A71S. 1. The sum of this answer is, that the apostle, by saying " God is faithful," doth not understand God's faithfulness. What other virtue is intended in God by his faithfulness but that whereby his truth and his constancy in words and promises is signified, I know not. Let the places from the beginning of the Scriptures to the end wherein there is mention made of the faith or faithfulness of God, of his l3eing faithful, with the application thereof, the scope and intend- ment of the place, be perused, and see if they will give the least allowance to turn aside from eyeing the property and perfection of God before mentioned, as that which they peculiarly intend. Deut, vii. 9; Ps. xxxvi. 5, Ixxxix. ], 2, 5, cxliii. 1; Isa. xlix. 7; Hos. ii. 20; Rom. iii. 8; 2 Tim. ii. 13; Heb. x. 23; 1 John i. 9, are some of them. Why we should wring out another sense of the expression in this place, I know not.
2. The faithfulness of God is not mentioned as that " divine prin- ciple out of which he is moved to establish and confirm believers to the end," but only to confirm them in the faith of his unchangeable- ness and constancy in accomplishing the work of his free grace, which he had begun in them and promised to confirm to the end
246 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.
The work flows from the prmciple of his free grace in Jesus Christ, whence alone he gives them great, free, and precious promises. His stability and constancy in those promises, as to their performance, is intended by his faithfulness and truth in them. What are the pro- mises of God improperly so called, and not exJdbited in words, which you intimate, I know not.
S. The apostle doth not only " suppose," but in the name and autho- rity of God actually gives, in the places under consideration, promises of the certain and infallible preservation of believers to the end, asserting the immutability of God's engagement in them from his faithfulness. In brief, not to darken counsel and understanding with a multitude of words, by the promises of God we intend in a peculiar manner those expressed in the texts under consideration, — namely, that God will establish believers to the end, keep them from evil and all temptations that would overthrow them; and by i\i& faithful- ness of God, from whence believers have their assurance of the ac- complishment of these promises, [we intend] that which the Scrip- ture holds out, and all the world of believers have hitherto taken, to be the faithfulness of God, as was before described. But it seems the word is here used otherwise ; for, saith he, —
" It is such a kind of faithfulness or disposition in him as that meant by Peter when he styleth him a ' faithful Creator.' Now, God is, and may properly be termed, a faithful Creator, because he con- stantly performs unto his creature whatsoever the relation of a Crea- tor promiseth in an equitable and rational way unto it ; which is, a great care and tenderness for the preservation and well-being of it. In like manner, he may, yea it is most likely that he is, called ' faith- fur in his calling of men, as he is a spiritual Father or Creator, a giver of a new being unto men, because he never faileth to perform unto those new creatures of his whatsoever such a being as this, reffu- larly interpreted, promiseth unto him who receiveth it from him who is the donor of it; that is, convenient and sufficient means for the presa^'vatiou and well-being of it. So that the ' faithfulness of God ' in the scripture in iiand supposes no such promise made by God as our opposei's imagine, — namely, Avhereby he should in terms or words stand engaged to establish, confirm, or keep believers from evil, his new creatures, his regenerated ones, after any such a manner but that they, if they be careless or negligent for themselves, may be shaken and decline, and commit evil notwithstanding."
Ans. 1. That ny God's faithfulness, mentioned in that place of Peter, such a disposi'tion as you afterward describe is intended, you had better say than undertake to prove. It is evident the scope of the apostle is, to exhort the"' saints of God in all their trials and afliictions to commit themselves fvnd their ways with patience and quietness unto God, upon the accoumt of liis power to preserve them as he is
v.] THE PROMISES OF GOD. 247
the Creator of all, and Lis constancy in receiving of them, being present with them, abiding with them, as he is faithful in his word and promises. Yea, and the interpretation our author would have fixed on the expression here used is not only remote from the in- tendment of the place, turning that into a general good disposition towards all his creatures which is intimated for the peculiar support of believers, and that in their distress, but also is in itself a false, fond, and loose assertion. There is no law nor relation of creation that lays hold on God so far as to oblige him to the communication of one drop of his goodness to any of the creatures beyond what is given them by their creation, or to continue that unto them for one moment, all the dispensation of himself unto his creatures flowing from his sovereign good pleasure, doing what he will with his own.