OLBGrk;
In hope of eternal life; which faith also, producing the acknowledgment, profession, and obedience to the truth, according to godliness, produceth in the soul a hope, or certain expectation, of eternal salvation or happiness. Which God, that cannot lie, promised; nor doth this hope grow up as a rush without mire, or a flag without water, but is bottomed in God's declaration of his will to that purpose; and it is impossible that the God of truth should lie, or speak what he never intended to effect. Ephggeilato might as well here have been translated purposed, and must be so interpreted, if we interpret the next words, before the beginning of time, unless we say it was promised to the Head of the elect, Christ, on their behalf. Before the world began; before the beginning of time, or rather, many ages since, as Romans 16:25. Thus eternal life was promised, though more obscurely, Genesis 15:1, Genesis 17:7 22:18.