Effectual Calling.

Quest. XX. WHat is effectual Calling?

Answ. It is a gracious work of the Spirit, whereby he cau∣seth us to embrace Christ freely offered to us in the Gospel.

In this Verse is a golden Chain of Salvation, made up of four Links; this is one Vocation, Them he also called. Calling is nova Creatio, a new Creation, the first Re∣surrection.—There is a twofold Call: 1. An extrinsick or outward Call; 2. An intrinsick or inward effectual Call.

1. An extrinsick or outward Call, which is God's offer of Grace to sinners, invi∣ting them to come in and accept of Christ and Salvation, Matth. 20.16. Many are called, but few chosen. This outward Call shews Men what they ought to do in or∣der to Salvation, and renders them inexcusable in case of Disobedience.

Page  1282. There is an intrinsick or effectual Call, when God with the offer of Grace works Grace; by this Call the Heart is renewed, and the Will effectually drawn to em∣brace Christ. The outward Call brings Men to a profession of Christ, the inward to a possession of Christ.

Quest. What is the means of this effectual Call?

Resp. Every Creature hath a Voice to call to us. The Heavens call to us to be∣hold God's glory, Psal. 19.1. Conscience calls to us, God's Judgments call to us Repent, Mic. 6.9. Hear ye the Rod. But every Voice doth not convert. There are two means of our effectual Call:

1. The preaching of the Word, which is the sounding God's silver Trumpet in Mens Fears; God doth not speak by an Oracle, he calls by his Ministers. Samuel thought it had been only the Voice of Eli, that called to him, but it was God's voice, 1 Sam. 3.6. So perhaps you think it is only the Minister speaks to you in the Word, but it is God himself speaks. Therefore Christ is said, (Now) to speak to us from Heaven, Hebr. 12.25. How doth he speak but by his Ministers? as a King speaks by his Ambassadors. Know, that in every Sermon preached, God calls to you, and to refuse the Message we bring, is to refuse God himself.

2. The other means of our effectual Call, is the Holy Spirit. The Ministry of the Word is the Pipe or Organ, the Spirit of God blowing in it, doth effectually change Men's hearts, Acts 10.44. While Peter spake, the Holy Ghost fell on all them that heard the Word of God. Ministers knock at the door of Men's hearts, the Spi∣rit comes with a Key and opens the door, Acts 16.14. A certain woman named Ly∣dia, whose heart the Lord opened.

Quest. From what doth God call Men?

Resp. 1. From sin; He calls them from their Ignorance and Unbelief, 1 Pet. 1.14. By Nature the Understanding is inveloped with Darkness, God calls Men from darkness to light, Eph. 5.8. as if one should be called out of a Dungeon to behold the Light of the Sun.

2. From Danger. As the Angel called Lot out of Sodom, when it was ready to rain fire; so God calls his People from the Fire and Brimstone of Hell, and from all those Curses they were exposed to.

3. He calls them out of the World, as Christ called Matthew from the Receipt of Custom, Iohn 17.16. Ye are not of the world. Such as are Divinely called, are not Natives here, but Pilgrims, they do not conform to the world, or follow its sinful fashions. They are not of the world, though they live here, yet, they trade in the heavenly Country. The World is a place where Satan's Throne is, Rev. 2.13. a Stage on which sin every day acts its part; now such as are called are in, but not of the World.

Quest. To what God calls Men?

Resp. 1. He calls them to Holiness, 1 Thess. 4.7. God hath not called us unto unclean∣ness, but unto holiness. Holiness is the livery, or silver star the Godly wear, Isa. 63.18. Knam kodsheca, The people of thy holiness. The called of God are anointed with the con∣secrating Oil of the Spirit, 1 Iohn 2.20. Ye have an Unction from the holy One.

2. God calls them to Glory, as if a Man were called out of a Prison to sit upon a Throne, 1 Thess. 2.12. Who hath called you to his Kingdom and Glory. Whom God calls, he crowns. It is a weight of Glory, 2 Cor. 4.17. The Hebrew word for Glory (Kauod) signifies pondus, a weight: The weight of Glory adds to the worth. The weightier Gold is, the more it is worth. And this Glory is not transient, but per∣manent, an eternal weight: 'tis better felt then expressed.

Quest. What is the cause of the effectual Call?

Resp. God's electing Love; Rom. 8.30. Whom he predestinated, them he also called. Election is the Fountain-cause of our Vocation. It is not because some are more worthy to partake of the heavenly Calling then others, (as the Arminians) we were all in our blood, Ezek. 16.6. and what worthiness in us? What worthiness was there in Mary Magdalen, out of whom seven Devils were cast? What worthiness in the Corinthians, when God began to call them by his Gospel? they were Fornica∣tors, Effeminate, Idolaters, 1 Cor. 6.11. Such were some of you, but ye are washed, &c. Before effectual Calling, we are not only without strength, Rom. 5.6. but Enemies, Col. 1.21. So that the Foundation of Vocation is Election.

