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my text, is to set before you the following particulars.

First, the Revelation made of Jesus Christ immediately upon the fall.

Secondly, the solemn exhibition of him, as the propitiation for sin.

Thirdly, the record of the acts and transactions of the eternal Three, in the cherubic emblems placed at the east of the Garden of Eden. And,

Lastly, the foundation laid in all this for faith and hope in God. It being hereby evidenced that

where "Sin abounded, Grace did much more abound.”

"So he drove out the man: and he placed at the east of the Garden of Eden, cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the Tree of Life."

A learned man thus renders the words, and then gives the following comment on them :-" And he expelled the man,and inhabited from the East, at the Garden of Eden, the very cherubim, and the very flame, the edge of the sword turning itself (changing its threatening posture from mankind in general upon the single sacrifice) to keep (preserve) the Tree of Lives. The Deity there took up his dwelling, by the mediation of his emblems the cherubim, which were not intended to terrify or render Adam desperate; but to afford him continual consolation, and a prospect of supreme mercy.The flame, or wrath, was to fall on the substitute; the sword was to pierce him for our offences; and

thus a new and living way was to be displayed for reconciliation, looking to the east where our hemisphere first shares the morning irradiation, the lively image of the Sun of righteousness."

My first particular head of this discourse, is to set before you the first revelation of Jesus Christ, made immediately upon the fall. It is contained in these words, as we most commonly read them, "The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head,” or, more precisely, “He (i. e. the seed of the woman) shall bruise thy head;" that is, the serpent and the devil, the principal agent in seducing the woman, and the man, by her means, into sin. Both instrument and agent are cursed, in consequence of what had been done: "And the Lord God said unto the serpent, because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field: upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and betwen thy seed and her seed: it (or he) shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel."Genesis, chap iii. v. 14, 15.

Here you have the curse pronounced on the devil and the serpent. Satan was the instrumental cause of introducing sin among the angels who revolted with him he and they were immediately cast down to hell, and damned with an eternal damnation: and here, on his overcoming man, his damnation is doubled and sealed. He sinned out of pride and malice against God; Adam and Eve out of weak

ness and ignorance. "I, saith the Lord God, will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed: it, or he, shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." Thus the Lord God confounds him, when he was thinking he had the greatest cause for triumphing. These words are spoken threatening-wise to the devil in the serpent, and contain the infinite hatred and displeasure of God against sin, and against the devil for drawing mankind into it; and pronounce an eternal eurse upon the old serpent, called the devil, for it. They proclaim eternal war between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman; between the elect church of human race, and the non-elect, the children of the devil. An illustrious one is spoken of, who should finally prevail and triumph over Satan and all his principalities and powers, and destroy his works. The church in him should prevail also: "It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." Which, as pronounced in the neuter gender, may be expressive of the human nature of Christ, which was not a person, but a thing: it had no subsistence of itself; but was assumed into personal union with the only begotten Son of God. Also it may express, that this was to be the seed of the woman in a mysterious and ineffable manner; and likewise, that the church of Christ, the seed of the woman, should in her head, Christ Jesus, and through him her conqueror, be an overcomer also of the devil, and in due season set her triumphant feet upon his head. As these words are read by

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some, HE shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel," they express the MIGHTY ONE, on whom Jehovah the Father had LAID HIS HELP ; whò, as the second Adam, was in human nature to be a match for all the powers of hell; and "through death to conquer death, and him that had the of death; that is, the devil." Heb. ii. v. 14. In these words then, we have the first revelation of Jesus Christ. On this revelation the whole Scriptures are founded; and the ordinances of God's worship are in perfect agreement with it. This revelation gives a full intimation, that one in the Godhead would become incarnate, and tread upon the head of the serpent, and the devil who entered into him, and overcome all his wiles and cunning, and finally vanquish him; and that he would accomplish this glorious victory by suffering and death, which was expressed in the words; "He shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel," that is, his human nature, which was exposed to the assaults of Satan, to temptations, sorrows, sufferings, and death. We have here all that is contained in the inspired volume for the substance of it. Here is Grace, Christ, the promise of Christ, and salvation in him and by him. If we consider the time when the promise was first made, to whom it was first spoken, and the ground and foundation laid in it for faith in the Lord God, we shall find grace most gloriously and divinely displayed. It was for time and circumstance the most singular; when all mankind were ruined and fallen

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from God, in their nature head. They could not be more completely apostatized from the Lord the fountain of all good; for Satan had poisoned their whole nature, soul and body, by breathing his hellish breath on the root from whence they were to originate, so that they were dead in trespasses and sins; and the awful proofs given of it in their tempers, lives, and walk, in their unregenerate state, are but the fatal effects thereof. Never had free grace an opportunity of shining forth like unto it and the glory of it now shone bright in the view of elect angels, who, as they had cause to celebrate it, when it was made known to them that their election of God was their preservation from sin, when their fellow angels, who were not elected, fell; so they now saw in part the wisdom of God in a mystery, in his appointment of the God-man to be the head of them, and of the elect of mankind, who were to be redeemed by him out of the hands of all their enemies. It was an eternal triumph, and pronounced as such by the Lord God over Satan and all his principalities and powers, over sin, death, and damnation; so that the devil was never more confounded, except when the Almighty Jesus triumphed over him and his legions on the cross, saying, "IT IS FINISHED.” That it should be first spoken to the devil to confound him, and in the hearing of fallen man to comfort him, was grace most magnificently displayed. It shewed that Satan could be no match for the woman's seed; and that he should neither prevail against him, nor any

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