A94157:248
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.
Further, all the commands of God must be heartily embraced, some whereof are as contrary to flesh and blood as fire to water; Self, which is thy great idol, must be denied; the world with all its pomp and pride, in comparison of Christ refused; principalities and powers rencountered and foiled, thine enemies loved (and if killed, it must be with kindness) godliness owned, though much disgraced by others, truth followed close, though it threaten to dash out thy teeth with its heels, a buffeted Christ with his naked Cross preferred before weighty Crowns; things which reason cannot comprehend, believed; and which none ever obtained, laboured for. Friend, are these easy things? what thinkest thou? add to all this the consideration not only of thy weakness and inability to do these things, but also thy wickedness and contrariety to them; thou art not only deprived of good, but all over depraved with evil; The imaginations and thoughts of thy heart are evil, only evil, and that continually, Gen. 6.5. Thou dost resolvedly and obstinately refuse good and choose evil, Eccles. 8.11. Jer. 44.16. The hearts of the sons of men are fully set in them to ⟨p. 116⟩do evil, Eccles. 8.11. observe how full that text is, man is resolved to have his minion, his lust, though he have wrath and death and hell into the bargain; as the mother of Nero, being told that her son would be her death if ever he were Emperor, answered, Let him kill me, so he may reign; so they say, Let sin reign, though it kill us, though it damn us; The heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. If thou wert only empty of God and grace, the work were more easy; but thou art an enemy to grace and godliness; thy carnal mind (which is Lady Reason her self, thy highest natural excellency) is (not an enemy, for such an one may be reconciled, but in the abstract) emnity against God. Thou hatest God, Rom. 1.30. His people, 1 John 3.12. His precepts,