Quest. What are the Epithites or Qualifications of this Call?

Resp. 1. It is a powerful Call. Verba Dei sunt opera, Luther: God puts forth infi∣nite power in calling home a sinner to himself: He doth not only put forth his Voice, but his Arm. The Apostle speaks of the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, the exceeding greatness of his power he exerciseth towards them that believe, Ephes. 1.19. God rides Page  129 forth conquering in the Chariot of his Gospel, he conquers the Pride of the Heart, and makes the Wiil, which stood out as a Fort-Royal, to yield and stoop to his Grace; he makes the stony heart bleed: It is a mighty powerful Call. Why then do the Arminians seem to talk of a Moral Perswasion? That God in the Conversion of a Sinner, doth only morally perswade, and no more. He sets his Promises before them, to allure them to Good, and his Threatnings to deter them from Evil; and here is all he doth. But sure Moral Perswasions alone are insufficient to the effectual Call. How can the bare Proposal of Promises and Threatnings convert a Soul? This amounts not to a new Creation? or that Power which raised Christ from the dead. God doth not only perswade, but inable, Ezek. 36.27. If God in Conversion should only morally perswade, that is, set Good and Evil before Men, then God doth not put forth so much power in saving Men, as the Devil doth in destroying them. Satan doth not only propound tempting Objects to Men, but doth concur with his Temptations, therefore he is said to work in the children of disobedience, Ephes. 2.2. The Greek word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, to work, signifies imperii vim, Cameron, the power Sa∣tan hath in carrying Men to sin. And shall not God's Power in converting be greater then Satan's Power in seducing? The effectual Call is mighty and power∣ful; God puts forth a Divine Energy, nay, a kind of Omnipotency. It is such a pow∣erful Call, that the will of Man hath no power to resist.

2. It is an high Calling. Phil. 3.14. I press toward the mark for the price of the high calling of God. It is an high Calling, 1. Because we are called to high Exercises of Religion. To be crucified to the World, to live by Faith, to do Angels Work, to love God, to be living Organs of his Praise, to hold communion with the Father and the Son, 1 Iohn 1.3.

2. It is an high Calling, because we are called to high Priviledges; to Justification and Adoption, to be Kings and Priests unto God; We are called to the fellowship of Angels, to be co-heirs with Christ, Rom. 8.17. They who are effectually called, are Candidates of Heaven, they are Princes in all Lands, Psal. 45.16. though Princes in disguise.

3. It is an immutable Call, Rom. 11.9. The gifts and calling of God are without re∣pentance; that is, those gifts which flow from Election, (as Vocation and Justificati∣on) these are without Repentance. God repented he called Saul to be King; but he never repents that he calls a Sinner to be a Saint.

Use 1. See the necessity of the effectual Call, a Man cannot go to Heaven with∣out it. First we must be called before glorified, Rom. 8.30. A Man uncalled can lay claim to nothing in the Bible but Threatnings; a Man in the state of Nature is not fit for Heaven, no more then a Man in his filth and rags is fit to come into a Kings presence: a Man in his pure Naturals, is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, a God-hater, Rom. 1.30. and is he fit for Heaven? will God lay his Enemy in his bosom?

Use 2. of Trial. Whether we are effectually called? We may know it by the An∣tecedent, and Consequent of it.

1. By the Antecedent. Before this effectual Call, an humbling work passeth upon the Soul. A Man is convinced of sin, he sees he is a sinner, and nothing but a sinner; the fallow-ground of his heart is broken up, Ier. 4.3. As the Husband-man breaks the Clods, then casts in the Seed; so God by the convincing work of the Law breaks a sinners heart, and makes it fit to receive the Seeds of Grace. Such as were never convinced, were never called, Iohn 16.8. He shall convince the world of sin. Conviction is the first step to Conversion.

2. By the Consequents: Two. 1. He who is savingly called, Answers to God's Call. When God called Samuel, he answered, Speak Lord, thy servent heareth, 1 Sam. 3.10. When God calls thee to any Act of Religion, thou dost run at God's Call, Acts 26.19. I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision. If God calls to Duties contrary to flesh and blood, we obey his voice in every thing. True Obedience is like the Needle which points that way which the Loadstone draws. Such as are deaf to God's Call, a sign they are not called by Grace. 2. He who is effectually called doth stop his Ear to all other Calls, which would call him off from God: as God hath his Call, so there are other contrary Calls; Satan calls by a Temptation, Lust calls, evil company calls: But as the Adder stops its Ear against the Voice of the Charm∣er; so he who is effectually called stops his Ear against all the Charms of Flesh and Devil

Use 3. Of Comfort to them who are the called of God; This Call evidenceth Election, Rom. 8.30. Whom he predestinated, them he also called. Election is the cause of our Vocation, and Vocation is the sign of our Election. Election is the first Link of the golden Chain of Salvation, Vocation is the second; he who hath the Page  130 second Link of the Chain, is sure of the first Link. As by the Stream we are led to the Fountain, so by Vocation we ascend to Election; Calling is an earnest and pledge of Glory. 2 Thess. 2.13. God hath chosen you to salvation through sanctification. We may read God's predestinating love in the work of Grace in our heart.

