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Is it always sudden and traumatic? We have known those who having misspent their younger times in notoriously lewd and debauched courses, who after long and deep humiliation, have been raised up, through God’s mercy, to an comfortable sense of the divine favour; and have proceeded to a very high degree of regeneration, and lived and died saints. But this is not every man’s cause….Those, who, having from their infancy been brought in the nurture and fear of the Lord, and from their youth have been trained up under a godly and conscionable ministry, and have, by an insensible conveyance, received the gracious inoperations of the Spirit of God, framing them to a holy obedience; these cannot expect to find so sensible alterations in themselves. As well may the child know when he was naturally born, as these know the instant of their spiritual regeneration. Joseph Hall He that is locked up in a dungeon…. may easily discover the very moment of time when either the least beam of the sun shall break in upon him: whereas he that is in the open air is very sensible that the day is broke, that the sun is up, but cannot make out any certain account of the springing of the one or rising of the other. Thus it is in the matter of our spiritual calling. John Boys Whether sincere conversion began now, or before, or after, I was never able to this day to know…. God breaketh not all men’s hearts alike. Richard Baxter The wind bloweth where it listeth, even so the Spirit, both time and place uncertain…. so that, if a man can but make out unto his soul that he is certainly called, t matters not much for the time when nor the place where, both of them being so uncertain. John Boys Can a man be converted and not know it? Can Christ be in thy heart, and thou not know it? Can one king be dethroned and another crowned in thy soul, and thou hear not scuffle? William Gurnall Biblical Examples of conversions
Luke 1:46,47 - There is never a mention that salvation produces any reaction at all in the flesh. The action of being saved takes place in the heart, then there is a reaction in the flesh. Elizabeth said her spirit hath (past tense) rejoiced in God my Saviour, and her soul doth (present tense) magnify the Lord. In the days of Finney - he dealt with emotions and getting people to "feel" the spirit instead of recognizing salvation for what it was. He claimed to have fathered a great spiritual awakening in America, but look at the result of his "revival". Methodists in the beginning were called Methodists because of the new method they used to stir people up in religion. Look at the result of that kind of preaching today. Hard-shells, on the other hand do not believe in any emotion at all in salvation - they believe they are saved in eternity, so no repentance is necessary. Repentance is a change of mind - concerning our condition before an Almighty God. It is not sorrow, but a change of mind about sin, and we condemn ourselves because we truly see ourselves before a just God, who will not look on sin, therefore will not look on us. |