The 8th chapter of Romans and the 9th are the very pillars of that gospel which men now call ‘Calvinism’. No man, after having read these chapters attentively and having understood them, can deny that the doctrines of sovereign, distinguishing grace are the sum and substance of the teaching of the Bible. I do not believe that the Bible is to be understood except by receiving these doctrines as true.
The Apostle says that those who love God are ‘the called according to his purpose’; by which He says …that all that love God love Him because He called them to love Him. He called them, mark you. All of them that love God, love Him because they have had a special, supernatural call. Ask them whether they would have loved God if left to themselves and they will confess…’ ‘twas the same love that spread the feast that gently forced us in; else we had still refused to taste and perished on our sin’.
