Chapter 10
Of Effectual Calling
- Those whom God hath predestinated
unto life, He is pleased in His appointed
and accepted time effectually to
call1 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 God3 taking away their heart of
stone, and giving unto them an 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
- This effectual call is of God's free
and special grace alone, not from
anything at all forseen in man, nor from
any power or agency in the
creature,7 co-working
with His special grace; 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
- Elect infants dying in infancy are
regenerated and saved by Christ through
the Spirit,10 who
worketh when and where, and how He
pleaseth;11 so also
are all other elect persons, who are
incapable of being outwardly called by
the ministry of the Word.
- 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 receive not 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
Footnotes:
1. Ro
8:30; 11:7; Eph 1:10-11, 2Th 2:13-14.
2. Eph
2:1-6.
3. Ac
26:18; Eph 1:17-18.
4. Eze
36:26.
5. Dt
30:6; Eze 36:27; Eph 1:19.
6. Ps
110:3; SS 1:4.
7. 2Ti
1:9; Eph 2:8.
8. 1Co
2:14; Eph 2:5; Jn 5:25.
9. Eph
1:19-20.
10.
Jn 3:3,5-6.
11.
Jn 3:8.
12.
Mt 22:14; 13:20-21; Heb 6:4-5.
13.
Jn 6:44-45,65; 1Jn 2:24-25.
14.
Ac 4:12; Jn 4:22; 17:3.
©1998 Limerick Free
Baptist Church
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Free Baptist Church of Limerick