2. " That this promise is not made unto the persons of any, but merely unto their qualifications; like that, 'He that believeth shall be saved ;' it is made to the grace of trusting, obedience, and walking with God: for threatenings are made to the evil qualifications of men."
Ans. This it seems, then, we are come unto (and what farther pro- gress may be made the Lord knows) : The gracious promises of God, made to his church, his people, in the blood of Jesus, on which they have rolled themselves with safety and security in their several gene- rations, are nothing but bare declarations of the will of God, what he allows and what he rejects, with the firm concatenation that is between faith and salvation, obedience and reward. And this, it seems, is the only use of them : which if it be so, I dare boldly say that all the saints of God from the foundation of the world have most horribly abused his promises, and forced them to other ends than ever God intended them for. Doubtless all those blessed souls who are fallen asleep in the faith of Jesus Christ, having drawn re- freshment from these breasts of consolation, could they be summoned to give in their experience of what they have found in this kind, would with one mouth profess that they found far more in them than mere conditional declarations of the will of God; yea, that they received them in faith as the engagement of his heart and
266 DOCTRINE OF THE saints' PERSEVERA^X'E. [CHAP.
good-will towards them, and that he never failed in the accomplish- ment and performance of all the good mentioned in them. Neither will that emphatical expression in the close of the second verse (which being somewhat too rough for our author to handle, he left it quite out) bear any such sense. That the promises of the cove- nant are made originally to persons, and not to qualifications, hath been in part already proved, and shall be farther evinced, God as- sisting, as occasion shall be offered, in the ensuing discourse. The promises are to Abraham and his seed; and some of them, as hath been declared, are the springs of all qualifications whatever that are acceptable unto God, What be the qualifications of promises of opening blind eyes, taking away stony hearts, etc., hath not as yet been declared. But it is farther argued, —
3. " That this and the like promises are to be intei-preted accord- ing to the rule which God hath given for the interpretation and un- derstanding of his threatenings unto nations about temporal things, and his promises that are of the same import, which we have, Jer. xviii. 7, 8, plainly affirming that all their accomplishment dependeth on some conditions in the persons or nations against whom they are denounced."
Ans. God forbid ! Shall those promises which are branches of the everlasting covenant of grace, called "better promises" than those of the old covenant, upon the account of their infallible accomplish- ment, ratified in the blood of Christ, made "yea and amen"^ in him, the witness of the faithfulness of God to his church and grand sup- porter of our faith, " exceeding great and pi-ecious,"^ — shall they be thought to be of no other sense and int^erpretation, to make no other revelation of the Father unto us, but in that kind which is common to threatenings of judgments (expressly conditional) for the deterring men from their impious and destructive courses? I say, God forbid ! To put it, then, to an issue : God here promiseth that they who have trust in him shall never be removed. What, I pray, is the condition on Avhich this promise doth depend ? " It is," say they who oppose us in this, " if they continue trusting in him." That is, if they be not removed ; for to trust in him is not to be removed : if, then, they be not removed, they shall not be removed ! And is this the mind of the Holy Ghost? Notwithstanding all the rhetoric in the world, this promise will stand, for the consolation of them that believe, as the mountains about Jerusalem, that shall never be removed.
In some it is said to be " a promise of abiding in happiness, not in faith." But it plainly appears to be a promise of abiding in trusting the Lord, which comprehends both our faith and happiness.
ObJ. " It is not promised that they who once trust in the Lord shall abide happy thoiigh they cease to trust in him."
• Hcb. viii. 6 ; 2 Cor. i. 20. » 2 Pet. i. 4.
VI.] PARTICULAR PROMISES ILLUSTRATED. 267
Ans. It is a promise that they shall not cease to trust in him.
Obj. " It is not said that they shall be necessitated to abide trust- ing in him."
Ans. No; but it is that they shall be so far assisted and effectually wrought upon as certainly to do it.
Obj. "It is no more than the apostle says to the Corinthians, 2 Cor. ii. 3 ; which frame towards them he would not continue should they be changed and turned into idolaters and blasphemers."
A71S. 1. The promises of God and the affections of men are but ill compared. 2. Paul loved the Corinthians whilst they were such as he mentioned. God promiseth his grace to believers, that they may continue such as he loves.