Canons 3-4.17 was written in response to an Arminian objection to the sovereignty of God’s grace in regeneration and conversion. If, as the Reformed faith teaches, God saves man by working regeneration in him without his will, why is preaching necessary? To that the Reformed answer is and has always been quite simple: the sovereign God who ordains the end (salvation) also ordains the means (in this case, the means of grace, especially the preaching of the gospel).
