Let reason work fairly upon these plain data, and it will confirm all that the Scripture declares concerning the guilt and depravity of man, and of the method of his recovery by faith in the blood of Jesus. That fallen man needs a Saviour; that his salvation is a work too great for a creature to accomplish; that he cannot be saved without a proper atonement made for his sin; nor unless his mind be enlightened, and renewed, by the powerful agency of the Holy Spirit. These points, reason, though unable to discover, or fully to comprehend, can so far demonstrate, as to prove the impossibility of salvation upon any other grounds, if the scriptural representation of the character of God and the heart of man, be admitted as a true one.

John Newton