N00526:16
Unum necessarium awakenings for the unregenerate. Or, The nature and necessity of regeneration. Handled…
Unum necessarium awakenings for the unregenerate. Or, The nature and necessity of regeneration. Handled in a discourse designed for the service of any that may be thereby assisted in the grand concern of conversion unto God; but especially the rising generation. : With an addition of some other sermons relating to that important subject. / By Cotton Mather. ; [Five lines from Ezekiel]
Boston printed: printed by B.H. i.e for Duncan Campbell, 1693
Title page typeset from the transcription.
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.
John III.3. Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a Man be Born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.
Behold a Saying, than which there can be •o•e mo•e Faithful, none more Worthy of Acceptation! 'Tis a Saying which fell from the […] of ••im that is the Faithful and the True •itness, and of […] •ho as He would be t•e Saviour, so will be the Disposer of your Immortal Souls for ever: He that spake so as never man spake, here utters a Saying which every man […] Hear; Man, Hear, that thy Soul may Live. 'Ti• a Saying thus occasioned. A Person of some Estate and Figure among the Jews, who, as if having some Interest among the Greeks also, was named Nicodemus (by his own people pronounced Nacdimon) gave a visit by Night unto our Lord Jesus Christ. Although his dread of a Disreputation, ⟨p. 3⟩and perhaps an Excommunication, among the Builders which refused, That […] Corner […], caused him to Address our […], By Night; yet in that Address, he Acknowledged, We know that thou art a Teacher come from God. Our Lord hereupon gi•es Hi• a Lesson worthy of such a Teacher; w•ich Lesson was the Sentence now before u•; and He does therein intimate that a New birth would have Enabled him to be sensible of our Lords being somewhat more than a mere Teacher, or Prophet arisen to the Church: indeed of His being no less than the Only Begotten Son of God. The Jews were not Ignorant, that the Messiah would con•er upon His People, A Kingdom which was to be for ever and ever: Not only Daniel, but even All the Prophets as it were with one mouth, had given them Assurance of it; and there were especially two very common Maxims about that Kingdom among them, whereto our Lord seems to refer in his Answer to Nicodemus, who probably from some Discourse in the Sanhedrin the Day before, might bring to our Lord some Enquiries thereupon. It was an Oracle among them, Paenitentia est ad Messiae Receptionem Necessaria; that is, we must Repent of our Sins, if we would Receive our Messiah. This does our Lord seem to Approve; and he bids us, by the New birth of Repentance to prepare our