Page:A Catechism on the Thirty nine Articles.pdf/56

50 God's choosing persons out of the rest of mankind.

What class of persons does predestination benefit?

Those whom God "hath chosen in Christ out of mankind." Eph. i. 4, 5.

Whom then hath God so chosen?

Those whom He makes members of Christ.

And whom does He make members of Christ?

The members of His Church. 1 Cor. xii. 27; Eph. i. 23.

To what benefit are they predestined?

"To life."

Explain this more fully.

God "hath constantly decreed by His counsel, secret to us, to deliver them from curse and damnation, and to bring them by Christ to everlasting salvation."

What is the course by which this is brought about?

"They 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 everlasting felicity."

Does all this happen to all the members of the Church?

It happens to the Church as a spiritual body, but not to all the members of it.