I 76 The Promi(e o/ the dead, I Pet. i. 3· forafmuch as we are raifed ' with him (Col. iii. 1.) unto newnefs oflife,' (Rom• . vi. 4, 5·) according to t~e promife, Ifa. xxvi. 19 • ' Thy dead men !hall live, together with my dead body ihall they arife-,-The earth !hall cafi out the dead ;' namely~ in the firfl place, the Head Ghriil: · jefus, the firfl-born from the dead, Col. 18. and -then, his myfiical members after him in their order. Com– pare Hof. vi. ~· ' !n t?e third day he will raife ~s up, and we fhall hve m h1s fight.' ·Thus far of the promife of fanB:ification. Follows; IV. The Promife ofPerfeverance in Grace. The promife of eternal life cloth, in like manner, comprehend the promife ·of perfeverance i.n grace,to be conferred on all the covenant-people, being jufti.. fied, new-related to God, and fancrified ; fo that, being once brought into the fiate of grace, they £hall - never fi1ll away f1-om it totally nor finally, This pro– nlifc we have, Jer .. xxxii. 40. 'And I will make an everlafiing coyena_nt with them, that I will not turn away from them, to d_o them good; but I will put my . (ear in,their hearts, that they ihall nqt depart from '- me.' He~e they are fecured on both fides -; that God will nevev cafi them off;· and that they iliall never de.– fert him. And that this benefit is included in the promife of eternal life, is clear 'from the Apofile's ad– dqcing this lafi to prove 1t, Heb. x. 3~· Now the jufl jha!llive byfaith. Such is the malice of Satan, and · the advantage he hath againft the faints in this life.; fo manifold are the fnares for them in the prefent evll world ; fuch a tender bud' of heaven is the impla~ted grace of God in them; and fo corrupt, fickle, and inconfiant are the hearts of the befi, while here: that, if their perfeverance had not been fecured by promi!e in the covenant, but made the condition of the cove· nant, and ·left to the management of their own free· ~ill; they woJJld have had but a forry refiorarion of • .it
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