A30243:786
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 3 › Sermon 29
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, He compareth this Faith with that of the Devils, and showeth the Devils go further then such loose Christians; they believe a God and tremble, but so do not many dissolute believers: how Devils believe, and whether an hypocrites faith goeth further then theirs, are noble Questions, but not at this time to be discussed?
Secondly, He compareth this Faith with that of the Devils, and sheweth the Devils go further then such loose Christians; they believe a God and tremble, but so do not many dissolute believers: how Devils believe, and whether an hypocrites faith goeth further then theirs, are noble Questions, but not at this time to be discussed?
Thirdly, He proveth the insufficiency of such a Faith from Abraham's faith, the pattern of all: Abraham's faith that justified him, was a working faith, it made him offer up his only Son, when God commanded him. That very place which Paul brings to prove Abraham was justified by faith, James brings to prove, that this faith was not alone, but working eminently.
Thirdly, He proveth the insufficiency of such a Faith from Abrahams faith, the pattern of all: Abrahams faith that justified him, was a working faith, it made him offer up his onely Sonne, when God commanded him. That very place which Paul brings to prove Abraham was justified by faith, James brings to prove, that this faith was not alone, but working eminently.
Lastly, In my Text, The Apostle argueth à simile, from a similitude, as the Body without the Spirit is dead, so is Faith without Works. By Spirit, some understand breath, and so they think, that as without breath the body is discovered to be dead, so without holy works faith is declared to be dead; and this they do, lest it should be thought, that as the soul is the form of the body, so a godly life should be the form of faith: Whereas indeed by other places, Faith is the form or efficient rather of holiness; and therefore Faith is much rather to be compared to the soul, for it's that which animateth all our actions, and makes them acceptable to God. But we may retain the word Spirit, understanding it of the Soul, for the Apostle doth not consider a man here ad intra, in respect of God and Justification, but ad extra, in respect of others, and the declaration of his Justification. And so the sense, as the body is known to be dead, if we perceive no vital or animal actions flowing from the soul, we perceive it not breathe, stir, or move; so is a mans faith dead, if we see it not demonstrated by effectual operations in the way of grace. Thus as it was in Christ, his Divine Nature, which was hidden, became manifest by those miraculous operations he wrought, that none else could do; so faith is latent in a man, and breaks out in the discovery of it self by an holy life; and in this sense Faith is said to be made perfect by works, viz. declaratively, and by manifestation.