more absurdity in the promise of the new heart's being made to Christ, than in a physician's making a promise to a father to cure his lame child, when he hath given him security for his fees: in which case, the child cannot look on the promise as made to himself at all, but secondarily, through his father, who was the party-con

tractor.

This is a point of considerable weight, and serves both to inform our minds, and direct our practice; for the following inferences from it are native.

(1.) The promises of the covenant are not made to the believer's good works; but to Christ's works, and to the working believer in him. Unto the believer they are absolutely free, and not of debt; and therefore are not made to his works; for "to him that worketh, is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt," Rom. iv. 4. There is indeed a comely order of the promises, whereby the promise of purity of heart to the elect, goes before the promise of their seeing God in heaven; the promise of humiliation, before that of lifting up; whereupon it is declared in the administration of the covenant, that the pure in heart shall see God; that they who humble themselves, shall be lifted up: and thus "godliness hath promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come," 1 Tim. iv. 8. But the foundation of all these promises, whether of things that are our duty, or our privilege, what they all depend upon as their proper condition, is the obedience of Christ allenarly; they being all made to him in the first place, the latter as well as the former.

(2.) The first grace whereby the dead elect are quickened, and made to believe and unite with Christ, is conveyed to them in the channel of a promise, as well as the grace following faith: Ezek. xxxvi. 27, "I will put my Spirit within you." For although in their natural state they are not capable of a believing pleading of the promise; nor have they, at that time, a personal saving interest in the promises; yet the Lord Jesus knoweth them that are his, and for whom the promises were made to him; and having the administration of the covenant in his own hand, he cannot fail of seeing to the accomplishing of them, in the appointed time. Howbeit they, being dead in trespasses and sins, cannot consult their own interest; yet he having the chief interest in the promises, will not neglect his own cause, but will see them exactly accomplished.

(3.) The way to be personally and savingly interested in the promises, for time and eternity, is to unite with Christ by faith; "for all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him amen," 2 Cor. i. 20. Would ye fain know how the great and precious promises may

become yours? Why, they are all his; they are all made to him. Take him, and they are yours: even as he who marries the heiress, hath a right to her portion, and all the bills and bonds wherein any of it is contained.

(4.) When through deadness and darkness of spirit, whether arising from some conscience-wasting guilt, or otherwise, your faith of the promise is failed, and you cannot again fasten your gripe upon it, because you can see no good in you; embrace Christ again, and the promise in him; notwithstanding of your seen and felt sinfulness and utter unworthiness; and by no means stand off from the promise until you be in better case; but say with the Psalmist, "Iniquities prevail against me: as for our transgressions, thou shalt purge them away," Psalm lxv. 3. For as the goodness in you was not the ground of the promise; so the evil in you doth not overturn it, and make it of none effect. The foundation of the promise stands sure in Christ, whatever alterations the frame and case of a believer's spirit do undergo. It is established as the moon, (Psalm 1xxxix. 37.), which is still the same in itself, notwithstanding of the variety of its appearances to our sight, one while waxing, at another time waning.

(5.) The true way to plead the promises, is to come to God in the name of Christ, and plead the fulfilling of them to us for his sake: John xvi. 23," Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you." Matt. xxi. 22, "Believing, ye shall receive." Dan. ix. 17, "O our God,-cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord's sake." To ask in Christ's name, believing, is to present one's self before the Lord, as a member of Christ, joined and cleaving to him offered unto us in the gospel; and for the sake of the head, to implore the free favour of the promise, relying on his merit for obtaining it. This is the import of that passage, Gen. xii. 3, as it relates to Christ, "In thee shall all families of the earth," to wit, that shall be blessed, "be blessed;" or rather, as the original word properly signifies, be made to kneel, namely, to receive the blessing; all that are blessed, being blessed in Christ, Eph. i. 3. Compare Phil. ii. 10. This is the method in which God dispenseth the favours of his promise: 2 Sam. vii. 21, "For thy word's sake, and according to thine own heart, hast thou done all these great things." Compare 1 Chron. xvii. 19, "For thy servant's sake, and according to thine own heart, hast thou done all this greatness;" i. e. for the sake of the word, thy servant, the Messias for as both these passages are a narration of the very same thing, there is no manner of difference at all between them in the original, save that where the one hath thy word, the other hath thy

servant.

(6.) Believers may hereby strengthen their faith of the accomplishment of the promises to them. Whatever easy work some have, in maintaining their presumptuous hopes of the mercy of God to eternal life; while not seeing the heinous nature of their sin, they build their hopes on something in themselves, rather than upon the free promise of the covenant in Christ Jesus; yet unto the serious godly, no small difficulty in believing doth arise, from the joint view of the greatness and preciousness of the promises, and the greatness of their sins and of their unworthiness. Hence they are ready to say, Can ever such promises be made out to such a one as I am? And truly there is nothing in them that can furnish an answer to this grave case. But here is a satisfying answer to it: The promises are all of them made to Christ chiefly, even to him who purchased them with his blood; and justice requires that they be performed to him and being performed to him, they must needs have their effect on all his members, for whom, because in themselves unworthy, he merited them. So the soul may say, However unworthy I am, yet He is worthy for whom God should do this.

