N00526:61
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.
In truth, while a man is Unregenerate, he can do nothing in Faith, and so nothing but Sin, in all that he does; it may be said of him, That every Imagination of the thoughts of his heart is only evil continually; it may be said of him, He is Reprobate unto every Good Work: to miscarry in every thing, is tho' Voluntary yet Necessary, with him; and it becomes us to make our bitter moans accordingly. When God commands us to become Regenerate, Own that you are justly Damned, if you do it not; and yet sadly mourn before the Lord, O I am Dead, in Trespasses and Sins; Complain, Lord, my obstinate will cannot be ••ee to a Spiritual Good, until Thou make ⟨p. 43⟩it free! Declare, Lord, I cannot come unto the Son of God, except the Father draw me! Look upon Regeneration, as an efficacious, & supernatural operation of God, wherein he does not only lay Moral Persuasions before men, but also infuse a new Frame into the Will, and Spiritually Heal, Quicken, and Reform, the formerly Rebellious Wills, of that Select number which he did from all eternity set apart for the Sheep of the Lord Jesus Christ- Say, that you are far from a capacity of Regenerating yourselves, yea, that you cannot so far Dispose and Prepare yourselves for, your own Regeneration, that God should be obliged by your well•improving of his Common-Grace, to work it in you; Say, Tis not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. Tis an Article Asserted by the Church of England, (the Tenth of the famous Thirty Nine) The Condition of man, is such after the Fall, that he cannot turn, nor prepare himself by his own natural strength, to Faith, and calling upon God; wherefore we have no power to do good works pleasant and acceptable to God, without the Grace of God preventing us, that we may have a good Will, and working with us, wh•• we have that good Will. And it is an Article that calls for the hearty Assent and Consent of all that by Regeneration come into the Sheep fold of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
In truth, while a man is Unregenerate, he can do nothing in Faith, and so nothing but Sin, in all that he does; it may be said of him, That every Imagination of the thoughts of his heart is only evil continually; it may be said of him, He is Reprobate unto every Good Work: to miscarry in every thing, is tho' Voluntary yet Necessary, with him; and it becomes us to make our bitter moans accordingly. When God commands us to become Regenerate, Own that you are justly Damned, if you do it not; and yet sadly mourn before the Lord, O I am Dead, in Trespasses and Sins; Complain, Lord, my obstinate will cannot be ee to a Spiritual Good, until Thou make