“In all the Scriptures, therefore, there is not one hard word against a poor sinner, stripped of all self-righteousness, and who casts himself for life, light, and peace, on the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe then but Christ’s willingness, my dear reader, and Christ will ‘make you willing.’

If you cannot of yourself believe, remember that Christ is ‘the author of faith.’ If you feel no sense of pardon, remember that Christ ‘gives remission of sins,’ and secures the favour of the Father. If you do not feel as sorry for your sins as you should, forget not that Christ ‘giveth repentance also.’

Do you feel weak? ‘He giveth power to the faint.’ Do you feel your faith feeble? ‘He increaseth strength.’ Are you full of infirmities? ‘He is not an high-priest who cannot be touched with them, but one who was in all points tried as we are,’ that he might be able to feel towards us as brethren. Does your faith tremble and vacillate, like the reed shaken by the wind, or the taper dying in the socket? ‘He will not break the bruised reed nor quench the divinely burning taper,’ but will sustain and supply them. He ‘works in the heart to will and to do.’ ‘By grace, then,’ O sinner, ‘thou art saved, through faith and that not of yourself, it is the gift of God.’” — Thomas Smyth, Union to Christ, and to His Church in Complete Works 6:42