“Augustus Toplady quotes the following case from the diary of one who afterwards preached Christ, Mr. Thomas Cole. Listen to his interesting statement:
I was convinced I could be saved no other way than by grace, if I could but find grace enough. But at that time I saw more in my own sin than in God’s mercy.
But this put me on a further inquiry after the grace of God, because my life lay upon it: and then I was brought to the Gospel.
When, however, I came to the Gospel, I met with the law in it; that is, I was for turning the Gospel into law.
I began to settle myself upon Gospel-duties, such as repentance, humiliation, believing, praying; and (I know not how) I forgot the promise of grace which first brought me to the Gospel.
Soon, I found I could neither believe nor pray as the Gospel required. While I was in this plunge, it pleased the Lord to direct me to study the Person of Christ, whom I looked on as the great undertaker in the work of man’s salvation!
And truly here I may say, as Paul did, ‘It pleased God to reveal His Son in me.’
God overcame my heart with this. I saw so much mercy in His mercy, so much love in His love, so much grace in His grace, that I knew not what to liken it to. And here my heart broke, I knew not how!
Before this faith came, I knew not how to secure myself against past, present, and future sins: but there was that largeness of grace, that all-sufficiency of mercy, that infinity of righteousness, discovered to me in Christ, that I found sufficient for all the days of my life.”
–Thomas Cole, quoted by Augustus Toplady in Andrew Bonar, The Person of Christ: Finding Assurance by Walking With Jesus (Ross-shire, Scotland, UK: Christian Heritage, 2023), 7-8.
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