1. Those whom God hath predestined 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 a 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]
Fulton Footnote: We do not understand that sinners are effectually called by the written word in any sense out of that state of sin and death in which they are by nature to grace and salvation but by Christ, the Word of God. The quickening and renewing of the Holy Spirit prepares the sinner to answer the gospel call, as seen in Section 2; 2 Tim. 1:9; 1 John 4:6
2. 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] 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]
3. 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.
Fulton Footnote: We understand this section to teach that all persons dying in infancy are of the elect, and will therefore be saved. We do not understand from this that infants and insane persons are saved in a manner different from the manner in which all other elect persons are saved. The word "others" in Section 4 has no reference to infants, but adults who are subjects of the ministry of the Word.
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]
Fulton Footnote: We understand for man to be spiritually profited by the gospel he must have been born of God and made partaker of his divine nature, and by the words "common operations of the Spirit" is understood as teaching that the gospel has an enlightening and moral influence upon all rational men.
Scripture References edit
- ↑ Ro 8:30; 11:7; Eph 1:10-11, 2Th 2:13-14.
- ↑ Eph 2:1-6.
- ↑ Ac 26:18; Eph 1:17-18.
- ↑ Eze 36:26
- ↑ Dt 30:6; Eze 36:27; Eph 1:19.
- ↑ Ps 110:3; SS 1:4.
- ↑ 2Ti 1:9; Eph 2:8.
- ↑ 1Co 2:14; Eph 2:5; Jn 5:25.
- ↑ Eph 1:19-20.
- ↑ John 3:3,5-6.
- ↑ John 3:8.
- ↑ Mt 22:14; 13:20-21; Heb 6:4-5.
- ↑ Jn 6:44-45,65; 1Jn 2:24-25.
- ↑ Acts 4:12; Jn 4:22; 17:3.