“Let us be thankful for the beginnings of grace, and wait upon our Saviour patiently for the increase. And as we have chosen Him for our physician, let us commit ourselves to His management, and not prescribe to Him what He shall prescribe for us.
He knows us and He loves us better than we do ourselves, and will do all things well.
You say, ‘It never came with power and life to my soul that He died for me.’ If you mean, you never had any extraordinary sudden manifestation, something like a vision or a voice from heaven, confirming it to you, I can say the same.
But I know He died for sinners; I know I am a sinner.
I know He invites them that are ready to perish; I am such a one.
I know, upon His own invitation, I have committed myself to Him.
And I know, by the effects, that He has been with me hitherto, otherwise I should have been an apostate long ago.
And therefore I know that He died for me; for had He been pleased to kill me (as He justly might have done), He would not have shewn me such things as these.
I know that I am a child, because He teaches me to say, ‘Abba, Father.’
I know that I am His, because He has enabled me to choose Him for mine. For such a choice and desire could never have taken place in my heart, if He had not placed it there Himself.
By nature I was too blind to know Him, too proud to trust Him, too obstinate to serve Him, too base-minded to love Him. The enmity I was filled with against His government, righteousness, and grace, was too strong to be subdued by any power but His own.
The love I bear Him is but a faint and feeble spark, but it is an emanation from Himself.
He kindled it, and He keeps it alive.
And because it is His work, I trust many waters shall not quench it.”
–John Newton, The Works of the John Newton, Volume 1 (London: Hamilton, Adams & Co., 1824), 643–644.
Wonderful stuff!