A94157:206
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.
Copies are no further valid and authentic, then they agree with the Original: neither is conscience any farther to be trusted, then it accords with the word of truth: it is an under-Officer, and therefore if it wave its Commission, and use its power against its Prince, it is to be informed not obeyed. The Law natural must be hearkened to, so far as it agreeth with the Law moral. It is the greatest idolatry in the world, saith Reverend Mr. Rutherford, to make thy self the idol, and as bad a Papacy as that at Rome, to make a Pope of thy own conscience. The light of Scripture is infallible, but not so the light of nature; yet how ordinary is it for men in our days (like the men of Shechem, Judg. 9.46.49.) to fly for shelter to this hold of the idol Berith, and to think themselves safe, if they can say the light within them (they might more truly say, the Prince of darkness) moveth them to deny all ordinances, to call Christians Devils, and limbs of Antichrist, ⟨p. 95⟩to set up a Christ within them, in opposition to that righteousness which he wrought without them: but as that hold was fired over the Sechemites heads, and they perished in it: so these men and their consciences, if the Lord do not turn them, shall burn together.
Copies are no further valid and authentick, then they agree with the Original: neither is conscience any farther to be trusted, then it accords with the word of truth: it is an under-Officer, and therefore if it wave its Commission, and use its power against its Prince, it is to be informed not obeyed. The Law natural must be hearkened to, so far as it agreeth with the Law moral. It is the greatest idolatry in the world, saith Reverend Mr. Rutherford, to make thy self the idol, and as bad a Papacy as that at Rome, to make a Pope of thy own conscience. The light of Scripture is infallible, but not so the light of nature; yet how ordinary is it for men in our dayes (like the men of Sechem, Judg. 9.46.49.) to flie for shelter to this hold of the idol Berith, and to think themselves safe, if they can say the light within them (they might more truly say, the Prince of darkness) moveth them to deny all ordinances, to call Christians Devils, and limbs of Antichrist, ⟨p. 95⟩