Review: Faith Seeking Assurance by Anthony Burgess

Oct 24

Faith Seeking Assurance by Anthony Burgess

Life: Burgess was one of the Westminster Assembly Divines, which is where he is best known for his theological astuteness and piety. He was an extremely skilled scholar and was very well acquainted with philosophers, Church Fathers, and other theologians. Burgess is less known than some of his peers such as John Owen because his works were not republished in the 19th century like so many puritans did. Despite this, his works are well were reading and his name well worth knowing.

General info about author: Burgess was (as one biographer said of him) a “pious, learned, and able scholar, a good disputant, tutor, an eminent preacher, a sound and orthodox divine.”

This book is built from a selection of sermons that Burgess preached (p. X). As such, they are packed full of Scripture references as has been the case in every book in this series (p. X-xi).

There is a small amount of biographical information in the preface by the editor (Joel Beeke).

He builds heavily on the Church Fathers including Augustine, Chrysostom, and several others, which offers helpful insight throughout the whole book.

The book begins with challenging the reader to check their heart (p. 2-3), and throughout the whole book continues to do so (p. 94).

This is a very challenging, convicting, and moving read. This book is going to be added to my list of “recommendations to everyone”. Why is this? There are two reasons: I want to use quotes from Burgess to support them. But I am leaving out so much!

Burgess offers us a wonderful understanding of knowledge which I think is so important for us today (p. 18, 19, 20, 21).

He also provides an extremely biblical understanding of assurance and challenges us to look within to ensure that we are truly saved (p. 5, 42, 94, 172, 177, 186)

You can Purchase this book here: https://amzn.to/48F77YO

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