commandment, and follow my commandment? and therefore he presently pronounced sentence against him. And the same words are repeated in Midrash Vaiikra ad cap. 13. v. 2. which things can be understood of Satan only. I know some of the later masters have other thoughts of these things, because they discover what use may be made of the truth, and of the faith of their forefathers in this matter.

Aben Ezra, in his commentary on this place, disputes the opinions of their doctors; and although he acknowledges, that Rabbi Saadias Haggaon, and Rabbi Samuel Ben Hoplini, with others, (that is indeed their Targums, and Talmuds, and all their ancient writers), affirm Satan to be intended, yet he contends for the serpent only, on these weak pretences, that Satan goeth not on his belly, nor eateth dust, which things in the letter are confessed to belong unto the instrument that he used. And hereon they would have it, that the serpent was deprived of voice and understanding, which before he had; so making. that a rational subsistence, which is expressly reckoned amongst the beasts of the field.

The root of all evil also, they would have to lie in the matter whereof we were originally made; an impossible figment, invented to reflect the guilt of all sin on him that made us. Thus every thing seems right that will serve their present purpose, whilst they shut their eyes against the truth. But we have the consent of the most antient of the best and wisest of them in this matter; as also with respect to the deliverance here promised. The two Targums of Uzzielides, and that called Jerusalem, both agree that these words contain a remedy of the effects of Satan's temptation, and that to be wrought by the Messiah, or, as they speak, in his days. And hence they have a common saying, that in the last days, (which is the Old Testament periphrasis of the days for the Messiah) all things shall be healed, but the serpent and the Gibeonites, by whom they understand all hypocrites and unbelievers. Satan therefore is to be conquered by the bruising of his head; and conquered he is not, nor can be, unless his work be destroyed. In the destruction of his work consists the deliverance of mankind from the twofold evil mentioned. And this is to be effected by the seed of the woman, to be brought forth into the world for that end and purpose. For when the production of this seed, is restrained unto the family and posterity of Abraham, it is said expressly, that in, or by it, all the kindreds of the earth should be blessed, which they could not be, without a removal of the curse.

§ 26. We may now therefore take the sum of this discourse, and of the whole matter that we have insisted on, about the entrance of sin into the world, and the remedy provided in the

grace and wisdom of God against it. It appears upon our s quiry, First, That the sin of our first parents was the occasion and cause of all that evil which is in the world, of all that is feit, or justly feared, by mankind. For as those who knew not, or received not the revelation of the truth, in these things made unto us in the Scripture, could never assign any other cause of it that might be satisfactory unto an ordinary rational inquirer, so the testimonies of the Scripture make this most evident, and especially that insisted on. Secondly, It hath been evinced, that mankind could not recover, or deliver themselves from under the power of their own innate corruption and disorder, nor from the effects of the curse and wrath of God that came upon them. Neither is there any ground of expecting relief from any other part of God's creation. But yet, that God, for the praise of the glory of his grace, mercy and goodness, would effect it. Thirdly, That this relief and deliverance is first intimated and declared, in those words of God unto the serpent: "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed: it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." Which appears,

First, Because in and with the serpent, Satan, who was the head of all apostasy from God, and by whom our first parents were beguiled, is intended in these words. This we have made evident, from the confession of the Jews, with whom in this matter we have principally to do. And to what hath been already observed unto that purpose, we may add the testimonies of some other of them to the same effect. Rabbi Bechai, he whom they call ", Bechai the Elder, in his comment on the law upon these words, Gen. iii. 15. speaks to this purpose: We have no more enmity with the serpent, than with other creeping things. Wherefore the Scripture mystically signifies him who was hid in the serpent. For the body of the crafty serpent was a fit instrument for that force, or virtue, that joined itself therewith. That was it which made Eve to sin, whence death came on all her posterity. And this is the enmity between the serpent and the seed of the woman. And this is the mys tery of the holy tongue, that the serpent is sometimes called Saraph, according to the name of an angel, who is also called Saraph. And now thou knowest that the serpent is Satan, and the evil figment, and the angel of death.' And Rabbi Judah, in p,Many interpreters say, that the evil figment hath all its force from the old serpent, or Satan.' To the same purpose, the author of 7751 152, Caphtor Vaparach, The devil and the serpent are called by one name. And many other testimonies of the like import might be collected out of them.

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We have also a surer word for our own satisfaction, in the application of this place unto Satan, in the divine writings of

the New Testament: as 2 Cor. xi. 3. 1 Tim. ii. 14. Rom. v. 11, 12, 13. 15. Heb. ii. 14, 15. 1 John iii. 8. Rev. xii. 9. and ch. xx. 2, 3. but we forbear to press them on the Jews.

