A treasurie or store-house of similies both pleasaunt, delightfull, and profitable, for all estates of men in generall. Newly collected into heades and common places: by Robert Cawdray.

Regeneration.

1 As there is need of no Lawe, to compell the bodie to eate or drinke, to digest, to sleepe, to goe, to stand, to fit, and to doo their workes of nature, for it is readie to doo them of it owne nature, when the case so requireth, and when it is meete, without all respect, either of re∣ward, or punishment; and may not vnfitly be said, as con∣cerning these things, not to be vnder a Law, notwithstan∣ding thereupon nothing lesse followeth, then that it doth therefore abstaine from such workes, vnto which in deed, it so much more applieth it selfe, as they are lesse com∣maunded,

and are more naturall vnto it: Euen so after the same sort, altogether dooth the godly man behaue himselfe, concerning the workes of godlinesse, he is car∣ried to the doing of them, by that his newe nature of the spirit, albeit there were no Law at all; and all, both hope of reward, and feare of punishment, were away. 1. Timo. 1.9. Reue. 6.14.

2 Like as if a man haue all his mind set vpon drinking and gulling in of Wine and strong drinke, hauing little delight nor pleasure in any thing else; it argues a carnall mind, and vnregenerate, because it effectes the things of the flesh; and so of the rest: Euen so on the contrarie, hee that hath his mind affected with a desire to doo the wil of God, in practising the workes of charitie and Religion, he I say, hath a spirituall and a renewed heart, and is Rege∣nerate by the holy Ghost. Rom. 8.14. Gal. 5.17.

3 As God in the beginning created vs after his owne Image: So also must hee Regenerate vs according to the same, which he doth by the holy Ghost, the third person in Trinitie, one and the same euerlasting God, together with the Father and the Sonne. Iohn. 3.5. Math. 16.17. Ioh. 8.36. & 15.5.

4 As a liuing body, although naturally it bee the sub∣iect of sense, yet some one part of it may bee benummed and senselesse: So the soule of one Regenerate, hath in it, at least the beginnings and seeds of all graces, howsoeuer some of them at sometimes doo not worke or appeare: Whereas a carnall man is altogether destitute, yea vnca∣pable of them.

5 Euen as we know that the trees haue heate and life in their rootes, in the middest of the coldest and sharpest winter; yea as many beastes lie all the winter long in holes of the earth, without eating, drinking, stirring, or hauing

any iotte of heate, sense or life, in any of their outward parts; and yet there is a remnant of life, and of heate lur∣king in the heart, which being in Summer stirred vp, doth reuiue the beast, so that it is able to goe or runne vp and downe, and to performe all naturall actions, in the man∣ner as it did before: So likewise a totall decrease, or an vt∣ter decay of holinesse, as whereby nothing is left, cannot happen to any one who is truely Regenerate, who in the greatest extremitie and depth of his fal, retaineth some re∣liques of Gods spirit and of grace receiued; yea some life of faith, whereby he liueth to God in Christ; howsoeuer he be to the eyes of all men, and euen in his owne consci∣ence a dead rotten stocke.

6 Euen as a man being sodenly taken with the plague, or any infectious sicknesse, sayeth, he knoweth not how it happeneth, onely hee seeth the effects of it: Euen so the action of Regeneration, in it selfe is secret and vnknown, but manifest in the effects which follow of it.