Some select cases resolved. Specially, tending to the right ordering of the heart, that…

I answer, every Christian is either, 1. Within Covenant with God, and knows it; or 2. Within covenant with God, and knows it not; or 3. Out of covenant indeed, for his present state and condition, yet he is in fieri, or making towards it.

1. If he be in Covenant, and knows it, then you may easily perceive how and when he ought to apply promises unto himself: For he may boldly conclude; If God be his God, then all the Promises of God shall be made good unto him; if he be a Son of God he may boldly challenge at all times at the hands of God, (nay, in some respects, at the hands of Justice it self) the fulfilling of God the Father's will delivered in the several Legacies of the promise bought by the blood, and sealed by the same blood of Jesus Christ, that they may and shall be made good unto him: that is clear.

2. If he be in Covenant, and knows it not, and questions hence whether God is his or not, and consequently, whether the promises belong unto him; then this rule is to be observed: let him so sue and seek for the good of the absolute promise until by reflecting upon his own acts, herein he perceive himself adorned and dignified with the qualification of some conditional promise; and then if he can find the condition or qualification within himself, then as you judge and write, he may conclude, that the conditional promise belongs to him; and if one promise, then all God's promises, and therefore that absolute promises are his own, because at least one conditional promise is. For no unregenerate man is within the compass of any one conditional promise of grace, unless you will say he is under the everlasting love of God; the Promises of grace being but the mid-way between the eternal purpose and decree of love, and the glorious certain ⟨p. 33⟩