[1.] If any thing be annexed to these promises of the covenant, that gives occasion for some to conclude, that it is conditional, we must take heed that we do not understand such expressions as denoting the dependance of God’s determinations on the arbitrary will of man; as though his purpose relating to the salvation of his people were indeterminate, and it were a matter of doubt with him, as well as with us, whether he should fulfil it or no; because it is uncertain whether the conditions thereof shall be performed; for this supposition is inconsistent with the divine perfections: but, if, on the other hand, we suppose that the grace or duty annexed to the promise, must have some idea of a condition contained in it; this may be understood according to the tenor of God’s revealed will, as denoting nothing else but a condition of our expectation, or of our claim to the blessing promised; and then nothing can be inferred from hence, but that some who lay claim to, or expect salvation, without performing the condition thereof, may apostatize, and so miss of it; which does not in the least militate against the doctrine we are defending. And to this we may farther add, that when such a condition is annexed to a promise (for I will not decline to call it so, in the sense but now laid down) and there is another promise added, in which God engages that he will enable them to perform this condition, that is equivalent to an absolute promise; and of this kind are those conditions that are mentioned in the scriptures before referred to, as has been already observed. When God promises that he will be a God to them, that he will forgive their iniquities, and never reverse the sentence of forgiveness, or remember their sins no more, and that he will never turn away from them to do them good; he, at the same time promises, that he will put his law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts, and put his fear in their hearts, and so enable them to behave themselves as his people, or to be to him a people; and when God sets forth the stability of his covenant, and intimates that it should not be removed, he adds, that his kindness shall not depart from them, which kindness does not barely respect some temporal blessings which he would bestow upon them, but his extending that grace to them that should keep them faithful to him; and therefore he says, _that in righteousness they should be established_; which contains a promise to maintain grace in them, without which they could hardly be said to be established in righteousness, as well as that he would perform the other things promised to them in this covenant.