By nature the understanding is enveloped with darkness. It is a stage on which sin every day acts its part. Now such as are called are in the world but not of it. Holiness is the livery, or silver star which the godly wear. The weight of glory adds to the worth, the weightier gold is the more it is worth.
Election is the fountain-cause of our vocation.
So that the foundation of vocation is election. It is a powerful call. But surely moral persuasions alone are insufficient to the effectual call. This amounts not to a new creation, or that power which raised Christ from the dead. If God, in conversion, should only morally persuade, that is, set good and evil before men, then he does not put forth so much power in saving men as the devil does in destroying them.