|
|
The Philadelphia Confession, 1742
Those whom God hath predestinated unto
life, He is pleased in His appointed and accepted time effectually to call1 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 God3 taking away their heart of stone, and giving unto them an 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
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 co-working with His special grace; the
creature 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
Elect 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
other elect persons, who are incapable of being outwardly called by the ministry of the
Word.
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
Footnotes:
1. Ro 8:30; 11:7; Eph 1:10-11, 2Th 2:13-14.
2. Eph 2:1-6.
3. Ac 26:18; Eph 1:17-18.
4. Eze 36:26.
5. Dt 30:6; Eze 36:27; Eph 1:19.
6. Ps 110:3; SS 1:4.
7. 2Ti 1:9; Eph 2:8.
8. 1Co 2:14; Eph 2:5; Jn 5:25.
9. Eph 1:19-20.
10. Jn 3:3,5-6.
11. Jn 3:8.
12. Mt 22:14; 13:20-21; Heb 6:4-5.
13. Jn 6:44-45,65; 1Jn 2:24-25.
14. Ac 4:12; Jn 4:22; 17:3.
The Reformed Reader Home Page
Copyright 1999, The Reformed Reader, All Rights Reserved |
