" O sad! O miserable! who would slight convictions that are on
their souls, which tend so much for their good?
In the creation of man, God began with his outside; but in the work
of regeneration, he first begins within, at the heart.
Whoever receive the grace that is tendered in the gospel, they must
be quickened by the power of God, their eyes must be opened, their
understandings illuminated, their ears unstopped, their hearts
circumcised, their wills also rectified, and the Son of God revealed
in them.
XI. CONVERSION.
THE DIFFICULTY OF CONVERSION.
CONVERSION to God is not so easy and so smooth a thing, as some
would have men believe it is. Why is man's heart compared to fallow
ground, God's word to a plough, and his ministers to ploughmen, if
the heart indeed has no need of breaking in order to the receiving
of the seed of God unto eternal life? Why is the conversion of the
the soul compared to the grafting of a tree, if that be done without
cutting?
CONVERSION THE POWER OF GOD.
A broken heart is the handy-work of God, a sacrifice of his own
preparing, a material fitted for himself. By breaking the heart he
opens it, and makes it a receptacle for the graces of his Spirit;
that is the cabinet, when unlocked, where God lays up the jewels of
the gospel: there he puts his fear: "I will put my fear in their
heart;" there he writes his law: "I will write my law in their
heart;" there he puts his Spirit: "I will put my Spirit within you.
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