1. Faithfulness; 2. Loving-kindness; 3. Covenant; 4. Promise; 5. Oath — The intendment of the words insisted on from 1 Sam. xii. 22 — Isa. xxvii.
2, 3, Zeph. iii. 17, illustrated — The intendment of these words, " I will not forsake thee" — The reason of the promise, and means promised therein — No cause in them to whom the promise is made — Ezek. xxxvi. 32, Isa. xliii. 22-2o, opened; also Isa. Ivii. 17 — The cause in God himself only — The "name" of God, what it imports; his all-sufficiency engaged therein, and his goodness — The rise and fountain of all God's goodness to his people in his own good pleasure — The sum of our argument from this place of Scripture — Ps. xxiii. 4, 6, opened; the psalmist's use of assurance of perseverance — Inferences from the last use — 2 Tim. iv. 18 opened — All believers in the same condition as to perseverance with David and Paul — The second inference from the place in- sisted on — Assurance a motive to obedience, and is the end that God intends to promote thereby — Ps. cxxv. 1, 2 explained; Ps. xxxvii. 28; Deut. xxxiii. 3 — Inferences from that place of the psalmist — Perpetual preservation in the condition of saints promised to believers — Mr G.'s objections and exceptions to our exposition and argument from this place removed — Promises made originally to persons, not qualifications — Not the same reason of promises to the church and of threatenings to sinners — Other objections removed — Isa. liv. 7-10, the mind of the Lord in the promise mentioned in that place opened — The exposition given on that place and arguments from thence vin- dicated— Direction for the right improvement of promises — Hos. ii. 19, 20, opened — Of the general design of that chapter — The first part, of the total re- jection of the church and political state of the Jews — The second, of promises to the remnant according to the election of grace — Of this four pai-ticulars: 1. Of conversion, verses 14, 15; 2. Of obedience and forsaking all false wor- ship, verses 16, 17; 3. Of peace and quietness, verse 18; 4. Discovering the fountain of all the mercies, verses 19, 20 — Some objections removed — To whom this promise is made — The promise farther opened ; the persons to whom it is made — Verse 14 of that chapter opened — The wilderness condition whereunto men are allured by the gospel, what it imports: 1. Separation; 2. Entangle- ment— God's dealing with a soul in its wilderness condition — Promises given to persons in that condition — The sum of the foregoing promises — The persons to whom they are made farther described — The nature of the main promise itself considered — Of the main covenant between God and his saints — The pro- perties of God engaged for the accomplishment of this promise — Mr G.'s exposi- tion of this place considered and confuted — John x. 27-29 opened, vindicated.
Having cleared the truth of the one and meaning of the other proposition mentioned in the argument last proposed. I proceed to confirm the latter by an induction of particular promises. The first that I shall fix upon is that of Joshua i. 5, " I will be with thee : I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee." This promise, it is true, in this original copy of it, is a grant to one single person entering upon a peculiar employment ; but the Holy Ghost hath eminently taught the saints of God to plead and improve it in all generations for their own advantage, and that not only upon the account of the general rule of the establishment of all promises in Jesus Christ to the glory of God by us/ but also by the application which himself makes of
I 2 Cor. i. 20.
250 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PEESEVEBANCK [CHAP.
it unto them, and all their occasions wherein they stand in need of the faithfulness of God therein : Heb. xiii. 5, " Let j'our conversation be without covetousness ; and be content with such things as ye have : for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." The apostle layeth down an exhortation in the beginning of the verse against the inordinate desire of the things of the world, that are laboured after upon the account of this present life. To give power and efficacy to his exhortation, he manifesteth all such desires to be altogether needless, upon consideration of His all-sufficiency who hath promised never to forsake them ; which he manifests by an in- stance in this promise given to Joshua, giving us withal a rule for the application of all the promises of the Old Testament which were made to the church and people of God. Some labour much to rob believers of the consolation intended for them in the evangelical pro- mises of the Old Testament, though made in general to the church, upon this account, that they were made to the Jews, and being to them peculiar, their concernment now lieth not in them. If this plea might be admitted, I know not any one promise that would more evidently fall under the power of it than this we have noAv in consideration. It was made to a peculiar person, and that upon a peculiar occasion, — made to a general or captain of armies, with re- spect to the great wars he had to undertake upon the special com- mand of God. May not a poor, hungry believer say, " What is this to me? I am not a general of an army, have no wars to make upon God's command. The virtue, doubtless, of this promise expired with the conquest of Canaan, and died with him to whom it was made." To manifest the sameness of love that is in all the promises, with their establishment in one Mediator, and the general concernment of believers in every one of them, however and on what occasion soever given to any, this promise to Joshua is here applied to the condition of the weakest, meanest, and poorest of the saints of God, to all and every one of them, be their state and condition what it will. And, doubtless, believers are not a little wanting to themselves and their own consolation that they do not more particularly close with those words of truth, grace, and faithfulness, which, upon sundry occasions and at divers times, have been given out unto the saints of old, even Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, and the residue of them who walked with God in their generations. These things in an especial man- ner are recorded for our consolation, " that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope," Rom. xv. 4. Now, the Holy Ghost, knowing the weakness of oiu- faith, and how apt we are to be beaten from closing with the promises, and from mixing them with faith, upon the least discouragement that may arise (as, indeed, this is none of the least, " That the promise is not made to us, it was made to others, and they may reap the sweetness of it ; God may be