A discourse of the true nature of the Gospel demonstrating that it is no…

nay, tho he had plainly declared that he would never be reconciled. It is a Duty then to which Adam, after his Fall, was bound by the same Law which he obeyed in his Innocency; to which he was bound, when amazed with all the Horrors of a despairing Mind, looking for nothing but Vengeance and Ruin from the Anger and armed Power of the Almighty. It is a Duty to which he was tied before any new Covenant of Grace made, and before God had revealed any Thoughts of Favour to him, or any Purposes of Grace in that first Promise of the Seed of the Woman breaking the Serpent's Head. If then it was Adam's Duty to repent, before he had received any Promises of Mercy, there must be some Precept obliging him to it: since that, and Duty, mutually infer one another, no Precept could it be of the Gospel, for that was not yet proclaimed, and therefore it must be the proper Precept of the Moral Law, which was the thing to be proved.

nay, tho he had plainly declar'd that he would never be reconcil'd. It is a Duty then to which Adam, after his Fall, was bound by the same Law which he obey'd in his Innocency; to which he was bound, when amaz'd with all the Horrors of a despairing Mind, looking for nothing but Vengeance and Ruin from the Anger and arm'd Power of the Almighty. It is a Duty to which he was tied before any new Covenant of Grace made, and before God had reveal'd any Thoughts of Favour to him, or any Purposes of Grace in that first Promise of the Seed of the Woman breaking the Serpent's Head. If then it was Adam's Duty to repent, before he had receiv'd any Promises of Mercy, there must be some Precept obliging him to it: since that, and Duty, mutually infer one another, no Precept could it be of the Gospel, for that was not yet proclaim'd, and therefore it must be the proper Precept of the Moral Law, which was the thing to be prov'd.

If any one will peremptorily deny Repentance to have been Adam's Duty before God had promised Mercy, the same Person must consequently assert, that it was no Fault in him to run from God; that he did very well in excusing himself, in throwing the great Part of the Guilt upon God, in standing upon his own Justification; and that if he had continued an obdurate hardened Wretch, if he had acted as a bold desperate Rebel, and instead of confessing his Crimes, and expressing his Sorrow, had further dared and outbraved offended Justice, he had been innocent in all this, and had not in the least broken any Precept of the Law, nor transgressed the Bounds of his Duty. For if Repentance was not commanded before the Gospel published, then the worst Impenitence in Adam would have been no Sin, because forbidden by no Law.