CHAPTER IV.
ARGUMENT 1 KOM THK COVENANT OF GRACE.
An entrance into the consideiation of the covenant of grace, and oiir argument from thence for the unchangeableness of the love of God unto believers — The intendment of the ensuing discourse— Gen. xvii. 7 opened and explained, with the confirmation of the argument in hand from thence — That argument vindicated and cleared of objections— Confirmed by some observations — Jer. xxxii 38-40 compared with chap. xxxi. 31-34 — The truth under consideration from thence clearly confirmed- The certainty, immutability, and infallible accomplishment, of all the promises of the new covenant demonstrated : 1 From the removal of all causes of alteration; 2. From the Mediator and his undertaking therein; 3 From the faithfulness of God— One instance fi'om the former considerations— The endeavour of Mr G to answer our argument from this place — His observation on and from the text considered — 1. 1'his promise not made to the .Tews only, 2. Nor to all the nation of the Jews, proved from Rom. xi. 7 ; not intending principally their deliverance from Babylon — His in- ferences from his former observations weighed — 1. The promise made to the body of the people of the Jews typical only; 2. An exposition borrowed of Socinus rejected; 3. The promise not appropriated to the time of the captivity, and the disadvantage ensuing to Mr G.'s cau.se upon such an exposition — The place insisted on compared with Ezek xi. 17-20— That place cleared— A fourth objection answered — This pro- mise always fulfilled — The spiritual part of it accomplished during the captivity — God's intention not frustrated- How far the civil prosperity of the Jews was con- cerned in this promise — Promises of spiritual and temporal things compared — The covenant of grace how far conditional — Mr G.'s sense of this place expressed — Bor- rowed from Faustus Socinus— The inconsistency of it with the mind of the Holy Ghost demonstrated, also with what himself hath elsewhere delivered — No waj' suited to be the answer of our argimient from the place — The same interpretation farther disproved— An immediate divine efficacy held out in the words— Conversion and pardon of sins promised — Difierenced fiom the grace and promises of the old cove- nant— Contribution of means put by Mr G. in the place of effectual operation of the thing itself, farther disproved — How, when, and to whom this promise was fulfilled, farther declared — An objection arising upon that consideration answered — Conjec- tures ascribed to God by Mr G. — The real foundation of all divine predictions — The promise utterly enervated, and rendered of none effect by Mr G."s exposition — Its consistency with the prophecies of the rejection of the Jews — The close of the argu- ment from the covenant of grace, ...... 204
CHAPTER V.
ARGDMEiNT I ROM THE PROMISES OF GOD.
Enti-ance into the argument from the promises of God, with their stability and his faith- fulness in them — The usual exceptions to this argument— A general description of gospel promises— Why and on what account called gospel promises— The description given general, not suited to any single promise — They are free, and that they are so proved; all flowing from the first great promise of giving a Redeemer — How they are discoveries of God's good-will; how made to sinners — Consequential promises made also to believers— Given in and through Christ in a covenant of grace— Their cer- tainty upon the account of the engagement of the truth and faithfxilness of God in them — Of the main matter of these promises, Christ and the Spirit — Of pai-ticular promises, all flowing from the same love and gi-ace- Observations on the promises of God, subservient to the end intended — 1. They are all true and faithful; the ground of the assertion — 2. Their accomplishment always certain, not always evident— 3. All conditional promises made good, and how — 4. The promises of perseverance of two sorts — 5 All promises of our abiding with God in faith and obedience absolute— The vanity of imposing conditions on them discovered— 6. Promises of God's abiding with us not to be separated from promises of our abiding with him — 7. That they do not properly depend on any condition in believers demonstrated — Instances of this as- sertion given — 8. Making them conditional renders them void as to the ends for which they are given— Given to persons, not to qualifications— The argument from the pro- mises of God stated — Mr G.'s exceptions against the first proposition cleared, and his
VI CONTENTS.
olijoctions answered— The promises of God alwaj's fulfilled — Of the promise made to Paul, Acts xxvii. 24, etc. — Good men make good tlieii- promises to the utmost of their abilities— The promise made to Paul absolute and of infallible accomplisliment— Of the promise of our Saviour to his disciples. Matt. xix. 28 — Who intended in that promise; not Judas— The accomplishment of the promise — The testunonj* of Peter Slartyr considered— The conclusion of the foreinentioned objection — The engage- ment of the faithfulness of God for the accomplishment of his promise, 1 Cor. i. S^; 1 Thess. V. 23, 24; 2 Thcss. iii. 3- The nature of the faithfulness of God, expressed in the foregoing places, inquired into— Perverted by Mr G. — His notion of the faith- fulness of (>od weighed and rejected— What intended in the Scripture by the faith- fulness of God -The close of the confirmation of the proposition or the argument proposed from the pi'omiscs of God— The assumption thereof vindicated— The sense put upon it by Mr G. — The question begged, ..... 225