As the doctrines of election and perseverance are comfortable, so they
\ncut off all pretense of boasting and self-dependence, when they are
\ntruly received in the heart, and therefore tend to exalt the Saviour. \u2026
\nHow do our hearts soften, and our eyes melt, when we feel some liberty
\nin thinking and speaking of him! For we had no help in time past, nor
\ncan have any in time to come, but from him alone. If any persons have
\ncontributed a mite to their own salvation, it was more than we could do.
\nIf any were obedient and faithful to the first calls and impressions of
\nthe Spirit, it was not our case. If any were prepared to receive him
\nbeforehand, we know that we were in a state of alienation from him. We
\nneeded sovereign irresistible grace to save us, or we had been lost
\nforever. If there are any who have a power of their own, we must confess
\nourselves poorer than they are. We cannot watch, unless he watches us;
\nwe cannot strive, unless he strives with us; we cannot stand for one
\nmoment, unless he holds us up; and we believe we must perish after all,
\nunless his faithfulness is engaged to keep us. But this we trust he will
\ndo, not for our righteousness, but for his own name\u2019s sake, and because
\nhaving loved us with an everlasting love, he has been pleased in loving
\nkindness to draw us to himself, and to be found of us when we sought him
\nnot.<\/p>\n
John Newton<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As the doctrines of election and perseverance are comfortable, so they cut off all pretense of boasting and self-dependence, when they are truly received in the heart, and therefore tend to exalt the Saviour. \u2026 How do our hearts soften, and our eyes melt, when we feel some liberty in thinking and speaking of him! […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[78,72,68,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-author-john-newton","category-christ-and-his-church","category-christ-his-person-and-excellencies","category-total-depravity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3562"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3562\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3564,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3562\/revisions\/3564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}