Prima the first things, in reference to the middle and last things

Nor is this Doctrine without reason or ground.

For, Except by the second birth, man is first unholy, ¹and therefore most unfit to enter into Heaven: Without holiness no man shall see God, Heb. 12.14. And what is man before he is new born? if we look upon his soul, we may see it deformed with sin, defiled with lust, outraged with passions, overcarried with affections, pining with envy, burdened with gluttony, boiling with revenge, transported with rage, and thus is that Image of God transformed to the ugly shape of the Devil: Or should we take a more particular view, every faculty of the soul is full of iniquity; the understanding understands nothing of the things of God, 1 Cor. 2.14. the will wills nothing that is good, ²Rom. 6.20. the affections affect nothing of the Spirit, Gal. 5.17. In a word, the understanding is darkened, the will enthralled, the affections disordered, the memory defiled, the conscience benumbed, all the inner man is full of sin, and there is no part that is good, no not one. But what say we of the body? sure that is nothing better, ⟨p. 4⟩it is a rotten carrion, altogether unprofitable, and good for nothing; should we view it in every part and member of it? the head contrives mischief, the eyes behold vanity, the ears let in sin, the tongue sends out oaths: Come we lower, the heart lodgeth lusts, the hands commit murder, the feet run to evil, all the senses are but so many matches to give fire to lusts, deceits, envies, and what not? How needful now is a new birth to a man in this case? Can he enter into heaven, that savours all of earth? Will those precious gates of gold and pearls open to a sinner? No, he must first be new moulded, and sanctified, or he is excepted; Except a man be new born.