus the Spirit of God doth powerfully send forth virtue and strength unto those in whom he