you, though you should resolve to starve yourself, if you get it not but this is,

4. 'Confirmed out of Peter Martyr, whose doctrine it is, that the promises of God are wont to be made with a respect unto the present estate and condition of things, with men: that is, they shall be performed unto men abiding under the qualifications, unto which they are made; as for example: What promises soever God maketh to believers, with respect had to their faith, or as they are believers, are not to be looked on as performable, or obliging the maker of them unto them, in case they shall relapse into their former unbelief.'

Ans. It is too well known, how, and to what end, our author cites Peter Martyr, and men of the same judgment with him, in this controversy, and to how little advantage to his cause with discerning men, he hath done it. In the same place, from whence these words are taken, the author distinguisheth of the promises of God, and telleth you, that some of them are conditional, which are (saith he) of a legal nature, which only shew the connexion between the condition, or qualification they require, and the thing they promise thereunto: and such are those whereof he speaks: but others he tells you, are absolute and evangelical, not depending on any condition in us at all; and so he tells us, out of Chrysostom, that this of our Saviour, Matt. xix. 28. is of the former sort; and the accomplishment of such like promises as these, he informs us, to consist not in the actual fulfilling of what is conditionally affirmed, but in the certain truth of the axiom, wherein the condition, and the event as such, are knit together.

2. To the example urged, I shall only ask what Mr. Goodwin's judgment is of the promises, that God hath made to believers, that they shall never relapse into their former state of unbelief, and on what condition they are made? Whether his promise of his love unto, and acceptance of believers, wherein he will abide for ever, do not infer their preservation in the condition, wherein they are (i. e. believers), will in the next place fall under our consideration. Your conclusion is, in the sense explained you admit the proposition; whatsoever God promiseth is certain, that is, it shall certainly be fulfilled, or it shall not.

There is, moreover, no small contribution of strength, as to our establishment in the faith of it, given to our proposition, by the signal engagement of the faithfulness of God, for the accomplishment of the promises, which he makes unto us; as it is manifest in those words of the apostle; 1 Cor. i. 9. God is faithful, by whom you are called to the fellowship of his Son:' in the foregoing verse, he telleth them that God will confirm them to the end, that they may be blameless in the day of the Lord Christ; of which confident assertion, he gives them this account, God is faithful to make good his promises made unto them, he changeth not. When a promise is once passed, that which first presents itself to the consideration of them to whom it is made, and whose concernment it is, that it be fulfilled, is the faithfulness of him that hath made the promise. This property of God's nature doth the apostle therefore mind the saints of, to lead them to a full assurance of their preservation. His promise being passed, fear not his faithfulness for its accomplishment. Might there in this case a supposal be allowed of any such interveniencies, as might intercept them in the way of enjoying what God truly promised, and cause them to come short thereof, what assurance could arise to them from the consideration of the faithfulness of God, who made those promises unto them? The faithfulness of God then is engaged for the accomplishment of the thing promised, which also shall be done, in case that fail not. So also 1 Thess. v. 23, 24. The very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ: faithful is he that calleth you, who will also do it.' He assures them of their preservation in and unto the enjoyment of the things which he prayed for, and that upon the account of his faithfulness who had promised them: and, saith he, 'he will do it :' viz. because he is faithful. Let the oppositions to it be never so many, the difficulties never so great, the interveniencies what they will; 'He is faithful, and he will do it as it is affirmed, 2 Thess. iii. 3. But the Lord is faithful, who shall establish you, and keep you from evil :' as also in 1 Cor. x. 13. God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that you

may be able to bear it.' The same faithfulness of God is held out as that upon the account whereof no temptation shall befall believers, so as to separate them from him. The promise here peculiarly confirmed by it, and established on it, is such as no condition can tolerably be fixed unto. I will not suffer believers to be overcome with temptations, in case they be not overcome with temptations, is a promise not to be ascribed to the infinite wisdom of God, with which we have to do, and yet no other can with the least colour be proposed. All sin, all falling from God is upon temptation. Though Satan and the world should have no hand in drawing man aside from God, yet what they do from their own lusts, they do from temptation; James i. 14, 15. If God in his faithfulness will not suffer any temptation to prevail against believers, unless they neglect their duty, and fall from him, and they can no otherwise neglect their duty, nor depart from him, but upon the prevalency of temptation, their abiding with him, their final unconquerableness, hath a certainty answerable to the faithfulness of God.

This part of our strength Mr. Goodwin attempts to deprive us of; chap. 11. sect. 18. p. 236. in these words: 'Whereas the apostle mentioneth the faithfulness of God, as that divine principle in him, or attribute out of which he is moved to establish and confirm believers unto the end, and so to keep them from evil; by faithfulness he doth not necessarily mean that property or attribute of his, that renders him true and just, or constant in the performance of his promises, as if the apostle in these or any like places, supposed such a promise, one or more, made by him, by which he stands obliged to establish and confirm his saints unto the end by a strong and irresistible hand.'

Ans. 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 being faithful, with the application thereof, the scope and intendment of the place, be perused, and see if they will give the least allowance to turn aside from eying the property

and perfection of God before-mentioned, as that which they peculiarly intend; Deut. vii. 9. Psal. xxxvi. 5. lxxxix. 1, 2. 5. cxliii. 1. Isa. xlix. 7. Hos. ii. 20. Rom. iii. 3. 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 principle, out of which he is moved to establish and confirm believers to the end, but only to confirm them in the faith of his unchangeableness and constancy in accomplishing the work of his free grace, which he had begun in them, and promised to confirm to the end. The work flows from the principle 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 promises of God improperly so called, and not exhibited in words, which you intimate, I know not.

3. The apostle doth not only suppose, but in the name and authority of God, gives actually, 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. viz. That God will establish believers to the end, keep them from evil and all temptations, that would overthrow them and by the faithfulness of God, from whence believers have their assurance of the accomplishment of these promises, that which the Scripture 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 constantly performs unto his creature, whatsoever the relation of a Creator promiseth in an equitable and rational way unto it, which is a great care and ten

derness for the preservation and well-being of it. In like manner he may, yea, it is most likely that he is, called faithful 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, regularly interpreted, promiseth unto him, who receiveth it from him who is the donor of it: that is, convenient and sufficient means for the preservation and well-being of it. So that the faithfulness of God in the Scripture in hand, supposes no such promise made by God, as our opposers imagine: viz. whereby 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. That by God's faithfulness mentioned in that place of Peter, such a disposition 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 afflictions, to commit themselves and their ways with patience and quietness unto God, upon the account of his power to preserve them, as he is the Creator of all, and his 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 intendment 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.

2. He doth very faintly, when he hath made the farthest step in confident asserting that he dares venture upon (it