is pronounced, it will be neceffary, before I proceed any further, to inquire who we are to understand by it. I apprehend, that by the ferpent is, meant a true and real ferpent, and not the mere form and likeness of one, in which the devil might appear for a time. This is evident from its being reckoned among the beasts of the field, ver... from the cunning and fubtilty which is there afcribed to it, and more especially from the nature of the curfe denounced against it in my text, and in the verfe before it, which is thus expreffed; And the Lord God faid unto the ferpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art curfed above all cattle, and above every beaft of the field; upon thy belly fhalt thou go, and duft fhalt thou eat all the days of thy life. And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy feed and her feed: It shall bruife thy head, and thou shalt bruife his heel. All which is literally true of this creature, the ferpent; it is the moft deteftable and lothefom of all creatures; it is a reptile upon the earth; it goes upon its belly, however upright it might be before this fentence; it feeds upon what is exceeding mean; and between this and man is an irreconcileable enmity; the fight of a ferpent is disagreeable to man, and the fight of a man is as abhorrent to a ferpent; the ferpent's gall is poifon to man, and the fpittle of a man is venomous to ferpents. This antipathy to ferpents, in the human nature, is observed to be still more strong in the female fex; and it is averred, that the bare foot of a woman preffing a ferpent's head, never fo little, is immediate death to it: and though this creature may, at unawares, bite the heels of men; yet man has fuch an advantage over it, that he can eafily bruise and crush its head; which it being fenfible of, is most careful to cover and hide. These are things which naturalifts fay of this creature, and, if true, fhew that the curfe denounced, is literally fulfilled in it; and confequently, that it was a real and proper ferpent, which is here intended.

с

But then let it be obferved, that not a mere ferpent, or that only, is to be understood, but that as poffeffed and used by Satan as his inftrument: This appears from its having a faculty of fpeaking; and more especially from its cunning and fophiftic way of reafoning; nor is it rational to fuppofe, that human nature, in its bloom and glory, fhould be outwitted, feduced, and overcome by a creature fo very inferior to it: befides, the writings of the New Teftament afcribe the feduction and ruin of man to the devil... Our Lord calls him a murderer from the beginning; and fometimes this feduction is attributed to him, under the name of the Serpent: And it is easy to observe, that the Devil and Satan', is called the old ferpents to all which agree the fentiments of many of

See Matthew x. 16.

the

All these instances of antipathy are obferved by the learned Mr Jofeph Mede, from naturalifts, in his works, Book I. Difc. 39. p. 293. Vid. Franz. Hift. Animal. Part IV. c. 1. Topfel's Hiftory of Serpents, p. 604, 606. 2 Cor. xi. z. * Rev. xii.

John viii. 44.

9.

& xx. 2.

the Jewish writers; who acknowledge that Satan, whom they call Samael, and the Angel of death, names proper enough for him, was in the ferpent, and was the cause of man's ruin, and is principally defigned in the curfe.

This clears the juftice of God, and fhews that the punishment of the ferpent is not unreasonable; fince it was made ufe of by Satan as an inftrument to bring about his wicked defigns. If the earth was curfed for man's fake, why might not this creature be curfed for Satan's fake, who had employed it to fo vile a purpose? The punishing the inftrument, or what is acceffary, as well as the principal, does more difcover God's deteftation of the fact for which they are punished, as may be obferved in other inftances". But then,

Let it not be thought that the inftrument only was punished, and the principal fuffered to escape: No, this fentence of punishment, here pronounced, was chiefly defigned against Satan, and to be inflicted on him; and every part of it is applicable to him; he is of all creatures accurfed of God; he is now caft down from the realms of light and glory, in which he dwelt, and will never be able to rife more and regain his former place and dignity; he lives not upon. angels food, as formerly, but upon earthly, impure, and fordid lufts. Between him and the woman's feed is an implacable enmity, which will iffue in his everlafting ruin; whatever feeble attempts he may be able to make to defend himfelf, and destroy the kingdom of Chrift. But on thefe things I have already more largely infifted, in a treatife published to the world fome time ago. I go on to oblerve, that

