It Is The Opener Of The Heart

[mr. Gifford] Made It Much His Business To Deliver The People Of God From All Those False And Unsound Rests That By Nature We Are Prone To Make And Take To Our Souls. He Pressed Us To Take Special Heed That We Took Not Up Any Truth Upon Trust - As From This Or That, Or Any Other Man Or Men - But To Cry Mightily To God That He Would Convince Us Of The Reality Thereof, And Set Us Down Therein By His Own Spirit In The Holy Word.

Faith Is A Fruit, Work, Or Gift Of The Spirit Of God, Whereby A Poor Soul Is Enabled Through The Mighty Operation Of God, In A Sense Of Its Sins And Wretched Estate To Lay Hold On The Righteousness, Blood, Death, Resurrection, Ascension, Intercession, And Coming Again Of The Son Of God Which Was Crucified Without The Gates Of Jerusalem, For Eternal Life.

Conversion Is Not The Smooth, Easy-going Process Some Men Seem To Think... It Is Wounding Work, This Breaking Of The Hearts, But Without Wounding There Is No Saving... Where There Is Grafting There Will Always Be A Cutting, The Graft Must Be Let In With A Wound; To Stick It Onto The Outside Or To Tie It On With A String Would Be Of No Use. Heart Must Be Set To Heart And Back To Back Or There Will Be No Sap From Root To Branch. And This, I Say, Must Be Done By A Wound, By A Cut.

It Gave Me No Pleasure To See People Drink In My Opinions If They Seemed Ignorant Of Jesus Christ And The Value Of Being Saved By Him. Sound Conviction For Sin, Especially The Sin Of Unbelief, And A Heart Set On Fire To Be Saved By Christ, With A Strong Yearning For A Truly Sanctified Soul-this Was What Delighted Me; Those Were The Souls I Considered Blessed.

I Saw, Moreover, That It Was Not My Good Frame Of Heart That Made My Righteousness Better, Nor My Bad Frame That Made My Righteousness Worse; For My Righteousness Was Jesus Christ Himself, The Same Yesterday And Today And Forever.