N00526:47
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 2: The Second 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.
I. Without Regeneration a man cannot enjoy a GOSPEL-ESTATE in this world. It is true, an Unregenerate man may get into a Visible Church-state, which is called, The Kingdom of God. There are Black Tares in that field, there are a Bad […] in that Net, there are Foolish Virgins at that Feast; but still, they are not proper Enjoyers of the ⟨p. 28⟩Good in the State. There may be Traitors in the Kingdom, and Ishmaels and Judases in the Families, of the Church; but unto what purpose? It cannot be said of them, They have seen the Kingdom of God come with power, all this while. Unregenerate Soul, Hear thy Circumstances, and be Amazed!
I. Without Regeneration a man cannot enjoy a GOSPEL-ESTATE in this world. It is true, an Unregenerate man may get into a Visible Church-state, which is called, The Kingdome of God. There are Black Tares in that field, there are a Bad 〈…〉 in that Net, there are Foolish Virgins at that Feast; but still, they are not proper Enjoyers of the ⟨p. 28⟩Good in the State. There may be Traitors in the Kingdome, and Ishmaels and Judases in the Families, of the Church; but unto what purpose? It cannot be said of them, They have seen the Kingdome of God come with power, all this while. Unregenerate Soul, Hear thy Circumstances, and be Amazed!
First, Gospel Mysteries, cannot be Discerned by an Ungenerate Man. He is, Born Blind, and so he continues, till the New-birth has once Enlightened him. There are Thick scales upon the Eyes, which Regeneration has not opened. The Methods and Rewards used by God, in Governing of the Unseen World, are most of all Unseen by the Unregenerate: It is said, in 1 Cor. 2.14. The Natural man cannot know them, because they are Spiritually Discerned. Without Regeneration a man cannot come to understand, How man is to be Saved, or, How God is to be Served, or, How things depend upon one another, in the Great Mystery of Godliness. 'Tis with him, as in