f God their author, who is truth itself.
Which word of God is the alone perfect and complete rule, both of faith
and practice, containing a full and ample revelation of the whole
counsel of God, both respecting his own glory and the salvation of men;
by which all spirits are to be tried, and to which all doctrines and
controversies in religion are to be brought, as to the supreme judge, in
whose sentence alone we are to acquiesce; according to Rom. i, 19, 20; 1
Cor. ii, 13, 14; Heb. i, 1; 2 Tim. iii, 16; 2 Pet. i, 19, 21; 2 Tim.
iii, 15; Gal. i. 8, 9; Eph. ii, 20, and our standards, Confess. chap. 1;
larger Cat. quest. 2-5; shorter Cat. quest. 2, 3.

III. OF THE DECREES OF GOD.--Again, they assert and maintain, that
Jehovah, according to his own most wise counsel, and for his own glory,
has, by one immanent act of his will from eternity, purposed and decreed
all events in time; and particularly, that by his absolute sovereignty,
he has unchangeably determined the final state of all intelligent
beings, visible and invisible. That God of his mere good pleasure,
abstracting from all other causes whatever, for the praise of his
glorious grace to be manifested in time, has from all eternity
predestinated a certain definite number of mankind sinners, in and
through Jesus Christ, to eternal life, together with all the means
leading thereunto. And also, by the same sovereign will, has passed by,
and left others in their sins, foreordaining them to bear the just
punishment of their own iniquities; as is evident from Rom. ix, 11, 13,
15, 16, 18; Eph. i, 4, 6, 9, 11; Jude verse 4; and according to Confess,
chap. 3; larger Cat. quest. 12, 13; shorter Catechism quest. 7.

IV. OF CREATION.--In like manner they acknowledge and declare, that as
God, from the infinity of his being and goodness, has communicated a
finite created existence to all other beings, framing them with natures
wisely suited and adapted to the different ends of their creation; so by
the same all-powerful word whereby they were at first created, he
preserves and upholds all his creatures in their beings, and by the
incessant care and invariable conduct of his divine providence, does
constantly direct and overrule them and all their actions unto his own
glory; according to divine revelation, Gen. i, throughout; Col i, 16;
Rom. xi, 36; Psal, cxlv, 17, and xxxiii, 9; and cxix, 91; Heb. i, 2, 3;
Confess, chap. 4, 5; larger Cat. quest. 14; short. Cat. quest. 8.

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