We Must Be Changed (5)

(5) Finally, whenever God calls and dignifies, he also qualifies. Princes cannot qualify those they raise, but God, whom he advances to glory, he fits and qualifies for glory. Where he bestows his mercies and favours to life everlasting, he calls to great things, and he also changes them. If Saul was changed when he came to be a king, shall we think that God will call any to the participation of his glorious mercy in Christ, in pardoning their sin and accepting them to life eternal, and yet not change them? No. Whoever he calls to glory, he changes and alters their dispositions to be fit for so glorious a condition as a Christian is called to.
Proud men do not like to hear this. It offends their former authority. 'What! I, who was accounted a wise man, now to be a fool. I, who was accounted so and so, must alter all my course and turn the stream another way? The world will say I am mad.' I say, because grace alters everything, ‘old things are passed away, and all things are become new' (2 Cor. 5:17). Those that are carnal and proud cannot endure a change because it is an affront to their reputation. But it must be so if they look for salvation.

Devotional Readings taken from Puritan Richard Sibbes 'Refreshment for the Soul.'
Glorious Freedom, p. 106 [116-17]
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