Of Effectual Calling

All those whom God hath predestinated unto life, and those only, he is pleased, in his appointed and accepted time, effectually to call,217 by his Word and Spirit,218 out of that state of sin and death in which they are by nature, to grace and salvation by Jesus Christ:219 enlightening their minds, spiritually and savingly, to understand the things of God,220 taking away their heart of stone, and giving unto them an heart of flesh;221 renewing their wills, and by his almighty power determining them to that which is good;222 and effectually drawing them to Jesus Christ;223 yet so as they come most freely, being made willing by his grace.224

This effectual call is of God's free and special grace alone, not from anything at all foreseen in man,225 who is altogether passive therein, until, being quickened and renewed by the Holy Spirit,226 he is thereby enabled to answer this call, and to embrace the grace offered and conveyed in it.227

Elect infants, dying in infancy, are regenerated and saved by Christ through the Spirit,228 who worketh when, and where, and how he pleaseth.229 So also are all other elect persons who are incapable of being outwardly called by the ministry of the Word.230

Others, not elected, although they may be called by the ministry of the Word,231 and may have some common operations of the Spirit,232 yet they never truly come to Christ, and therefore cannot be saved:233 much less can men, not professing the Christian religion, be saved in any other way whatsoever, be they never so diligent to frame their lives according to the light of nature, and the law of that religion they do profess;234 and to assert and maintain that they may, is very pernicious, and to be detested.235