The covenant of life opened, or, A treatise of the covenant of grace

14. There is a sinful dullness upon the heart, by which men are as weaned children, line upon line, line upon line, ¹can do them no good, Isai. 29.9, 10, 11. Here it is to be observed that we cannot Preach Omnipotency, nor persuade a world to be created, nor a new heart to be infused, nor can we Preach to a Wolf to become a meek Lamb, nor threaten the Sun to rise at midnight, we but ⟨p. 150⟩speak words about the new birth, the husband-man but breaks the earth with his plough, but God makes the corn to grow, and he only,² not that the word is not the instrument of conversion of souls, Rom. 1.16. Rom. 10.14. but how to the act of infusion of a new heart the word concurs as a moral and suasory instrument,³ is above my capacity.⁴

14. There is a sinfull dulnesse upon the heart, by which men are as weaned childen, line upon line, line upon line, ¹can do them no good, Isai. 29.9, 10, 11. Here it is to be observed that we cannot Preach Omnipotency, nor perswade a world to be created, nor a new heart to be infused, nor can we Preach to a Wolf to become a meek Lamb, nor threaten the Sun to rise at midnight, we but ⟨p. 150⟩speak words about the new birth, the husband-man but breaks the earth with his plough, but God makes the corn to grow, and he only,²