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Subsections
Call in General Revelation
Effectual Call
Irresistible Grace
Gospel Call as God’s Desire, Wish & Pleasure
Is an Aspect of God’s Will Ineffectual?
Compatibility of Irresistible & Resistible Grace
Reformed vs. Aquinas
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Order of Contents
Articles 6+
Books 2
Rutherford’s Assertions
Calling’s End vs. God’s
Outward Calling Universal?
Effectual Calling: When
Latin 5
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Articles
Anthology of the Post-Reformation
Heppe, Heinrich – ch. 20, ‘Calling’ in Reformed Dogmatics ed. Ernst Bizer, tr. G.T. Thomson (1861; Wipf & Stock, 2007), pp. 510-43
Heppe (1820–1879) was a German reformed theologian.
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1500’s
Vermigli, Peter Martyr – The Common Places… (d. 1562; London: Henrie Denham et al., 1583), pt. 3
2. ‘Of the Calling of God & of his Grace’ 44
‘Of Grace’ 47
‘How Grace & Works are unto Eternal Life’ 52
Calvin, John – 24. ‘Election confirmed by the Calling of God. The Reprobate bring upon themselves the righteous destruction to which they are doomed’ in Institutes of the Christian Religion tr. Henry Beveridge (1559; Edinburgh: Calvin Translation Society, 1845), vol. 2, bk. 3, pp. 579-606
Beza, Theodore
A Brief & Pithy Sum of the Christian Faith made in Form of a Confession (London, 1565), ch. 4
pp. 79-81 in A Book of Christian Questions & Answers… (London, 1574)
Viret, Pierre – A Christian Instruction… (d. 1571; London: Veale, 1573)
The Sum of the Principal Points of the Christian Faith
A Familiar Exposition of the Principal Points of the Catechism, and of the Christian Doctrine, made in Form of Dialogue
6th Dialogue: Of the Creation & of the Providence & Predestination of God, & of the Vocation of Man
Of the Vocation of the elect, and of the degrees whereby God brings them to salvation
Of the Outward & Inward Vocation
Of the Effects of the Inward and outward vocation, and whereunto they serve
Of the Cause of unbelief, and of Faith
Of the Renewing of man, and of the gift of faith
Of the Causes of Election & Reprobation
Prime, John – ‘Of Election, Vocation & Reprobation’ in A Fruitful & Brief Discourse in Two Books: the One of Nature, the Other of Grace, with Convenient Answer to the Enemies of Grace, upon Incident Occasions Offered by the Late Rhemish Notes in their New Translation of the New Testament, & Others (London, 1583), bk. 2
Prime (c.1549-1596) was a reformed Anglican clergyman and Oxford scholar.
Finch, Henry – The Sacred Doctrine of Divinity gathered out of the Word of God… (Middelburg: 1589), bk. 3
6. Of Calling
7. Of Knowledge
10. Of the Light of the Spirit
Finch (d. 1625) was an English lawyer and politician.
Rollock, Robert – 1. ‘Of our Effectual Calling’ in A Treatise of Effectual Calling (1603) in Select Works of Robert Rollock… (d. 1599; Edinburgh, 1849), vol. 1, pp. 29-33
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1600’s
Perkins, William – A Golden Chain (Cambridge: Legat, 1600)
36. Concerning the First Degree of the Declaration of God’s Love
…
54. Concerning a New Devised Doctrine of Predestination taught by some New & Late Divines,4.[Error:] God’s calling to the knowledge of the Gospel is universal, yea of all men and every singular person without exception
Ames, William – ch. 26, ‘Calling’ in The Marrow of Theology tr. John D. Eusden (1623; Baker, 1997), bk. 1, pp. 157-60
Ames (1576-1633) was an English, puritan, congregationalist, minister, philosopher and controversialist. He spent much time in the Netherlands, and is noted for his involvement in the controversy between the reformed and the Arminians. Voet highly commended Ames’s Marrow for learning theology.
Polyander, Johannes – 30. ‘On the Calling of People to Salvation’ in Synopsis of a Purer Theology: Latin Text & English Translation Buy (1625; Brill, 2016), vol. 2, pp. 208-28
Wolleb, Johannes – Abridgment of Christian Divinity (1626) in ed. John Beardslee, Reformed Dogmatics: J. Wollebius, G. Voetius & F. Turretin (Oxford Univ. Press, 1965), bk. 1
20. ‘The Common Call to the State of Grace’, pp. 115-17
28. ‘Special Calling’, pp. 157-61
Wolleb (1589–1629) was a Swiss reformed theologian. He was a student of Amandus Polanus.
Ambrose, Isaac – The Doctrine & Directions but more especially the Practice & Behavior of a Man in the act of the New Birth… (London: 1650)
Leigh, Edward – ch. 2. Of Effectual Vocation in A System or Body of Divinity… (London, A.M., 1654), bk. 7, pp. 489-91
Turretin, Francis – Institutes of Elenctic Theology, tr. George M. Giger, ed. James Dennison Jr. (1679–1685; P&R, 1994), vol. 2, 15th Topic
1. ‘What is calling and of how many kinds? Also, how do external and internal calling differ?’ 501
2. ‘Are the reprobate, who partake of the external calling, called with the design and intention on God’s part that they should become partakers of salvation? And, this being denied, does it follow that God does not deal seriously with them, but hypocritically and falsely; or that He can be accused of any injustice? We deny.’ 504
3. ‘Is sufficient, subjective and internal grace given to each and every one? We deny against the Romanists, Socinians and Arminians.’ 510
4. ‘Is effectual calling so denominated from the event (or from congruity) or from the supernatural operation of grace itself? The former we deny; the latter we affirm against the Romanists and Arminians.’ 517
5. ‘Whether in the first moment of conversion man is merely passive or whether his will cooperates in some measure with the grace of God. The former we affirm and deny the latter against all Synergists.’ 542
6. ‘Whether efficacious grace operates only by a certain moral suasion which man is able either to receive or to reject. Or whether it operates by an invincible and omnipotent suasion which the will of man cannot resist. The former we deny; the latter we affirm against the Romanists and Arminians.’ 546
van Mastricht, Peter – ch. 2, ‘The Calling of Those to be Redeemed’ in Theoretical Practical Theology (2nd ed. 1698; RHB), vol. 5, pt. 1, bk. 6
Heidegger, Johann H. – 21. ‘On the Grace of Calling’ in The Concise Marrow of Theology tr. Casey Carmichael in Classic Reformed Theology, vol. 4 (1697; RHB, 2019), pp. 145-53
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1700’s
à Brakel, Wilhelmus – ch. 30, ‘The External & Internal Call’ in The Christian’s Reasonable Service, vol. 2 ed. Joel Beeke, trans. Bartel Elshout Buy (1700; RHB, 1992/1999), pp. 191-233
a Brakel (1635-1711) was a contemporary of Voet and Witsius and a major representative of the Dutch Further Reformation.
