(i.) It is a sweet call. God so calls as He allures; He does not force, but draw.
Thus God deals with some. Others are more stubborn and knotty sinners, and God comes to them in a rough wind. He uses more wedges of the law to break their hearts; He deeply humbles them, and shows them they are damned without Christ. Then having ploughed up the fallow ground of their hearts by humiliation, He sows the seed of consolation. He presents Christ and mercy to them, and draws their wills, not only to accept Christ, but passionately to desire, and faithfully to rest upon Him. Thus He wrought upon Paul, and called him from a persecutor to a preacher. This call, though it is more visible than the other, yet is not more real. God's method in calling sinners may vary, but the effect is still the same.
5. The properties of this effectual calling.
(i.) It is a sweet call. God so calls as He allures; He does not force, but draw. The freedom of the will is not taken away, but the stubbornness of it is conquered. "Your people shall be willing in the day of your power" (Psalm 110:3). After this call there are no more disputes, the soul readily obeys God's call: as when Christ called Zacchaeus, he joyfully welcomed Him into his heart and house.
(ii.) It is a holy call. "Who has called us with a holy calling" (2 Tim. 1:9). This call of God calls men out of their sins: by it they are consecrated, and set apart for God. The vessels of the tabernacle were taken from common use, and set apart to a holy use; so those who are effectually called are separated from sin, and consecrated to God's service. The God whom we worship is holy, the work we are employed in is holy, the place we hope to arrive at is holy; all this calls for holiness. A Christian's heart is to be the presence chamber of the blessed Trinity; and shall not holiness to the Lord be written upon it? Believers are children of God the Father, members of God the Son, and temples of God the Holy Ghost; and shall they not be holy? Holiness is the badge and uniform of God's people. "The people of your holiness" (Isaiah 63:18). As chastity distinguishes a virtuous woman from a harlot, so holiness distinguishes the godly from the wicked. It is a holy calling; "For God has nor called us to uncleanness, but to holiness" (1 Thess. 4:7). Let not any man say he is called of God, if he lives in sin. Has God called you to be a swearer, to be a drunkard? Nay, let not the merely moral person say he is effectually called. What is civility without sanctity? It is but a dead carcass strewed with flowers. The king's picture stamped upon brass is not gold. The merely moral man looks as if he had the King of heaven's image stamped upon him, but he is no better than counterfeit metal, which will not pass for currency with God.
(iii.) It is an irresistible call. When God calls a man by His grace, he cannot but come. You may resist the minister's call, but you cannot the Spirit's call. The finger of the blessed Spirit can write upon a heart of stone, as once He wrote His laws upon tables of stone. God's words are creating words; when He said "Let there be light, there was light"; and when He says, "Let there be faith", it shall be so. When God called Paul, he answered to the call. "I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision" (Acts 26:19). God rides forth conquering in the chariot of His gospel; He makes the blind eyes see, and the stony heart bleed. If God will call a man, nothing shall lie in the way to hinder; difficulties shall be untied, the powers of hell shall disband. "Who has resisted his will?" (Rom. 9:19). God bends the iron sinew, and cuts asunder the gates of brass (Psalm 107:16). When the Lord touches a man's heart by His Spirit, all proud imaginations are brought down, and the fort royal of the will yields to God. I may allude to Psalm 114:5, "What ailed you, O sea, that you fled? and you Jordan, that you were driven back?" The man that before was as a raging sea, foaming forth wickedness, now on a sudden flies back and trembles, he falls down as the jailer, "What shall I do to be saved?" (Acts 16:30). What ails you, O sea? What ails this man? The Lord has been effectually calling him. He has been working a work of grace, and now his stubborn heart is conquered by a sweet violence.
(iv.) It is a high calling. "I press toward the mark, for the prize of the high calling of God" (Phil. 3:14). It is a high calling, because we are called to high exercises of religion - to die to sin, to be crucified to the world, to live by faith, to have fellowship with the Father (I John 1:3). This is a high calling: here is a work too high for men in a state of nature to perform. It is a high calling, because we are called to high privileges, to justification and adoption, to be made co-heirs with Christ. He who is effectually called is higher than the princes of the earth.
(v.) It is a gracious call. It is the fruit and product of free grace. That God should call some, and not others; some taken, and others left; one called who is of a more rugged, morose disposition, another of sharper intellect, of a sweeter temper, rejected, here is free grace. That the poor should be rich in faith, heirs of a kingdom (James 2:5), and the nobles and great ones of the world for the most part rejected, "Not many noble are called" (I Cor. 1:26); this is free and rich grace. "Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in your sight" (Matt. 11:26). That under the same sermon one should be effectually wrought upon, another no more moved than a dead man with the sound of music; that one should hear
the Spirit's voice in the Word, another not hear it; that one should be softened and moistened with the influence of heaven, another, like Gideon's dry fleece, has no dew upon him: behold here distinguishing grace! The same affliction converts one and hardens another. Affliction to one is as the bruising of spices, which cast forth a fragrant smell; to the other it is as the crushing of weeds in a mortar, which smell rank. What is the cause of this, but the free grace of God? It is a gracious calling; it is all enamelled and interwoven with free grace.
(vi.) It is a glorious call. "Who has called us to his eternal glory" (I Pet. 5:10). We are called to the enjoyment of the ever blessed God: as if a man were called out of a prison to sit upon a throne. Quintus Curtius writes of one, who while digging in his garden was called to be king. Thus God calls us to glory and virtue (2 Pet. 1:3). First to virtue, then to glory. At Athens there were two temples, the temple of Virtue, and the temple of Honour; and no man could go to the temple of honour, but through the temple of virtue. So God calls us first to virtue, and then to glory. What is the glory among men, which most so hunt after, but a feather blown in the air? What is it to the weight of glory? Is there not great reason we should follow God's call? He calls to preferment; can there be any loss or prejudice in this? God would have us part with nothing for Him, but what will damn us if we keep it. He has no design upon us, but to make us happy. He calls us to salvation, He calls us to a kingdom. Oh, how should we then, with Bartimaeus, throw off our ragged coat of sin, and follow Christ when He calls!
(vii.) It is a rare call. But few are savingly called. "Few are chosen" (Matt. 12:14). Few, not collectively, but comparatively. The word 'to call' signifies to choose out some from among others. Many have the light brought to them, but few have their eyes anointed to see that light. "You have a few names in Sardis that have not defiled their garments" (Rev. 3:4). How many millions sit in the region of darkness! And in those climates where the Sun of righteousness shines, there are many who receive the light of the truth, without the love of it. There are many formalists, but few believers. There is something that looks like faith, which is not. The Cyprian diamond, says Pliny, sparkles like the true diamond, but it is not of the right kind, it will break with the hammer: so the hypocrite's faith will break with the hammer of persecution. But few are truly called. The number of precious stones is few, to the number of pebble stones. Most men shape their religion according to the fashion of the times; they are for the music and the idol (Dan. 3:7). The serious thought of this should make us work out our salvation with fear, and labour to be in the number of those few whom God has translated into a state of grace.