These words, I will put enmity, &c. are spoken by a divine perfon, who is called the LORD GOD; at whofe voice Adam trembled, and whofe prefence he dreaded; by whom we are to understand, either God abfolutely, or perfonally confidered; if as perfonally confidered, then either the first or fecond perfon in the Trinity is defigned. I am inclined to think that the Lord Jesus Christ appeared in an human form to Adam, and spoke with an articulate voice to him; for no man bath seen God the Father at any time; ye bave neither heard his voice at any time, fays Christ, nor feen his shape. It is a rule that, perhaps, will meet with few exceptions in the Old Teftament; that whenever any visible appearance of Jehovah was made, any fhape affumed, or articulate voice uttered, it is to be understood of the second perfon; who, in the fulness of time, was to be made flesh, and dwell among us; and, indeed, who fo proper to carry on a judicial process against these criminals? before whom should they take their trials? and from whom should they receive the fentence of condemnation, but from him who is the Judge of all the earth? For the Father judgeth no man, but bath committed

Zohar in Gen. iii. fol. 127, 1, 2. Targum Jon. in Gen. iii. 6. Vid. Aben Ezra in Gen. iii.3. Exod. xxi. 28. Lev. xx. 15. The prophecies of the Old Teftament refpecting the Meffiah, literally fulfilled in Jefus, chap. i. p. 5, 6, &c. * John v. 37.

committed all judgment unto the Son; that all men should bonour the Son, even as they bonour the Father: And who more fit to bring the first tidings of grace and falvation to fallen man, than he who was to be the GREAT PROPHET in Ifrael? By this means the gospel of our falvation first began to be spoken by the Lord in the garden of Eden, as it afterwards was in the land of Judea, in fuch a manner, and with fuch power and authority, as it never was before or fince. Add to all this, that the paraphrafes antiently ufed by the Jewish church, feem to incline to this fenfe; for the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan read the eighth verse thus: And they heard the voice of the word of the Lord God walking in the garden, &c. and the Jerufalem Targum reads the ninth verfe after this manner: And the Word of the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, &c. And both Onkelos and Jonathan paraphrafe the tenth verse thus: And he said, The voice of thy Word I heard in the garden, &c. By the Word of the Lord, they mean the effential Word, the Meffiah, who walked in the garden, called to Adam, and whofe voice he heard. Now it is the very fame person that continues talking with Adam and Eve, who, in my text, directs his discourse to the ferpent; nor ought it to be any objection that he is here introduced speaking of himself, under the character of the feed of the woman, that should bruife the ferpent's head, fince this is not unusual, as appears from John iv. 10, &c.

The principal thing defigned in my text, is the victory the Meffiah fhould obtain over Satan. The enmity put between the woman and the ferpent, between his feed and hers, breaking out into open war, was to iffue in an entire conqueft over the ferpent and his feed, in which the Meffiah would intereft all his people. This, and only this, could be a fupport to Adam in his present state and condition. We are not to imagine, to use the words of an ingenious modern writer", "we hear God foretelling, with great folemnity, a very trivial accident "that should sometime. happen in the world; that ferpents would be apt to "bite men by the heels, and that men would be apt to revenge themfelves by: ftriking them on the head. What has this trifle to do with the loss of man"kind, with the corruption of the natural and moral world, and the ruin of "all the glory and happiness of the creation? Great comfort it was to Adam,' doubtlefs, after telling him that his days fhould be fhort, and full of mifery, "and his end without hope, to let him know that he should now and then knock "a fnake on the head; but not even that without paying dear for his poor "victory, for the fnake should often bite him by the heel. Adam furely could "not understand the prophecy in this fenfe, though fome of his fons have fo "understood it."

66

66

1 John v. 22, 23.

m Sherlock's use and intent of Prophecy, p. 70, 71.