Besides, it is most evident from the thing itself. For, 1. Who can be so sottish as to imagine, that this great alteration which ensued in the works of God, that which caused him to pronounce them accursed, and to inflict so sore a punishment on Adam and all his posterity, should arise from the actings of a brute creature? Where is the glory of this dispensation? How can we attribute it unto the wisdom and greatness of God? What is there in it suitable unto his righteousness and holiness? Whereas, supposing this to be the work of him, who was in himself the beginning of all apostasy, and who first brake the law of his creation, all things answer the excellency of the divine perfections. Moreover, is it imaginable that the nature of man, then flourishing in the vigour of all its intellectual abilities, reason, wisdom, knowledge, in that order and rectitude of them, which was his grace, should be surprised, seduced, and brought into subjection, unto the craft and machinations of an inferior creature, a beast of the field, and that unto the ruin of man, both in time and in eternity? The whole nature of the inferior creatures, James tells us, is tamed by the nature of man, ch. iii. 7. and that now in his lessened and depraved condition; and shall we think that this excellent nature, in the blossom of its strength, and right unto rule over all, should be tamed, corrupted, subdued, by the nature of a beast or a serpent? And yet again, whereas in the whole action of the serpent, there is an open design against the glory and honour of God, and against the welfare and happiness of mankind, and that managed with craft, subtilty, and forethought, how can we imagine that such a contrivance should be consistent with the condition of a brute worm, incapable of moral evil, and newly framed out of the dust by the power of its Creator? Hitherto it had continued under the law and order of its creation; and shall we think that now, in an instant, it should engage thus desperately against God and man? And further, the actings of the serpent were by reason and with speech. And if we suppose that it was endowed with reason and speech, does not this plainly exempt it from that order and kind of creatures whereof it was, and place it among the number of the intellectual and rational parts of the creation? And is not this contrary to the analogy of the Scripture, and to the open truth of the thing itself, it being cursed among the beasts of the field? To say, as Aben Ezra seems to do, that God gave it reason and speech for that occasion, is blasphemously to make God the sole author of that temptation which he so much abhorred. Lastly, Considering the punishment denounced against mankind, of death

temporal and eternal, that which is threatened unto the serpent bears no proportion unto it, if it concern only the serpent itself. And what rule of justice will admit, that the accessory should be punished with greater sufferings than the principal? Neither doth this punishment, as to the principal part of it, the bruising of the head, befal all serpents, yea but few of them in comparison, doubtless not one of a million, whereas all mankind, none excepted, were liable unto the penalty denounced against them. Were no more men intended, than are bitten on the heel by serpents, the matter were otherwise; but death is passed upon all, in as much as all have sinned. Satan then it was, who was the principal in this seduction, the author of all apostasy from God, who using the serpent as his instrument, involved that also so far in the curse, as to render it of all creatures the most abhorred of mankind.

§ 27. Against this seducer it is denounced, that his head should be bruised. The head of Satan, is his craft and power. From these issued all that evil whereinto mankind had fallen. In the bruising therefore of his head, the defeat of his counsel, the destruction of his work, and the deliverance of mankind, ist contained, as our apostle most excellently declares, Heb. ii. Death must be removed, and righteousness brought in, and acceptance with God procured, or the head of Satan is not bruised. This therefore is openly and plainly a promise of the deliverance inquired after.

Moreover, there is a declaration made, how this victory shall be obtained, and this deliverance wrought, and that is by the seed of the woman. This seed is twice repeated in the words: once expressly, and her seed; and secondly, it is included in the pronoun, it. And as by seed, in the first place, the posterity of the woman, some to be born of her race, partakers of human nature, may be intended as the subjects of the enmity mentioned; so in the latter, some single person, some one of her posterity or seed that should obtain the victory, is expressly denoted. For as all her seed in common, do never go about this work, the greatest part of them continuing in a willing subjection unto Satan; so if all of them should combine to attempt it, they would never be able to accomplish it, as we have before proved at large. Some one therefore to come of her, with whom God would be present, in an especial and extraordinary manner, is here expressly promised. And this is the Messiah.

§ 28. God having in infinite wisdom and grace provided this way of relief, and given this intimation of it, that revelation became the foundation and centre of all the religion that ensued in the world. For as those who received it by faith, and adhered unto it, continued in the worship of the true God, ex

pressing their faith in the sacrifices that he had appointed, typically to represent and exemplify before their eyes that work which by the promised seed was to be accomplished: so also all that false worship into which the generality of mankind apostatized, was laid in a general persuasion, that there was a way for the recovery of the favour of God; but what that was they knew not, and therefore wandered in woeful uncertainties.

Some suppose, that our great mother Eve, in those words,

expressed an apprehension that קניתי איש את־יהוה .1 .Gen. iv

she had born him, who was Man-God, the Man the Lord, the promised seed. And they do not only contend for this meaning of the words, but also reproach them who are otherwise minded; as may be seen in the writings of Hunnius and Helvicus, against Calvin, Junius, Paræus, and Piscator. That she together with Adam believed the promise, had the consolation, and served God in the faith of it, I no way doubt. But that she had an apprehension, that the promised seed should be so soon exhibited, and knew that he should be the Lord, or Jehovah, and yet knew not that he was to be born of a virgin, and not after the ordinary way of mankind, I see no cogent reason to evince. Nor do the words mentioned necessarily prove any such apprehension in her. The whole weight of that supposătion lies on the construction of the words, from the interposition of the particle n denoting, as they say, after verbs active, always an accusative case. But instances may be given to the contrary whence our translation reads the words, I have gotten. a man from the Lord, without the least intimation of any other sense in the original. And Drusius is bold to affirm, that it is want of solid skill in the sacred tongue that was the cause of that conception. Besides, if she had such thoughts, she was manifoldly mistaken; and to what end that mistake of hers should be here expressed, I know not. And yet, notwithstanding all this, I will not deny but that the expression is unusual and extraordinary, if the sense of our translation be intended, and not that by some contended for, I have gotten or obtained the Man the Lord. And this, it is possible, caused Jonathan Ben Uzziel to give us that gloss on the words in his Targum:

ואדם ידע את חוה אתתיה דהוא המידת למלאכא ואעדיאת And וילידת ית קין ואמדת קניתי לגברא ית מלאכא דיי

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Adam knew his wife Eve, who desired the angel and she conceived and bare Cain, and said, I have obtained the man (or a man) the angel of the Lord." That is, him who was promised afterwards under the name of the angel of the Lord, or the angel of the covenant, which the Jews may do well to consi der.

29. But we have farther expositions of this first promise, and farther confirmations of this grace in the Scripture itself.