And not of Adam?

is called the feed of the woman in a different sense, from them. The fame words are indeed, ufed of both; but because, Chrift is far more excellent than they; therefore, when they are applied to Chrift, they have a much more illustrious meaning.

XVIII. It is indeed true, that Chrift is the feed of Adam, whofe fon he is called, Luke 3. 38; alfo the feed of Abraham, and the fon of David, because he was born of a virgin, who defcended from them. Yet there was great reafon, why he fhould be here called the feed of the woman, rather than of Adam. For, Adam, in Scripture, is reprefented as the origin of fin and death. Eve, indeed, was first in the tranfgreffion: but as it was not Eve, but Adam, who was exprefsly constituted the federal head of all mankind; fo fin and death are faid to have entered into the world by Adam, Rom 5. 12, 14. Wherefore he, who delivers us from fin and death, ought not to be confidered as fubordinate to Adam, and as his fon but, as the fecond Adam, and the head of another family, oppofed to Adam. However, as he was to be our kinfman and brother, it was neceffary he fhould be born of a woman; and that Adam, as his fon by the spirit and by faith, fhould be fubordinate to him. For, fince God fays here, that he would put enmity between the woman and her feed, and between the ferpent and his feed, without any mention of Adam; it must be, that either Adam is excluded this promife, or comprized under the feed of the woman. The refpect and regard we ought to have for our parent, who was the author and teacher of the true religion to his pofterity, forbids our faying the first. Nor do I think we fhould fay the fecond; because it is agreeable to reason, that the woman fhould be comprized under, and accounted in the man; not, on the contrary, the man under the woIt therefore remains, we fay the third; name ly, that Adam, as he was the origin of fin and death, is oppofed to Chrift; as himself was faved, is to be accounted

man.

accounted to the feed of the woman, whose head is Christ, and fo to be fubordinate to Chrift. Chrift therefore is cailed the feed of the woman, because, being the origin of a better stock, he is oppofed to Adam, as the root of a corrupt race. And it is hinted, that Adam himself owes his falvation to the woman, on account of her feed.

ed.

XIX. Paul, if I mistake hot, leads us to this, 1 Cor. 11. 1 Cor. it 11, 12, neither is the man without the wo 11,and 12; man, neither the woman without the man in the Lord, explainFor, as the woman is of the man, even fo is the man also by the woman: but all things of God. I do not remember to have feen a fuller explication of this place, than what I fhall give from the Thefes of a cer tain very learned perfon. That the man and the woman may BE IN THE LORD, partakers of the grace and redemption purchased by Chrift, they are mutually endebted to one another, for fomething common to both, which the one neither had, nor could have, obtained without the other. For, as the woman is in re avopos OF THE MAN, from whofe rib she was formed, and who could not have been in the Lord, had it not been for the man, without whom fhe could not have fo much as exiled: fo the man is in the Lord a rõs yuvainòs BY THE WOMAN, for the wo man was appointed to be the first enemy of the ferpent, and the Meffiah is called the feed of the woman: but the man obtains the fame happiness by the woman, as by faith he lays hold on the Meffiah, who was to defcend from her in virtue of the promise. The woman is OF THE MAN, materially and naturally i not fo the man of the woman (which yet might be faid; if we only mean ordinary generation, according to the manner, that children are of a woman, Mat. 1. 3, 5, 6, and Chrift himself, Gal. t. 4.) But BY THE WOMAN; because not materially, but fpiritually and fupernaturally, by grace and faith. Thus therefore the man is the origin of being to the woman, the woman of well being to the man. But to prevent 17 VOL. II

A 2

pride

How

Chrift

head?

pride on either hand on this account, and their arrogating any thing, to themselves, it is added, but all things are of God: by whofe wisdom and moft free difpofal it was ordained, that the woman fhould derive her natural origin from the man; the man, his fupernatural from the woman; and become mutually debtors to one another: but the glory, of both thefe priveleges to remain entirely to God alone, the fupreme caufe. that a

XX. Hence it is evident, fuch a Saviour is prombraifes the ifed, who was to be man, and the fon of man. But ferpent's fecing he is defcribed as ftronger than the devil, who, by fin, had acquired a right over mangit follows, that he is alfo true God For, the bruising of the ferpent's head is afcribed to him: and this he does, ift. By the merit of his fatisfaction; and therefore he must have been of fuch dignity, as to be able to pay a fuitable ranfom for all the elect. zdly. By the efficacy of his fpirit, which gradually abolishes every power of the devil, and fo fhews himself to be ftronger than the firong man.

