I must tell you, my fellow sinners, when you conceive religion to be some great difficulty above your power, when you say you cannot repent, you cannot believe, that you do not think of Christ as you ought, but of yourself, as if you were the fountain from whence these good things should flow. I will tell you, in the Lord’s name, that to believe imports no more than to take Christ for all; it is to think you have nothing, and can do nothing, but that He hath all, and can do all, and therefore you will take Him for all.
You say you cannot believe. Well said; but what think ye of Christ? If you think to bring faith out of your own bowels [selves], you think unworthily of Christ, who is the author of faith, and of His Father, “who is” the giver of it.
You think you cannot repent. True, but what think ye of Christ? If you think to bring repentance out of yourselves, you think unworthily of Him, who is exalted by the right hand of God to give repentance.
You think you cannot do this or that duty you are called to. “But what think ye of Christ?” Nay, ye think unworthily of Him, who hath said, “Without Me ye can do nothing, but by Me strengthening you ye can do all things.”
And if you be once brought to this believing thought, “In the Lord I have righteousness, in the Lord I have strength, in the Lord I have salvation, in the Lord I have all,” then you will find your work easy, and all going right.
— Ralph Erskine
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