154 Th,e PrQmift of Sanfiificatioit. tification; that Chrifi's ' people fhould be wiiiing in · the day of his power, in the beauties ofholinels,' Pfal. ex. 3· and that 'a feed fhould ferv~ him,' Pfa,.x~ii, 30.. And this promife, the promife of f.·mCl:ification, is indeed the chief promife of the ' covenant, made .to · ~brill: for them : among the reft of that kind, it lhines like the moon among th~ leffer {lars. Sanctification is the very chief fubordin~He end of .the covenant ' of grace ftanding therein next to the glory of God, which is the chief and ultimate end thereof. The promife of it, is the centre ofall the refi of thc~!fe promifes. All the f(negoing promifes, ·the promife of prefervation, the Spirit, the fidt regeneration, Gr quickning of the / dead foul, faith, jui1ification, the new faving relation w God, reconciliatign, adoption, and enjoyment of . God as our God; do tend unto it as thdr commop. centre and fiancl related to it as means to their end. ·They are all accomplifhed to fir?.ners, on defign to mak~ them holy. And all the fubfequent promifes, even the promife of glorification itfelf, are butthe fame pro"l mLfe of fanctification _enlarged and extended : they ar~ but a~ fo .many rays and beams oflight, !hooting forth from it as the centre of them all. This appears from the fcriptural defcriptions ofthe covtnant, in the promiifory p~rt thereofrefpecting the elec1, L!Jke i. 73· ' 'rhe oath which he fware to our : Father Abraham, Ver. 74· That he \vould grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hands of our e· nemies, might fer... ve him without fear, V er. 75· In ho– linefs and righteonfnds before hitn, all the days of · our life.' ··Here is .the oath, or covenant fworn to Jl– braham, as a type ofCbrifi; . wherein his feed's ferv– ing the Lord in holinefs, is .held forth as the chiefthing 1\:vorn unto the Mediator by the Fatber; and their -' '<.ielivenmce from their enemies, as 'the means for that end. See Heb. vi~i. 10, 1I, 12.. where God's· writi~g his fa·w in tht:ir'/;earts, is fet on the front, as the firft thing in the Divin~ ~nt;;;ntion, tho' the lafl: in execu• tion,
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