How the

bruifes his heel?

A

'XXI. God declares the MANNER, in which this devil Saviour was to purchase falvation, by saying to the ferpent, tou fhalt bruife bis heel. In which words there is, ft. A denunciation of sufferings, to be inflicted on Chrift by the devil and his inftruments, whereby he would be thrown down for a time. While he himfelf bruifes with his foot the ferpent's head, and ftrips him of all his power; the ferpent, by his envenomed fting, will grievously wound his heel, and conftrain him to ftagger and fall. For, a man, in an upright pofture, ftands on his heels, which being grievously wounded, he is thrown down. 2dly. A prophecy of his refurrection. For, his bead

† Some have obferved, that this expreffion of bruifing Chrift's heel, was not altogether an' obfcure representation of his death on the cross, to which his feet were nailed.

will not be bruised, nor his heart wounded, nor any vital part grivously affected; but only his beel hurt; nay, not both, but only one. Tho' he was therefore thus to be thrown down, yet he was foon to rife again, on refuming strength, and fhew himself a con-queror to the whole world.

ལ་

XXII. The fufferings here denounced are not only The fuffer WARLIKE, as a certain author calls them, with which ings of the ferpent together with his feed, from a hatred to Chrift not holinels and righteoufnefs, affaulted Chrift; but even like but only war JUDICIARY, being inflicted, by the most righteous judiciary, fentence of God, on the fon the furety, to fhew his righteoufnefs, by which he could not pardon fin without a due fatisfaction. For, God here perfonates a judge: pronounces fentence against the devil, declaring his destruction at the appointed time. But the fame fentence alfo condemns the furety of men to vundergo thofe vexations of the devil, which, as a conqueror, he could have inflicted on finful men. He had indeed acquired his dominion over man by evil practices. Yet after man, by forfaking God, his lawful Lord, had enslaved himself to the devil, the juftice of God, in every respect, required his being fubject to the devil, as God's jailor and executioner, for his torment, punishment and condemnation. In which fenfe the devil is faid to have the power of death, Heb. 2. 14; and that even by virtue of the law and fentence of God: for, the sting of death, is fin; thạc is, fin introduced death, and the inftruments of it, and made them sharp, mortally to wound man: but the [strength] power of fin is the law., That is, the power that fin has of putting man to death, is in virtue of the divine law, which threatned the finner swith death, 1 Cor. 15. 56. Whence it follows, that the power of the devil over finners of mankind is fo far lawful, because the devil obtains the power of death over man, but death its power from fin, and fin, from the law. But as that law is moft righteous, life cannot be granted to the finner in prejudice A a 2 thereto,

thereto. It is therefore neceffary, that fatisfaction be made to it from fome other quarter; and that the devil fhould exercife that power of death, which he had acquired by fin, either on the finner himself, or on his furety. Yet in fuch a manner, that, while he puts the furety to death, he lays violent hands upon himself, and lofes all his dominion over the elect; for full fatisfaction is made, by the death of the furety, to that divine juftice, by which the devil had obtained power over the finner. These words therefore tae fhew, how the devil, in a way agreeable to divine juftice, may be deprived of all that power over the elect, which juftice had granted him over finners: namely, because the devil was to exercife that power over the furety of men, by biting his heel, or putting him to death. So that thofe fufferings, which Chrift was here foretold to endure, are, in the highest degree, judiciary or fatisfactory. Compare thefe things with what we have faid Book II. Chap. VI. Sect. 23, 24. XXIII. The HEIRS of thofe benefits or bleffings are, ft. The woman herfelf, w, with the demonftrative particle, be, namely, that woman whom the ferpent had first atracked and conquered. She is here mentioned, but not in exclufion of her husband, but becaufe fte, having been enticed by the flatteries of Satan, feemed to have contracted a greater fami liarity with him; and therefore her enmity to the devil was to be a moft admirable effect of divine power and goodnefs. And then it was alfo a remarkable contempt put upon the proudest of fpirits, that he fhould be vanquished not by the man, but the woman, that very woman, whom he had fo eafily fubdued by his delufions. In fine, from this it most clearly appears, that the whole work of our falvation is owing to divine grace. For, if Adam had here been expressly let in oppofition to the ferpent, becaufe he was ftronger and more prudent by nature, and was last overcome by the devil; this thought might by

The heirs are. 1.

The woman.

degrees