its orbe doth then enlighten the earth farre more then multitudes of stars that shine bright in the clearest night and so one promise in armies of changes that befall beleevers fills their souls with more serenity and peace then the confluence of all outward contentments can produce under one small and petty crosse A Christian many times walkes more chearfully under sore fiery trials then others in the sun-shine of worldly prosperity The three children walkt to and fro with more joy in the furnace then Nebuchadnezzar in his stately Palace CHAP. VI. Containing positive rules directing to the right use of the promises HAving shew'd what a promise is and the sundry respects wherein the promises of the Gospel are precious by way of eminency and excesse I passe on to the third general head which is made up of several rules and directions that concern the due application of them which are by so much the more necessary by how much the promises above all other parts of the sacred Oracles of God are most apt to be deeply injured by the two sinful extremes of distrust and presumption The infirme beleever whose jealousies and misgivings are too strong for his faith puts away from him the consolations of the promises as small and looks upon them as cordials not strong enough to heale and remove his distempers The over-secure and self-confident person placeth his fond presumptions in the roome of Gods promise and thereby drawes as certaine a ruine upon himselfe as he who ventures to go over a deep river without any other bridge then what his shadow makes I shall therefore branch the rules which concerne the right use of them into rules positive and cautionary the one pointing out several duties which every one must exercise himselfe in that would willingly reape any real fruit and advantage from the promises the other forewarning the many errours and mistakes which are as stones of stumbling to weak Christians or as stones that lye upon the mouth of the wells of salvation which must be removed before the water of comfort can be drawn from them I shall begin with the positive rules which are many SECT 1. Eye God in the promises First in the applying of any promise fix the eye of your faith upon God and Christ in it Promises are not the primary object of faith but the secondary or they are rather the meanes by which we believe then the things on which we are to rest As in the Sacraments the elements of bread and wine serve as outward signes to bring Christ and a beleever together but that which faith closeth with and feedeth upon is Christ in the Ordinance and not the naked elements themselves So the promises are instrumental in the coming of Christ and the soul together they are the warrant by which faith is imboldned to come to him and to take hold of him but the union which faith makes is not between a beleever and the promise but between a beleever and Christ And therefore those Divines who in their Catechetical Systems have made the formal object of faith to be the promise rather then the person of Christ have failed in their expressions if not in their intentions and have spoken rather popularly then accurately For the object of faith is not ens complexum an Evangelical maxim or proposition but ens incomplexum the person of Christ as the whole current of Scripture-expressions do abundantly testifie wherein faith is described by receiving of Christ Joh. 1. 12. by beleeving on him Joh. 3. 16. by coming to him Joh. 6. 36. As we cannot come to Christ without the aide of a promise so may we not rest in the promise without closing with Christ The promises they are but as the field and Christ is the hidden pearle which is to be sought in them they are as the golden candlesticks and he is both as the Olive-tree which drops fatnesse into them and as the light which shines in them they are as the Alabaster-box and he is as the precious spicknard which sends forth the delightful savour they are as the the golden pot and he is the Mannah which is treasured and laid up in them they are as the glasse and he is the beautifull face which is to be seen in them We all beholding with open face as in a glasse the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory 2 Cor. 3. 18. But in looking unto God and Christ in the promise let the eye of faith be directed especially to these foure attributes and perfections of God the freenesse of his grace in making them the absolutenesse of his power to effect them the unhangeablenesse of his counsel not to revoke or disannull the least iota of them the greatnesse of his wisdome to performe all which he hath spoken in the best season and joynt of time These are foure such pillars upon which faith may safely leane and which the strength of the most violent temptations can never shake much lesse overturne as Sampson did the pillars of the house against which he leaned Judg. 16. 30. SECT 2. Eye free grace First view with the eye of faith the freenesse of Gods grace in making so many rich promises they are all patents of grace not bills of debt expressions of love not rewards of services gifts not wages He that made many out of mercy might without the least umbrage of injustice have made none Though his truth do tie him to the performance of them yet his love and mercy onely did move him to the making of them his promise hath made him a debtour but free grace made him a promiser And here the assertion of the School may be judged sound Divina voluntas licèt simpiciter libera sit ad extra ex suppositione tamen unius actus liberi potest necessitari ad alterum Though the will of God be most entirely free in all his manifestations towards the creature yet upon the voluntary and free precedency of one supposed act we may justly conceive him to be necessarily obliged to a second Thus God was most absolutely free in the making of his promises but having made them he is necessitated to the fulfilling of them by his truth According to that of the Apostle Tit. 1. 