:

2. The promises having their immediate effect on the elect, are made to themselves secondarily, in and through Christ. As he hath the fundamental and chief interest in them, so they have a derived interest in them through him. There was from eternity a legal union between Christ and them in the covenant; whereby their debt became his, and the promises made to him became theirs. As upon the one hand, "The Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all," Isa. liii. 6; so, on the other hand, " grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began," 2 Tim. i. 9. In time there is a real mystical union made between him and them, upon his taking possession of them by his Spirit, and dwelling in them by faith. The former constituted a right for them unto the promises, in Christ the head; the latter vests them with a right thereto, in their own persons, through him; as being actual members of his body. In respect of the one, eternal life is said to be promised, and grace said to be "given us, before the world began," Tit. i. 2; 2 Tim. i. 9; in respect of the other, believers are called "the heirs of the promise," Heb. vi. 17; "partakers of his promise in Christ," Eph. iii. 6; and the "promise is given to them that believe," Gal. iii. 22.

Thus it appears, that these promises are made to Christ's spiritual seed, as well as to himself; though primarily to him as the representative, on whom the fulfilling of the condition was laid; and but secondarily to them as the represented, who were to receive the benefit. And hence ariseth another difference, namely, that, properly and strictly speaking, the promises were conditional to Christ, but

they are absolute and free to us; even as the promise of life, in the first covenant, was conditional to Adam, which would have been absolute to his natural seed, the condition once being fulfilled. Thus Christ's merit and the free grace of God, meet together in the covenant justice is fully satisfied, and grace runs freely, in that channel; the promises being all purchased at the full rate, but no part of the price advanced by us. Hence we obtain precious faith, with all other saving benefits, through the righteousness of God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ, (or rather, the righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ), as the proper condition of them all, 2 Pet. i. 1. And in the meantime, God "blotteth out our transgressions for his own sake," Isa. xliii. 25; and "all things that pertain unto life and godliness, are given (or gifted) unto us," 2 Pet. i. 8.

OF THE PROMISES PECULIAR TO CHRIST.

HAVING spoken of the promises in general, we come now to take a more particular view of them; and first of the promises peculiar to Christ himself. These are many, but may all be reduced to three heads; to wit, the promise of assistance, of acceptance, and of reward of his work.

First, Our Lord Jesus had a promise of assistance in his work: Psalm 1xxxix. 21, "Mine arm shall strengthen him." Having undertaken the work of our redemption, he had his Father's promise, that when it came to the setting to, he would strengthen and uphold him in going through with it, Isa. xlii. 1.-4. And in the faith of this covenanted assistance, he went through the hardest pieces thereof, chap. 1. 6, "I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair; I hid not my face from shame and spitting." Ver. 7, "For the Lord God will help me." Accordingly, in his heaviness in the garden, "there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him," Luke xxii. 43. And this promised assistance was the token of his Father's good pleasure in, and liking of the work, while it was a-doing.

Secondly, He had a promise of the acceptance of his work when once done; of the acceptance thereof, as a full discharge and performance of the condition of the covenant, intitling him to the promised reward. Hence in view of the sure performance of his work the acceptance thereof was, at his baptism, proclaimed by "a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased," Matth. iii. 17. And it was renewed at his transfiguration, a little before his passion, chap. xvii. 5. Unto this promise of acceptance belongs the promise of his resurrection, and of his justification.

1. The promise of his resurrection from the dead: Psalm xvi. 10, "Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine holy One to see corruption;" which is expounded of the resurrection of Christ, Acts ii. 31. God, by raising Christ from the dead, did in effect declare his acceptance of the work by him performed. It evidenced the debt to be fully cleared, that he who laid him up in the prison of the grave, did bring him out of it again; sending his angel to "roll away the stone from the door" of it, and so to dismiss him legally. For thus it was agreed in the covenant, that as Christ should give himself to the death, for the satisfaction of justice so the Father should bring him again from the dead, in respect of that satisfaction made by his blood, Heb. xiii. 20.

2. The promise of his justification: Isa. 1. 8. "He is near that justifieth me." The accomplishment of which is observed by the apostle, 1 Tim. iii. 16, "God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit." Our Lord Jesus Christ having no personal sins to be pardoned, needed no personal justification; but as he was the surety of the elect, and had the iniquities of them all laid on him, it was provided in the covenant as just, that, the work he had undertaken being performed, he should have an official justification. Having paid the debt, he had by promise a full and ample discharge thereof, under the hand and seal of heaven. And here lies the great security of his people against the law's demand of satisfaction from them.

Lastly, He had a promise of a glorious reward to be conferred on him, as a proper merit of his work done, there was a joy set before him in the promise, for which he endured the cross, despising the shame, Heb. xii. 2. Never was there such a work wrought; and never was there such a reward promised. Unto it there belongs a fivefold promise.

1. The promise of a new kind of interest in God, as his God and and Father: Psalm lxxxix. 26. "He shall cry unto me, thou art my Father, my God." Our Lord Jesus had God to his Father, by eternal birth-right: but there was a new relation constituted between God and Christ as the second Adam, head of the covenant, founded upon his undertaking and fulfilling the covenant condition; whereby he became heir of God as his heritage, according to that of the apostle, Rom. viii. 17, "Heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ;" namely, with Christ as the primary heir. For by his obedience unto death, he purchased the enjoyment of God as a God and Father. I do not say, he purchased it for himself; the man Christ needed not to do that, forasmuch as he had it, in virtue of the personal union of the two natures: but he purchased it for sinners, who had lost all saving interest in God, but could not be happy without

it.