Article XVII
Of Predestination and Election
Predestination to Life is the everlasting purpose of God, whereby (before the foundations of the world were laid) he hath constantly decreed by his counsel secret to us, to deliver from curse and damnation those whom he hath chosen in Christ out of mankind, and to bring them by Christ to everlasting salvation, as vessels made to honour. Wherefore, they which be endued with so excellent a benefit of God be called according to God’s purpose by his Spirit working in due season: they through Grace obey the calling: they be justified freely: they be made sons of God by adoption: they be made like the image of his only-begotten Son Jesus Christ: they walk religiously in good works, and at length, by God’s mercy, they attain to everlasting felicity.
As the godly consideration of Predestination, and our Election in Christ, is full of sweet, pleasant, and unspeakable comfort to godly persons, and such as feel in themselves the working of the Spirit of Christ, mortifying the works of the flesh, and their earthly members, and drawing up their mind to high and heavenly things, as well because it doth greatly establish and confirm their faith of eternal Salvation to be enjoyed through Christ, as because it doth fervently kindle their love towards God: So, for curious and carnal persons, lacking the Spirit of Christ, to have continually before their eyes the sentence of God’s Predestination, is a most dangerous downfall, whereby the Devil doth thrust them either into desperation, or into wretchlessness of most unclean living, no less perilous than desperation.
Furthermore, we must receive God’s promises in such wise, as they be generally set forth to us in holy Scripture: and, in our doings, that Will of God is to be followed, which we have expressly declared unto us in the Word of God.
God's overall sovereignty is often reflected in a consideration of Predestination, which of course suggests that we have no control over our response to Christ because it has already been determined or predestined. The great danger in this it seems to me is that it removes the urgency of the Gospel, and the witness of the Scriptures is that there is an urgency to the Gospel. We are called to repent, to turn and be saved, to run our race with perseverance, looking unto Jesus.
Our experience of life tells us that we do have free will. It may transpire in the final analysis that the free will we think we have is an illusion (though I doubt that) and that might be interesting, however the reality of life is that we have to operate on the premise that we do have free will and our choices have meaning. The writer of the Article (possibly Matthew Parker) was clear that the notion of God's Sovereignty and Predestination should not be expounded in such a way as to nullify the message of the Gospel, the call to salvation, and the faithfulness of God.