2. God who cannot lie hath promised before the world began And that of the Prophet Thou wilt performe the truth to Jacob and the mercy to Abraham Mich. 7. 20. The making of the promise unto Abraham was free mercy the fulfilling of it to Jacob was justice and truth This direction touching the freenesse of Gods grace in the promises is exceeding usefull to succour and relieve the perplexing fears of the weak and tempted Christian who though he have eyes to see the unspeakable worth and excellencie of the promises yet hath not the confidence to put forth the hand of faith and to apply them to his necessities He wants forgivenesse of sinnes but doubts the promise
scandalous and vile pollutions ought so farre to judge himselfe and to charge the guilt of them upon his soul as not to lay hold immediately upon the promises of forgivenesse untill he first renew his repentance and be throughly ashamed of the evil of his doings When Moses interceded for Miriam whom God had smitten with aleprosie If her father saith the Lord had but spit in her face should she not have been ashamed seven dayes Numb 12. 44. That is if her earthly father provoked to anger had expressed his displeasure by spitting upon her should she not for a season have been sorrowfull and pensive How much more then when her heavenly Father is displeased by her sinne should she for a time be ashamed and shut out from the priviledges and society of the Congregation To be guilty of great sinnes and at the same time without remorse and grief of heart to lay hold on the promises of mercy is not the acting of faith but of presumption because faith alwayes proceeds according to Gods method in the obtaining of peace and comfort Now the way by which God speakes peace and makes good the promises of forgivenesse is by repentance And therefore till that be renewed the comfort of pardon is suspended First God heard Ephraim bemoaning himselfe Jer. 31. 18. And then he remembred him then he manifests the bowels of a tender Father and saith I will surely have mercy upon him vers 20. Fourthly a believer falling into grosse and peace-destroying sinnes is so farre to charge the guilt of them upon his soul as to acknowledge That all those temporal afflictions and chastisements which God as a Father provoked to anger doth lay upon him are by his sinnes justly deserved and by God righteously inflicted â—hat God doth make his own children to feel the smart of his displeasure in heavy and sore afflictions occasioned by their iniquities is a truth which the Scripture holds forth with so much evidence that he that runnes may reade it They rebelled and vexed his holy Spirit therefore he was turned to be their enemy and he fought against them Isa 63. 10. So again For the iniquity of his covetousnesse was I wroth and smote him I hid me and was wroth Isa 57. 17. What pregnant instances also were old Eli upon whose person and posterity God brings a most severe and dreadfull judgement I Sam. 2. 31 32 33. David who complaines that his sinnes are a burthen too heavy for him Psal 38. 4. that his wounds stink and are corrupted because of his foolishnesse ver 5. that he is feeble and sore broken v. 8. Jonah who cries out of the belly of the whale as out of the belly of hell that he is forsaken and cast out of Gods sight Jonah 2. 2 3. How easie were it by an addition of examples in this kinde to make the number to swell into a Catalogue But a taste is enough Now what their carriage and behaviour towards God is in this condition see it in their expressions Old Eli when he heard of the judgement of God denounced against him saith It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good 1 Sam. 3. 18. David under all his pressures acknowledgeth that in faithfulnesse he had afflicted him Psal 119. 75. So Jonah who had fled from the presence of God in the prayer that he poureth out before him in his extremity confesseth the sinne and vanity of all other dependencies save on God alone They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercies Jonah 2. 8. But it may be objected How can it stand with the justice of God to punish sinne in his children with any such kinde of affliction Christ having made an absolute and plenary satisfaction for them To this the answer is easie that these temporal punishments though they have displeasure mixed with them yet they do not slow from the vindictive justice of God as an irreconciled enemy but are the corrections of a provoked Father and do wholly differ in the end from the vindictive which are not medicinal but destructive The Judge who sentenceth the hand of a malefactor to be cut off hath not the same end with the Physician that cuts of an hand when it is incurably festred the one commands it as a satisfaction due to justice the other enjoynes it as a meanes to preserve the safety of the other parts So when God afflicts the wicked and believers with the same temporal evils though the smart and paine may be in both alike yet he doth it not with the same mind nor to the same end the one he punisheth in order to the satisfaction of his justice the other as a Father he corrects in order to their amendment to the one therefore it is properly a punishment and to the other truly a medicine SECT 2. How farre a believer ought not to charge himselfe with atrocious sinnes The second head that I am to speake unto is to shew how farre believers are not to charge the guilt of their great and most hainous sinnes upon themselves And this also take in the foure following particulars First believers are not to charge the guilt of such sinnes upon themselves as from thence to conclude that there is an absolute fall from the state of justification and the grace of Adoption so as that now they are no longer sonnes nor have any right to the heavenly inheritance The love of God in Christ is an endlesse and unchangeable love John 13. 