N00526:36
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.
AWAKENINGS FOR THE UNREGENERATE. › Proposition 1: The First PROPOSITION.
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.
III. Through' the gracious Principle Infused into the Regenerate man, the •o•t IMAGE of God is Restored in him. For this cause we are informed in Col. 3.10. The New Man is Renewed after the Image of Him which Created it. In this Lay the Primitive Happiness of man at his Creation; 'tis the Account, which, In the Head of Gods Book, is given of it, God Created Man in his own Image. But what was that Image •f God? Briefly, An Universal RECTITUDE in the Soul, was the chief Thing, wherein that Image lay. Hence we are now told, in Eph. 4.24. The new man after God, is Created in Righteousness and true Holiness. Alas, Man by Sin, has lost this glorious Image; yea, the Image of Satan, instead thereof hath possessed him, and polluted ⟨p. 18⟩him. As a man that is bitten by a Mad Dog, horribly Barks, and Howls, and Laps, just like the Creature which Envenomed him; so has the Infection conveyed unto us, by the Breath and Sting of our Tempter, The Great Red Old Dragon, fearfully assimilated us unto himself. But now Regeneration happily Recovers in us, the thus Impaired Image of God; by defacing the Impressions of Hell that had been made upon us. There is a marvellous Agreement now between God and Man; wherein though not the Essence, nor the Greatness of God, yet a Resemblance of His HOLINESS is in a blessed measure Communicated unto the man thus, Born again. It may be said of him, He is a man after Gods own Heart; he Likes, he Loves, he Lives after such a manner as to describe unto all serious Beholders, a little of that Holiness, which is Infinite in the Holy One of Israel. Hence, a Regenerate man studies a most exact Conformity to the Example of the Lord Jesus Christ, and Attains very much of what he studies. As a Renowned Minister could say, When I am to Preach a Sermon, I set my self to think, How would Jesus Christ Preach, were He to Handle my Subject! So a Regenerate man sometimes thinks, How did the Blessed Jesus do such a Duty? or, How did the blessed ⟨p. 19⟩Jesus bear such a Trial? and then he endeavours to go and do Likewise. A Regenerate man, is a CHRISTIAN in reality; that is, A Christ-like man; and it may be said of such ones, As thou art, so are they each one Resembling the Children of a King. What shall I say? The view of the Imitable Virtue and Carriage in our Lord Jesus, even Transforms the Regenerate man, till he be, Changed into the same Image from Glory to Glory.