Mofes's books contain fuch evidence of his fuperior understanding in theology above all the ancients, as affords fufficient arguments againft giving any thing he affirms of God an abfurd meaning when it may admit a better.

The Chriftian interpretation of the threatening in view may be confirmed, by confidering the ftrong objections which the contrary interpretation is liable to. It is proved already, that the firit part of the chapter, Gen. iii. which fpeaks of the serpent's crime, treats chiefly of the evil fpirit: it is therefore unreafonable to fuppofe, that the fecond part of the chapter, which treats of the ferpent's punishment, fpeaks not of the evil fpirit, but of the brute; efpecially when the threatening itself exprefsly declares, that the ground of it is that crime of tempting mankind, in which, not the brute, but the evil fpirit alone could be the agent.

Unless the threatening in view be fupposed to be directed against the evil fpirit, there is no other threatening against him in the whole context, tho' he be reprefented as the author and contriver of the wickednefs committed, and though the context be made up of threatenings against all the parties concerned in it, the paffive inftrument itfelf not being excepted, in fo far as degrading monuments of divine difpleasure against the evil fpirit's crime were to cleave to the form he had affumed.

The interpretation that reftricts the threatening to the brute does not agree with the event; because it is not one brute ferpent of many thousands on whom the threatening, as explained by that interpretation, is put in execution; whereas it is quite otherwife as to the other threatenings in the context, relating to death, labour, and pain.

On the other hand, if the Chriftian interpretation of the threatening be compared with events, it receives abundant confirmation from all the various inftances and declarations of God's grace and

mercy to mankind, defeating the evil fpirit's defign, recorded partly in the beginning, and partly in the fequel, of Mofes's writings.

As the book of Job, whether it was written or tranflated by Mofes or not, may be justly confidered as a part of the fyftem of revelation that the church enjoyed in the days of Mofes, or near that time, the account given in that book of Satan, as an evil fpirit, and an arch adverfary of God and man, ought, according to the best rules of interpretation, to be improved for explaining what is faid in Gen. iii. of fuch an arch adverfary acting in the form of a ferpent; the fingular characters contained in thefe two parts of fcripture having fo remarkable and peculiar a conformity to each other, as affords ftrong arguments, that it is the fame evil agent that is meant in both places; yea, all the paffages in the Old Teftament, which fpeak of evil fpirits, and of Satan their head, as tempting men to fin, ferve to confirm the Chriftian account of the ferpent mentioned in this ancient oracle.

2. All the arguments which fhew, that by the ferpent mentioned in the threatening in view, we are to understand the evil fpirit that feduced mankind, are fo many arguments for the above interpretation of bruising his head, (the feat of his power and craft), as fignifying the defeating of his defign, by a glorious deliverance from fin and mifery; which deliverance cannot be justly conceived otherwife than as a very complex and comprehenfive defign, carried on through all ages, and of which every thing that promotes the falvation of finners is a part, though no doubt the chief intermediate caufes of falvation are the things to which the words are chiefly applicable. And this interpretation is much. confirmed by all the fubfequent predictions in which the work or the fuccefs of the Meffiah, the Saviour of mankind, or divine difpenfations fubfervient to his work, are defcribed, in expreffious refembling

thofe

thofe of the text in view; as in Pf. cx. 1.6. If. xxvii, 1. Pfal. lxviii. 21. If. xxv. 10.

3. As to the meaning of the feed of the woman, it is evident in general, that this expreffion muft fignify the woman's pofterity. But that it is not all, or many of her pofterity, but one particular extraordinary perfon, that is meant, is at least rendered highly probable by the confiderations formerly mentioned, in comparing this text with If. vii. 14. and Jer. xxxi.; and the evidence is carried beyond mere probability by all the prophecies which fhow, that the defeating of the ferpent's defign fhould be, in a fingular and peculiar manner, the work of the Meffiah.

