Scripture, the conversion of the apostle Paul, and of the Corinthians
application of redemption mainly consists, and how unlikely are such to be successful in their endeavors after actual salvation!
Turnbull's explanation of Phil. 2:12, 13, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his own good pleasure," is this (Christian Philosophy, p. 96, 97), "Give all diligence to work out your salvation, for it is God, the Creator of all things, who, by giving you, of his good pleasure, the power of willing and doing, with a sense of right and wrong, and reason to guide and direct you, has visibly made it your end so to do. Your frame shows that to prepare yourselves for great moral happiness, arising from a well cultivated and improved mind, suitably placed, is your end appointed to you by your Creator. Consider, therefore, that by neglecting this your duty, this your interest, you contemn and oppose the good will of God towards you, and his design in creating you."
4. If we look through all the examples we have of conversion in Scripture, the conversion of the apostle Paul, and of the Corinthians ("Such were some of you, but ye are washed," etc.) and all others that the apostles write to, how far were they from this gradual way of conversion, by contracted habits, and by such culture as Turnbull speaks of! Turnbull, in his Christian Philosophy, p. 470, seems to think that the sudden conversions that were in the apostles' days, were instances of their miraculous power, as in these words, "They appealed to the works they wrought, to the samples they gave of their power to foretell future events; their power to cure instantaneously all diseases of the body; their power to cure, in the same extraordinary manner, all diseases of the mind, or to convert bad