338 RUIN AND RRCOVRRV, &C. gospel, or an epitome of the gospel of . Christ: , And whoso- ever should refuse this grace, or abuse it by actual impeni- tence and indulgence of sin, should suffer punishment in soul and body for ever. This is called the second death; Rev. xxi. 8. So that as the gospel or covenant of grace has pro= vided hope and salvation by Jesus, the Mediator, for all that would accept of it, whether under the Patriarchal, Jewish, or Christian dispensation ; so those who continue impenitent, and will not return to God according to this new covenant, are exposed to double punishment under the government of the ]Mediator and he will raise them from the dead to receive the reward of their obstinacy and impenitence, their violation of the law of God, and their neglect of all the means and hopes of grace. QUEST. XII.What doth the Holy Scripture reveal concern- ing the Recovery of Mankind from the Sin and Misery of that Estate into which they were brought by the disobedience of Adam? And how for does this Reco- very reach, both with Regard to the Persons recovered, and with Regard to the Degrees of their Recovery ? Perhaps this great and important enquiry may be answer- ed by the following propositions and reasonings : I. Adam the first man having sinned against God, and brought such a dishonour on the law and authority of his Maker, and tainted his seed with sin, he has thereby exposed himself and his posterity, that is, the whole race of mankind to death: But God, who is rich in mercy, gave him a promise of a Redeemer or Saviour ; Gen. iii. 15. who should be the seed of the woman, and should break the head of the ser- pent ; that is, destroy the works of the devil, and deliver men from that mischief and misery into which sin had plunged them, through the temptation of the devil, who lay hid in the serpent. II. God's ocra and only begotten Son Jesus Christ, who before the World was with God, who was one with the Father and was God, was himself appointed by the Father, to become the Saviour of mankind, that all those might be recovered by pardoning grace to the favour of God, and raised at last to eter- nal life, who should repent of sin, and trust in the mercy of God, according to the several degrees of the discovery of it, which should be made in different nations and ages of the world, from the days of Adam to the days of christianity. III. For this end God appointed this his Son, at a certain
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