III.
That God has(1) decreed in Himself from everlasting touching all things, effectually to work and dispose them(2) according to the counsel of His own will, to the glory of His name; in which decree appears His wisdom, constancy, truth, and faithfulness;(3) Wisdom is that whereby He contrives all things;(4) Constancy is that whereby the decree of God remains always immutable;(5) Truth is that whereby He declares that alone which He has decreed, and though His sayings may seem to sound sometimes another thing, yet the sense of them does always agree with the decree;(6) Faithfulness is that whereby He effects that He has decreed, as He has decreed. And touching His creature man,(7) God had in Christ before the foundation of the world, according to the good pleasure of His will, foreordained some men to eternal life through Jesus Christ, to the praise and glory of His grace,(8) leaving the rest in their sin to their just condemnation, to the praise of His justice.
1) Isa. 46:10
2) Eph. 1:11
3) Col. 2:3
4) Num. 23:19-20
5) Jer. 10:10; Rom. 3:4
6) Isa. 44:10
7) Eph. 1:3-7; 2 Tim. 1:9; Acts 13:48; Rom. 8:29-30
8) Jude 4,6; Rom. 9:11-13; Prov. 16:4
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