“…If any persons have contributed a mite to their own salvation, it was more than we could do. If any were obedient and faithful to the first calls and impressions of his Spirit, it was not our case. If any were prepared to receive him beforehand, we know that we were in a state of alienation from him. We needed sovereign irresistible grace to save us, or we had been lost forever. If there are any who have a power of their own, we confess ourselves poorer than they are.
We cannot watch, unless he watches with us; we cannot strive unless he strives with us; we cannot stand one moment unless he holds us up; and we believe we must perish after all unless his faithfulness is engaged to keep us. But this we trust he will do; not for our righteousness, but for his own name’s sake, and because having loved us with an everlasting love, he has been pleased in loving kindness to draw us to himself, and to be found of us, when we sought him not. - John Newton
The Doctrines of Election and Final Perseverance – Excerpts from a letter by John Newton
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