It

It is certain these were not the fentiments of the old Jewish church; for the paraphrases of Jonathan and Jerusalem understand the words of the Meffiah; the former of which says, "There shall be a healing for the heel in the days of the "King Meffiah;" and much to the fame purpose fays the latter. The word &, which is rendered it, is one of the names of God, and is so used in Pfalm cii. 27. Ifai. xlviii. 12. and well agrees with Chrift, who is the unchangeable, omnipotent, and eternal HE, the aur, who is the fame yesterday, to-day, and for ever. The work afcribed to him, which is the bruifing the ferpent's head, is what no other but the Meffiah was to do, or could do, and is referred to in Pfalm cx. 6. which Pfalm belongs folely to the Meffiah; where it is faid of him, He shall wound the beads over many countries; which may be rendered, He shall wound the bead over a large country; or, he shall wound him on the head who is over a large country; which can be no other than Satan, the god and prince of this world. Befides, in the volume of the book, iv nepaxídı Bixis; at the head of the book, in the beginning of it, it is written of Chrift, that he should do the will of God; which was to destroy Satan, the old ferpent, with his works, and deliver finful miferable man out of his hands; and can refer to no other prophefy than this, which stands at the head and front of the Bible; from the giving forth of which the Meffiah has been spoken of by the mouth of all God's holy prophets, which have been fince the world began. Nor can it be any just objection to his being the feed of the woman; that the word feed is a collective word, fince it is often used to defign a fingle perfon; as in Gen. iv. 25. and chap. xv. 2. and xxi. 13. From all which I conclude, that this is an intimation, and the first intimation of the Meffiah, and of his work and office.

The manner in which this hint is given, is worthy of observation. It is commonly faid, that these words contain the first promise of the Meffiah, and of grace and falvation by him to finful man; but it ought to be observed, that the words are not spoken to man, but to the ferpent; not by way of promise to Adam, but by way of threatening to the devil: It is true, indeed, Adam was prefent, and heard what dropped from the lips of his Judge, which revived his fainting fpirits and trembling heart, and sprung a dawn of light and joy in him, and laid a folid foundation for faith and hope, as to everlasting falvation. These words contain a declaration of fecret enmity between feveral parties, breaking out into open war, and the event of it.

The declaration of this mutual enmity is thus expreffed: I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy feed and her feed; that is, "I will put between you, and raise up among you an implacable and irreconcilable hatred, " which shall not lie fecretly burning in your breasts, but shall break out into VOL. I. 3 C "open

open acts of hoftility, one against another; there fhall be a perpetual war "between you." Now in this battle there are two pair of combatants.

The one is the ferpent and the woman; who is defigned by the ferpent, has been observed already: By the woman, cannot be meant the church, who is fometimes fo called, both for her weakness and fruitfulness in her present state. Could this allegorical fenfe be admitted of, fome paffages in the twelfth chapter of the Revelation would ferve as a proper comment on our text; particularly ver. 4, 13-15, 17.

But this mystical fenfe is not suitable; the text defigns fome certain woman literally understood, "that woman," by way of emphasis: Some fay, the virgin Mary, that famous woman, the mother of Chrift, who is faid to be made of a woman; a woman that both was mother and virgin at one and the fame time, who, for the fake of him whom he bore, is blessed among women; and upon that account bleffed by all generations. But rather by this woman, we are to understand Eve, the wife of Adam, the woman that was then prefent, who had beguiled her husband, being feduced by the ferpent; the woman into whose affections he had ingratiated himself, and with whom he had lately fo familiarly converfed: This woman, seeing herself imposed on, and feduced by him, and herself and pofterity ruined, is filled with hatred to him; which must be no fmall mortification to that proud spirit, to have the weak woman opposed, as his match.

The other pair of combatants are, the feed of the ferpent, and the feed of the woman.

By the feed of the ferpent, may be meant either evil angels, or wicked men, or both. Evil angels may truly be called the feed of the devil, fince they are of the fame nature and principles with him; they are his angels, he is the prince of them; they move at his orders, and obey his commands; and these bear not only a fecret grudge, but keep up an open war against Christ and his faints. Wicked men alfo may properly enough be called his feed; the devil is their father, and they are his children; they imitate him, they do his works, and are called after his name, ferpents, and generation of vipers. They hate Christ and his people, and perfecute them that are after the Spirit. This has always been, and ever will be the cafe, as long as this prefent ftate of things continues.

By the feed of the woman, is not defigned her immediate pofterity, especially Cain; for whatever hopes the might have entertained at his birth, that she had brought forth the Meffiah, the promised feed; which fome conclude from her words, in chapter iv. 1. I have gotten a man from the Lord; which they choose to render, I have gotten a man, the Lord; and which Jonathan the Targumist paraphrafes thus; "I have gotten a man, the Angel of the Lord;" I fay, what

Matt. xxii. 23,