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.

Title: 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.

Author: Burgess, Anthony, d. 1664.

Collection: Early English Books Online

Table of contents | Add to bookbag

thy spirit, even then thy thoughts of kindeness were to me: Oh think on these things! what, is there nothing but your children, your husbands, your wives, your temporal mercies to be delighted in? Yes, that grace of God calling thee should possess thy whole man.Thirdly, The persons whom God calleth: They afford many considerati∣ons; As 3. The persons God calls. I, The meanest.First, They are the meanest in outward condition: If you read the Evangelists, you shall finde, that the greatest part of persons called, were of no pomp, no noise or fame in the world: Though the material Temple was built of precious stone, and excellent wood, and adorned with gold, whereby it was the magni∣ficentest wonder in the world; yet there is no such beauty in the spiritual Temple of God, in his Church and children: This hath always been objected against the ways of Christ. Julian objected it, the Papists objected it against our Martyrs, that suffered by their cruel violence: Now God hath delighted to take such a way, not onely in heavenly things, but even in the Government of the world, he hath many times shewed such remarkable passages: Joseph a con∣temptible prisoner, hath his irons taken off, and he is admitted to the greatest honor in the Land: Moses, from what contemptible originals, did he arise to be the chief Governor of the people; and thus David also! So that as God to make himself glorious in the outward Government of the world, hath advanced men of no degree; thus he makes heirs to the incorruptible crown of glory, men accounted as dung and off-scouring of the world: Take heed then, that as the Pharisees looked for a glorious Messias, and that was their stumbling block; so thou also look for the great, and rich, and mighty men of the world, to be as they are, to live as they do, and that prove thy spiritual undoing: Oh the wisdom and goodness of God! how unsearchable his ways? those who have scarce cloathes to cover their nakedness, shall have the crown of glory, and the robes of immortality upon them; those who have scarce a cottage to live in, shall be set on thrones of glory; those who are despised and contemned by men, are highly prised by God, and loved by Angels: This honor have all the Saints.Secondly, Consider also, That the persons called, are many times the worst of men, great and hainous sinners: As they are the meanest for their external con∣dition, II. The worst. so the worst for their Moralities, that all the world may be convinced, and say, It was not such a mans goodness, his ingenuity, his honest endeavors, his willing desires, but God spake unto him, while wallowing in hit blood, To live. The Pharisees, who gloried in an external strictness, and knew no further then an outward godliness, did upon this consideration, labor to defame Christ and his Doctrine, that he kept company with publicans and sinners; as the Israelites murmured that Moses married a Blackamoor, and as the contempti∣ble and vilest of men followed David; so it was a great stumbling block, that Christ called great sinners to repentance, that he rejected the Pharisees, the seeming glory of the world. Our Saviour in many places he discovers, that prophane and open sinners, did sooner obtain the kingdom of heaven, then those civil, moral men; and if you diligently eye Gods way, you shall finde it still true, That the rich he sendeth empty away, and the hungry he fills with good things; that none are further from being effectually called, then such who say, They are full, rich, and want nothing; their own righteousness, their own goodness, their own self-sufficiency, is that which beareth up their hearts; and being thus whole in their own apprehensions, they seek out for no physitian: Oh its worthy of our serious consideration, to take notice of how many thousands are forsaken and passed over by God, who are perswaded all is well with them. Despairing men are but few to presuming men, they are like the sands upon the sea shore; go from one man to another, and you shall finde them all content∣ed in themselves; there are no groans for Christ, there are no pantings for a 0