God Must Work Conversion in Man
The scripture…sets out man to be blind, hard, dead, obstinate, and averse from God. Certainly man contributes little to his own conversion…If scripture had only said that man had accustomed himself to sin, and was not born in sin; if it had said that man is very prone, and not greedy and thirsty in iniquity; if it had only said that man did often think evil, but not continually; if scripture had said that man was somewhat obstinate, but not a stone…that he had been indifferent to God…and not a professed enemy; that man had been weak and not dead…then there might have been something in man; and the work of conversion and reducing to God had not been so great. But the scripture saith the quite contrary, that man is all this and much more, therefore this clears it up, that his conversion is not in himself, but it is God must work this good work upon him, or else he can never be renewed.
– Thomas Manton, ‘The Works of Thomas Manton’