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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.
For the first of these:1 No sooner doth a Christian begin to draw the breath of this new life, but he finds himself called to fighting even in the very cradle (as I may so speak, and as they fabled of that renowned heathen man). He stands in a pitched field of enemies, so soon as he can go upon the feet of his soul; and there he must never cease giving and taking blows, till he cease to be in this lower world. Although indeed there be some intermission, and relaxation of the strength and fury of the encounter, as it pleaseth the Lord (that knows all things) to temper them to his strength, and direct them to his good.2 First the devil begins to play his part with him; and finding him gained out of his hands, and pulled from under his tyranny, musters up an army of tentations, wherewith at least to annoy him; if he cannot (as he cannot) prevail to bring him back again to his servitude and thraldom. For when the strong man armed kept his house, all things were at quiet under him: but when he feels himself bound, and cast out, and his house rifled by a stronger then himself, then it must needs follow, that he will bestir himself, and lay about him with all the power that he can make. So now the poor Christian (though perhaps but an infant in grace) is violently assailed by Satan, (according to his nature) with extreme rage and subtlety. And if it have so fallen out, that the Spirit of God was fain to batter down the height of his heart, and make passage for himself, with horrible fears and terrors; then Satan labours often to revive those terrors, and by infinite cavils and objections, to make him even despair of ⟨p. 42⟩his salvation. There is none end almost of the devils striving in this case, but he will labour continually with new doubts and objections, to call his salvation into question; and to make him think, that he shall never enjoy the quiet possession of his heavenly inheritance. Yet against all these, the Spirit of God so strengthens him, that by virtue of the gracious promises of God, and by the power of constant prayers and supplications, he supports himself, and still continues to rest himself upon the free goodness of God in Christ, notwithstanding all these objections and shakings.
For the first of these: