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Chap. XVIII. — Of our Vocation, or God’s Calling us.
Q. 1. How come we to have this saving faith?
A. It is freely bestowed upon us and wrought in us by the
Spirit of God, in our vocation or calling.
John vi. 29, 44;
Eph. ii. 8, 9; Phil. i.
29; 2 Thess. i.
11.
Q. 2. What is our vocation, or this calling of God?
A. The free, gracious7676 Our effectual calling is the first
effect of our everlasting election. 7777 We have no actual interest in
nor right unto Christ, until we are thus called. act of Almighty
God, whereby in Jesus Christ he calleth and translateth us from the state
of nature, sin, wrath, and corruption, into the state of grace and union
with Christ, by the mighty, effectual working of his Spirit in the
preaching of the Word.
Col. i. 12,
13; 2 Tim. i. 9; Deut. xxx.
6; Ezek. xxxvi.
26; Matt. xi.
25, 26; John i. 13, iii. 3,
8; Eph. i. 19; Col. ii. 12;
1 Cor. iv. 7; James i. 18;
2 Pet. ii. 20; Acts xvi.
14.
Q. 3. What do we ourselves perform in this change, or work of our conversion?
A. Nothing at all, being merely7878 They who so boast of the strength of
free-will in the work of our conversion are themselves an example what it
is being given up to so vile an error, — destitute of the grace of
God. wrought upon by the free grace and Spirit of God, when in
ourselves we have no ability to any thing that is spiritually good.
Matt. vii. 18, x.
20; John i. 13, xv. 5; 4871 Cor. xii. 3, ii.
5; 2 Cor. iii. 5; Eph ii. 1, 8; Rom. viii. 26; Phil. i.
6.
Q. 4. Doth God thus call all and every one?
A. All within the pale of the church are outwardly called by
the Word, none effectually but the elect.
Matt. xxii.
14; Rom. viii. 30.
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