The Promift·of $an,tlificatioit. HI. The Promife-of Sanctification. In th~ promife of eternal life to the elecr, is _corn• prehended in like manner the promife of their fancrifi· catiori, Ezek xi. 19· ' I will ·take the fiony heart out of their fle!h, arid will give them an heart of fiefh :• Ver. 20. ' That they may walk in my fiatutes.', See Joel iii. 17, ~I. Heb. viii. 10. · Thro' the breach of - t he fir!l: covenant, they lo!l: the image of God-: their whole faculties were fo depraved, that they could nei– ther do, fpeak, nor think any thing truly good and acceptable to God; they were ·by · nature altogether .unholy; unclean,Joathfom, and abominable, in their nature, heart and life. And it was quite beyond their power to make themfelves holy again: for, mending of their nature could not effeCt it: it behoved to be . renewed, Eph. iv. 23 . And the curfe of the law lying upon .them, extingui!hed all faving relation between God and them; and fo block'd up all faving commu– nication with heaven ; for, it barred in point of ju!l:ice all'C·mEtifying influences from thence; thefe being the greatefi benefits they capable of, as affimulating the creature unto God himfelf, or -rendering it like him, The curfe fix.ed a gulf 'twixt God and them, fo th at fanEtifying influences could not pafs from him unto them ; more than. their unholy defires and prayers could pats from them unto him. So the fallen an– ge!s always were, and the damned now are, beyond all p6ffibility.of (·mcrification; or of receiving fimCtifying inHuences from heaven; there being no remedy to re· m ove the curfe, ne ither fi·om the one, nor from the other. And in this cafe, all Adam's pofierityhad lien for' ever, had n ot J efus Chrifr,.as the Head of the: el eCt undertaken in the fecond covenant, to remove th at bar, to fill up 'that g~lf, and to found a new faving re– lation -between God and them, thro' his own obedi~ :ence and deatlh But upon that undertaking of the Mediator, the Father did by promife enfure their fa nc- , tilica ti-
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