~24 , · Ofthe Promifes in general• _ new heart~s being made to Chrifi, than in a pByfici:m;s . making a promife tQ a father, to cure his lame child, when he hath given him fecurity for his fees: in which cafe, the child cannot .look on the promife as made to himfelf at all, but fecondarily through his Father, 'Who was the party·contrach:~r. . ·, This is a point of con!iderable weight, and ferves both to inform our minds, and direCt our practice : · for the following inferences from it, are native. (I.) The promifes of the covenant are not made to the believer's good works ; but to Chrifi's works, and to the working believer in him. Unto the belie– ver they are abfolutely free, and not ofJebt; and there• fore are not made to his works : for ' to him that worketh, is the reward not reckoned of grace, but 'of debt.' Rom. iv. 4· There is indeed a comely order · of the promifes, whereby the promtf'e of purity of heat:t to the elect, goes before ' the promife of their fee· ingGodin heaven; the promife of humiliation, before that oflifring up: whereupon, it is declared in the admi• nifiration of the covenant, that the pure in heart fhall fe.e God, that they who 'humble themfelves iliall be lifted up:' and rhus ' godlinefs hath promife of the life that now is, and of that which is to come: ' 1 Tim, iv. 8 .. But the foundation of all thefe promifes, whe- · 'ther .of things that are our duty, or o~r privilege, what they all depend upon a!? their proper condition, is the obedience ofChrifi allenarly ;. they being all made to him, in the firfi place, the latter as well as the former. (2.) T he firH grace, wher~by the dead elect are quickened, and made to believe.and unite' with Chrifi, is conveyed to them in the channel of a promifc, a~ well as the grace following faith: Ezek.' xxxvi. 27 .. , I will put my Spirit within you. For altho' in their natural fiate, they are not capable of a believing plead· ing of the promife; nor have they, at that time, a perfona] faving inrerefi in the promifes : Yet. the Lord Jefos lmqweth thtm that ·are his 1 and fqr whom · ilie
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