Jonathan Edwards Selected Shor (continued)
world;" that is, plainly, he is stronger, and his strength overcomes. But how can this be a reason, if God does not put forth an overcoming, effectual strength in the case, but leaves it to free will to get the victory, to determine the point in the conflict? 52. There are no sort of benefits that are so much the subject of the promises of Scripture, as this sort: the bestowment of virtue, or benefits which imply it. How often is the faith of the Gentiles, or their coming into the Christian church, promised to Christ in the Old Testament, Isa. 49:6 and many other places, and he has promised it to his church, chap. 49:18-21 and innumerable other places. See Rom. 15:12-13. What a promise have we, Isa. 60:21, "Thy people also shall be all righteous, they shall inherit the land for ever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hand, that I may be glorified" — compared with the next chapter, 3rd verse, "That they may be called the trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified." See also verse 8th of the same chapter. Likewise Isa. 60:17-18, "I will make thy officers peace, and thy exactors righteousness; violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy border, but thou shalt call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates praise." Here it is promised that the rulers shall be righteous, and then in the 21st verse following, it is promised that the people shall be so. The change of men to be of a peaceable disposition is promised, as in places innumerable, so in Isa. 11:6-11, "The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid," etc. Isa. 55:5, "Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, and nations that knew not of thee shall run unto thee, because if the Lord thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel, for he hath glorified thee." Jer. 3:15, "And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding." This implies a promise that there should be such pastors in being, and that they should be faithful to feed the people with knowledge and understanding. Jer. 10:23, "The way of man is not in himself." Stebbing owns that on Arminian principles, conversion depending on the determination of free will, it is possible, in its own nature, that none should ever be converted (p. 235). Then all the promises of virtue, of the revival of religion, etc. are nothing. Jer. 31:18, "Turn thou me, and I shall be turned," — compared with Jer. 17:14, "Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved; for thou art my praise." Which shows the force and meaning of such a phraseology to be, that God alone can be the doer of it, and that if he undertakes it, it will be effectually done. Jer. 31:32-35, "Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand to being them out of the land of Egypt (which my covenant they brake, although I was a husband unto them, saith the Lord); but this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saving, Know the Lord; for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." The prophet elsewhere tells what is connected with knowing God, viz. doing judgment and justice, and showing mercy, etc. Jer. 22:16; Jer. 32:39, 40, "And I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me for ever, for the good of them and their children after them; and I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them to do them good. But I will put my fear in