Chapter 10 Of Effectual Calling

Previous Chapter
Table of Contents
Next Chapter
Paragraph 1. Those whom God hath predestinated unto life, He is pleased in His appointed, and accepted time, effectually to call,1 by His Word and Spirit, out of that state of sin and death in which they are by nature, to grace and salvation by Jesus Christ; 2 enlightening their minds spiritually and savingly to understand the things of God; 3 taking away their heart of stone, and giving to them a heart of flesh;4 renewing their wills, and by His almighty power determining them to that which is good, and effectually drawing them to Jesus Christ; 5 yet so as they come most freely, being made willing by His grace.6

[1] Rom. 8:30, 11:7; Eph. 1:10, 11; 2 Thess. 2:13, 14 [2] Eph. 2:1-6 [3] Acts 26:18; Eph. 1:17, 18 [4] Ezek. 36:26 [5] Deut. 30:6; Ezek. 36:27; Eph. 1:19 [6] Ps. 110:3; Song. 1:4

Paragraph 2. This effectual call is of God’s free and special grace alone, not from anything at all foreseen in man, nor from any power or agency in the creature co-working with His special grace,7 the creature being wholly passive therein, being dead in sins and trespasses, until being quickened and renewed by the Holy Spirit; 8 he is thereby enabled to answer this call, and to embrace the grace offered and conveyed in it, and that by no less power than that which raised up Christ from the dead.9

[7] 2 Tim. 1:9; Eph. 2:8 [8] 1 Cor. 2:14; Eph. 2:5; John 5:25 [9] Eph. 1:19, 20

Paragraph 3. Elect infants dying in infancy are regenerated and saved by Christ through the Spirit; 10 who works when, and where, and how He pleases; 11 so also are all elect persons, who are incapable of being outwardly called by the ministry of the Word.

[10] John 3:3, 5, 6 [11] John 3:8

Paragraph 4. Others not elected, although they may be called by the ministry of the Word, and may have some common operations of the Spirit,12 yet not being effectually drawn by the Father, they neither will nor can truly come to Christ, and therefore cannot be saved: 13 much less can men that do not receive the Christian religion be saved; be they never so diligent to frame their lives according to the light of nature and the law of that religion they do profess.14

[12] Matt. 22:14, 13:20, 21; Heb 6:4, 5 [13] John 6:44, 45, 65; 1 John 2:24, 25 [14] Acts 4:12; John 4:22, 17:3