"God breaketh not all men's hearts alike" (Richard Baxter). Some conversions, as [Thomas] Goodwin said, are sudden; the preparation is done in a moment. Some are long-drawn-out affairs; years may pass before the seeker finds Christ and peace, as in Bunyan's case....No rule can be given as to how long, or how intensely, God will flay each sinner with the lash of conviction. Thus the work of effectual calling proceeds as fast, or as slow, as God wills.
The Puritan minister viewed his part in the process of conversion as that of a midwife, whose task was to see what was happening and give appropriate help at each stage. They also realized they could not foretell, let alone fix, how rapid the process of birth would be. Since God convinced, convicted, and converted a sinner through His Word, the Puritan preacher saw as his task in evangelism the declaration of God's mind as revealed in the passage they expounded, the showing of the lost the way to salvation, and the exhortation of the unbelievers to learn the law, to meditate on God's Word, and to humble themselves before God by praying that God would show them their sins and give them the grace necessary to enable them to come to Christ.
--J.I. Packer, "Puritan Evangelism"