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1800’s
Vos, Geerhardus – ch. 2, ‘Regeneration & Calling’ in Reformed Dogmatics tr: Richard Gaffin 1 vol. ed. Buy (1896; Lexham Press, 2020), vol. 4, ‘Soteriology’, pp. 639-68
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2000’s
McGraw, Ryan M. – “A Review of Jonathan Hoglund, Called by Triune Grace: Divine Rhetoric and the Effectual Call” in Journal of Reformed Theology 12, no. 1 (2018), pp. 70–72
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Books
1500’s
Rollock, Robert – A Treatise of Effectual Calling (1603) ToC in Select Works of Robert Rollock… (d. 1599; Edinburgh, 1849), vol. 1, pp. 29-288
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1600’s
Love, Christopher – A Treatise of Effectual Calling & Election in 16 Sermons on 2 Peter 1:10, wherein a Christian may discern whether yet he be effectually called and elected and what course he ought to take that he may attain the assurance thereof (1655) 218 pp. Index
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Rutherford’s Assertions
Christ Dying & Drawing Sinners to Himself… (London: 1647), pp. 272-318
“A second question is, How far the Law can draw a sinner to Christ? Antinomians tell us of a legal drawing and conversion, and of an evangelic drawing; the legal drawing they say is ours [that of the reformed]; the latter theirs.
Assertion 1. The difference between the letter of the Law and the Gospel is not in the manner of working, for the letter of either Law or Gospel is alike ineffectual and fruitless to draw any to Christ. Christ preached the Gospel to hard-hearted Pharisees; it moved them not. Moses preached the Law and the curses thereof to the stiffnecked Jews and they were as little humbled. Sounds and syllables of ten hells, of twenty heavens and Gospels, without the Spirit’s working, are alike fruitless. And we grant the Law is a sleepy keeper of a captive sinner; he may either steal away from his keeper or if he be awed with his keeper, he is not kept from any spiritual, internal breach of the Law, nor moved thereby to sincere and spiritual walking.
But the difference between Law and Gospel is not in the internal manner of working, but in two other things:
1. In the matter contained in Law and Gospel: because nature is refractory to violence and the Law can do nothing but curse sinners; therefore it can draw no man to Christ. The Gospel again contains sweet and glorious promises of giving a new heart to the elect, of admitting to the Prince of peace laden and broken-hearted mourners in Zion and in conferring on them a free imputed righteousness; and this is in itself a taking-way, but without the Gospel-spirit [it is] utterly ineffectual.
2. To the Gospel there is a Spirit added, which works as God does with an omnipotent pull; and this Spirit does also use the Law to prepare and humble; though this be by a higher power than goes along with the Law as the Law.
Assertion 2. The Gospel-love of Christ frees a captive from under the Law as a curser and delivers him over to the Law as to a pedagogue to lead him to Christ and as to an instructer to rule and lead him when he is come to Christ. Love is the immediate and nearest lord; Law the mediate and remote lord. Love bids the man do all for Christ; the Law now of itself, because of our sinfulness, is a bitter and sour thing; but now the Law is dipped in Christ’s Gospel-love and is sugared and honeyed and evangelized with free grace and receives a new form from Christ, and is become sweeter than the honey and the honeycomb to draw and persuade: and all the Law is made a new commandment of love and a Gospel-yoke, sweet and easy; but still the Law obliges justified men to obedience, not only for the matter of it, but for the supreme authority of the Lawgiver; now Christ, who came to fulfill, not to dissolve the Law, does not remove this authority, but adds a new bond of obligation from the tie of redemption in Jesus Christ, and:
[1.] we are freed from the curse of the Law;
2. The rigid exaction of obedience, every way perfect;
3. The seeking of life and justification by the Law.
Assertion 3. There be two things in the Law:
1. The authority and power to command, direct, and regulate the creature to an end, in acts of righteousness and holiness.
2. A secondary authority, to punish eternally the breakers of the Law and to reward those that obey. These are two different things: suppose Adam had never sinned: the Law had been the Law; and suppose Adam had never obeyed: the Law also should have been the Law; and in the former case there should have been no punishment, in the latter no reward.
Antinomians confound these two. Mr. Town says:
‘It cannot be said that my spirit does that voluntarily which the command of the Law binds and forces unto. It is one thing for a man at his own free liberty to keep the King’s highway of the Law and another to keep it by pales and ditches, that he cannot without danger go out of it.’
It cannot be denied but that the Gospel both charges or awes us to believe in Christ and to bring forth good fruits worthy of Christ except we would be hewn down and cast into the fire; and also that grace works faith and to will and to do, and so voluntary obedience and obligation of a command may as well consist as bearing Christ’s yoke and soul-rest; yea, and delight and joy unspeakable and glorious may be and are in one regenerate person.
Crisp and his followers are far wide, for Christ died freely out of extreme love and yet He died out of a command laid on Him, to lay down his life for his sheep though no penal power was above Christ’s head to punish Him if He should not die, Jn. 10:18. Nor was there need of any power to force Him subpena [under penalty], or to awe Him if He should not obey; so do angels, with wings of most exact willingness, obey God, yet are they under the authority of a Law and command, but yet under no compelling punishment, Ps. 103:20-21; 104:4.
So in the saints love has changed the chains, not the subjection. Love has made the Law silken cords; and whereas corrupt will was a wicked landlord, and lust a lawless tyrant, and the Law had a dominion over the sinner in regard of the curse. Now the Spirit leads the will under the same commanding power of the Lawgiver, frees the sinner from the curse and turns forcing and cursing power in[to] fetters of love, so that the Spirit draws the will sweetly to obey the same Lord, the same law, only Christ has taken the rod out of the Law’s hand and the rod was broken and spent on his own back.
The feud between the Law and the sinner is not so irreconcilable, as the Antinomians conceive, so as it cannot be removed, except the Law be destroyed, and the sinners freewill loosed from law. It stands in blessing and cursing; salvation and damnation: that are effects of the Law as observed or violated. Now, Christ was made a curse and condemned to die for the sinner; all the rest of the Law remains:
[1.] It is most false that Mr. Town says, To justify and condemn are as proper and essential to the Law as to command.
2. It is false that we are freed from active obedience to the Moral Law because Christ came under active obedience to the Moral Law; for the Law required obedience out of love. Antinomians cannot say that we are freed from obedience out of love, for it is clear Antinomians will have us obliged by no Law to love our brother, to abstain from worldly lusts that war against the soul, but in so doing we must seek to be justified by the works of the Law.
This consequence we deny. To keep one ceremony of Moses draws a bill on us of debt to keep all the Ceremonial Law, because now it’s unlawful in any sort. But to do the duties of the Moral Law, as by Christ we are enabled, lays no such debt on us, but testifies our thankfulness to Christ as to our Husband and Redeemer.
The other considerable thing here, is the way and manner of Christ’s drawing.
Assertion 1. The particular exact knowledge of the Lord’s manner of drawing of sinners may be unknown to many that are drawn.
1. In the very works of nature the growing of bones in the womb is a mystery; far more the way of the Spirit, Eccl. 11:5, ‘Know ye the balancing of the clouds?’ Job could not answer this. And who knows how the Lord patched together a piece of red clay and made it a fit shape to receive an heavenly and immortal spirit? and at what window the soul came in?