Branch 2. To such as are called, to be thankful to God for this unspeakable Bles∣sing; be thankful to all the Persons in the Trinity, to the Father's Mercy, to the Son's Merit, to the Spirit's Efficacy. To make you thankful, consider, when you had offended God that he should call you, that when God needed you not, he had Mil∣lions of glorified Saints and Angels to praise him, yet he called you. Again, con∣sider what you were before God called you, you were in your sins; when God called Paul, he found him persecuting; when he called Matthew, he found him at the Receipt of Custom; when he called Zacheus, he found him using Extorsion. When God calls a Man by his Grace, he finds him seeking after his Lusts, as when Saul was called to the Kingdom, he was seeking the Asses. That God should call thee when thou wert in the hot pursuit of sin, admire God's Love, exalt his Praise. Again, that God should call you, and pass by others, what Mercy is this? Matth. 11.26. Even so Father for so it seemed good in thy sight. That God should pass by the wise and noble Persons of sweeter disposition, acuter parts, guilty of less Vice, and that the Lot of Free-grace should fall on you, O astonishing Love of God. It was a great favour of God to Samuel, that God call'd to him, and revealed his Mind to him, and passed by Eli, though a Priest and a Judge in Israel, 1 Sam. 3.9. so that God should call to thee, a flagitious sinner, and pass by others of higher birth, and better morals, here is that calls aloud for Praise. As God so governs the Clouds, that he makes them rain upon one place, and not upon another, so doth he dispence his Grace, it shall drop its sweet dew upon one, and not another. Two at a Sermon, one his heart the Lord opens, the other is no more affected with it, than a deaf Man with the sound of Musick. Here is the Banner of Free-grace display'd, and here should be the Trophies of Praise erected. Eliah and Elisha were walking together, on a sud∣den there came a Chariot of Fire, and carried Eliah up to Heaven, but left Elisha behind; so when two are walking together, Husband and Wife, Father and Child, that God should call one by his Grace, but leave the other, carry one up in a tri∣umphant Chariot to Heaven, but let the other perish eternally: O infinite rich Grace! how should they that are call'd be affected with God's discriminating Love; how should the Vessels of Mercy run over with Thankfulness; how should they stand upon Mount Gerizim, blessing and praising God: O begin the work of Hea∣ven here! Such as are Patterns of Mercy, should be Trumpets of Praise: Thus S. Paul being call'd of God, and seeing what a Debtor he was to Free-grace, breaks forth in∣to Admiration and Gratulation, 1 Tim. 1.13.

Use 4. To the Called, walk worthy of your high Calling, Eph. 4.1. I beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called; in two things:

1. Walk compassionately, pity such as are yet uncalled: Hast thou a Child that God hath not yet called, a Wife, a Servant? Weep over their dying Souls. They are in their Bloud, under the Power of Satan; O pity them! Let their sins more trouble you then your own Sufferings: If you pity an Ox or Ass going astray, will you not pity a Soul going astray. Show your Piety by your Pity.

2. Walk holily; yours is an holy Calling, 2 Tim. 1.9. You are called to be Saints, Rom. 1.7. Show your Vocation by a Bible-conversation. Shall not Flowers smell sweeter than Weeds? Shall not they who are ennobled with Grace, have more Fragrancy in their Lives than Sinners? 1 Pet. 1.15. As he who hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation. O dishonour not your high Calling by any sordid Carriage. When Antigonus going to defile himself with Women, one told him, He was a King's Son: O remember your Dignity, Called of God! of the Bloud-Royal of Heaven; do nothing unworthy of your Honourable Calling. Scipio refused the Embraces of an Harlot, because he was General of an Army. Abhor all Motions to sin, because of your high Calling. 'Tis not fit for them who are the Called of God, to do as others: tho' others of the Iews did drink Wine, it was not fit for the Naza∣rite, because he had a Vow of Separation upon him, and had promised Abstinence. Though Pagans and loose Christians take liberty to sin, yet it is not fit for them who are called out of the World, and have the Mark of Election upon them, to do so: You are consecrated Persons, your Bodies are the Temples of the Holy Ghost, and your Souls must be a Sacrary, or Holy of Holies.