1. and hath its perpetuity founded not upon any thing in us but upon the firme rock of his Will and Counsel His Covenant is everlasting ordered in all things and sure although we be not so with God 1 Sam. 23. 5. True it is that the fall and lapses of a justified person do so farre make a breach upon his state of justification and adoption as that the comforts and priviledges of it are thereby withheld and suspended but his right thereunto is not made null or extinguished He is under the power of an interdiction but not under the power of an ejection He may not like Absalom see the Kings face 1 Sam. 14. 24. but he is not an exile And in this condition he doth abide untill he renew his repentance and thereby recover a fitnesse and aptitude to enjoy what before he had a right unto being like a cleansed leper who hath the liberty of returning unto his house from which his defilement had separated him and shut him out Now if any think the effects and consequences of this spiritual sequestration do import little and that they are not antidotes strong enough to check the presumption of the flesh which is in believers and to keep them from playing the wantons with the grace of God To such all that I shall say is that to me they seem to be as blinde men that understaud little or nothing the wide difference between the light of the Sunne and the darknesse of the night and to
others Little considering that the just ground of Gods causing such bright starres to set in a cloud may be to hide from them what might benefit them in their death who have learned nothing from the holy example of their lives The obstinate Jewes opposed the Doctrine which Christ taught and rejected the salvation which he offered unto them whilst he was among them And then at his death insultingly ask for miracles that might declare him to be the Son of God whereby they might believe on him Mat. 26. 42. But God then made his death a stone of stumbling for them to fall at who had made his life and converse among them to be the object of scorne both to themselves and others The fourth Proposition is that the judgement and estimate which beleevers and others make concerning mens spiritual estates and conditions should chiefly be grounded upon their lives rather then their deaths There may many accidents fall out in their death which as they do not prejudice a beleevers salvation so neither should they his Christian reputation He may through a feaver become phrenetical through melancholy he may be lumpish and heavy through temptations he may be unsetled through desertions he may speak uncomfortable speeches be afflicted with despairing thoughts His darkness may be without the least glimmerings of light His agonies in death without sense of comfort And yet he may be a dear childe of God Because as holy Greenham saith we shall not be judged according to that particular instant of death but according to the general course of our life not according to our deeds in that present but according to the desires of our hearts ever before And therefore we are not to mistrust Gods mercy in death be it never so uncomfortable if so be it hath been before sealed in our vocation and sanctification It is sad indeed when the lives and dayes of those do in such a manner determine and expire who have wasted their time and strength in sinful exorbitancies and have been eaten up with the cares and thoughts of the world without the least minding of their eternal condition till arrested by the stroak of death and summoned to appear at the tribunal of a provoked God But else though the close of an holy life be most uncomfortable and full of darknesse it is no just ground to any to change their apprehension and perswasion concerning the welfare of their everlasting estate having before-hand seen and known such unblameablenesse of conversation such fruits of grace as might clearly evidence the uprightnesse and sincerity of their hearts towards God and men CHAP. XVI What use is to be made of temporal Promises THe fifth and last Query that I shall propound is What use is to be made of temporal promises such wherein preservation from outward evils the free and liberal donation of earthly blessings the removal of sad and heavy pressures are in particular promised and undertaken for by God in his Word After what manner are beleevers to act and exercise their faith upon them or to hope for the performance of them in regard that they oft-times who may best plead their title and interest in them do most of all want the fruition of such mercies They saith the Apostle of whom the world was not worthy wandred about in sheep-skins and goat-skins being destitute afflicted and tormented Heb. 11. 