“Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power,” Psal. cx. 5, i. e. free, ready, open hearted, giving themselves to thee as free-will offerings. When the bridegroom has the bride’s heart, it is a right marriage ; but some give their hand to Christ, who give him not their heart. They that are only driven to Christ by terror, will surely leave him again, when that terror is gone. Terror may break a heart of stone, but the pieces into which it is broken still continue to be stone ; the terrors cannot soften it into a heart of flesh. Yet terror may begin the work, which love crowns ; the strong wind, the earthquake, and the fire going before ; the still small voice, in which the Lord is, may come after them.
Thomas Boston, Human Nature in Its Fourfold State, 247.