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 downfal, 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.