A26682:98
An Alarm to Unconverted Sinners
An alarm to unconverted sinners, in a serious treatise ... whereunto are annexed Divers practical cases of conscience judiciously resolved / by Joseph Alleine, late preacher of the Gospel at Taunton in Somerset-shire.An alarme to unconverted sinners, in a serious treatise ... whereunto are annexed Divers practical cases of conscience judiciously resolved / by Joseph Alleine, late preacher of the Gospel at Taunton in Somerset-shire.
London: printed by E.T. and R.H., 1672
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.
I answer, 1. That there is an infallible connection between regeneration and salvation, as we have already showed, and itch to be farther evidencing, but that 'tis against designed brevity. 2. Then men must be again born again, which carries a great deal of absurdity in its very face. And why may not men be twice born in nature, as well as in grace? Why not ⟨p. 12⟩as great an absurdity to be twice regenerated as to be twice generated? But 3. and above all, This grants however the thing I contend for, that what ever men do, or pretend to receive in baptism, if they be •ound afterwards to be grossly ignorant or profane, or formal, without the power of godliness, they must be born again, or else be shut out of the Kingdom of God. So then, they must have more to plead for themselves, than their baptismal regeneration.
I answer, 1. That there is an infallible connexion between regeneration and salvation, as we have already shewed, and itch to be farther evidencing, but that 'tis against designed brevity. 2. Then men must be again born again, which carries a great deal of absurdity in its very face. And why may not men be twice born in nature, as well as in grace? Why not ⟨p. 12⟩as great an absurdity to be twice regenerated as to be twice generated? But 3. and above all, This grants however the thing I contend for, that what ever men do, or pretend to receive in baptism, if they be •ound afterwards to be grosly ignorant or prophane, or formal, without the power of godliness, they must be born again, or else be shut out of the Kingdom of God. So then, they must have more to plead for themselves, than their baptismal regeneration.
Well, in this you see all are agreed, that be it more or less that is received in baptism, if (when men come to years) they are evidently unsanctified, they must be renewed again by a through and powerful change, or else they cannot escape the damnation of hell. Friends and Brethren be not deceived, God is not mocked;