2. How God with one key of omnipotency has opened so many millions of doors since the Creation, and has drawn so many to Him, must be a mystery. There be many sundry locks, and many various turnings and throwings of the same key, and but one key.
1. Some Christ draws by the heart, as Lydia, Matthew: Love sweetly and softly blows up the door, and the King is within doors in the floor of the house before they be aware. Others Christ trails and drags by violence, rather by the hair of the head, than by the heart, as the jailor, Acts 16 and Saul, Acts 9, who are plunged over ears in hell, and pulled above water by the hair of the head: sure thousands do wear a crown of glory before the throne, who were never at making of themselves away by killing themselves, as the Jailor was.
A third sort know they are drawn, but how, or when, or the mathematical point of time, they know not: some are full of the Holy Ghost from the womb, as John the Baptist. Ye must not cast off all, nor must Saints say they are none of Christ’s, because they cannot tell you histories and wonders of themselves, and of their own conversion: some are drawn by miracles, some without miracles; the word of God is the Road-way…
Assertion 2. There be two ordinary ways of God in drawing sinners: one moral, by words; another physical and real, by strong hand.
Which may be cleared thus: Fancy, led with some gilding of apparent or seeming good, as hope of food, does allure and draw the bird to the grin; and sometime pleasure, as a glass, and the singing of the fowler: So is fish drawn to nibble at the angle and lines cast out, hoping to get food. Now this is like moral drawing in men; and all this is but objective, working on the fancy. But when the foot and wing of the bird is entangled with the net, and the fish hath swallowed down the bait, and an instrument of death under it, now the fowler draws the bird, and the fisher the fish, a far other way, even by real violence. The Physician makes the sick child thirsty, then allures him to drink physic, under the notion of drink to quench his thirst: this is moral drawing of the child by wiles. But when the child hath drunk, the drink works not by wiles, or morally, but naturally, without freedom, and whether the child will or no, it purges head and stomach.
That there is a moral working by the Word in the drawing of sinners to Christ, though most evident, yet must be proved against Antinomians and Enthusiasts…
1. The prophets allege this for their warrant, ‘Thus saith the Lord.’ Therefore, you must believe it. And One more and greater than all the prophets, but I say so Christ, God equal with the Father, speaks.
2. Rom. 10:17, ‘Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.’ Verse 14, ‘How shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard?’ It’s true, the Word, the works of God, are not the principal object of faith, nor objectum quod; faith rests only on God and the Lord Jesus, Jn. 14:1; 1 Thess. 1:8; ‘Your faith toward God,’ 1 Pet. 1:21; Dt. 1:32; Jn. 3:12; Gen. 15:6; Dan. 6:23; Rom. 4:3; Gal. 2:16; 2 Tim. 1:12. The Word, promises and prophets and apostles are all creatures and but media fidei, the means of saving faith: they are objectum quo, Jn. 5:46; Ps. 106:12; Ex. 4:8; Ps. 78:7, of themselves they are dead letters, and dead things and cannot without the Spirit produce faith…
3. The searching of the Scriptures is life eternal, the only way to find Christ, Jn. 5:39; Acts 10:43; Rom. 3:21; Isa. 8:20.
4. Gen. 9:27, God shall persuade Japheth (by the Scriptures preached) and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem. Acts 16:14, God’s opening of the heart and Lydia’s hearing and attending to the Word that Paul spoke go together.
5. The way of Enthusiasts, in rejecting both Law and Gospel and all the written Word of God, is because there is no light in them. Some immediate sense of God and working of the Holy Ghost on the soul of the child of God, witnessing to me in particular, that I am the child of God, I deny not, and that my name expressly is not in Scripture, is as true; but this testimony excludes not the Scripture, as if the searching thereof were no safe way of finding Christ, as they blasphemously say:
1. Because this Enthusiasm, excludes the only revealed rule, by which we try the Spirits, and we are forbidden to presume above that which is written, 1 Cor. 4:16, and Enthusiasts have acted murders and much wickedness under this notion of inspirations of the Spirit.
2. Because if the matter of that which is revealed be not according to the written Word (Now after the Scriptrue is signed by Christ’s own hand, Rev. 22:18), I see not what we are to believe of these inspirations. What extraordinary impulsions and prophetical instincts have been in holy men, and such as God has raised to reform his Churches can be no rule to us.
3. If there be any mark of Scriptural sanctification that does not agree to Scripture, the rule of righteousness, though found in a person not mentioned in Scripture, it’s a delusion.
4. It’s all the reason in the world that a sinner be drawn to Christ. For Christ is the most rational object that is, He being the wisdom of God. And man is led and taken with reason. Christ is a convincing thing and invincibly binds reason: so the forlorne Son, before he return to his Father, argues… and the wise merchant must discourse, Mt. 13:45-46… So Mt. 9:21, the diseased woman has heart-logic within herself… and the unjust steward cast syllogisms thus… Yea, a fool’s paradise, a wedge of gold, is a strong reason, Prov. 7:21… Faith is the deepest and soundest understanding, the gold, the flower of reason…
Assertion 3. In words and oratory there is no power to make the blind see and the dead live. Will ye preach heaven, and Christ seven times and let angels preach above a dead man’s grave, ye do just nothing. But Christ’s Word is more than a Word. Jn. 4:10… when Christ speaks as Christ, He speaks pounds and talent-weights, Lk. 24:32… There be coals of fire and fire-brands in Christ’s words. Christ is quick of understanding, to know what word is the fittest key, to shoot the iron bar that keeps the heart closed; He opens seals on the heart with authority; violence may break up sealed letters, but it may be unjustly done; but authority can open kings’ seals justly.
Christ not only teaches how to love, or modum rei [the mode of the thing], but He teaches love itself: He draws a lump of love out of his own heart and casts it in the sinner’s heart; the Spirit persuades God, Gal. 1:10, then He must persuade Christ and persuade heaven: this is more than to speak persuasive words of God and Christ; it is to cast Christ in at the ear and in the bottom of the heart with words. Men open things that they may be plain to the understanding, Christ opens the faculty itself to understand. The sun gives light, but cannot create eyes to see…
Assertion 4. One general is inseparable from Christ’s drawing, that for the manner of drawing He does it out of mere free love. The principle of drawing on Christ’s part is great love. Eph. 2:4… And it is an expression of the extreme desire that Christ has of an union with us and how feign He would have the company of sinners: So we difference between [1.] inviting or calling, yea, or leading, and [2.] drawing; in calling and leading Christ leaves more to our will, whether we will come or refuse, but in drawing there is more of violence, less of will.
3. In drawing there is love-sickness and lovely pain in Christ’s ravishings.
1. When Christ cannot obtain and win the consent and good-liking of the sinner to his love He ravishes and with strong hand draws the sinner to Himself, when invitations do not the business and He knocks and we will not open, then a more powerful work must follow. Cant. 5:4. ‘My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels were moved for him.’ Christ drives such as will not be led.
