The sound believer, or, A treatise of evangelical conversion discovering the work of Christs…The sound beleever, or, A treatise of evangelicall conversion discovering the work of Christs…

The last thing in the description of Faith is, that the soul thus comes upon the call of Christ in his word, and this is the special ground of Faith; wherefore the soul comes to Christ: take a sinner humbled and broken for sin, he cannot prevent the Lord by coming of himself unto Christ, and therefore the Lord prevents him, by his gracious call and invitation to come in;¹ Whom God hath predestinated, them hath he called; our translation from darkness into Gods marvellous light is by being called. ²The soul is lost in humiliation, the Lord Jesus who is ⟨p. 216⟩come to save that which is lost, seeketh it out in vocation, or calling: Sanctification is the restoring of us to the image of God we once had in Adam, as corruption is the defacing of that image; Vocation is the calling of the soul unto Christ, this voice Adam never heard of; he did not need any call to come to Christ, and therefore was immediately sanctified, as soon as he was made: but we need Vocation unto Christ, before we can be sanctified by Christ; we need this call to make us come to Christ, to put us into Christ, and therefore much more before we can receive any holiness from Christ; the ground of our coming by faith is Gods call, 2 Thes. 2.13, 14. chosen to salvation through sanctification (the remote end of Vocation) and belief of the truth, (the next end of it) whereunto he hath called you; there is the ground of it. The explication of this call is a point full of many spiritual difficulties; but of singular use, and comfort to them that are faithful and called; I shall omit many things, and explicate only those things which serve our purpose here in these three particulars.

The last thing in the description of Faith is, that the soule thus comes upon the call of Christ in his word, and this is the speciall ground of Faith; wherefore the soule comes to Christ: take a sinner humbled and broken for sin, he cannot prevent the Lord by comming of himselfe unto Christ, and therefore the Lord prevents him, by his gracious call and invitation to come in;¹