IV

SERM. wife, hence arofe a very early Opinion of two independent Principles, the one of Good, the other of Evil. But this can't be suppos'd without implying a direct Contradiction; for two fuch Powers, equally refifting each other, could produce neither Good nor Evil.

And there is but little Reafon in another Opinion, which fome have had, i. e. The Doctrine of a pre-exiftent State; for as that is only a Conjecture, fo whatever follows from it will amount to no more. If it be faid that God could have made Man fo upright that he should not have fallen, I say, fuppofing this could be done, and that, according to our View of Things, it would be right that it should be fo, yet who fhall fay, that what we think to be right, he shall think fo too? Or, who fhall ask him, What doeft thou ? We must take our Beings as we find them, and be content with them upon fuch Conditions as they are given us. I come now,

Secondly, To fhew the Certainty of his Recovery, founded upon the Prophecy in the Text of the Seed of the Woman, I will put Enmity between thee and the Woman, and between thy Seed and her Seed; it fhall

IV.

bruife thy Head, and thou shalt bruife his SERM. Heel. This is the first and most glorious Prophecy that ever was given to Man, no less than a Prophecy of his Redemption from that State of Death and Mifery into which he was unhappily fallen; which, tho' it gave but a small glimmering Light at first, yet is it the fame Prophecy that shined brighter and brighter in After-Ages, till it was at laft accomplish'd in a full Blaze at the Birth of the Meffiah (as on this Day) that bleffed Seed of the Woman, in whom, ac cording to the fame Word of Prophecy given afterwards to Abraham, all the Nations of the Earth were to be bleffed. And here is the Difference, among other Things, between natural and reveal'd Religion; the one is full of Fears and Doubts, the other's Fears are fwallow'd up in Hope, the Defign of Prophecy, or of Revelation, being to conyey Hopes to a Sinner.

That the Prophecy in the Text relates to the Redemption of Mankind will appear very plain, if we confider that the Defign of the Serpent was to hinder Man from being immortal, or to make him immortally miferable. For if his Defign was only to procure him a temporal Death, then he fucceeded according to his Wifh, contrary to I 2

the

SERM. the Prophecy in the Text, which foretell s IV. that the Seed of the Woman fhould bruife

the Serpent's Head, i. e. fruftrate all his Contrivances and Defigns; for this, in all reasonable Construction, must be the Meaning of it. This being then the Defign of the Serpent, the Prophecy in the Text plainly fhews that he should not fucceed in

but that the Seed of the Woman fhould fpoil thofe Defigns, and confequently free Mankind from the Power of them. Put this in any other Light, and there is no Senfe in it. If we were, for Example, to take it in a literal Meaning, befides the Abfurdity of fuppofing the Almighty to come down from Heaven in fo folemn a Manner upon fo trifling an Occafion, as only to give the Seed of the Woman a Power to bruife the Head of a Serpent, and the Serpent a Power to bruise his Heel, which furely carr never be a Sentence worthy the Divine Being to pronounce, what has this to do with the Fall of Man? Man is reprefented here as fallen from his Duty, as a Tranfgreffor of the exprefs Command of God, and for which he is condemned, and receives his Sentence accordingly. Now what has all this to do with the Serpent's biting a Man by the Heel, or with Man's knocking him on

the

IV.

the Head, either of which might be done, SERM. whether we fuppofe Man to have fallen or not? There is no manner of Connection in this, for the Serpent is represented as a Delinquent, not as a Serpent, for as fuch he could not be capable of moral Right or Wrong, but only as actuated by that grand Serpent the Devil; and accordingly Sentence is paffed upon him as fuch, part of which we have here in the Text. As the Serpent then is confider'd here only as the Emblem or Symbol of fomething else capable of moral Wrong, and who actually had introduc'd it into the World, what Connection can there be in applying this to a common Serpent, capable neither of Right nor Wrong? He is here confider'd as a Criminal, and punifh'd as fuch, which could not be if the Serpent only was punished. Befides, how does this appear in Fact? A Serpent is not kill'd oftner than other venomous Creatures. We must therefore neceffarily have Recourse to fome other Interpretation of the Words, and that is, to an Interpretation more rational and confiftent, which is indeed the plain and obvious one, That our bleffed Saviour, who is most emphatically ftil'd the Seed of the Woman, fhall deftroy the Power of the Devil, and reftore those who were held

captive

SERM. captive by Sin to the glorious Liberty of IV. the Sons of God.

Before we can make it appear that our Saviour is here meant by the Seed of the Woman,we must indeed travel through a long Series of Prophecies. For tho' Mankind muft from this firft Prophecy have great Hopes of fome extraordinary Bleffing to come, yet what that should be, or what this Seed of the Woman should mean, was not to be difcover'd: But afterwards, when the Promife was made to Abraham, that in him all the Families of the Earth should be bleed, which was also establish'd with Ifaac and Jacob, and continued to Judah, and down to David, it received more and more Light, till it appear'd in its greatest Splendor, when that Day-fpring from on High vifited us, in whom all Prophecy was center'd. That Chrift is moft eminently this Seed of the Woman, to whom all these ancient Prophecies relate, we may learn from St Paul, who, talking of the Promife made to Abraham before the Law was given fays, Now to Abraham and his Seed were the Promifes made; he faith not, and to Seeds, as of many, but as of one, and to thy Seed, which is Chrift, Gal. iii. 16. And at the 19th Verfe, talking of God's Defign

in