2. And these who will not be invited He must draw them rather than want [lack] them: He draws with compassion as being overcome with love, for his bowels are moved for Ephraim, Jer. 31; He draws while his arms bleed.
3. And does not only knock, but He stands and knocks, Rev. 3:20. His standing notes his importunity of mercy, how gladly He would be in, and He uses this as an argument to move his spouse, out of humanity, to pity Him and give Him one night’s lodging in the soul, Cant. 5:2, ‘Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled.’…
4. Not only is drawing an expression of his love of union with sinners, for He bears the sinner; He translates the sinner… I should wish no higher happiness out of heaven than to be carried in the circle of Christ’s arms and to lie with the lambs in his bosom and be warmed with the heart-love that comes out of his breast…
Christ now above five thousand years has been carrying tired lambs up to heaven, in ones and twos, and is not yet wearied of bringing up his many children to glory and will not rest till there be not one lamb of all the flock out of that great and capacious fold… Christ’s love is not so loose in griping as to miss any He intends to put in his bosom.
5. The particular way of love’s drawing is lovely and sweetly, and with strong allurements.
1. Redemption is a sweet word to a captive, but redemption by Law is not so sweet as redemption by love…
2. Drawing by free and strong love is an easy work, and so is it easy to be drawn; because all works of love are easy, as the act of marrying is no great pain…
3. The way of love’s working through delight is sweet to the drawn soul, when Christ hands the heart, and the love of Christ’s soft fingers grasps about the soul, how alluring and captivating is Christ; when he comes in to the heart, his fingers drop pure myrrh… a sea of love is nothing, it has a bottom; a heaven of love is nothing, it has a brim; but infinite love has no bounds.
4. Love draws strongly and irresistibly: Christ never wooed a soul with his free love but He wins the love and heart… Great heaven is but an house full of millions of vanquished captives that Christ’s love followed and over-took, and subdued…
[1.] None speak like Christ, none breathe like Him; Mirrhe, aloes, and cinnamon, all the perfumes, all the trees of frankincense, all the powders of the merchants, that Assyria or Egypt, or what countries else ever had, are but short and poor shadows to Him…
2. For beauty He has no match amongst men; because He is fairer than all the sons of men. Christ has a most goodly face….
3. For the sweetness and excellency of nature, he’s God equal with the Father…
4. For greatness of majesty.
5. For lowliness of tender love.
6. For freeness of grace.
7. For glory diffused through all his attributes.
8. For sovereignty and absoluteness of power, etc. who is like to our Lord Jesus?
9. For sweetness and loveliness of relations; the only begotten Son of God, no relation like this: The Creator of the ends of the earth, the Savior, the good Shepherd, the Redeemer, the great Bishop of our souls, the Angel of the Covenant, the head of the body the Church, and of principalities and powers, the King of Ages, the Prince of peace, of the Kings of the earth; the living Ark of heaven, the Song of Angels and glorified Saints, but they cannot outsing Him…
To all these drawing powers in Christ… we may add a strong drawing argument, from the condition of the glorified in heaven… But Christ draws by offering a more enduring city: That Christ can give and promises heaven to his followers is a strong argument, and draws powerfully…
…
Assertion 5. Christ draws with three sorts of general arguments in this moral way:
The first is taken from pleasure: This is the beauty that is in God:
1. That is in a communion with God.
2. The delectation we have in God as love-worthy to the understanding. For the drawing beauty of God, a word: 1. Of God’s beauty. 2. Of God’s beauty in Christ. 3. Of the relative beauty of God in Christ to men and angels.
…
There is a second drawing motive in Christ, and this is from gain, which is eminently in Christ.
1. The drawn soul has bread by the covenant of grace, his yearly rent is written in the New Testament, Christ is his rental book and heritage. Isa. 33:16…
2. It should draw us in the own kind to Christ, in regard, Christ is more than gain. Prov. 3:14. Wisdom’s merchandise is better than silver, and her gain then fine gold. Verse 15, She is more precious than rubies…
3. Being drawn to Christ makes all yours; when ye are hungry, all the bread of the earth is your Father’s: when ye are in a ship, ye are in Christ’s Father’s waters; when ye travel in summer, ye see your Redeemer’s fields… not in possession, but in a choicer free-holding, in free heritage, Ps. 37:11…
4. All you have, a morsel of green herbs, a bed of straw, want, hunger, wealth, are guilded and watered with Christ.
The third drawing thing in Christ is honor:
[1.] The Church is a princess daughter, Cant. 7:1, a King’s daughter, Ps. 45:13, a queen in gold of Ophir, Ps. 45:9…
2. Consider what God makes them. ‘To him that lays hold on my Covenant saith the Lord,’ Isa. 56:5, ‘I will give within my house, and my walls, a name.’…
3. The Lord who knows the weight of things, angels and men, esteems highly of them. Cant. 5:2, ‘My Sister, my Love, my Dove.’ The spouse must in Christ’s heart have an high respect…
4. Christ so honors them that He professes he desires a communion with them. Cant. 4:8, ‘Come with Me from Lebanon, my Spouse.’ Jn. 14:23, ‘The Father and I will come unto him, and make our abode with him.’…
…
Assertion 6. The other particular manner of drawing sinners to Christ is real, in which we are to consider these two:
1. God’s fit application of his drawing of the will.
2. His irresistible pull of omnipotency.
In the former way of working, I desire that notice be taken (for doctrines’ cause, rather than for art of logical method) of these four ways:
1. God works by measure and proportion.
2. By condescension.
3. By fit internal application.
4. By external, providential accommodation of outward means.
1. In works of omnipotency without God, we see He keeps proportion with that which He works upon: When God waters the earth, He opens not all the windows of heaven, as He did in the deluge, to pour on mountains and valleys all his waters in one heap; for He should then not refresh, but drown the earth…
It may be a question, though the omnipotent power of God move the will invincibly and irresistibly, whether Omnipotency puts forth all its strength on the will, or, whether the will be able to bear the swing of Omnipotency in its full strength? If the fowler should apply all his force and strength to catch the bird alive, he should strangle and kill it. Divines say that Christ’s dominion in turning the will is, Dominium forte, sed suave, ‘strong, but sweet and alluring’: No wonder, if He carry the lambs in his bosom, Isa. 40:11, the warmness and heat of his bosom must sweetly allure the will. Drive a chariot as swiftly as an eagle flies, and ye fire and break the wheels: Knock crystal glasses with hammers, as if ye were cleaving wood, and ye can make no vessels of them. This is not to deny that God’s omnipotent power must turn the will, but to show how sweetly he leads the inclinations.
2. The Lord by wiles and art works upon the will, Hos. 2:14, ‘I will allure her and bring her to the wilderness, and speak to her heart.’… but He speaks all reason, according to the temper and natural frame of the heart, to convince and persuade that there is more reason in turning to God than that the wit or engine of man can speak against it. Grace is pia fraus, ‘a holy deceit’, that ere the soul be aware, it is catched: and though that be spoken of Christ, Cant. 6:12, ‘Ere ever I was aware, my soul made me like the chariots of Amminadab’, yet it has truth in this, that:
1. No unconverted man intends to be converted till God convert him, because spiritual intention is a vital act of the soul living to God: No living man can put forth a vital act of life till the Lord be pleased to give him a new life.
