I say, a plain promise of their continuance in that condition, wherein they are, with their safety from thence, and not a promise of some other good thing, provided that they continue in that condition. Their being compared to mountains, and their stability, which consists in their being and continuing so, will admit no other sense. As mount Sion abides in its condition, so shall they: and as the mountains about Jerusalem continue, so dc th the Lord his presence unto them.

2. That expression which is used, ver. 2. is weighty and full to this purpose, The Lord is round about his people henceforth and for ever.' What can be spoken more fully, more pathetically? Can any expression of men so set forth the truth which we have in hand? The Lord is round about them, not to save them from this or that incursion, but from all: not from one or two evils, but from every one, whereby they are or may be assaulted. He is with them and round about them, on every side, that no evil shall come nigh them. It is a most full expression of universal preservation, or of God's keeping his saints in his love and favour, upon all accounts whatsoever. And that not only for a season, but it is, henceforth, from his giving this promise unto their souls in particular, and their receiving of it in all generations, according to their appointed times, even for ever.

Some few exceptions, with a great surplusage of words and phrases, to make them seem some other things, than what have been formerly insisted on again and again, are advanced by Mr. Goodwin, to overturn this Sion, and to cast down the mountains that are about Jerusalem, chap. 11. sect. 9. pp. 230-232. The sum of our argument from hence, as of the intendment of this place, is this: Those whom the Lord will certainly preserve for ever in the state and condition of trusting in him, they shall never be forsaken of him, nor separated from him. The latter clause of this proposition is that which we contend for, the whole of that whose proof is incumbent on us: of this, the former part is a sufficient basis and foundation: being comprehensive of all that is, or can be required to the unquestionable establishment thereof: from the letter of the text we assume: But God will certainly preserve for ever all his saints that put their trust in him, in their so doing, that they shall not be altered, or cast down from that state and condition:

change but the figurative expressions in the text, and the allusions used for the accommodation of their faith in particular, to whom this promise was first given, into other terms of a direct and proper significancy, and the text and the assumption of our argument will appear to be the same; whence the conclusion intended will undeniably follow: unto this clear deduction of the truth contended for, from this place of Scripture, the discourse ensuing in the place mentioned, is opposed.

1. The promise only assures them that trust in the Lord, that they shall be preserved, but not at all that they that trust in him, shall be necessitated to do so still, or that so they shall do. So Paul saith, It was in my heart to live and die with the Corinthians: but doubtless with this proviso, that they always continued such as they then were, or as he apprehended them to be, when he so wrote to them.'

:

Ans. I must be forced to smite this evasion once and again, before we arrive at the close of this contest, it being so frequently made use of by our adversary, who without it, knows himself not able to stand against the evidence of any one promise usually insisted on. This is the substance of all that, which with exceeding delightful variety of expressions, is a hundred times made use of. The promise is conditional, and made to those that trust in the Lord, and is to be made good only upon the account of their continuing so to do but that they shall so do, that they shall continue to trust in the Lord, that is wholly left to themselves, and not in the least undertaken in the promise;' and this is called a discharging or dismissing of places of Scripture, from the service whereunto (contrary to their proper sense and meaning) they are pressed, a delivering them from the bearing the cross of this warfare, with such-like imperial terms and expressions. To speak in the singleness of our spirits, we cannot see any one of the discharged soldiers, returning from the camp, wherein they have long served for the safety and consolation of them that do believe. Particularly this Scripture detests the gloss with violence imposed on it, and tells you, that the end for which the God of truth sent it into this service, wherein it abides, is to assure them that trust in the Lord, that they shall be preserved in that condition to the end. That in the condition of trusting and

depending on God, they shall be as Sion, and the favour of God unto them as immoveable mountains; he will for ever be with them and about them: and that all this shall certainly come to pass, Christ [David] does not say, that they shall be as established mountains, if they continue to trust in the Lord, but they shall be so in their trusting, abiding for ever therein, through the safeguarding presence of God. For their being necessitated to continue trusting in the Lord, there is not any thing in [the] text, or in our argument from thence, or in the doctrine we maintain, that requires or will admit of any such proceeding of God, as by that expression is properly signified. Indeed there is a contradiction in terms, if they are used to the same purpose: to trust in the Lord, is the voluntary free act of the creature: to be necessitated unto this act, and in the performance of it, so that it should be done necessarily as to the manner of its doing, is wholly destructive to the nature and being of it. effectually, and infallibly as to the event, cause his saints to continue trusting in him, without the least abridgment of their liberty; yea, that he doth so eminently by heightening and advancing their spiritual liberty, shall be afterward declared: if by necessitated to continue trusting, not the manner of God's operation with and in them, for the compassing of the end proposed, and the efficacy of his grace, whereby he doth it (commonly decried under those terms) be intended: but only the certainty of the issue, rejecting the impropriety of the expression, the thing itself we affirm to be here promised of God. But is urged,

That God can

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 progress 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 generations, 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 foundations 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 refreshment from these breasts of consolation, could they be summoned to give in their experience of what they have found in this kind, they 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 good-will towards them, and that he never failed in the accomplishment 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 covenant are made originally to persons, and not to qualifications, hath been in part already proved, and shall be farther evinced (God assisting) 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, &c. hath not as yet been declared. But it is farther argued,

3. That this and the like promises, are to be interpreted according to the rule which God hath given for the interpretation and understanding 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 accomplishment, ratified in the blood of Christ, made yea and amen' in him, the witness of the faithfulness of God to his church, and grand supporter of our faith, exceeding

Heb. vii. 23. 2 Cor. i. 20.

h

h 2 Pet. i. 3.

great and precious?' Shall they be thought to be of no other sense and interpretation, 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 here trust in him shall never be removed. What, I pray, is the condition, on which 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.

6

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.

Ob. 'It is not promised, that they who once trust in the Lord, shall abide happy, though they cease to trust in him.' Ans. It is a promise that they shall not cease to trust in him.

Ob. 'It is not that they shall be necessitated to abide trusting in him.'

Ans. No, but it is that they shall be so far assisted and effectually wrought upon, as certainly to do it.

Ob. '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.'

Ans. 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.

Ob. All the promises are made to qualifications, not to persons.'

Ans. Prove that: and, 1. Take the case in hand; and, 2.