SERM. the Prophecy in the Text, which foretells 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 Design of the Serpent, the Prophecy in the Text plainly fhews that he should not fucceed in it, but that the Seed of the Woman should 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 cam 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

the Head, either of which might be done, SERM. IV. 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 passed 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 punish'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 haveRecourfe 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 thofe 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 blessed, 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 Christ, Gal. iii. 16. And at the 19th Verfe, talking of God's Defign

in

IV.

in giving the Law, he fays, Wherefore then SERM. ferveth the Law? It was added, because of Tranfgreffions, till the Seed fhould come to whom the Promife was made. What that Seed is, is plain from the 29th Verfe, where thofe that belong to Chrift are faid to be of the Seed of Abraham. If ye be Chrift's, then are ye Abraham's Seed, and Heirs according to the Promife. And in the 4th and 5th Verses of the next Chapter he says exprefly, that when the Fulness of Time was comc, God fent forth his own Son, made of Woman, made under the Law, to redeem them that were under the Law, that we might receive the Adoption of Sons.

Thus has the Divine Being, whom we have experienc'd to be infinite in Mercy, as well as in every other Attribute, when Man ftood before him a Convict by the Law of Nature, and had loft all Hopes of a Reconciliation with God upon any further Trial of his Obedience, given him a gentler Law, and fresh Hopes of Favour, by declaring, That tho' the Serpent had drawn the Woman aside from her Duty, and the Man had alfo join'd in the Tranfgreffion, yet that he should not finally prevail, but that, for the future, he would put Enmity between his Seed and her's; which has been fulfill'd, not

only

SERM. only in our Saviour, but in all good ChriIV. ftians ever fince; and that the Seed of the Woman should at length prevail over him, and shake off his Dominion; that bleffed Seed which came down from Heaven to perform the Mercy promis'd to our Forefathers, and to remember God's holy Covenant; to perform the Oath that he fwore to our Forefather Abraham, that he would

give us, that we, being deliver'd out of the Hands of our Enemies, might ferve him without Fear, in Holiness and Righteousness before him all the Days of our Life. What we are to learn from all this, I come now,

Thirdly to fhew. From the Fall of Man then we may learn how to account for all the Evil that is in the World, and by his Recovery for all the Good that is in it. To these two Springs are reducible the Happinefs and Mifery of every Mortal. Every evil Thought, every vain Imagination, derives its Original from thence, as every good Thought and Action, every Rivulet of Hope, from the other.

And now we know the Original of Good and Evil, which, by the way, we know only by Revelation, no Scheme of Reason whatfoeyer having found out this grand Secret,