2. That spiritual love alluring the soul works by such art as cannot be resisted: Hence, conversion and being drawn to Christ, is termed by the name of ‘charming’, even as turning off Christ is a bewitching, or killing with an evil eye, as we say, Gal. 3:1. And so being drawn to God is called ‘a charming’. And the wicked are rebuked for this, Ps. 58:4-5, that being strangers to God, they are like the deaf adder that stops her ear and will not hearken to the voice of charmers (or singers, who sing as witches and enchanters do) charming wisely… Conversion to God is to be allured, bewitched, overcome with the art of heaven that changes the heart… Christ lays out the wit, the art and the wiles of free grace to charm the sinner, but the sinner stops his ear: there is need of the witchcraft of heaven to do this. The love of Christ and his tongue is a great enchantress, Eze. 16:8, ‘I said unto thee, when thou wast dying in thy blood, Live.’
3. Christ knows how to apply Himself internally to the will. Suppose one were to persuade a stiff and inexorable man, and knew what argument would win his heart, he would use that. The will is like a great curious engine of a waterwork, consisting of an hundred wheels, of which one being moved, it moves all the ninety-nine beside; because this is the master wheel, that stirs all the rest. Now the Lord knows how to reach down his hand to the bottom of the elective faculty, and that wheel being moved, without more ado, it draws all the affections as subordinate wheels. If the key be not so fitted in the work, wards and turnings of it as to remove the cross-bar, it cannot open the door. Omnipotency of grace is so framed and accommodated by infinite wisdom as that it can shoot aside the dissenting power without any violence and get open the door. If freewill be the workmanship of God, as we must confess, it is a needless arguing of Arminians and Jesuits to say that free will is essentially a power absolutely loosed from predeterminating providence…
4. Christ in external means accommodates Himself so, in the revealing of Himself, as He thinks good.
1. In accommodating his influence with his Word.
2. With externals of providence.
The breathings of the Holy Ghost go so along with the Word as the Word and the Spirit are united, as if they were one agent; as sweet smells are carried through the air to the nose. The Word is the chariot, the vehiculum, the horse; the Spirit the rider; the Word the arrow, the Spirit steels and sharpens the arrow…
It is the same Christ in all his loveliness and sweetness that is preached in the Word and conveyed to the soul; not God or Christ as abstracted from the Word, as Enthusiasts dream. And though the preacher add a ministerial spirit to the word, to cause Felix tremble, yet he is not master of the saving and converting Spirit…
In externals of providence God chooses:
1. Means.
2. Time.
3. Disposition.
4. Anticipation of the sinner’s intention.
5. Fit words.
1. In means. God appears to Moses, acquainted with mountains and woods, in a bush which burnt with fire; to the wisemen, skilled in the motions of the heaven, in a new star; to Peter a fisher, in a draught of fishes.
2. He sets a time and takes the sinner in his month, Jer. 2:24, in his time of love, Eze. 16:8, when he is ripe, like the first ripe in the fig-tree, Hos. 9:10.
3. Often He chooses in the furnace, Hos. 5, last verse, ‘I will return to my place… till they make defection,’ or be guilty; for the most part man is not guilty in his own eyes while he be as Manasseh was in the briars; the fire melting the silver portrait of a horse causes it [to] lose the figure of head, feet, legs and turns all in liquid white water, and then the metal is ready to receive a far other shape, of a man or any other thing, the man is ductile and bowable, and impartial, when God seals and stamps the rod; he is not so wedded to himself as before; it may be also that mercies and great deliverances, and favors melt the man, and bring him to some gracious capacity to be wrought on by Christ.
4. Christ anticipates the current of the heart and intention. When Saul is on a banquet of blood, Christ out-runs him and turns him; all men are converted, contrary to their intentions, thousands are in a channel and current of high provocations, and they are in the fury of swelling over the banks, and Christ gets before them to turn the current to another channel. Christ is swift…
5. There is one golden word (and God is in the word) one good word that is fit, and dexterous, hic et nunc, Prov. 25:11, ‘A word fitly spoken,’… a word spoken on his wheels, is like apples of gold in pictures of silver. Sure Christ’s words to a sinner ripe for conversion moves on wheels, that is, in such order as two wheels in one cart, they answer most friendly one to another in their motion because Christ observeth due circumstances of time, place, person, congruency with the will and disposition, as Hos. 2:14 and Solomon’s Eccl. 12:10, ‘The Preacher sought to find out acceptable words,’… Christ was greater than Solomon and is a higher preacher than he, and seeks out words to the heart that burn the heart, Lk. 24:32… Every key is not proportioned to every lock, nor every word fit to open the heart.
But though Christ speak to men in the grammar of their own heart and calling, I am far from defending the congruous vocation of Jesuits, once maintained by Arminius and his disciples at the conference at Hague, but now for shame forsaken by Arminians. For the Jesuits take this way, asking the question:
How comes it to pass that of two men equally called and drawn to Christ, and as they dream (but it is but a dream) affected and instructed with habitual and prevening grace of four degrees, the one man believes and is converted, the other believes not, but resists the calling of God. They answer:
Christ calls and draws the one man when He foresees he is better disposed and shall obey, as his freewill being in good blood after sleep and a good banquet and fitter to weigh reasons and compare the way of godliness with the other way: and He calls the other, though both in regard of grace and nature, equal to him that is converted, when He foresees he is in that order of providence and accidental indisposition of sadness, sleepiness, hunger and extrinsical dispositions of mind that he shall certainly resist, and both these callings are ordered and regulated by the two absolute decrees of election and reprobation from eternity.
The Arminians answer right down: the one is converted because he wills and consents, whereas he might, if it pleased him, dissent and refuse the calling of God; and the other is not converted because he will not be converted but refuses, whereas he has as much grace as the other, and may, if he will, draw the actual cooperaton of grace (the habitual he has equally in as large a measure as the other) and be converted and believe; nor is there any cause of this disparity in the man converted and the man not converted in God in his decree, in his free grace, but in the will of the one and the not-willing of the other.
Our divines say:
1. There never were two men equal in all degrees as touching the measure and ounces of habitual, saving, internal grace; yea, that the never-converted man had never any such grace.
2. That the culpable and moral cause why the one is not converted rather than the other is his actual resistance and corruption of nature, never cured by saving grace; but the adequate, physical and only separating cause is:
1. The decree of free election drawing the one effectually, not the other.
2. Habitual saving grace, seconded with the Lord’s efficacious actual working in the one, and the Lord’s denying of habitual and actual grace to the other; not because the will of the creature casts the balance, but because the Lord has mercy on the one, because He will, and leaves the other to his own hardness, because He will, and that the separating cause is not from the running, willing and sweating of the one, and the not-running and not-willing of the other, but from the free unhired, independent, absolute grace of Christ.
