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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 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
1Romans 8:30; 11:7; Ephesians 1:10, 11; 2 Thessalonians 2:13, 14 2Ephesians 2:1–6 3Acts 26:18; Ephesians 1:17, 18 4Ezekiel 36:26 5Deuteronomy 30:6; Ezekiel 36:27; Ephesians 1:19 6Psalm 110:3; Canticles 1:4
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 coworking with his special
grace,7 the creature being
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
72 Timothy 1:9; Ephesians 2:8 81 Corinthians 2:14; Ephesians 2:5; John 5:25 9Ephesians 1:19, 20
3 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 elect persons, who are incapable of being outwardly called
by the ministry of the Word.
10John 3:3, 5, 6 11John 3:8
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 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
12Matthew 22:14; 13:20, 21; Hebrews 6:4, 5 13John 6:44, 45, 65; 1 John 2:24, 25 14Acts 4:12; John 4:22; 17:3
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