The Doctrine of the Saints' Perseverance

[Greek or Hebrew] Hom. [Greek or Hebrew]. through a woody Country; [Greek or Hebrew], Resurrection, doth not import again, after another rising before, but a restoration from a lost state; so is [Greek or Hebrew] used Math: 19. 28. to be regenerate, is to have a new, and another generation, not any one repeated; In the place mentioned of John by M. Goodwin, there is mention neither of a repetition of a former generation, nor directly of a new one: Though it be so, it is not there called so; our Saviour at first says, [Greek or Hebrew], unless a man be borne from above: as the word is elsewhere rendered, and properly signifies, as John 3. 31. %John 19. 11. %Mark. 15. 38. %James 3. 17. and sometimes of old or former days, as Acts 26. 5. once only, it signifies again, Gal: 4. 9. but there joined with [Greek or Hebrew], which restrains it. And in the exposition afterwards of what he intended by that Expression, he calls it simply a being borne of the water & the spirit, v. 5. without the least intimation of the repetition of any birth; but only the asserting of a new spiritual one; called a birth indeed, with allusion to the birth Natural, which is the road opinion, well beaten ever since Christ first trod that path. Besides, the very same thing which is expressed under the name of Regeneration, being a spiritual birth, which a man had not before, is also delivered unto us in such words, and terms, as manifest no reiteration of any state, condition, or thing to be included therein; as Conversion to God, a Quickening from death, Sanctification by the spirit, &c. all which manifest the induction of a new Life and form, and not the Repetition of another; hence the ancients called Baptism, Regeneration; being the initial ordinance of Christianity, and expressive of the new life, which in, and through Christ, we receive; and that from Tit. 3. 5. Regeneration then neither in the import of the word, nor in the nature of the thing, doth require a reiteration of any generation, but only the addition of a new one, to that which a man hath before; and whereunto this doth allude. The receiving of a new spiritual Birth and Life, is our Regeneration, Renovation, Resurrection, Quickening, implanting into Christ, and the like: so that the foundation of all the ensuing discourse, is a mere quagmire, where no firm footing can be obtained;