386 RUIN AND RECOVERY, &C. tion of the dead from this very principle, that God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, 4c. "Luke xx. 37, 38 ? And must not such children therefore be raised from the dead ? To this I answer : I have allowed this under the twelfth question, and I con- firm it all here : For whatever I have said under this last ques- tion concerning infants, relates to those only who stand opon the foot of Adam's 'broken covenant of works, and have no interest in a better covenant ; that is, it belongs only to the children of wicked men who died in Adam, and who have not received or accepted of the covenant of mercy and life through Jesus Christ : But the infant -offspring of those who have' repented of sin, and accepted :of the covenant of grace, are, in my opinion., included in the blessings of the covenant of Abraham, which come upon Gentile believers and their seed, as well as on the Jews through Jews Christ, in the spiritual and eternal extent of them ; for Christ Teat the minister of the circumcision, or sent to the Jewish nation, to confirm the promises of God made unto the fathers, that is, Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and that the Gentiles might glorify Godfor his mercy. See Gal. iii. 14. Rorm xv. 8. And therefore there is much reason to believe from. many places of scripture, that as they have a share in this cove- nant -of grace and the blessings thereof through the faith or piety of their parents, being incapable to put forth an act of faith and piety themselves; so they shall be raised again to an eternal iife.-of .holiness and happiness together with their parents, as the sons and daughtersof Abraham who have God for their God. VIII. As there are several texts of scripture from which I suppose such inferences may he made, so if I mistake not, there are one or- two speeches of the prophets which seem to intend and mean the resurrection and happiness of the children of true christians. If we look into Is. lxv. 23. God isthere, speaking eohcernino the blessing which shall come upon his people in the christian church, when those Jews who had refused the Messiah were cutoff, and God calls his own people by another name, that is, christians. Thepremise is this, They shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth for trouble, for they are the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and their clspring with them. Now we find' by experience in all ages of the christian church, that infants die, as well as they did before ; and yet it is said, Their parents shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth for trouble: How can this be fulfilled, but by the right of their children to the extensive bless- ings -of the covenant of grace, that is, a resurrection to eternal life ? And it is put upon this foot, that they are the seed of -the blessed of the Lord, they enjoy the blessing of. their father Abra- ham in whom all nations are blessed, that God- is theirGod and the God of theiroflspring together with them. The other text is, Jer. xxxi. 1¢. compared with Mat. ii.
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