A94157:191
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.
Reader, do not thou (as some Tradesmen) live altogether on thy credit with others. The most cunning takers of money that are (though they take notice of every piece) are sometimes deceived, and take bad money (such as will never endure the touchstone) for good coin. What a poor comfort will it be to thee when thou art hungry, and naked, that others think and speak that thou art fed and clothed? he that trades highly, and lives wholly upon trust, seldom holds out long; look therefore not so much at others commendation, but at thy own Regeneration, for that is it alone which accompanieth Salvation. It is a favour that thou dost so walk as to have godly mens ⟨p. 85⟩good word, but for all that thou mayst be a stranger to this regenerating work, and then it is not the wind of their breaths that can blow thy soul co the haven of bliss.
Reader, do not thou (as some Tradesmen) live altogether on thy credit with others. The most cunning takers of money that are (though they take notice of every piece) are sometimes deceived, and take bad money (such as will never endure the touchstone) for good coin. What a poor comfort will it be to thee when thou art hungry, and naked, that others think and speak that thou art fed and cloathed? he that trades highly, and lives wholly upon trust, seldom holds out long; look therefore not so much at others commendation, but at thy own Regeneration, for that is it alone which accompanieth Salvation. It is a favour that thou dost so walk as to have godly mens ⟨p. 85⟩good word, but for all that thou mayst be a stranger to this regenerating work, and then it is not the wind of their breaths that can blow thy soul co the haven of bliss.
Seventhly, Thy confidence of thy own good estate, is no infallible evidence. The world, as they are mistaken in Repentance, taking it to be only a little sorrow for sin, though no aversion from it, or detestation of it, be joined with it; so they are also in the nature of Faith, esteeming it to consist in the strength of persuasion, and that who ever can be confident that Christ died for him, and that he shall go to heaven, doth believe unto salvation; whereas the difference between a deceiving and a saving Faith, doth not consist in the strength of persuasion, but in the ground of it.