37 38. The answer to this Question I do not purpose to make as the cords of a tent stretched out to their utmost length or unnecessarily to enlarge as the Pharisees did with affectation their phylacteries but yet for the more full and just solution of it I conceive it will not be impertinent to speak to three particulars First to shew why God under the Old Testament did make the tenour of his promises to run so universally of his giving unto them the blessings and enjoyments of this life when as under the Gospel such kinde of promises are more sparingly recorded and not so distinctly set down Secondly to shew the various advantage and profit that believers may reape to their spirituall estate by looking unto such promises with an eye of faith and quietly waiting the good pleasure of God for the fulfilling of them Thirdly to give rules for the right understanding of the nature of temporall promises and the manner of due applying them unto our particular exigencies and conditions SECT 1. Why God hath made such various promises of temporall mercies to his people under the Law For the first viz. Gods making unto his people so many distinct and redoubled promises of temporall mercies sundry reasons might be assigned but I shall fix onely upon this that such away of bounty was most suitable to the winning of their observance unto such administrations and formes of worship as he then gave them in command and required their obedience unto For untill the time of reformation came as the Apostle expresseth it Heb. 9 10. That is untill the time of the New Testament when both the imperfection of the Law and Priesthood was to be done away by Christ who as a more excellent Priest offered up a most perfect sacrifice all things were transacted after an earthly and externall manner The Sanctuary was worldly Heb. 9. 1. The Ordinances imposed on them were carnall which stood in meates and drinkes and divers washings Heb. 9. 10. Now to this paedagogie of the Church the promises of such outward blessings were most agreeable As the duties and exercises of their religion were most conversant about the outward man so likewise the promises that were the encouragements to move and incite them to an observancy of those prescribed rites were such as did chiefly hold forth the prosperity and well-fare of their outward estate Not that the goodnesse of God to his people or his Covenant with them did extend onely to the care of their bodies or that this was the utmost drift of those many promises which he had made unto them This had been as Peter Martyr speaks to have made God to have had no more regard to his Church then shepherds have to their flock or Herdsmen to their cattel who look no further then to their thriving well liking in their pastures But as in their sacrifices and other ceremonies of their worship they were trained up and instructed in the knowledge of spirituall duties towards God in which their hearts and thoughts were to be imployed So also by the temporall promises were grounds laid of carrying on their faith and hope for the obtaining of more glorious mercies then those which at the present they enjoyed Their Manna was a kinde of Sacramentall food and the water from the rock a Sacramental drink the land of Canaan a type of the true and heavenly rest which Christ hath purchased which by him who was the substance of all shadowes they might expect True it is that both the precepts of their worship and the promises of their reward were more
darke and obscure then the rule of our obedience and the recompence of our service under the Gospel but yet both did center terminate in one and the same end The State of the Church under the Law was represented saith Bright-man by mare aereum a sea of brasse which is of a more thick and dark substance but under the Gospel by mare vitreum a sea of glasse which is most clear and transparent Rev. 4. 6. SECT 2. Foure benefits come to believers by looking to temporall promises The second particular is to shew the Severall benefits that redound to beleevers by looking unto temporall promises with an eye of faith And here many might be insistedon but I shall insist onely on four First Faith in the promises of this life doth much help to the mortification of inordinate desires and of distracting and anxious cares Both which are the genuine fruits and off-spring of unbelief Every man is conscious unto himselfe both of his own wants and of the fading condition of every creature and thereby he is stirred up to seek in a restlesse manner a supply of present necessities and a solicitous provision for all future contingencies Ask many a man why he toyles so uncessantly to the breaking of his head with cares and his body with labour And he will quickly tell you that he hath none to trust unto but himselfe that he knowes not what hard times and changes may come Sicknesse may befall him and waste what he hath gotten Age may overtake him and render him unapt for labour Charges may multiply in his family and it is not the aire that will feed them He had need therefore to do what he doth if not he and his might starve But now when a believer can look unto the promise how soon are all these tempestuous thoughts and fears calmed how sweetly is the heart quieted by casting all its care upon God who careth for us 1 Pet. 5 7. How quickly can be spie in the promises Gods obligation for cloathing to cover his nakednesse for meat to satisfie his hunger for Physick to cure his diseases for armour to safe-guard his person for treasure to provide for his family posterity How fully can he rest contented in the things which he hath because God hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee Heb. 13. 