But the answer to these cases is this,* that where we find predictions in Scripture declared, and yet not executed, we must consider them, not as absolute but conditional, or as the Civil Law calls it, an interlocutory Sentence. God declared what would follow by natural causes, or by the demerit of man, not what he would absolutely himself do: And in many of those predictions, tho the condition be not expressed, yet it is to be understood; so the promises of God are to be understood with the condition of perseverance in well doing; and threatenings with a clause of revocation annexed to them, provided that men repent: And this God lays down as a general case, alway to be remembered as a rule for the interpreting his threatenings against a Nation, and the same reason will hold in threatenings against a particular person. Jer. 18.7.8, 9, 10. At what instant I shall speak concerning a Nation and concerning a Kingdom, to pluck up and pull down and destroy it; If that Nation against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them, and so when he speaks of planting a Nation, if they do evil, he will repent of the good, &c. Tis a Universal rule by which all particular cases of this nature are to be tried; so that when mans repentance arrives, God remains firm in his first Will, always equal to himself, and it is not he that changes, but man. For since the interposition of the Mediator, with an eye to whom God governed the world after the fall, the right of punishing was taken off if men repented, and mercy was to flow out, if by a conversion men returned to their duty, Ezek. 18.20, 21. This I say is grounded upon Gods entertaining the Mediator; for the Covenant of works discovered no such thing as repentance or pardon. Now these general rules are to be the interpreters of particular cases: So that predictions of good are not to be counted absolute, if men return to evil; nor predictions of evil, if men be thereby reduced to a repentance of their crimes.
But the answer to these cases is this,* that where we find predictions in Scripture declared, and yet not executed, we must consider them, not as absolute but conditional, or as the Civil Law calls it, an interlocutory Sentence. God declared what would follow by natural causes, or by the demerit of man, not what he would absolutely himself do: And in many of those predictions, tho the condition be not exprest, yet it is to be understood; so the promises of God are to be understood with the condition of perseverance in well doing; and threatnings with a clause of revocation annext to them, provided that men repent: And this God lays down as a general case, alway to be remembred as a rule for the interpreting his threatnings against a Nation, and the same reason will hold in threatnings against a particular person. Jer. 18.7.8, 9, 10. At what instant I shall speak concerning a Nation and concerning a Kingdom, to pluck up and pull down and destroy it; If that Nation against whom I have pronounc'd, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them, and so when he speaks of planting a Nation, if they do evil, he will repent of the good, &c. Tis a Ʋniversal rule by which all particular cases of this nature are to be tried; so that when mans repentance arrives, God remains firm in his first Will, always equal to himself, and it is not he that changes, but man. For since the interposition of the Mediator, with an eye to whom God governed the world after the fall, the right of punishing was taken off if men repented, and mercy was to flow out, if by a conversion men returned to their duty, Ezek. 18.20, 21. This I say is grounded upon Gods entertaining the Mediator; for the Covenant of works discovered no such thing as repentance or pardon. Now these general rules are to be the interpreters of particular cases: So that predictions of good are not to be counted absolute, if men return to evil; nor predictions of evil, if men be thereby reduced to a repentance of their crimes.
- *Rivet in Genes. exerci•• 51. pa. 213.