But the Jesuits congruous calling we utterly reject:
1. Because this is the Pelagian way, sacrilegiously robbing the grace of God, for the Lord foresees this man placed in such circumstances and course of providence will believe, the other will not, because he will do so, and the other will not do so; and both the placing of the one in such an opportunity and his willing believing, and the other man’s nilling, not believing, is in order before the foreknowledge and far more before the decree of God and his actual grace; and therefore free-will is the cause why the one is converted, not the other: for both had equal habitual grace and the one is not to give thanks for his conversion comparatively more than the non-converted, but to thank his own free-will.
2. The object of their fancy of their new middle science [knowledge], is a foreseen providence of the conversion of all that are willing to be converted, and voluntary perseverance in grace, and the non-conversion and final impenitency of all the wicked that are willing to refuse Christ; and these two go before the prescience, before the decrees of election and reprobation, so as God is necessitated to choose these and no other; and to pass by these, and no other whatever has a future being before any decree of God, cannot by any decree be altered or otherwise disposed of, then it is to be: So the Lord in all things decreed, and that come to pass contingently, must have nothing but an after-consent and an after-will to approve them, when they were now all future before his decree: this is to spoil God of all freewill, free decrees, liberty and sovereignty in his decrees and that men’s freewill may be free and independent, to lay God’s freedom of election and reprobation under the creatures’ feet.
3. Jesuits dream that Christ cannot conquer the will to a free consent, except he lie in wait to catch the man when He has been at a fat banquet after cups, has slept well, is merry, and when He sees the man is in a good blood, then He draws and invites and so catches the man; and when He sees the reprobate in a contrary ill blood, though he seriously will and intend their salvation and gave his Son to die for them, yet then He draws when He foresees they by the dominion of freewill shall refuse, and He draws neither after nor before, but at the time when He knows freewill is under such an ill hour as it freely came under, without any act of God’s providence and free decree, and in the which the called and drawn man shall certainly spit on Christ and resist the calling of God.
But this resolves heaven and hell, salvation and damnation, into such good or ill humors and orders of providence as a banquet, no banquet, a crabbed disposition or a merry; whereas grace, which by an omnipotent and insuperable power removes the stony heart can more easily remove these humors and win the consent when the man is decreed for glory, and besides that all men unconverted and in their own element of corrupt nature are ill to speak to and in a sinful blood of resisting, except Christ tread upon their iron neck and subdue it and He spreads the skirts of his love over Jerusalem at the worst, Eze. 16:6, 8. Scripture is silent of such a manner of drawing and the grace of Christ and his decree lies under no such hazard or lottery as such imaginary dispositions of good humors, thousands being brought in to Christ in chains, in saddest afflictions: Nor is grace being a plant of heaven, a flower that grows out of such clay ground.
Assertion 7. Christ draws by such a power… that it is not in the power of man to resist Him.
1. He draws by the pull of that same arm and power by which He commanded light to shine out of darkness, 2 Cor. 4:6, by which He raised the dead out of the graves, Eph. 1:18-19, by the exceeding greatness of his power and the mighty power by which He raised Christ from the death. Arminians answer: this was omnipotency of working miracles, but what was it to the salvation of the Ephesians and to the hope of their glory to know with opened eyes such a power as Judas knew? and can the dead choose but be quickened and come out of the grave when God raises them, Jn. 5:25. Thatvaga necessitas, ‘the strong moral necessity’ talked of by Jesuits, when strong moral motives work, is a dream there, for it may come short; a man quickened in the grave and put to his feet as Lazarus was, of necessity must come out; he will not lie down in the grave again and kill himself. A man starving for hunger when meat is set before him on any terms he desires, if he be in his right wits will necessarily eat and not kill himself; but the necessity of saving souls in the tender and loving mind of God in Christ is much stronger, and if we consider the corruption of will, this fanciedvaging necessity cannot so bow the will, but it is necessary that corrupt will dissent rather than consent to Christ.
2. God takes away all resisting and the vicious and wicked power of resisting; He removes the stony heart, opens blind eyes, removes the veil that is over the heart in hearing or reading the Scriptures, Eze. 36:26; 2 Cor. •:16-17; Dt. 30:6; Col. 2:11, takes the man’s sword and armor from him, cuts off his arms, so as he cannot fight or resist you. It is true, Christ takes not from David, Abraham, prophet, apostle or from any men or angels that are to be saved the natural created power of nilling and willing,purum[Greek] posse nolle, Christo trahente, but He takes away the moral wicked and godless power, hic et nunc, and vicious and corrupt disposition of resisting.
3. God lays bonds on Himself by 1. Promise, 2. Covenant. 3, Oath, to circumcise the heart of his chosen ones, Dt. 30:6, to put his Law in their inward parts, Jer. 31:32-33, to give them one heart to fear God forever, not to depart from God, Jer. 32:39-40; Heb. 8:6-7, etc. to bless them, Heb. 6:16-18; Gen. 22:16-17; Ps. 89:33-37; Heb. 1:5-6. We cannot imagine that God will keep Covenant, promise and oath upon a condition and with a reserve that we give Him leave so to do; that is as much as the Creator will be faithful if the creature will be faithful: And there is nothing glorious in the Gospel and Second Covenant above the Law and First Covenant if God promise not to remove the power of resisting, for if God do not promise to work our obedience absolutely, without any condition depending on our free will, then must freewill be so absolutely indifferent as it can suspend God from fulfilling his oath. Now the Law had a promise of life, ‘If ye do this, ye live’ eternally, but God neither did work nor was tied by the tenor of that Covenant to work in us to do, to will, to continue, to abide in all written in the Law of God to the end, and therefore it was a broken Covenant. Nor can Arminians make the Covenant, Gospel-promise and oath of God so conditional as the Law of works or as the promise of giving the holy land to the seed of Abraham upon condition of faith, because many could not enter in because of unbelief, except Arminians and Jesuits prove:
1. That all that entered in to the holy land, young and old, did believe and were elected to salvation, redeemed and saved, as Caleb and Joshua were, as all that enter in to the true promised land are believers; otherwise they die, are condemned and can never see God, Jn 3:18, 36, v. 16; 11:26 and 5:24; Mk. 16:16; Acts 15:11; 11:17-18, but the former is most evidently false in the history of Joshua and Judges: multitudes entered in who never believed, as multitudes entered not in who believed, as Moses and many others. And therefore from this, that many entered not in because of unbelief, the Arminians shall never prove that as God makes a promise of life eternal that believers infallibly and only shall be saved and unbelievers excluded; so God made a covenant and promise that all these of Abraham’s seed infallibly, and all these only should enter into the holy land who should believe as did Caleb and Joshua. I put all Arminians and Papists and patrons of universal atonement to prove any such covenant or promise.
2. Let Arminians prove that faith and a new heart was promised to all Abraham’s seed who were to enter into the holy land, as it is promised to all the elect who are saved, and to enter in the Kingdom of Heaven, Eze. 36:26; Jer. 31:32, 3•; 32:39-40.
