Farther ',iuTesus Christ is himself in the promise. He is the gi'eat original, maenu-, and subject of the promises, and the giving of him was doubtlehiLQf free grace and mercy: so John iii. 16, "God so loved the wo-an tlhat he gave his only-begotten Son;" and Rom. v. 8, "God com insist \h his love toward us, in that, whilst we were yej, sinners, Chrithority for us;" and in 1 John iv. 10, "Herein is lovo, not that we 'jn^tratKod, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiativour otur sins." All is laid upon the account of love and free grace, <?m nc xi. 26. I confess there are following pro- mises given out for the orderly carrying on of the persons to whom the main, original, fundamental promises are made, unto the end de- signed for them, that seem to have qualifications and conditions in them ; but yet even those are all to be resolved into the primitive grant of mercy. That which promiseth life upon believing, — being of use to stir men up unto and carry them on in faith and obedience, — nuist yet, as to the pure nature of the promise, be resolved into that which freely is promised, namely, Christ himself, and with him both faith and life, believing and salvation. As in your automata there is one original spring or wheel that giveth motion to sundry lesser and subordinate movers, that are carried on with great variety, some- times with a seeming contrarit^ty one to anothei', but all regularly answering and being subservient to the impression of the first mover ; [so] the first great promise of Christ, and all good things in him, is that which spirits and principles all other promises whatsoever;^ and
' Tit. i. 2; 2 Pet. i. 3, 4.
a Gen. iii. 15, xli.x. 10; Isa. ix. 0; 2 Cor. i. 20.
v.] THE PROMISES OF GOD. 229
howsoever they may seem to move upon conditional terms, yet they are all to be resolved into that absolute and free original spring. Hence that gi-eat grant of gospel mercy is called ^' The gift by him," Rom. V. 1 5-1 8 ; yea, all the promises of the law, as to their origi- nal emanation from God, and the constitution of the reward in them, engaged to be bestowed for the services required, are free and gra- cious; there is not any natural, indispensable connection between obedience and reward, as there is between sin and punishment, as I have elsewhere at large disputed and proved/
2. I call them discoveries and manifestations of God's good-ivill and love, which is the prime and sole cause of all the good things which are wrapped up and contained in them. Of this good-will of God, the promises which he hath given are the sole discoveries. We do not in this discourse take " promises" merely for what God hath said he will do in terms expressly, but for every assertion of his good- will and kindness to us in Christ ; all which was first held out under a word of promise, Gen. iii. 15. And this the apostle infers in Tit. i. 2, 3, "In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, pro- mised before the world began, but hath in due times manifested his word through preaching," or discovered or made known that good- will of his by tlie promises in preaching of the gospel. And to this extent of significancy is that " promise" in the Scripture, both name and thing, in very many places stretched out. Every thing whatever that is manifestative of grace and good-will to sinners is of the pro- mise, though it be not cast into a promissory foi'm of expression. Yea, whereas, strictly, a promise respecteth that which is either only future, and not of present existence, or the continuance of that which is, yet even expressions of things formerly done and of a present performance (some individuals to the end of the world being to be made anew partakers of the grace, good-will, and mercy in them) do belong to the promise also, in that acceptation of it which the Holy Ghost in many places leads unto,^ and which we now insist upon.
8. I say they are made unto sinners, and that as sinners, under no other qualification whatever, it being by the mercy of the pro- mise alone that any men are relieved out of that condition of being sinners, and morally nothing else. Were not the promises origi- nally made to sinners, there would never any one be found in any other state or condition.^ I know there are promises made to be- lievers, even such as are unchangeable, and shall bear them into the bosom of God ; but 1 say these are all consequential, and upon sup- position of the first and great promise, whereby Christ himself, and faith for his sake, are bestowed on them. This runs through them all,
* Diatr. de Just. Div. « Micah vii. 17-20.
» Eph. ii. 12: Eom. iii. 19; Gal. iii. 22.
230 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PEllSEVERANCE. [CHAP.
as the very tenor of tliem aud method of God in them do manifest/ as we shall see afterward. So the apostle, Gal. iiL 22, "The Scrip- ture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe." All are shut up under sin until the promise of salvation by Jesus Christ and faith in him Cometh in for their deliverance. The promise is given to them as shut up under sin, which they receive by mixing it with faith. And Kom. iii. 23, 24, "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." Their condition is a condition of sin and falling short of the glory of God, when the promise for justification is given unto them and finds them. Thence the Lord tells us, Isa. liv, 8, 9, that this promise of mercy is like that which he made about the waters of Noah, where is mentioned no condition at all of it, but ■only the sins of men.^ And in that state unquestionably was Adam when the first promise was given unto him. To say, then, that gos- pel promises are made to men in such conditions, and are to be made good only upon the account of men's abiding in the condition wherein they are when the promise is made to them, is to say, that for men to leave the state of sin is the w^ay to frustrate all the pro- mises of God. All deliverance from a state of sin is by grace ;^ all grace is of promise. Under that condition, then, of sin doth the pro- mise find men, and from thence relieve them.