A03617:120
The unbelievers preparing for Christ. By T.HThe vnbeleevers preparing for Christ. By T.H
The unbelievers preparing for Christ. By T.H.The vnbeleevers preparing for Christ. By T.H.
London: printed by Tho Cotes for Andrew Crooke, 1638
Title page typeset from the transcription.
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.
God will give them a heart, that is, God will give them wills and hearts disposed to that which is good.
The second passage to be opened is this, namely, what is meant by a stony, what by a fleshy heart; First what is meant by a stony heart; a heart is said to be stony by way of resemblance, because it is of the nature of a stone, look what the nature of a stone is, such is the nature of a heart compared thereunto, a stony heart, that is, an unsensible and an uncapable heart; a stone that is insensible, it receiveth no impression, set a seal upon a stone and press it down never so hard, & you may break the stone in pieces, but it will receive no impression, it will take no print; but now set a seal upon wax, and that will receive any impression that a man stamps upon it, so it is with a stony, stout, sturdy heart, though God knock it in pieces it will not be humbled, it will receive no impression, but resists and ⟨p. 130⟩beats back the means of grace and salvation offered and revealed unto it, if the Lord set a stamp of humiliation upon it that will not be humbled, it will receive no stamp but makes it fly back and bound upward: so that a stony heart is a hard sturdy heart capable of no impression.
The second passage to be opened is this, namely, what is meant by a stony, what by a fleshie heart; First what is meant by a stony heart; a heart is said to be stonie by way of resemblance, because it is of the nature of a stone, looke what the nature of a stone is, such is the nature of a heart compared thereunto, a stony heart, that is, an unsensible and an uncapable heart; a stone that is insensible, it receiveth no impression, set a seale upon a stone and presse it downe never so hard, & you may break the stone in peeces, but it will receive no impression, it wil take no print; but now set a seale upon waxe, and that will receive any impression that a man stampes upon it, so it is with a stony, stout, sturdy heart, though God knocke it in peeces it will not be humbled, it will receive no impression, but resists and ⟨p. 130⟩