I. Scripture-light the most sure light ... delivered in three sermons on 2 Pet.…

Answ. 3 Thirdly: And again; What if the Condition of the Promise be performed for you, better than you could perform it? In the beginning, the Lord made a Covenant with man, a Covenant of Works; Do this, and live: and Adam, the first man, stood as a ⟨p. 119⟩common person for us all, to perform the Condition of Doing: and if Adam had performed the Condition, we all had performed the condition. Now, the Lord makes a new Covenant of Grace with man, and the Lord Jesus Christ is a Second Adam, and he stands as a Common Person, and if he perform the Condition, then all his Seed do perform the Condition. Now the Lord Jesus Christ hath performed the Condition for all his Seed: although the first Adam did not perform the Condition for his Seed, yet the Second Adam hath performed the Condition of the Promise, and of the Covenant, for his Seed to the full. Now if all these Three things be true, namely, That a man may go to the Promise, the Conditional Promise with acceptance, although he hath not performed the Condition; That the Condition of one Promise, is the thing promised, in another Promise; That the Lord Jesus Christ, hath performed the Condition of the Promise for you, better than you can perform it: Have ye then, any reason to be discouraged, and to keep off from the Promise, because you have not performed the Condition? But so it is, That a Child of God may go to a Conditional Promise with acceptance, although he hath not performed the Condition; And the Condition of one Promise, is the thing promised in another; And the Lord Jesus, our Second Adam, hath performed the Condition of all the Promises, for all his Seed: Surely therefore, you have no reason to be discouraged in this respect.

Object. But this is not my case; For, I do not only want Assurance of Gods Love, and have no particular Promise; but instead of the Promise, I have a Threatening set upon my soul: O! the bitter words of the Threatening, have soaked into my heart. Time was heretofore ind•ed, that I had a Promise, I could say, I had a Promise, and I rejoiced in it; but now, I have lost my Promise, and instead of the Promise, a Threatening is come: O! I see! the smart, and the anger of the Threatening; and have I not just cause and reason to be discouraged now?