and implied in the term promise, as it concerns the scriptures, and God's promises in them. And this is the promise.

God's promise, or promises must imply and contain the good pleasure of his will, to bestow such and such fruits of his grace on such and such, out of his own mere bounty, as the sole and entire prerogative of his royal, divine, and exceeding free grace: out of which he hath mercy on whom he will have mercy, and will have compassion on whom he will have compassion. The promise is the outward testification of the heart of God, who before all time loved his people: and he foreappointed all things for them, and concerning them. He made an allsufficient provision for their complete salvation. In the Person and work of Christ he sets all this before them. And as he knows all they are, with all their necessities, wounds, wants, miseries, and temptations, so the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, hath made an ample supply for all this in the everlasting covenant, and this in the fulness of his Son: in whom it hath pleased Him, that all fulness should dwell; and that of his fulness we should receive grace in time, and glory in eternity. To the intent we might have a true, clear, and spiritual knowledge of the same, it hath pleased the Lord, to set it before us, in the exceeding great and precious promises, scattered up and down in the scriptures, as so many stars in that glorious firmament of grace; by the which we may know the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning us, and take sanctuary in Him accordingly; and by this very mean have real communion with Him in his grace and mercy, at all times, as our cases call for, and require-to sum up this, I apprehend the term promise, as applied to God, and as made use of in the holy scriptures of truth, includes and contains the whole good pleasure of his will, respecting his love to our persons, how he will meet with us, how he will bless us, how he will guide us, how he will order all things concerning us, how he will heal us, pardon us, comfort us, strengthen us, and lead us in the way everlasting. Some of the promises extend themselves so far, as to express what the Lord God, in all his Persons, will be to us, in the display of his perfections on us, in glory everlasting. God's promises, are the fruits and expressions of the good pleasure of his will, in Christ Jesus, towards us before all time, and in what way he will make the same known, and realize the truth contained in them, to us in time, and this in being all contained in this one declaration, I am the LORD thy God. And this is the promise. And it concludes all others; it is the grand comprehensive promise, in the which they are all contained, in the which they begin, and in which they all issue, and which the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Father in Him, hath made in the gospel, and will most certainly fulfil to us, who shall be found to abide in the doctrine of the Father, and the Son-everlasting life. This is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life. Cruden in his Concordance, gives this explanation of the word Promise. "It is," says he, "an assurance, that God has given in his word, of bestowing blessings on his people. 2 Peter i. 4. The word in the New Testament is often taken for those promises that God heretofore made to Abraham, and the other patriarchs, of sending the Messiah. It is in this sense that the apostle Paul commonly uses the word promise, Rom. iv. 13, 14, and Gal. iii. 16." The promises of the new covenant, are called better than those of the old, because they are more clear, extensive, and universal, than those of the old covenant were. The whole

revelation of Christ, in all the grace and gospel part of the Old, and New Testament, may be considered as a Promise: and the completion of it, with the gift of Him; and all the blessings of salvation by Him, when actually bestowed on us, revealed unto us, and realized in us, may be considered as the fulfilment of God's promise unto us. The Holy Ghost is the gift of God to us. He is contained in the promise of God, in Christ Jesus unto us. The apostle says, "Christ hath redeemed us from

the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith." God in all his Persons hath been pleased to give himself to his Church by promise. The Divine Father says, I will be thy God. The Son hath loved us, and given himself for us. The Holy Ghost hath bestowed himself on the Church. God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son. And he so loved that he gave the Spirit. The apostle speaking of Christ, says, And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him. Acts v. 32. I proceed to consider

2. Who the He here is, who is spoken of as the Promiser. And this is the promise that he hath promised. To find out this, so as to speak clearly and expressly, we must go back to the verses which precede this.

