t26 . DJ the Promi(es ~·n general. of t_hem to us for his fake, John xvi. 23. ' WhatJoe.. ver ye {hall afk the Father in my name, he will give it you.' Mat. xxi. 22. Believing, ye jhal! receive. Dan. ix. 17. ' Q ou~ God- -· · caufe thy face to lhine upon thy fanCl:uary that is delolate, for th'e Lord's . fake.' To afk in Chrifl:'s name, believing, is ,to prefet:n one's felf before the Lord, as a member of Chrifi, joined and cleaving to him offered unto us in the gof. pd ; and for the fake of the Head, to implore the free favour of the promile, relying on his merit for obtain• ' ing it. This is the import of that paffage, Gen. xii. 3. as it relates to Chrifi, 'In thee fhall all the families of the earth (to wit, that ihall be bleffed) be bleffed,' 9r rather, as the original word properly fignifies, he, 1nade to kneel, namely, ·to receive the bleffing ; all that are bleffed being b!tjfed inChri!l, Eph. i. 3· Corct· pare Philip . ii. Ip. This is the method, in which God di fpeofeth the favours of his promife, 2 Sam. vii. 2 r. ' For thy Word's fake, and according to thine own heart hall: thou done all thefe great things. Con1pare I Chron. xvii. 19· ' For thy Servant's lake, and ac- \ carding to thine own heart hall: thou done all ,this greatnefs; i. ·e. For £he fake of the Word thy Servant th~ lJfejfias : for as both thefe pa!fages are a narration of the very fame thing, there i~ no manner of differ"' . eqce at all between them, . in the original, fave that where the one bath thy Word, the other hath thy fer· vant. (6.) Believers may qereby fl:rengthen their faith of the accomplifhment of the promifes to them. What· ever eafy work fome have, in maintaining their pre– fumptuous hopes of the mercy of God to eternaLiife; while, not feeing the hainous nature of their fin, they build their hopes on fomething in themfe]ves, rather than upon the free promife of the covenant in Chrift Jefits; yet unto the ferious godly, no fm tll difficulty in believing, cloth arife fro·m the joint view of the greatnefs and precioufuefs of th~ promife,s, and the great-
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