of the second covenant in his preface, concerning caring for the foul, fays he, "This fecond covenant was made with " Adam, and us in him, presently after the fall, and is briefly "contained in these words, Gen. iii. 15. where Gon declares, "The feed of the woman shall break the ferpent's head;' " and this was made up, as the first was, of fome mercies to " be afforded by God, and fome duties to be performed by "us." This is exceeding false divinity: for these words are not spoken to Adam; they are directed only to the ferpent. Adam and Eve stood by as criminals, and GOD could not treat with them, because they had broken his covenant. And it is fo far from being a covenant wherein "fome mercies are to "be afforded by God, and some 'duties to be performed by us," that here is not a word looking that way; it is only a declaration of a free gift of falvation through JESUS CHRIST our LORD. GOD the Father and God the Son had entered into a covenant concerning the salvation of the elect from all eternity, wherein God the Father promised, That, if the Son would offer his soul a facrifice for fin, he should fee his feed. Now this is an open revelation of this secret covenant, and therefore GOD speaks in the most positive terms, " It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." The first Adam, GOD had treated with before; he proved falfe: GOD therefore, to fecure the second covenant from being broken, puts it into the hands of the second Adam, the LORD from heaven. Adam, after the fall, stood no longer as our reprefentative; he and Eve were only private persons, as we are, and were only to lay hold on the declaration of mercy contained in this promife by faith, (as they really did) and by that they were faved. I do not fay but we are to believe and obey, if we are everlastingly faved. Faith and obedience are conditions, if we only mean that they in order go before our falvation; but I deny that these are proposed by God to Adam, or that God treats with him in this promise, as he did before the fall under the covenant of works. For how could that be, when Adam and Eve were now prisoners at the bar, without strength to perform any conditions at all? The truth is this: GOD, as a reward of CHRIST's fufferings, promised to give the elect faith and repentance, in order to bring them to eternal life: and both there, and every thing elfe neceffary for their everlasting happiness, are infallibly secured to them in this promife; as Mr. Boston, an excellent Scots divine, clearly shews, in a book entitled, "A view of the covenant of grace."

This is by no means an unnecessary distinction; it is a matter of great importance: for want of knowing this, people have been so long misled. They have been taught that they must Do so and so, as though they were under a covenant of works, and then for DOING this, they should be faved. Whereas, on the contrary, people should be taught, That the LORD JESUS was the second Adam, with whom the Father entered into covenant for fallen man; That they can now do nothing of or for themselves, and should therefore come to GOD, beseeching him to give them faith, by which they shall be enabled to lay hold on the righteousness of CHRIST; and that faith they will then shew forth by their works, out of love and gratitude to the ever-blessed JESUS, their most glorious Redeemer, for what he has done for their fouls. This is a confiftent fcriptural scheme: without holding this, we must run into one of those two bad extremes; I mean, Antinomianism on the one hand, or Arminianism on the other: from both which may the good LORD deliver us !

But to proceed: By the feed of the woman, we are here to understand the LORD JESUS CHRIST, who, though very GOD of very GOD, was, for us men and our falvation, to have a a body prepared for him by the Holy Ghost, and to be born of a woman who never knew man, and by his obedience and death make an atonement for man's tranfgreffion, and bring in an everlasting righteousness, work in them a new nature, and thereby bruise the ferpent's head, i. e. destroy his power and dominion over them. By the ferpent's feed, we are to underftand the devil and all his children, who are permitted by God to tempt and fift his children. But, blessed be GOD, he can reach no further than our heel.

It is not to be doubted but Adam and Eve understood this promise in this sense; for it is plain, in the latter part of the chapter, facrifices were instituted. From whence should those skins come, but from beafts flain for facrifice, of which GoD made them coats? We find Abel, as well as Cain, offering facrifice in the next chapter: and the Apostle tells us, he did it by faith, no doubt in this promife. And Eve, when Cain was born, faid, " I have gotten a man from the LORD;" or, (as Mr. Henry observes, it may be rendered) " I have gotten a man, the Lord, -the promised Meffiah." Some further fuppofe, that Eve was the first believer; and therefore they tranflate it thus, "The feed, (not of the, but) of this woman :" which magnifies the grace of God so much the more, that she, who was first in the tranfgreffion, should be the first partaker of redemption. Adam believed also, and was saved: for unto Adam and his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and cloathed them: which was a remarkable type of their being clothed with the righteousness of our LORD JESUS

CHRIST.