The apostle declared in verse 22nd-he was an antichrist, let him be otherwise whatsoever he might, who confounded or denied the Personalities of the Father, and the Son. He is an antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son: to which he addeth, Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: (but) he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also. Then he says to the saints whom he writes unto, Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father: on which come in the words of my text, And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life. The Father being spoken of immediately before, who can be the Person to be conceived of, when it is asserted in our present verse, And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life, but the Father? Surely it can be understood of none but Him. This I conceive receives confirmation, as we respect, and reflect on the order and œconomy of the sacred Trinity in their operations and actings in the economy of grace. The Father plans all. He proposes all. He provides all. He promises all. He gives all. The Son works from the Father. He performs all. He acts all. He obtains all. The Holy Ghost, in the same order and dispensation of grace, witnesseth to all, and sets his seal to all the Father hath revealed, and declared concerning his love in Christ Jesus to the elect: as also concerning the Person, and Mediatorial work, and office of our Lord Jesus Christ. So that it can be only that which belongs to the Father, what is here asserted. And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life. It is a peculiar glory which is the very perfection of the sacred writers, and their writings, to keep up in all their discourses, the true and proper distinction of the coequal Persons in the Godhead; and also the order in which they act distinctly one from the

other as also their distinct way and manner in which they operate in us, upon us, and within us. Now I take it for granted, enough has been expressed to shew the Father is the Promiser in our text. Paul most expressly says, writing to Titus, "In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began; But hath in due times manifested his word through preaching, which is committed unto me according to the commandment of God our Saviour." chap. i. 2, 3. So in his writing to Timothy, he says, "be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God; Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began." 2 Epis. i. 8, 9. So in the 1st chapter of the Thessalonians, and 1st Epis., you have these words, unto the church of the Thessalonians which is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ. The same you have in the 1st chapter of the 2nd Epis. v. 1. "Unto

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the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." And in the 1st chapter to the Ephesians you have it thus. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenlies in Christ: According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world." I conceive also from all these quotations of scriptures, undeniable evidence cannot but arise, to prove to a demonstration, it is the Majesty of the divine Nature in the Person of the Father, who is spoken of here, as the Promiser, when it is here said, And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life—A promise worthy of Himself: equal to His greatness in which an infinity of grace is involved; which can never be fully comprehended, explored, or enjoyed. He who loved the persons of the elect, and gave them being and existence in Christ before all time, and formed them in his own will, and vast designs, for his own glory, to shew forth his praise, blessed them with all spiritual blessings in Christ, suited to the being he gave them in Christ: and in the foreviews of the fall, he was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them. On the footing of this, when the world was created, man formed, and lost all bestowed on him as a creation natural head, then the divine Father, in the Person of the glorious Saviour promulged his royal grace contained in that first promise or declaration of grace in which it is said that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head. Gen. iii. 15; which was fulfilled in due time. And so it might well be said, that God hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son. The Father gave the promise of Him to the church. This one and first promise was vastly comprehensive. It contained all others. Life and salvation were in it. All grace and glory were therein. He who is of such worth and excellency, as all the saints and angels in glory, will never be able to comprehend, and whose glory is beyond any conception and ideas which can ever be formed in their minds of the same, throughout the ages of eternity, was to be given by the Father, out of his bosom, to become incarnate-To be a covenant for the people -To live in our nature-To be the sacrifice for sin and to be life and salvation to the whole election of grace. This gift could only be from the Father's bounty. It originated from his everlasting love. The promise of Him was the fruit of covenant engagements. It was the Father's act to promise Him-To give Him-To send Him-To qualify Him-To

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accept Him-To honour and glorify Him-To bear his testimony for Him and in the issue to crown Him both Lord and Christ. He was wrapt up in the Promise, which the Father gave of Him to an elect world, for four thousand years; and in it all other promises were contained. They all centered in Him, who was promised. All the promises of God were in Him. They were in Him, yea; and they were in Him, Amen. Peter says to them who have obtained like precious faith in the righteousness and atonement of God the Saviour, that unto those are given exceeding great and precious promises. It is good for us to take into our minds, that it is the Father who promised Christ; this proceeded from his own free grace and everlasting love. It should be remembered by us, how he hath fulfilled this one great, and the foundation of all other promises unto us. We may well be satisfied with this, and say with the apostle, "What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" Rom. viii. 31, 32.

