occasion of Satan's own fall: his first sin, envy of man's position, and the attempt to defeat the purpose of God in his creation. For, in the first place, there is the silence of Scripture as to an origin of evil antecedent to the fall of man. It tells us, indeed, of angels who have fallen," who kept not their first estate;" but it nowhere gives us to understand that their fall was prior to the creation of the world; though it mentions them as celebrating that event by hymns of praise,-" when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." Again, there is the fact that evil spiritual agency is ever there represented as having this world for its sphere. Satan himself, "the God" and "Prince of this world;""the Spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience;" and his associate wicked spirits, "the rulers of the darkness of this world;" the "principalities and powers on high” (èv Toîs éπovpaviois) not yet consigned to the abyss of hell, but in the seat of power above the earth (Ephes. ii. 2, with vi. 12.) Added to which is the positive information we here possess (confirmed by all subsequent revelations), that, as just stated, his ultimate doom is bound up with man's history and destiny. But, however this be, it is certain that in this factthat as his enemy the tempter is judged-man had the first intimation of a purpose of mercy to himself; whence also his single conception of redemption would be the deliverance from his power to be anticipated as consequent on the execution of this sen

tence.

2. But again, as to his Deliverer he would learn, and from this same sentence, that this victory over his enemy was to be achieved by one in his own nature. That as it was by the weakness of man Satan had triumphed,-in "the woman being deceived," and first "in the transgression" (1 Tim. ii. 14),—so the weakness of man was the instrument which God would employ for his destruction:-"I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise thy head." He would not indeed discern the great mystery involved in that title," the seed of the woman," now revealed to us, the mystery of the Incarnation, or the union. of the divine and human natures in the person of his Redeemer. Nor could he penetrate into the depths of humiliation concealed under those few words of pregnant import,-" Thou shalt bruise His heel." He would only see in them an intimation of some suffering to be endured in the encounter on the part of Him who should undertake to effect his emancipation; which, however, would seem only to enhance His triumph by the contrast between the bruising of the "heel" which should tread the serpent under, and the bruising of his "head," which should be, as it were, his death-wound. But (let it be repeated) we have only to carry ourselves back in imagination to the time, and realize the scene as present to us, to see that-whether we consider the terms of the prophecy, or the fact of its being addressed to the serpent, and a denunciation of judgment on him-this, in the absence of the knowledge derived from sub

sequent revelations, was the view of the redemption which it suggested to our first parents,-the avenging of their wrong upon their oppressor; and consequently, that the only coming of the Redeemer that they would be led from it to look for was A COMING

IN POWER.

So much as to the general scope of this first Prediction. Let us now proceed to—

II. Our next inquiry,-How far it has been as yet fulfilled, and what the time of its complete accomplishment?

1. It is fulfilled, and perfectly, as to one most material part, the earnest of the whole, and the preparation for the great victory which it announces. "The Seed of the woman" has appeared. God has already taken into His hands the weapon by which it foretold that the adversary should be defeated. He has "taken hold of" the human nature (see Heb. ii. 16, marg.); and this earnest of hope, and confirmation of faith in the promise, we now have. The "mystery" long hidden is revealed," God has been manifested in the flesh;" God in man's nature espousing his cause-taking up his quarrel-to effect for him full deliverance from all the power of the enemy. The birth of Christ has explained that in the promise which was the greatest difficulty to faith,-the title of man's Deliverer, "THE VIRGIN'S SON." "Unto us the Child is born, unto us the Son is given," in whose person are united the weakness of man and the power of God! We no longer ask, "How shall

this be?" IT IS: and, blessed be God, is now the plainest of revealed truths and most certain of facts.

Again. The Prophecy is far advanced towards its accomplishment, though not yet fulfilled, in that part of it which relates to the "enmity" between the serpent's and the woman's seed. This, indeed, may be said to date from the giving of the Prophecy; as from that time Satan's opposition to the promised "Seed" began, proportioned to the degree in which the salvation He should accomplish was revealed and apprehended. From that time the conflict began between those whom the Scriptures designate "the children of the Wicked One," as being actuated by his spirit, and "the children of God," who were even then identified with "the seed of the woman" by faith. And thus, in the light of this earliest revelation to man, the working of Satan from the very beginning is seen to have been in its principle (if the terms may be anticipated) Antichristian, as was the true religion from the first Christian: faith or unbelief as regards the Saviour Christ constituting then, as now, the one great distinction in the human family as before God; exemplified in the history of Cain and Abel immediately following the types respectively of two classes which have ever since existed: the Church, the witness to Christ and to the hope of His kingdom; and the World, the kingdom and dominion of His, and for His sake the Church's, enemy.

But the full manifestation of the "enmity," in this its distinctive character, would be reserved for the

was.

manifestation of Him who is its chief object-for the coming of the Redeemer Himself. And so it Then man's new Head and man's enemy (all others aside) stood conflicted and it was to be seen, whether He who came to justify the human nature-by His righteousness in the flesh to set up the fallen race on a new basis-was equal to sustain the position; or whether, as the First, so the Second Adam should be found weak. Moreover, Satan now entered on the conflict on vantage ground. Not now, as in Eden, having no power, and trusting to deceit for all, he came armed with all the powers he had obtained by the fall-the power over "the flesh," or nature of man, on the one hand; and, on the other, the power in the world yielded by him who had been originally invested with its dominion. While Jesus stood exposed to his assaults at the disadvantage, as compared with the first Adam, of having taken the human nature the wreck which the fall had left it-partaking, though not of the disease of sin, of all the "infirmities" it had entailed.*

The issue we know. Satan having first tried in vain his power over the flesh in the way of temptation, was then driven back upon his other resource— his power in the world; and with this he seemed to have prevailed when he had succeeded in persecuting to death "The Holy One of God." But it was only "the bruising of the heel" of his con

* Heb. iv. 15: "Touched with the feeling of our infirmities [ἀσθενείαις] in all points tempted (i. e. tried) like as we are, yet without sin."

...