To be Regenerate

To be regenerate, to be new-born,
We rise like the clear Sun in a fair morn,
After a dismal night of rain and winds;
For such are our tempestuous, wicked minds,
Full fraught with terrours, darkness and dismay,
While sin doth reign, and satan bears the sway.

To be regenerate, is to put on
The bright raiment of the Resurrection.
The hardest Lesson that was ever taught,
The greatest Miracle that e'er was wrought,
Was Paul's Conversion, and Mannasseh's Crimes
Forgiven (the hope and wonder of all times.)

To be regenerate, does put our God
Unto a double task; his Grace and Rod
Are both employ'd; for he must first subdue
The old man's crimes, ere he can frame a new.
It was Christ's highest business to convert
Our stubborn hearts, who labour to pervert
The benefit of his most precious Blood,
So freely shed, so little understood!