time and eternity. In the ftyle of the scripture, eternal life is not restricted to the ftate of glory in heaven. But the life communicated to a finner, in the first moment of his union with Chrift, is eternal; it is the eternal life promifed in the covenant, according to the fcripture, John iii. 36. He that believeth on the Son, HATH everlasting life. See Chap. v. 24. 1 John v. 11. 12. Hence, from the promise of the covenant, The just shall live by faith, the Apostle proves the perfeverance of the faints, Heb. x. 38. A plain evidence, that perfeverance in grace, in this our ftate of imperfection, is a part of the eternal life promifed in the covenant, as well as heaven's happinefs. And thus the covenant-life extends to that which now is, and that which is to come, 1 Tim. iv. 8.. 1. It extends to the life that now is in this world. And this is that eternal life begun in the feveral parts thereof, with refpect both to foul and body. If men meafure happiness by the files and frowns of common providence, no man indeed can be counted happy before death. But the facred oracles teach us to take our measures of it another way, to wit, by a perfonal faving intereft in the covenant; and do pronounce them happy whofe God is the Lord, whatever be between them and the grave, Pfal. cxliv. 15So there is promifed in the covenant happiness begun in this life, both as to foul and body; the happinefs of the way to the kingdom; falvation hap pily begun, and infallibly to be carried on.

2. It extends to the life that is to come in the ther world. And that is the fame eternal life con fummated and perfected, in refpect both of foul and body, in heaven. There the promife of the covenant is to receive its full accomplishment; of which believers now have the earnest, which is not only a part of the things promised, but an affurance of the whole.

II. For a more particular view of the promife of eternal life to the elect, it may be confidered in three periods (1.) Before their union with Chrift; (2.) From their union with Chrift, until death; and (3.) From death, through eternity. Of the operation of the promises, in the firft and the last of thefe periods, we know but little; and indeed not much of it, in the middle period. For it is like a river iffuing from a hidden fpring, and running far under ground; then rifing above ground, and running on, till it go forth into the ocean. The hidden fpring from whence the promife of eternal life to the elect iffueth forth, is, God's free grace, which was given us in Christ Jefus, before the world began, 2 Tim. i. 9. It runs under ground, undifcernible even to the parties themfelves, till the moment of their union with Chrift in effectual calling; then rifing, it runs on, as it were, above ground, in vifible ftreams, until death, and thereafter, it runs full and perfpicuous thro the ages of eternity. We fhall take a view of the great lines of the promife, in thefe its feveral periods.

PERIOD I

Before Union with Chrift.

F we confider the promise of eternal life to the e

I lect, as ftanding in

toccoplifhed to them, and having its effect on them, be fore their union with Chrift, we may perceive two great lines in it; namely, a premife of their prefervation, and a promise of the Spirit. Of which in

order.

I. The Promife of PRESERVATION.

The promise of eternal life to the elect, in the Covenant, comprehends a promife of their PRESER

VATION,

VATION, till the happy moment of their Spiritual marriage with Jefus Chrift, wherein they fhall be fettled in a state of grace: Ezek. xvi. 6. And when I paffed by thee, and faw thee polluted in thine own blood, I faid unto thee when thou waft in thy blood, Live. Heb. I faid to thee, Live in thy blood; as feveral approven verfions do read it. In this illuftri ous paffage of fcripture is fhewed, under the fimilitude of an expofed or out-caft infant, the natural ftate and wretched condition in which God found Ifrael, and finds all the elect; the former being a type of the latter. There is a twofold paffing by this wretched out-caft, and these at two very diftant times, intimated by the Holy Ghoft. The first, on the day he was born and cast out, verfe 4. 5. 6. The fecond, after fhe was grown, and become marriageable; at what time he was actually married, verfe 7.8. The former refers to the time of the elect's coming into the world, in their natural state, not onby as born into it, but as beginning to act in it as rational creatures; the latter, to the time prefixed in the eternal purpose, when, by means of the law in the hands of the Spirit of bondage, their breafts, as it were, are fashioned, in the work of conviction; apon which enfues their fpiritual marriage with Chrift. But how is the out-caft preferved in the interval, that the perisheth not in her wretched condition? Why; though no hand was laid upon her, yet a word was fpoken, which fecured her life in a cafe naturally deadly. At the FIRST paling by her, in the day fhe was born and cast out, God faid to her, Live in thy blood: that is, "Notwithstanding that "thou art lying in the open field, in thy blood, thy "navel not dreffed, fo that, according to the courfe "of nature, thy blood and fpirits muft quickly fail, and this thy birth-day muft be thy dying-day; yet. Ifay unto thee, LIVE thou fhalt not die in that