This promife was literally fulfilled in the person of our LORD JESUS CHRIST. Satan bruised his heel, when he tempted him for forty days together in the wilderness: he bruised his heel, when he raised up strong persecution against him during the time of his public ministry: he in an especial manner bruised his heel, when our LORD complained, that his foul was exceeding forrowful, even unto death, and he sweat great drops of blood falling upon the ground, in the garden: He bruised his heel, when he put it into the heart of Judas to betray him: and he bruised him yet most of all, when his emissaries nailed him to an accursed tree, and our LORD cried out, "My God, my God, why haft thou forsaken me?" Yet, in all this, the blessed Jesus, the feed of the woman, bruised Satan's accursed head: for, in that he was tempted, he was able to fuccour those that are tempted. By his stripes we are healed. The chastisement of our peace was upon him. By dying, he deftroyed him that had the power of death, that is, the devil. He thereby spoiled principalities and powers, and made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them uporn the cross.

This promife has been fulfilled in the elect of God, confidered collectively, as well before, as fince the coming of our LORD in the flesh for they may be called, the feed of the woman. Marvel not, that all who will live godly in CHRIST JESUS, must fuffer perfecution. In this promise, there is an eternal enmity put between the feed of the woman, and the feed of the ferpent; so that those that are born after the flesh, cannot but perfecute those that are born after the spirit. This enmity

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enmity shewed itself, soon after this promise was revealed, in Cain's bruifing the heel of Abel: it continued in the church through all ages before CHRIST came in the flesh, as the history of the Bible, and the xith chapter of the Hebrews, plainly shew. It raged exceedingly after our Lord's afcension; witness the Acts of the Apostles, and the History of the Primitive Christians. It now rages, and will continue to rage and shew itself, in a greater or less degree, to the end of time. But let not this dismay us; for in all this, the feed of the woman is more than conqueror, and bruises the serpent's head. Thus the Ifraelites, the more they were oppressed, the more they increased. Thus it was with the Apostles; thus it was with their immediate followers. So that Tertullian compares the church in his time to a mowed field; the more frequently it is cut, the more it grows. The blood of the martyrs was always the feed of the church. And I have often fat down with wonder and delight, and admired how God has made the very schemes which his enemies contrived, in order to hinder, become the most effectual means to propagate his gospel. The devil has had so little success in persecution, that if I did not know that he and his children, according to this verse, could not but perfecute, I should think he would count it his ftrength to fit still. What did he get by persecuting the martyrs in Queen Mary's time? Was not the grace of God exceedingly glorified in their support? What did he get by perfecuting the good old Puritans? Did it not prove the peopling of New-England? Or, to come nearer our own times, what has he got by putting us out of the fynagogues? Hath not the word of GOD, since that, mightily prevailed? My dear hearers, you must excuse me for enlarging on this head; GOD fills my foul generally, when I come to this topic. I can fay with Luther, " If it were not for per"secution, I should not understand the scripture." If Satan should be yet fuffered to bruise my heel further, and his fervants should thrust me into prison, I doubt not, but even that would only tend to the more effectual bruifing of his head. I remember a saying of the then Lord Chancellor to the pious Bradford: "Thou hast done more hurt, said he, by thy ex" hortations in private in prison, than thou didst in preaching " before thou wast put in," or words to this effect. The promise of the text is my daily support; "I will put enmity be

tween thy feed and her feed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel."

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Further: this promife is alfo fulfilled, not only in the church in general, but in every individual believer in 'particular. In every believer there are two feeds, the feed of the woman, and the feed of the ferpent'; the flesh lufting against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. It is with the believer, when quickened with grace in his heart, as it was with Rebekah, when she had conceived Efau and Jacob in her womb; she felt a struggling, and began to be uneasy;" If it be so, fays she, why am I thus?" Thus grace and nature struggle (if I may so speak) in the womb of a believer's heart: but, as it was there said, "The elder shall serve the younger;" so it is here, grace in the end shall get the better of nature; the feed of the woman shall bruise the ferpent's head. Many of you that have believed in CHRIST, perhaps may find some particular corruption yet strong, so strong, that you are sometimes ready to cry out with David, "I shall fall one day by the hand of Saul." But, fear not, the promise in the text insures the perfeverance and victory of believers over fin, Satan, death, and hell. What if indwelling corruption does yet remain, and the feed of the ferpent bruise your heel, in vexing and disturbing your righteous fouls? Fear not, though faint, yet purfue: you shall yet bruise the ferpent's head. CHRIST hath died for you; and yet a little while, and he will fend death to deftroy the very being of fin in you. Which brings me

To shew the most extensive manner in which the promise of the text shall be fulfilled, viz. at the final judgment, when the LORD JESUS fhall present the elect to his Father, without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, glorified both in body and foul.

Then shall the feed of the woman give the last and fatal blow, in bruising the serpent's head. Satan, the accuser of the brethren, and all his accursed seed, shall then be cast out, and never suffered to disturb the feed of the woman any more. Then shall the righteous shine as the fun in the kingdom of their Father, and fit with CHRIST on thrones in majesty on high.

Let us, therefore, not be weary of well-doing; for we shall reap an eternal harvest of comfort, if we faint not. Dare, dare, my dear brethren in CHRIST, to follow the Captain of your salyation, who was made perfect through sufferings. The

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