A94157:180
The door of salvation opened by the key of regeneration
The door of salvation opened by the key of regeneration: or A treatise containing the nature, necessity, marks and means of regeneration; as also the duty of the regenerate. / By George Swinnocke, M.A. and pastor of Rickmersworth in Hertfordshire.
London: printed by John Best for Tho. Parkhurst, 1661
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.
Thou mayest imitate the actions of a gracious man, yet be without grace; as the Ape imitateth the actions of reasonable men, yet is without reason; or as a Tragedian acteth the part of a passionate man, but is all the while without passion. Some men have wrought hard at duties, when a naturally enlightened Conscience, not God, hath been the Master to set them on work they would, but cannot neglect duties at so cheap a rate as others, as he said, Sollicitor nullos esse putare deos. I could find in my heart to think there were no God, but could not: As they say of the Wolf in the body, if you feed not it, it will feed on you: so if Conscience, when its mouth is opened, should not be fed with duty, it would feed on them, and therefore to keep it from gnawing them they stop its mouth with performances, though they never do them from a renewed Principle. Do not therefore Reader hang the weight of thy soul upon such weak wires, since men do so ordinarily take the way of duties no otherwise then Amaziah did the way of the garden-house, 2 Kings 9.27. merely for necessity (to escape an enemy that followed him) wherein he was at length pursued and slain.
Thou mayest imitate the actions of a gracious man, yet be without grace; as the Ape imitateth the actions of reasonable men, yet is without reason; or as a Tragedian acteth the part of a passionate man, but is all the while without passion. Some men have wrought hard at duties, when a naturally inlightened Conscience, not God, hath been the Master to set them on work they would, but cannot neglect duties at so cheap a rate as others, as he said, Sollicitor nullos esse putare deos. I could find in my heart to think there were no God, but could not: As they say of the Wolf in the body, if you feed not it, it will feed on you: so if Conscience, when its mouth is opened, should not be fed with duty, it would feed on them, and therefore to keep it from gnawing them they stop its mouth with performances, though they never do them from a renewed Principle. Do not therefore Reader hang the weight of thy soul upon such weak wyers, since men do so ordinarily take the way of duties no otherwise then Amaziah did the way of the garden-house, 2 Kings 9.27. meerly for necessity (to escape an enemy that followed him) wherein he was at length pursued and slain.