3. That the promise of eternal rest in heaven was typified by conversion to Christ and conversion upon condition of faith, as they say, but without ground; the holy land was promised to all Abraham’s seed upon condition of faith, the like we say to all other conditional promises of God made in Scripture, that are as the legs of the lame unequally paralleled with the Covenant of Grace. Because this is the only answer adversaries can give, though it be as a parable in a fool’s mouth, let it be considered:
Argument 1. The difference between the First Covenant which was broken, Jer. 31:32-34, and the better Covenant which is everlasting and cannot be broken, Jer. 31:35-37 and 32:39-40; Isa. 54:10-11; Isa. 59:19-20; Heb. 8:6-7, etc. is expressly holden forth to make the new Covenant better than the Old; but it’s close removed, for both are broken Covenants by this reasoning.
Argument 2. When God promises the removing of an old and stony heart and to give a new hear, He promises to take away resisting in us, for nothing can resist Christ’s drawing but the stony and old heart.
Argument 3. The apostle’s reason, Heb. 6:13-16, of the Lord’s two immutable things, his oath and promise, is that we might have strong consolation and hope: Now this makes undeniably the consolation, though never so strong, the hope never so sure, to depend on our free will, if the sinner brue well, he drinks well; if he resist not grace, as he may, or accept it as God’s freewill thinks good, he is tutor and lord of his own hope and consolation. Christ cannot help him to determine his will, if so be he be a bad husband of his own nilling and willing: let him see to it.
Argument 4. It must be in him that wills and runs and deserves well, as on the separating cause that saves or damns, not in God that shows mercy; by this vain arguing of fast and loose freewill, doing and undoing all at its pleasure, let Christ do his best.
Argument [sic] 4. Whom God predestinates, them He also calls and glorifies as all the predestinated are indeclinably called and glorified, Rom. 8:30; Acts 13:48; 1 Pet. 1:2. Now by this multitudes should be predestinate who are never called and glorified, if they have it in their free and independent choice to resist the drawing of Christ.
Argument 5. God (as Augustine says) has a greater dominion over our wills than we have over them ourselves, as He is more Master of the beings, so of the operations (that are created beings) than the creature is, and so He must use the creatures’ operations at his own pleasure, otherwise He has made a creature free-will which is without the sphere of his own power, whereas the freest will of a King, the most Sovereign and Independent on earth, must run in his channel, Prov. 21:1.
Argument 6. Christ’s Lordship and Princedom through his resurrection is in turning of hearts, Acts 5:31; Rom. 11:23. Grace is stronger than devils, sin, hell and death, Rom. 14:4; Eph. 3:20; Jude 24; 1 Jn. 2:14; 1 Jn. 4:4.
Argument 7. If it must lie at our door more than Christ’s to apply the purchased redemption and actually to be saved, then:
[1.] We share more, if not large, equally with Christ in the work of our salvation; nor can the Church pray, ‘Draw me: we shall run’; why should we pray for that which is in our own power, says Augustine, for we are drawn and may not run.
2. Why should Peter give thanks rather than Judas, or another Peter: both were equally drawn; freewill lost the day to the one and wins it to the other.
3. Christ must but play an after-game and can do nothing, though with his soul He would save, but as freewill has first done, so must it be.
4. Nor am I to trust to omnipotency of grace for conversion, for if I husband well nature’s ability, the crop is my own.
5. I may engage the influence of free grace to follow me and grace leads not, draws not my will: I draw free grace.
Argument 8. If free will be Lord Carver of the sinners being drawn to Christ, then the making good of the articles of the bargain and covenant between the Father and the Son must depend on man’s freewill. Now:
1. Know, the covenant between the Father and the Son is expressed first by simple prophesy or promise. The Father passes the word of a King: Christ shall be his firstborn, the flower of the family, an ensign of the people; nothing can stand good if the free will of gentiles refuse to come under this Prince’s royal standard. The Father prophecies and promises, Ps. 72:8, ‘Christ shall have dominion from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth.’ Ps. 89:25, ‘The Lord shall set his hand in the sea and his right hand in the rivers; He shall call God his Father, his God, the Rock of his salvation.’ Now there must be a condition in this royal charter, in Christ’smagna charta, nothing can be done even when Christ goes up to a mountain and lifts up his royal ensign and standard of love and cries, ‘All mine, come hither,’ and when the people flock in about Him, except freewill, as independent as God say ‘Amen;’ and yet it far rather may say, ‘Nay,’ and refuse the bargain.
2. The Father bargains by asking and giving, Ps. 2:8, ‘Ask of Me and I will give Thee.’ Christ must be an heir by man’s will, not by his Father’s goodness; if Christ’s suits and demands, ‘Father, give Me the ends of the earth and Britain for my inheritance,’ depend upon such an absolute aye and no of man’s freewill as may cast the bargain, whereas our consent was not sought nor were we called to the counsel when the Father bargained to make us over to his Son.
3. The Father bargains by way of work and hire or wages to give a seed to his Son, Isa. 53:10, ‘When He shall make his soul an offering for sin, He shall see his seed;’ this is not a bare sight of his seed, but it’s an enjoying of them, ‘He shall see his seed, He shall prolong his days, the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.’ We cannot say, ‘It depends on men that Christ speed well in having a numerous seed and that wages be paid to Christ for his sore work of laying down his life to save his people,’ except we be more playmaker than God in this covenant.
Argument 9. The Scripture right down determines this controversy: Rom. 9, ‘No man hath resisted his will; and it is not in him that willeth.’ Augustine uses three adverbs in the Lord’s manner of turning the heart: Omnipotenter, indeclinabiliter, insuperabiliter; ‘Omnipotently, indeclinably and without short-coming.’”
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When the Lord Effectually Calls Persons in Life
See also, ‘On Baptism & the Time of the Elect Person’s Regeneration by the Spirit’.
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Quotes
1600’s
Isaac Ambrose
War with Devils… (), pp. 52-54
“Then he [Satan] begins his strongest batteries, or main temptations, when we are first entering into a renewed state: Now this is most usual in the days of our youth. Thus many of our worthies observe, Mr. [Thomas] Ford, speaking of young people, faith, Amongst the usually the stream of converting grace most runs. It may be in some grace is wrought very early, even in childhood, but ordinarily ’tis after they come under catechising, and are more adult.
And Mr. Burges thus, Conversion does not only belong to the old, but to the young; yea, commonly conversion is sooner wrought upon the younger sort of people; for they have not resisted the grace of God so much, they have not provoked God to give them up to their own heart’s lusts, and desires, as many ages persons have; so then let young ones hearken to sermons, let them attend to what the ministers of God exhort. Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth; and it is good to bear the yoke in they youth; it is good to feel the bitterness of sin betimes, Eccl. 12:1; Lam. 3:27.
And Vortier thus, The Lord can convert and bring home to himself at all times, in middle age, in old age, at the very last, as the thief upon the cross; yet the time of effectual calling is more ordinary in the time of youth. Some have observed the time of effectual calling to be between the years of eighteen and thirty, most commonly. And I believe that most saints experience, that the Lord wrought upon them in their younger days. Marriages are most in younger times, so are spiritual contracts in Jesus Christ. David was good when young, Daniel a young prophet; Timothy a young preacher, Samuel began with God betimes, Abijah good when a child, so was Josiah.
