Ellis on Article XVII: Of Predestination and Election
John Ellis, 1700
Commentaries on Article XVII: Rogers (1607)Ellis (1660)Burnet (1699)Beveridge (d. 1708)Welchman (1713)Practical Exposition (1716)Veneer (1725)Madan (1772)Hey (1796)Tomline (1799)Wilson (1821)Jones (1849)Trollope (1850)Browne (1850)Forbes (1867)Boultbee (1871)Maclear & Williams (1895)Green (1896)Gibson (1896)Jackson (1900)Bicknell (1919) · Article 17: text, context and Study
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 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.
Text: Book of Common Prayer (1662)
Cleaned OCR; [...] marks passages cut for illegibility. See the scan. Text: A Defense of the Thirty Nine Articles of the Church of England, written in Latin by J. Ellis, S.T.D. (Articulorum XXXIX Ecclesiae Anglicanae Defensio, first published 1660), now done into English (London, 1700). Cleaned OCR from the Internet Archive scan of the Early English Books copy; passages too garbled to recover are marked [...]. Public domain.
Obj. Against the foregoing Article it is obje= fred, 1, That Men, are not predestinated, be- cause no other Creatures are said to be pred:sti= nated; whereas there is the same Reason for all God’s Creatures, which are ordained to some End by his Providence.
- Answ. There is not the same Reason for all Creatures ; for irrational Creatures are not capable of this Supernatural End. Predestina- tion therefore is wrongfully called an Ordain- ment to any End whatlsocver,
Obj. 2. He that predetinates Men, ought to pre-determine whatsoever relates to their Merits or Demerits : But God does not pre-determine a= ny of our Powers ; for then we should be nece/Jarily forced either to. Salvation or Destrution. But God thus compre’s no bod),
Answ. God has nor praz-determined Mens Merits or Demerits, so as to impole any Ne- cessiry upon them ; bur has given ro Man be- fore the Fall a most free W11l. ’
Obj. 3. That it :snot agreeable to the Nature of Angels to be predestinated to Life ; and therefore neither # it to Men : The Antecedent s thus proved ; because Predestination to Life % a Purpose of Compassion ; but the Angels ne- ver were in Misery : The Consequence 3s true, be=
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canse Anzels are capable of Happiness as well as Man.
Answ. Why may we not say of good An- gels, that they were predestinated to Life ? Since Piry is not only a Releasement from Mi- sery ; bur every Reward above what is due 1s such : And the Nature of the Mercy 1s- not to be raken from any Prior Stare, bur from rhe present Condition ; and therefore it 15 not ma- terial whether any one be predestinated from a Stare of Misery or nor.
Obj. 4. If God should reprobate any one, the Mzn that 1; reprobated. is nat to be charged with his own Ruin : For no Man must be charged with what he could not avoid : But if God should re- probate, Man could not help it ; for no Man can withstand God. . |
Answ. This Argument would; hold, if God should damn a Man inevitably withour any Cause ; bur because Man’s falling into Sin proceeds from his own Degeneracy ; there- fore his Destruction is deservedly impured to himself.
bj. 5. God has accepted a sufficient Ran- som for all Men, that is, the Satisfa&ion - of Christ ; therefore he ought to receive all Men into his Favour ; and by consequence none are to be damned, : Anfsw, The Ransom, that Christ made was s\ufficient, but ‘twas upon the Condition of our applying itto our selves ; otherwise it would not be fo : Bur all Men do not rightly apply Christ’s Merits. |
Obj. 6. They, whose Salvation depends upon the secret Determinations of God, . can. have no true Comfort or $ upport ; therefore. the. DoQrine
of
42 A Defence of the of Predestination is not so full of Comfort as we , speak of.
Answ. The Counsel of God is a Secret to us, :
and brings no. Comfort unless it be revealed by the Holy Spirit, and by the Signs of Election, which are Faith, Repentance, Charity, and o- ther Verrues.
ART. XVIII Of obtaining Eternal Sal.
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