238 DOCTRINE OF THE SATNTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.
■waters of Noah unto mc : for as I have sworn that the Avaters of Noah should no more go over the earth ; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth Avith thee, nor rebuke thee. For the mountains shall de- part, and the hills be removed ; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee." He will have mercy on them with everlasting kindness, verse 8. " Yea, but how if they walk not worthy of it?" Why, yet this kindness shall not fail, saith the Lord; for it is " as the waters of Noah." God sweareth that " the waters of Noah shall no more cover the earth," and you see the stability of what he hath spoken ; the world is now " reserved for fire," but drowned it shall be no more. " My kindness to thee," says God, " is such, it shall no more depart from thee than those waters shall return again upon the earth." Neither is this all wherein he com- pareth his kindness to the waters of Noah, but in this also, in that in the promise of drowning the world no more there was an express non obstante for the sins of men: Gen. viii. 21, " The Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth." "Though men grow ftdl of wickedness and violence, as before the flood they were, yet," saith the Lord, " the world shall be drowned no more." And in this doth the promise of kindness hold proportion with that of the waters of Noah. There is an express relief in it against the sins and failings of them to whom it is made, — namely, such as he will permit them to fall into, whilst he certainly preserves them from all such as are inconsistent with his love and favour, according to the tenor of the covenant of grace ; and therefore it depends not on any thing in them, being made with a proviso for any such defect as in them may be imagined.
[3.] To affirm that these promises of God's abiding with us to the end do depend on any condition that may be uncertain in its event, by us to be fulfilled, as to their accomplishment, doth wholly ener- vate and make them void in respect to the main end for which they were given us of God. That one chief end of them is to give the saints consolation in every condition, in all the straits, trials, and temptations, which they are to undergo or may be called to, is evident. When Joshua was entering upon the great work of subduing the Canaanites, and setting the tabernacle and people of God in their appointed inheritance, wherein he was to pass through innumerable difficulties, trials, and pressures, God gives him that word of promise, " I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee," Josh. i. 5. So are many of them made to the saints in their weakness, darkness, and deser- tions, as will appear by the consideration of the particular instances following, Isa, iv. 3, 4. Now, what one drop of consolation can a jioor, drooping, tempted soul, s(|ueeze out of such promises as de-
v.] THE PROMISES OF GOD. 239
pend wholly and solely upon any tiling within themselves: " He will be with me and be my God, it is true ; but always provided that I continue to be his. That also is a sweet and gracious promise; but that I shall do so he hath not promised. It seems I have a cursed liberty left me of departing wickedly from him; so that, upon the matter, notwithstanding these promises of his, I am left to my- self If I will abide with him, well and good, he will abide with me and so it will be well with me ; — that he should so abide with me as to cause me to abide with him, it seems there is no such thing. Soul, look to thyself; all thy hopes and help are in thyself But, alas ! for the present I have no sense of this love of God, and I know not that I have any true, real, unfeigned obedience to him. Conuption is strong, temptations are many; what shall I say? Shall I exercise faith on those promises of God wherein he hath said and given assurance that 'he will be a God to me for ever?' According as my thoughts are of my own abiding with him, so may I think of them, and no otherwise; so that I am again rolled upon mine own hands, and left to mine own endeavours to extricate myself from these sad entanglements." What now becomes of the consolation which in these promises is intended? Are they not, on this account, rather flints and pieces of vcon than breasts of comfort and joy?
Lastly, If it be so as is supposed, it is evident that God makes no promises unto persons, but only unto conditions and qualifications; — that is, his promises are not engagements of his love and good- will to believers, but discoveries of his approbation of believing. Suppose any promise of God to be our God, our all-sufficient God for ever, not eminently to include an engagement for the effectual exertion of the all-sufficiency to preserve and continue us in such a state and spiritual condition as wherein he may with the glory and honour of his grace, and will not fail to, abide and continue our God, and you cut all the nerves and sinews of it, as to the administration of any consolation unto them to whom it is given. The promises must be made good, that is certain; and if they are accomplished or not accomplished unto men merely upon the account of such and such qualifications in them, — which if they are found, then they shall be fulfilled, if not, then they are suspended, — they are made to the conditions, and not at all to the persons. And though some, per- haps, will easily grant this, yet upon this account it cannot be said that God ever made any one promise unto his church as consisting of such persons, namely, Abraham and his seed; which is directly contrary to that of the apostle, Rom. ix. 8, where he calleth the elect " The children of the promise," or those to whom the promises were made. It appears, then, that neither are these promises of God conditional. As they proceed from free grace, so there is no other account on which they are given out, continued, and accom-