Hammers thus, Those who in their infancy were considered as parts of their parents, and so by virtue of their parents’ membership enjoyed the ordinance of baptism; when once grown up to maturity and ripeness of years, they are to be looked upon and considered in themselves, and no longer as in their parents, and therefore as being in a capacity so to do, they ought now to take hold of the covenant for themselves, and to render a personal account of their faith. It pleases God, that many do so even very early; which agrees with the former opinion, that some are regenerated after they come under catechizing.
It was the use of the Jews, as Mr. Buxtorf reports, that so soon as their circumcised children were able to speak, they taught them some select places of Scripture, and so proceeding on by degrees at thirteen years of age, they were called filii praecepti, sons of the precept; and then they were to receive the passover, as says Mr. Weem, and to observe the 613 precepts, which comprehended in them the sum of the Mosaical law, and Jewish religion, and then they themselves were accounted guilty and liable to punishment, both divine and human, if they did transgress the law, whereas before their faults were imputed to their fathers, of whom the punishment was exacted…
I hope, I may say of Gentiles as well as Jews, that conversion is sometimes very early, even as early as at thirteen years of age, though it be not ordinary. And oh! how good is it for a man to bear the yoke in his youth, seeing it must be born at one time or other? The burden of sin at that age will be the lighter, the flowing of heavenly affections will be the sweeter, the removal of sin, in all likehood will be sooner, at least the surer; God having engaged Himself that ‘they that seek Him early shall find Him,’ Prov. 8:17. Satan knows all this very well, and therefore he sets a stricter watch on youth…”
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1800’s
A.A. Alexander
Thoughts on Religious Experience (Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1841), pp. 26-27
“The reason why it is believed, that regeneration does not usually accompany baptism, is simply because no evidences of spiritual life appear in baptized children more than in those which remain unbaptized.
The education of children should proceed on the principle that they are in an unregenerate state, until evidences of piety clearly appear, in which case, they should be sedulously cherished and nurtured. These are Christ’s lambs — ” little ones, who believe in Him” whom none should offend or mislead upon the peril of a terrible punishment. But though the religious education of children should proceed on the ground that they are destitute of grace, it ought ever to be used as a means of grace. Every lesson, therefore, should be accompanied with the lifting up of the heart of the instructer to God for a blessing on the means. “Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth.”
Although the grace of God may be communicated to a human soul, at any period of its existence, in this world; yet the fact manifestly is, that very few are renewed before the exercise of reason commences; and not many, in early childhood. Most persons, with whom we have been acquainted, grew up without giving any decisive evidence of a change of heart. Though religiously educated, yet they have evinced a want [lack] of love to God, and an aversion to spiritual things.”
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The End of Calling vs. the End of God
Quotes
Paul Barth, with Francis Junius
‘Reformed Scholasticism: Distinguishing Ends’ (2016) at Purely Presbyterian
“The Latin term finis means end or goal, and refers to the final cause of something, “the ultimate purpose for which a thing is made or an act is performed.” (Muller, Dictionary, p. 61) The term operis means work or action. The term operantis means working or acting, referring to the one performing the action.
Finis operis, the end of the act, is the inherent goal or natural result of an act in itself. The end is so intrinsic to the act that it cannot be done without the end necessarily following it.
Finis operantis, the end of acting, is the willed intention of the person who acts.
Franciscus Junius uses different terms, the natural end and the willed end, to explain the same concept:
“Nature very plainly teaches this order of distinguishing ends. For in all situations and actions something both of nature and of will always is maintained, such that it is aimed toward some end. Nature resolutely places this one end before itself; will selects it in a mutable fashion. Now indeed, of those things which are accomplished only by the instinct of nature apart from some motion of the will, the reasoning is such that these never stray or are in and of themselves alienated from the end that nature has established. They customarily are aimed toward several ends, according to the principles by which they are governed.
So it happens that individual things arising from nature pursue a natural end, while those arising from will pursue a willed end, whether one that has been carefully considered or one that has not. They pursue the considered end by a proper ordering of nature and will acting in harmony. But they pursue the unconsidered end when an improper confusion of these has occurred. (Junius, Treatise on True Theology, p. 206)”
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Francis Turretin
Institutes of Elenctic Theology (P&R), vol. 2, p. 504
“The end of [external] calling can be considered in two ways: either on the part of God or on the part of the thing (which is called the end of the worker [finis operantis] and the end of the work [finis operis]). Although each is conjoined in the elect, yet in others they are separated…
in the gospel call, the end of the thing is the salvation of man because by its nature it tends to the bringing of him to salvation by faith and repentance; but not at once with respect to all the called is it the end of God, but only of those to whom he decreed to give faith and salvation.”
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Is the Gospel’s Outward Calling Universal? No, it is Indefinite
Quote
1500’s
Theodore Beza
A Book of Christian Questions & Answers… (London, 1574), p. 79
“Question: But surely the calling and promise are universal.
Answer: Understand them to be indefinite (yea and that in respect of certain circumstances of which I have spoken) and thou shalt think the rightlier… Or else see, how very reason of necessity confutes that universal calling. For if ye mean it of the calling by the preaching of the Word: it is not true that all men are, or ever were, yea or ever shall be called so severally hereafter.”
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Latin Articles
1600’s
Alsted, Henry – ch. 20, ‘Calling’ in Distinctions through Universal Theology, taken out of the Canon of the Sacred Letters & Classical Theologians (Frankfurt: 1626), pp. 91-94
Wendelin, Marcus Friedrich – Christian Theology (Hanau, 1634; 2nd ed., Amsterdam, 1657), bk. 1, ‘Knowledge of God’
ch. 19, ‘Of the Instrumental Causes & Parts of the [Gospel] Offer, where is of the Gospel, Calling & Covenant’, pp. 314-25
ch. 21, ‘Of the [Gospel] Offer & of the Covenant in the Old [Testament]’, pp. 341-53
ch. 22, ‘Of the Gospel in Specific, so called, [& the Offer in the NT] & of Baptism’, pp. 353-79
ch. 24, ‘Of the Reception of the Mediator, & of Justifying Faith’, pp. 448-81
Voet, Gisbert
Syllabus of Theological Problems (Utrecht, 1643), pt. 1, section 2, tract 3 Abbr.
Of Calling
Of the Calling & Conversion of the Heathens
Select Theological Disputations (Utrecht: Waesberg, 1655), vol. 2
38. ‘Of Gentilism & the Calling of the Gentiles’, pp. 579-601
39. ‘Same’, pt. 2, pp. 601-21
40.‘Same’, pt. 3, pp. 621-59
Wettstein, Gernler & Buxtorf – A Syllabus of Controversies in Religion which come between the Orthodox Churches & whatever other Adversaries, for material for the regular disputations… customarily held in the theological school of the academy at Basil (Basil, 1662)
12. External Calling, where is of the Gospel & the Sacraments in General, pp. 41-45
15. Internal Calling & Faith, pp. 54-56
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Related Pages
The Common Operations of the Spirit
Compatibility of Irresistible & Resistible Grace