5. Secondly Faith exercised on the temporal promises will much help to strengthen our adherence to the promises of a better life and cause us to trust more perfectly in God for the salvation of our soules Our Saviour tells his Disciples Matth. 6. 26. that if God fed the fowles and cloathed the Lillies he will much more provide for them which are better then they And so may a believer argue with himselfe If God hath made so many rich promises of provision for the body he will not be wanting to the happinesse of the soul if he be so carefull of the casket he will not be unmindfull of the Jewel if he give daily bread to the one he will surely give Manna to the other if he make our pilgrimage delightful and make the paths of our feet to drop fatnesse he will make our rest and habitation with himselfe to be glorious If the feet tread on Roses here and on the Moone and Starres hereafter how orient and beautifull will be that crown of life that shall be set upon our heads Such kinde of argumentations are very helpfull to a believer who ownes all his outward comforts to arise from Gods faithfulnesse in his promise though in the meere and naked having of them no man can know love or hatred Eccl. 9. 1. Thirdly Faith exercised on the promises of this life sweetens the enjoyment of every blessing be it little or much There are two sources from whence all outward mercies flow the Providence of God and the Promise of God The one is as the Nether-springs from which every creature receives its preservation and continuance He openeth his hand and satisfieth the desire of every living thing Psal 145. 16. The other is as the upper-springs from which after a peculiar manner the goodnesse and bounty of God is conveyed unto believers Godlinesse hath the promise of the life that now is and that which is to come 1 Tim. 4. 8. Now the streams that flow from this fountain are more pure and free from that vexation and vanitie which the abundance that the wicked hath is subject unto because they are sanctified by Christ in whom all the promises are Yea and Amen When therefore a believer can look upon all his outward enjoyments as the fruits of Gods especiall love and can say as Iacob did These are the blessings which God hath graciously given his servant Gen. 33. 5. then they become in their use more delightfull and in their taste more sweet A small portion of meat given by the hand of a great Personage is more set by and esteemed then all the variety of his full table upon which his other guests do feed and carve themselves because it carries with it a particular character and marke of favour to him on whom it is bestowed And so a little given by God as a Testimonie of his peculiar love and care towards believers is more desirable and satisfactorie then great revenues that flow onely from a common bounty Fourthly Faith exercised on the temporal promises is a powerfull antidote to preserve believers from the use of unlawfull meanes both in the seeking and in the obtaining of all earthly comforts The inordinacy of the desires puts men oft-times upon dangerous precipices He that maketh haste to he rich shall not be innocent Prov. 28. 20. So They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare and many hurtfull lusts 1 Tim. 6. 9. Now faith though it do not take off the edge of mens industry and diligence in the pursuance of all lawfull and just means or make them to expect to be fed as the fowles of the aire that neither sowe nor reap or to be cloathed as the Lillies of the field that neither spin nor labour yet it doth so correct and allay the vehemency of all desires towards the things of this world as that they dare not take any way to gaine them which the Word doth not warrant or the promise sanctify Faith suggesteth to them that it is not their labour and care that makes rich but Gods blessing who giveth no sorrow with it Prov. 10. 22. That it is not their wisdome that maketh their endeavours in their calling to be successefull but Gods fidelity and truth that crownes them with prosperity that it is not their sweat that feeds the Lamp of their comforts and makes it to shine but the constant droppings and distillations of Gods goodnesse And thereby they are enabled to depend upon his promise and to beleeve that such a dimensum and portion of outward blessings shall be given unto them as that they may truly say with the
on the Word and promises of God For as faith is truly the life and guide of the soul so the Word is the ground life and guide of our faith Now the Arguments that I shall set down are briefly three First The life of faith is that life which above all others God would have Believers to live And this appears by the distance that God hath put between his promises and his performances making their whole life to be rather a life of hopes then of enjoyments and the good things that he gives to relate more to the future then to the present time God was graciously pleased to open a door of hope to fallen man in that first Gospel-promise which he himself proclaimed Gen. 3. 15. that the seed of the woman should break the Serpents head But how many generations passed away before the fulnesse of time came in which he sent forth his Sonne made of a woman He hath promised to Believers that they shall tread down the wicked and that they shall be ashes under the soles of their feet Mal. 4. 