After mentioning the feed of the woman, the perfonal pronoun is ufed in the fingular number, He fhall bruife thy head, (for fo the words may be literally rendered); it is therefore an unnecessary departing from the literal meaning of the words, to fuppofe, that by the promised feed we are to understand, not one perfon, but many. The feed of the woman is an extraordinary expreffion, not otherwife explicable, but by the miraculous conception of the perfon intended. But though the expreffion be meant chiefly of one perfon, the great deliverer from fin and mifery; yet as Adam and Eve are confidered in the context as representing all men and women, fo the promised deliverer may be confidered here, as in various other fcriptures, not as a private person, but a common or public perfon, representing all his people, who fhould renounce the friendship of the ferpent, the cause of the revolt againft God, and fhould be in a state of enmity or oppofition to the ferpent and his caufe, being in a ftate of peace and reconciliation with God.

4. As to the fourth part of the Christian explication of this prediction, it is obvious, that bruising the heel naturally implies fufferings, though very different from what is implied in bruifing the head,

The

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The prediction implies a conflict, wherein the feed of the woman would undergo fufferings, but would obtain a final and complete victory; and that, by the part of the conftitution of his perfon, which would fuffer wounds and bruifes. It was his heel that was to be bruifed; and it was by his heel that he was to bruise the serpent's head.

The comparative obfcurity of this prediction is owned on all hands; but when it is confidered as the foundation of other predictions that are defigned as explications and amplifications of it, it will be found to be very comprehenfive; feeing, in foretelling a conqueror of the ferpent, or a deliverer from fin and mifery, it contains hints relating, not only to his miraculous conception, but also his humiliation and fufferings, and fubfequent exaltation, or final victory. And it is very remarkable, that the ideas of conflict, oppofition, fufferings, and final victory, which run through fubfequent prophecies, and fo often occur in them, are fo compendiously wrapped up in this first promife.

The Chriftian interpretation of this promife is confirmed by the fequel of Mofes's hiftory, concerning a party among mankind adhering to the caufe of God and righteousness, walking with God, Gen. xxii. 5. ferving him acceptably, and worshipping him by offering facrifices; the fignificancy of which rite, in relation to atonement for fin, or deliverance from the fruits of the ferpent's malice by an atonement, will be confidered more fully after

wards.

If we reflect upon the atrocioufnefs of man's rebellion, and how far he was, not only from deferving a promife of mercy and grace, but from being in any fuitable difpofition to receive it, when indirectly laying the blame of his fall on God, we will find caufe, not to wonder fo much that the first promife was not more full and clear, but to wonder that any promife was made at all fo early. And as

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to the figurative words in which the promise is expreffed, they have an obvious fuitablenefs to the occafion on which they were delivered: for once fuppofing that man fell by complying with the temptation of Satan actuating a ferpent, it was very fit that the promised Saviour fhould be confidered as the conqueror of the ferpent,

II. In fhewing that the contents of the Mofaic prophecies extend to the feveral chief branches, both of the hiftory and doctrine of the gospel, it is ufeful to obferve, that in the books of Mofes, as well as other prophetic books, there are two forts of predictions concerning the enlightening of the Gentile nations; fome which mention only the happy event itself, and others which speak of a particular perfon to whom that event thould be chiefly owing.

1. It was proved before, that we have a prediction of the first kind in Deut. xxxii. 21. which not only foretells in general an enlightening of the Gentiles, but more particularly an enlightening of the Gentiles that was to be contemporary with the unbelief and rejection of the Jews. And in that fame chapter, at y 43. the nations are reprefented as called by God himself, to rejoice with his people, at a time when he would, in a fingular and peculiar manner, fhew mercy to his land and people, avenge the blood of his fervants, and break the power of his and their adverfaries; which is a remarkable intimation, that Jews and Gentiles fhould be incorporated in one body, in the true church of God, at that remarkable period of time, when her incorrigible adverfaries fhould meet with a final overthrow.

2. Noah's prediction, Gen. ix. from y 25. to 28. contains a remarkable intimation, that the visible church of God, or his peculiar people, fhould be first among the pofterity of Shem; but that, in procefs of time, by the divine bleffing, the pofterity of Japheth, who are faid to inhabit the ifles of the Gen