What is the nature and agency of the moral revolution usually called effectual calling or regeneration?
This change must be more than an outer reformation of conduct; it is an inward revolution of first principles which regulate conduct. It must go deeper than a change of purpose as to sin and godliness; it must be a reversal of the original dispositions which hitherto prompted the soul to choose sin and reject godliness. Nothing less grounds a true conversion. As the gluttonous child maybe persuaded by the selfish fear of pain and death to forego the dainties he loves, and to swallow the nauseous drugs which his palate loathes, so the ungodly man may be induced by his self-righteousness and selfish fear of hell to forbear the sins he still loves and submit to the religious duties which his secret soul still detests. But as the one practice is no real cure of the vice of gluttony in the child, so the other is no real conversion to godliness in the sinner. The child must not only forsake, but really dislike his unhealthy dainties; not only submit to swallow, but really love, the medicines
