Analogy of Physical and Spiritual Birth

and followers of Jesus Christ, there is nothing strange in this; it would be very easy to endure; it would be worth much more than the applause and the highest esteem of those who deny the Lord who bought them. And, woe to the Christian who—because he seeks honor among men and wishes to align himself closely with the so highly-praised "thinking heads" A contemporary term for the intellectual elite or rationalists of the Enlightenment. and "Enlighteners" original: "Aufklärer"; refers to the proponents of the Enlightenment who often prioritized reason over traditional faith. of the human race—contradicts his own heart. This is a heart which, perhaps, was formerly not far from the love of Christ, which desired the blessedness of that love, and had some foretaste of what is prepared for the true Christian. Woe to him who allows himself to be shaken, since he must surely find "how much every deviation from what he has recognized as truth robs him of all strength, how restless it makes his heart, and leaves him with nothing of his former Christianity but—the regret over the loss of it, which truly [bitterly]..."