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condition, but grow up in it, being preferved till "the happy moment of the defigned marriage." And this is the promife of the elect's PRESERVATION in their natural ftate. And it hath two great branches; one refpecting their natural life; another refpecting their fpiritual death. The

Firft is a promife of the continuation of their natural life, till fuch time as they be made partakers of life in Chrift Fefus. GOD has faid it; they fhall live, though in the blood of their natural ftate. So it is not poffible they fhould die before that time, whatever dangers they are brought into; even though a thoufand fhould fall at their fide, and ten thousand at their right hand; for, by the promise of the covenant, there is an unfeen guard about them, to defend them.. It is in virtue hereof, that all along during the time they are in

in the what state, they are preferved, whether

in the womb, or coming out of it, or in all the dan-gers of infancy, childhood, youth, or whatfoever age they arrive at therein. This is it that, fo long. as they are unconverted, doth fo often bring them back from the gates of death; returning them in fafety, when either by difeafes, or other accidents,. they are paft hope in their own eyes, and in the eyes. of friends and phyficians. Though the elect thief was, in his natural ftate, nailed to the cross; yet death had no power to come at him, so as to feparate his foul from his body, till fuch time as he was once united to Chrift by faith, and made partaker of a new life in him. The

Second is a promife of keeping the grave-tone from off them in their fpiritual death. The grave-ftone is the fin against the Holy Ghost, the unpardonable fin, which, on whomfoever it is laid, makes their cafe,, from that moment, irrecoverable, that thenceforth they can never rife from fpiritual death to life. Mark iii. 29. He that fhall blafpheme against the Ho

ly Ghost, hath NEVER forgiveness. But although the elect in their natural ftate, being dead in fin as well as others, may, through the activity of reigning and raging lufts, fo rot in their graves, as to be most abominable in the eyes of God and all good men; yet, because of the promife of the covenant, it is not poffible that that grave-ftone fhould be laid on them. There is an invifible guard fet on their fouls, as well as on their bodies: and fo it is infallibly prevented, as may be learned from that expreffion of our Saviour, Matth. xxiv, 24. Infamuch that (if it were poffible they fball deceive the very elect. While they are Satan's captives, he may drive them to a prodigious pitch of wickednefs. So did he with Manasseh, and Paul: but, as far as he had carried them, he could not carry them forward that Rep.

This promife of the elect's preferuation, as it is with the reft founded on the obedience and death of Chrift; whereby eternal life was purchased for them, and confequently thefe benefits in particular, failing which they would be ruined for ever: fo it is akin to, and feems to be grafted upon the promife of afftance made to Chrift in the covenant; by which a divine fupport was infured to him, during all the time the fins of the elect, and the wrath of God for them, fhould lie upon him. And at this rate, the cafe of the head, and of the members, was jointly provided for in the covenant.

II. The Promife of the SPIRIT.

The promife of eternal life to the elect, comprehends alfo a promife of the Spirit of life to be communicated to them, and each one of them, at the nick of time prefixed in their cafes refpectively, in the eternal council; that is, the time appointed to be the time of love, the dawning of the day of grace

to