Section 4. God's Method in Calling Sinners

4. The Method God uses in calling of sinners. The Lord does not tie himself to a way, or use the same order with all; he comes

1. Sometimes in the still voice. Such as have had godly parents, and have sat under the warm Sunshine of religious education, know not many times how or when they were called; the Lord did secretly and gradually instill grace into their hearts, as the dew falls insensibly in drops; they know by the heavenly effects, that they are called, but the time or manner they know not. The finger moves on the dial, but we are not sensible when it moves. Thus God deals with some.

2. Others are more stubborn and knotty sinners, and God comes to them in a rough wind; he uses more wedges of the Law to break their hearts; he deeply humbles them, and shows them they are damned without Christ; then, having plowed up the fallow ground of their hearts by humiliation, he sows the seeds of consolation; he presents Christ and mercy to them, and draws their wills, not only to accept Christ, but passionately to desire, and fiducially to rest upon him. Thus he worked upon Paul, and called him from a persecutor to a preacher. This call, though it is more visible than the other, yet not more real. A Fontanel may be made in the body as well by corrosive as incision. God's Method in calling sinners may vary, but the effect is still the same.