The new birthThe nevv birth

Thirdly, the tenor of the covenant of grace, wherein the salvation of lost mankind is promised.

Thirdly, the tenour of the couenant of grace, wherin the saluation of lost mankind is promised.

Fourthly, the fruit and end of Christs death and ⟨p. 7⟩obedience, whereby our salvation is deserved. For the first of these reasons. Man in his first birth,¹ (even every particular man, woman, and child, Christ Jesus alone excepted, who was therefore conceived by the holy Ghost, that he might escape that pollution) is conceived in sin, and borne in wickedness,² as David speaketh of himself. First, by imputation of the sin of our first parents, which is ours; because they did it in each of our steads, in whom, each of us was then originally comprehended; and then by transfusion (because we are branches of that bitter root), we are each of us become sons of disobedience, subjects to the God of this world, slaves to sin, captives under the dominion and power of lust, having our understandings darkened, and harts hardened: so that, we can neither conceive, nor receive the things of God; but are led of Satan, at his pleasure, to do his will, according as he doth effectually work in us. In a word, we are enemies to God, heirs of death, children of the devil, dead in sins and trespasses, doing the lusts of the flesh and of the mind, and by nature sons of wrath and destruction, one as well as another. A man in the state of corrupt nature, is nothing else but a filthy dunghill of all abominable vices: he is a stinking rotten carrion, become altogether unprofitable and good for nothing: his heart is the devils store-house, an heap of odious lusts; his tongue is a fountain of cursing and bitterness, and rotten communication; his hand is a mischievous instrument of filthiness, deceit, and violence; his eyes great thoroughfares of lust, pride, and vanity; his feet are swift engines, ⟨p. 8⟩