T.he Promift ofPrefervation. 137 moment .of their .union with Chrifi, in effeaual cal– ling; then rifing it runs on, as it were, above ground in vifible fireams, until death ; and thereaf~er, it runs full and perfpicuous through the ages of eternity. We fhall take a 'view of the great lines of the promife, tn there its feveral Periods. P E R · I · 0 D I. · / Before Union with Chrijl. ·IF we .confider. the Promife of eternal life to the ele:Ct, as fl:anding in the covenant, and as accom– J!Iifh'd to them, and having its effeCt on, them, before ' their union with Chrifi; we may perceive two great - lines in it : namely, a promife of their prefervation, and a promife of the Spirit; of which ,i_n order. I. The Promije of Prefervati9n. 1 The promife .of eternal life to the eleCt, in the cove– nant, comprehends a promife of their Prefervation, till the ha:PPY moment of their fpiritual m:nriage with Jefus Chrifi, wherein they {hall be fettled in a fiate of grace·, Ezek. xvi . . 6. ' And.when I p~.ffed by thee, an'd iaw thee polluted in . thine ~lood, I faid unto thee, when thou wajf in thy blood, Live.' Hebr. 'I faid to thee live in thy blood;' as feveral approven verfions do read it. In this illufirious pa.ffage of Scripture, is fhewed, under the fimilitude of an expofed or out·cafl; infant, the natural fiate, and wretched condition, in which God found ljraef, and finds all the eleCt; the former being a type ·of the latter. There is a twofold paffing by· this wretched. out-cafi, alld thefe at two very difiant times, intimated by the holy Gho11. The fir11, on the '. day fhe was born and caj} aut, Ver. 4, 5, 6. The fecond, after ilie was grown, and become marri·ageaNe ; .at what time ilie was aCtually married. Ver. 7, 8. The former refers to , the time of the elect's coming into the world in their natural !late, not only as born into it, but as ·begin– nil!g to all: in it as rational creatures : the. latter to the
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