redemption, made before any children were born to transgressors, being a Divine grace in itself pointing to the grant of a future blessing that should deliver the captives from the tyranny of the wicked one, was vouchsafed only for the sake of the Son; and as it evidently pointed to the grace to be in after times revealed and accomplished by Jesus Christ, it cannot be separated from the foreordained purpose of salvation; but must be considered as arising out of it, and as the first intimation of the coming of Christ in the flesh to destroy the works of the devil, and rescue mankind from the obligation to eternal wrath incurred by transgression. This intimation of a Redeemer was, doubtless, understood by Adam and Eve as a Divine assurance of a victory to be gained over Satan by One whom the Lord should send for that purpose, a victory which should be the cause of deliverance and blessing. The words, however, of the promise, while they afforded the unhappy transgressors a certain degree of consolation, contained a latent mysterious meaning which, although God intended to open and elucidate it more and more by means of prophecy, was not to be exhibited in all its grace and truth to the world till the fulness of time, when the Great Conqueror should appear. THE FULFILMENT OF THIS PROMISE IN CHRIST. We, who live since the revelation by Jesus Christ, are enabled to see and explain the hidden sense of these words; "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." This enmity was that which subsisted between Satan and Christ, between him who in malice and revenge was endeavouring to destroy, and him who in love and mercy was striving to save the whole human race. It comprehends the strong contest in the wilderness, when the wicked one was foiled and overcome; the continual conflicts when the Holy One dislodged the spirits of darkness from their holds; the whole system of righteous doctrines and righteous acts counterworking the mischief of evil influence; and the last great battle for man when Christ, though for the purpose of victory bruised unto death, thereby spoiled principalities and powers, and triumphed over them upon the cross. In the term, "the seed of the woman," there is a marked allusion to the spotless incarnation of Jesus, "who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, and born of the Virgin Mary." St. Paul writes in one place, "When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son made of a woman"*-and in another, "Forasmuch, then, as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, Christ also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." In his Epistle to the Romans are these words, "Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life; for as by one man's disobedience many" (that is, the many or all) "were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous." And in his first Epistle to the Corinthians he declares that, " as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive."§ In these passages there are evident references to the early promise of God to Adam, and a clear illustration both of its hidden meaning, and of the nature, value, and extent of the benefits to * Galatians, iv. 4. + Hebrews, ii. 14. be conferred on mankind by the victorious seed of the woman. It has been shewn that the redemption of mankind, and the mode of it, were appointed in the Divine councils before the foundation of the world, as a remedy for the evil which God foreknew man would bring upon himself by transgression. And it has now been proved that, immediately upon the fall, a portion of that grace was bestowed in the promise of a Redeemer, mystically termed, the seed of the woman. Hence the position is established, namely, that the grace of God began to operate for the benefit of man, as soon as sin rushed in upon the world. THE COMPREHENSIVE CHARACTER OF THE COUNSEL of GOD IN CHRIST. God's counsel of redemption is to be considered as one of a very comprehensive nature; a counsel extending from eternity past, through all the periods of time, into eternity to come; a counsel that has for its object the triumph of grace over sin, and the termination of grace in glory; a counsel consisting of promises, prophecies, and revelations, of special providences carrying on the purposes and work of God, of remarkable preparations for the coming of the Redeemer, of acts performed and sufferings undergone by him for the sake and in the stead of a fallen world, and of all that man is required to believe and obliged to do in order to salvation. They, who in the consideration of the counsel of God in Christ do not go back to the beginning and before the beginning of time-who do not trace it in its operations from the promise of God to Adam, through the subsequent promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, through the Mosaic revelation itself, and through all the predictions of the prophets, down to the coming of the Redeemer, and the establishment of his kingdom upon earth- and further, who do not accompany it in its wonderful progress among the Gentiles, and its no less wonderful circulation of benefits, and go with it in thought into futurity, when its glory shall be complete in the happiness of the redeemed-must entertain a very narrow and contracted notion of human redemption by Divine means, and of the gracious Being who came to be "the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe."* * 1 Timothy, iv. 10. |