The new birthThe nevv birth

Not (I say) alone of his death in hell, in regard of his deserving the torments thereof, but of his death in sins and trespasses, of his utter inability to do any good thing, of his utter emptiness of all heavenly graces; ⟨p. 28⟩of his extreme slavery to ungodliness, and unrighteousness, and all the lusts of the flesh; and of his perpetual and vehement proneness to all abomination and wickedness. There is often (I confess) a work, and a very terrible work, of the Law & the natural conscience together, procuring most extreme and hideously-bitter pangs, and hellish agonies in the soul of man; where the spirit of regeneration neither is, nor ever shall be: this being alone a fruit of the spirit of bondage, not of the spirit of grace. And oftentimes again, the spirit of sanctification comes into the soul, together with this spirit of bondage, making a violent entry, and by main force breaking open the heart; formerly locked and barred against it; and so beginning this saving work of holiness. But terrors of conscience, which may be in all unregenerate men, (because they are already in all the damned, into whom no part nor piece of regeneration can enter) is far different from this first degree of the work of a new birth. The sanctifying spirit, lays the filthiness, not alone the danger of sin, before the eyes of the mind. It causeth a man, not alone to be in extreme anguish, because he fears he must be damned: but even to loathe and abhor himself, and to be very vile in his own eyes, because he knows he hath deserved to be damned: and that so foul a thing as sin, (wherewith his Maker hath due cause to be so much displeased) doth not alone abide, but reign and command in him. Wherefore he doth even lie down at the foot of the throne of Gods justice, and in a most ardent abhorring of himself, doth subscribe to the righteousness of God in his own feared destruction; having nothing in the world to say for himself (as of himself), why he should not be destroyed: ⟨p. 29⟩and not so much as a tittle of a word to object against the perfect and exact equity of the living God, if that he should destroy him. Sin, I say sin, not alone the punishment of sin, but sin it self, is discovered unto him: he sees its loathsomeness and vileness; he sees its strength and violence; he sees his own total defilement;

Not (I say) alone of his death in hell, in regard of his deseruing the torments thereof, but of his death in sinnes and trespasses, of his vtter inabilitie to do any good thing, of his vtter emptines of all heauenly graces;