§ 3. 1. That the Change is of grand importance unto Man appeareth in that it is the Renovation of his Mind, and Will, and Life: It repaireth his depraved faculties: ⟨p. 48⟩It causeth Man to live as Man, who is degenerated to a life too like to Brutes: By God's permitting many to live in Blindness, Wickedness, and Confusion, and to be tormentors of themselves and one another, by Temptations, Injuries, Wars, and Cruelty, we the fuller see what it is that Grace doth save men from, and what a difference it maketh in the World. Those that have lived unholily in their youth, do easily find the difference in themselves when they are renewed: But to them that have been piously inclined from their Childhood, it is harder to discern the difference, unless they mark the Case of others. If Man be worth any thing, it is for the use that his Faculties were made: And if he be not good for the Knowledge, Love and Service of his Creator, what is he good for? And certainly the generality of ungodly Worldlings: are undisposed to all such works as this, till the Spirit of Christ effectually change them. Men are Slaves to sin till Christ thus make them free, Joh. 8. 32, 33, 36. Rom. 6. 18. Act. 26. 18. Rom. 8. 2. But where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is Liberty, 2 Cor. 3. 17. If the Divine Nature and Image, and the Love of God shed abroad on the Heart, be not our Excellency, Health, and Beauty, what is? And that which is Born of the Flesh, is Flesh, but that which is born of the Spirit is, Spirit, Joh. 3. 6. Without Christ and his Spirit, we can do nothing: Our dead Notions and Reason when we see the Truth, have not power to overcome Temptations, nor to raise up Man's Soul to its Original and End, nor to possess us with the love and joyful hopes of future Blessedness. It were better for us to have no Souls, than that those Souls should be void of the Spirit of God.
§ 3. 1. That the Change is of grand importance unto Man appeareth in that it is the Renovation of his Mind, and Will, and Life: It repaireth his depraved faculties: ⟨p. 48⟩It causeth Man to live as Man, who is degenerated to a life too like to Bruits: By God's permitting many to live in Blindness, Wickedness, and Confusion, and to be tormentors of themselves and one another, by Temptations, Injuries, Wars, and Cruelty, we the fullier see what it is that Grace doth save men from, and what a difference it maketh in the World. Those that have lived unholily in their youth, do easily find the difference in themselves when they are renewed: But to them that have been piously inclined from their Childhood, it is harder to discern the difference, unless they mark the Case of others. If Man be worth any thing, it is for the use that his Faculties were made: And if he be not good for the Knowledg, Love and Service of his Creator, what is he good for? And certainly the generality of ungodly Worldlings: are undisposed to all such works as this, till the Spirit of Christ effectually change them. Men are Slaves to sin till Christ thus make them free, Joh. 8. 32, 33, 36. Rom. 6. 18. Act. 26. 18. Rom. 8. 2. But where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is Liberty, 2 Cor. 3. 17. If the Divine Nature and Image, and the Love of God shed abroad on the Heart, be not our Excellency, Health, and Beauty, what is? And that which is Born of the Flesh, is Flesh, but that which is born of the Spirit is, Spirit, Joh. 3. 6. Without Christ and his Spirit, we can do nothing: Our dead Notions and Reason when we see the Truth, have not power to overcome Temptations, nor to raise up Man's Soul to its Original and End, nor to possess us with the love and joyful hopes of future Blessedness. It were better for us to have no Souls, than that those Souls should be void of the Spirit of God.
