The real Christian, or, A treatise of effectual calling wherein the work of God…

But that condition in the question clasheth with the Duties God requires, (being actually put, it keeps them from performing their duty.) Ergo, That condition is not requisite.

The Major is plain enough: People must not be kept from doing that which is their duty at all times. God calls me to Christ: it is my duty to go to him. God offers Christ to me: it is my duty to receive him. God commands me to believe in him: the highest disobedience that can be not to obey. He threatens me with his wrath if I do not believe: I must be damned then if I do not believe in him. God promiseth me, if I believe in him, I shall have his Love, his Grace, be saved: My duty is to believe his Truth and faithfulness: in my Baptism God sealed his Promise and his Covenant: it is my duty to make use of it, to look to my condition under that Covenant, and believe Gods truth, goodness, faithfulness in it: In all these my duty is to believe, God was real, that he did not offer, call, command, promise, seal one thing and mean another; God did not mock me, nor dare I mock him. On the other side, Mr. Shepherd and Mr. Hooker tell me, it is my duty to be content, satisfied without Christ (for if I must be content to be without Gods Love, Grace, and be damned, then I must be content without Christ) if God will have it so: But, say I, Gods will appears contrary, he tells me my duty plainly in all those Heads. There is an imagination, a supposition, set against as plain duties as any in the Bible.

The Major is plain enough: People must not be kept from doing that which is their duty at all times. God calls me to Christ: it is my duty to go to him. God offers Christ to me: it is my duty to receive him. God commands me to believe in him: the highest disobedience that can be not to obey. He threatens me with his wrath if I do not believe: I must be damned then if I do not believe in him. God promiseth me, if I believe in him, I shall have his Love, his Grace, be saved: My duty is to believe his Truth and faithfulness: in my Baptisme God sealed his Promise and his Covenant: it is my duty to make use of it, to look to my condition under that Covenant, and believe Gods truth, goodness, faithfulness in it: In all these my duty is to believe, God was real, that he did not offer, call, command, promise, seal one thing and mean another; God did not mock me, nor dare I mock him. On the other side, Mr. Shepherd and Mr. Hooker tell me, it is my duty to be content, satisfied without Christ (for if I must be content to be without Gods Love, Grace, and be damned, then I must be content without Christ) if God will have it so: But, say I, Gods will appears contrary, he tells me my duty plainly in all those Heads. There is an imagination, a supposition, set against as plain duties as any in the Bible.