3. But yet he hath made their warfare to be as long as their life He hath promised a glorious resurrection of their bodies out of the grave And yet for how many thousand years have his Saints lain dissolved in their dust as if they did seeme to be altogether forgotten by him Now to what end hath God set such long periods of time between the making and the accomplishing of his promises but only that he would have the heirs of them to live by faith yea and to die in faith by resting on the truth of his Word for the fulfilling of every mercy which he hath undertaken for in his promises And indeed this glory which Believers give to God in the exercise of their faith upon his Word is farre greater and more noble then all that glory which the whole universe of creatures do yeeld unto him They give him the glory of his goodnesse in their being and in the comforts of it derived unto them by him But who gives him the glory of his faithfulnesse in his promises but a Believer Who is it that rejoyceth in hope of the glory of God Rom. 5. 2. but a Believer Who glories in tribulations but a Believer Who is it that lets not his confidence die when his life expires but a Believer My flesh and my heart faileth saith David but God is the rock of my heart and my portion for ever Psal 73. 26. Secondly The life of faith is of all estates the most contented and of all lives the fullest of real sweetnesse and delight First It is the most contented life True contentment is the inseparable companion of true faith 1 Tim. 6. 6. A Believer is the onely person that is instructed in this sacred mystery Phil. 4. 13. The things that others want he desires not Riches which others covet with the straining of their consciences he throws away as snares Pleasures which others drink down with a thirst unsatisfied he out of choise sparingly sips of or else refuseth so much as to taste Honours that others value themselves by he looks upon as fancies and not realities As Plato told the Musicians that a Philosopher could dine and eate his meat without them So a Believer can live happily without the having of any of these things And the ground of all this is because by faith he lives above them and enjoyes more high and noble delights in the very expectation and hope of that blessednesse which God hath promised then any other can have from the fruition of an earthly Paradise or of the whole world it self if turned and changed into an Eden Secondly Of all lives the life of faith is the sweetest The delicacies that faith feeds upon doth not arise from any stagnant and impure pits or cisterns but from the fountain and well of life It sucks the breasts of consolation Isay 66. 11. It lives upon the free favour of God which is better then life it self Psal 63. 3. It hath Christ himself for nutriment whose flesh is meat indeed whose blood is drink indeed John 6. 55. All which are food the world knows not of it never understood their preciousnesse or tasted their sweetnesse There is a greater difference between the repasts of faith and the refreshments of the world then there is between the Physick of the Galenists Paracelsians the one giving it in the drug and the other as they boast in the quintessence and spirits extracted from that flegme and earthymatter that deads allaies their efficacy All the comforts of faith have in them a native purity and spiritualnesse and need not the help of Artists to refine them Such they are as that Angels themselves have neither better nor higher to live upon How injurious then are Believers to their own happinesse while they neglect the living by faith and gaze rather upon these dainties with their eyes then feed upon them with their mouths How greatly do they live below themselves while they take up with the things of this world and put not forth this divine grace of faith which can fetch every good thing out of heaven What dishonour do they cast on the precious promises while like the lustful Israelites they slight this Manna of the Gospel as dry food O therefore if there be any consolation in Christ if any comfort of love if any fellowship of the Spirit if any excellency in the promises be perswaded you that are the beloved ones of God to live the life of faith and to exercise it in an improvement of the promises the use of which makes you more rich and blessed then the having of them Thirdly to move Believers to act faith upon the promises I shall adde this Argument that their labour and expectation will not be in vaine Faith in the promise is like the bowe of Jonathan and the sword of Saul which never returned empty 2 Sam. 1. 22. It alwayes findes what it seeks and enjoyes what it desires He that beleeveth shall never be confounded 1 Pet. 2. 6. that is he shall not be disappointed or broken in his purposes or hopes If the promise be not good security to rest and build upon What is What bond can be so firme as his Word who cannot lie Tit. 1. 9. What pledge can be more certain then the earnest of the Spirit by which the inheritance of Believers is sealed unto them Ephes 1. 14. If these foundations fail then we may well say with the Prophet What can the righteous do But sooner shall the rocks be broken into bits and thrown as pibbles and cockle-shels upon the shoar by the violence of the waves sooner shall the mountains that God hath set fast by his strength Psal 65. 6. be over-turned by the breath of tempestuous windes then the promises which are founded upon the immutable power of God and the never-failing goodnesse of Christ be in the least iota made void