A15003:114
The new birthThe nevv birth
The new birth: or, A treatise of regeneration delivered in certain sermons; and now published by William Whately, preacher and minister of Banbury in Oxfordshire.The nevv birth: or, A treatise of regeneration delivered in certaine sermons; and now published by William Whately, preacher and minisiter of Banbury in Oxfordshire.
London: printed by Felix Kingston for Thomas Man, 1618
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.
Who can tell whether ever he will come so near thee again, if at this time thine entertainment of him be no better, then to shut up the doors of thine heart, and tell him the rooms are otherwise filled, there is no place for him as yet? But now I say with proviso, that you will now begin without further deferring; I will show you the way of life, and tell you that, which if you will be pleased to do, (and it shall be no such hard matter nor impossible, but that your own souls shall confess there is nothing to hinder you from doing it, but your own unwillingness, or carelessness, or both) if, I say, you will be pleased to do, I testify unto you in the name of the Lord, that you shall be regenerate; and that from the time you begin to do them, you begin to be regenerate. Now these things are in number three, (as I said before) neither impossible for you to do,1 nor yet difficult; there lacks but a willing mind, and they be easily done; only understand of them, that you must not satisfy your selves with having done them once, but must do them continually; because they are means of increasing holiness, as well as attaining it. The first is,2 so to nourish your apprehension of your own misery in not being regenerated, and your earnest desire of being regenerated, for the escaping of this misery, that it may break forth into requests and petitions unto God, for his spirit of regeneration. Go thou and muse thus with thy self; Alas, I see most evidently, that as yet I am but a son of old Adam! there is no thorough change of mine heart, nor of my ⟨p. 105⟩life, from sin to holiness; I am as I was borne, and have not been altered by a new birth: and therefore I am in no possibility of being saved. This night, if God should (as how know I, but he may this night) take away my soul from me, O I perish; for out of heaven, the blessed Saviour of mankind hath excluded me; for thither he tells us evidently, that none must enter that are not borne again; and O miserable man, I that am not yet capable of eternal life, and that stand in such terms with God to this day, that he cannot both keep his own truth, and save my soul! What shall I do? what course shall I take? O could I once obtain regeneration, then I were safe, then I were sure; then if death should come immediately, I need not fear it;