All the elect angels around the throne of the Divine Majesty in heaven, can never conceive, or apprehend the depth of grace expressed to the elect of human race, in the Promise of Christ; nor the love of God in bestowing Christ on them; and yet we to whom Christ was given, are very seldom raised up to magnify the Lord for this stupendous expression of the Father's love to us. In this promise, and from this Promiser, even the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we have a spiritual, supernatural, and heavenly life, whereby we live unto God: this is the way to eternal life; so says the apostle. "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Rom. vi. 23. Christ is the fountain of spiritual and eternal life to his people. He hath promised it unto them. He bestows it on them.

Christ himself says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.' The eternal happiness, glory, and blessedness, which the saints enjoy in Heaven, all flow into their souls from Him. As the blood, which, with the spirits contained in it, is the support of natural life, so the Promise of God, conveys through the Spirit of God, such knowledge and understanding of the Truth, doctrine, and salvation of Jesus, as supports that life which is conveyed to the inner man, and feeds and nourishes it up unto everlasting life. "I am come," says our Lord," that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." John x. 10. Now they could not have this life more abundantly, but as it should please Him to convey more light, and let it in upon their minds, so as they should more and more, receive his Truth in the love of it. The Father is the He, who is the Promiser. The promise he made, was the gift of Christ. This promise hath been fulfilled. When it was it drew out the hearts of saints then on earth to bless and magnify the Lord. Zacharias filled with the Holy Ghost, said, "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people, And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David; As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began: That we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us; To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant; The oath which he sware to our father Abraham, That he

would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear, In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life." Luke i. 68-75. All this praise is offered to the Divine Father, as all the salutations with which most of the Epistles begin, are addresses to the Father of our Lord Jesus. As for example. "Grace be to you and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort." 2 Cor. i. 2, 3. But having shewed what we are to understand by the term promise, and also who we are to consider as the Promiser, I proceed to my next particular, which is,

3. To shew to whom the promise belongs. It is to us. And this is the promise that he hath promised us.

It belongs to us: that is, to the whole church of Christ. The whole election of grace are included in this us: more especially those saints who are here written to, who having received an Unction from the Holy One, and knew the Truth, and were kept sound in the acknowledgment of the doctrine of the confession of the Son's Personality, and the Father's also, and continued in the same, it is to these the apostle addresses these words, And this is the promise that he had promised us, even eternal life. And they come in by way of encouragement, to shew them what they will in the issue enjoy; which being by God himself bestowed upon them by promise, and He being that God that cannot lie, they therefore might well anticipate the blessing, even before they had the full realization of it in the world of glory. It is a truth all God's people are heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ Jesus. There is no one promise of grace and glory, of Christ and salvation, but belongs to them all. So of this, even taking it in the sense I have given it, as belonging to the saints here addressed, it may also be said to belong to "all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both their's, and our's." It is a most blessed consideration that the promise of Christ was given to his whole church. All his saints were interested in it. His relation to each and every individual member of it is one and the same. His love for them, his mercy towards them, his righteousness and sacrifice, are to each and every one of them, equally the same. They are all equally saved in Him. They all shine alike in Him. They are all equally complete in Him, and God in Christ is their portion, inheritance, and exceeding great reward. So the Holy Spirit is promised to the whole church. All thy children shall be taught of the LORD. It is an undeniable truth, the promises are more extensively fulfilled and realized in the cases, and experiences of some saints than others; yet there are no saints, but enjoy and inherit the substance of them. And it is their blessedness, when they view this to be the very essence of them, that hereby they are all assured the Lord is their God; for these words may be looked on, as the sum total of them, I am thy God. To have this therefore brought home by the apostle John, to the saints to whom he wrote, And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life, must have been very encouraging. It could not but be comfortable unto them, to be confirmed in their views and hopes of a glorious immortality: surely nothing could exceed this, but the full and complete enjoyment of the same, It seems to me, the apostle here expresses himself thus by way of shewing them, they would most cer

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