A Body of Practical Divinity

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

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 infinite power in calling home a sinner to himself: He doth not only put forth his Voice, but his Arm. The Apostle speaks of the [Greek or Hebrew], the exceeding greatness of his power he exerciseth towards them that believe, Ephes. 1.19. God rides ⟨p. 129⟩forth conquering in the Chariot of his Gospel, he conquers the Pride of the Heart, and makes the Will, 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 Persuasion? That God in the Conversion of a Sinner, doth only morally persuade, and no more. He sets his Promises before them, to allure them to Good, and his Threatenings to deter them from Evil; and here is all he doth. But sure Moral Persuasions alone are insufficient to the effectual Call. How can the bare Proposal of Promises and Threatenings convert a Soul? This amounts not to a new Creation? or that Power which raised Christ from the dead. God doth not only persuade, but enable, Ezek. 36.27. If God in Conversion should only morally persuade, 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 [Greek or Hebrew], to work, signifies imperii vim, Cameron, the power Satan 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 powerful; God puts forth a Divine Energy, nay, a kind of Omnipotency. It is such a powerful Call, that the will of Man hath no power to resist.