Page images
PDF
EPUB

66 on the earth, lives on the earth, broods on the "earth; fo the difpofition of fatan is to entice men

[ocr errors]

to the earth, to hurry them to earthly things, and "draw them afide from those that are heavenly." Thus far, Fagius: from whom Pareus does not greatly differ. His words are thefe. "He is alfo condemned to eat earth, that is to feed on the "earthly naftinefs of vice and wickedness, as the filthy "fwine feed on excrements. Which that impure fpirit does, when he not only pollutes and delights "himfelf with the defilements of the world, as fwine with wallowing in the mire; but alfo plunges the reprobate into the fame, and deftroys them with himfelf: this is fathan's fweetett food. For, where"with any one is delighted, that he accounts his "meat and his pleafure, according to that faying, envy is the best food: again envy feeds on the living" &c. Auguftine advances no unelegant doctrine; "where he fays, the finner is earth; the finner therefore "is given up to the devil for food. Let us not be earth,

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

if wewould not be devoured by the ferpent:" thus far Pareus. Ambrofe, Lib. 1. de poenitentia, c. 13. quoted by Rivet, Exerc, 35, in Gen. explains duft by the flesh of men, and maintains, that the devil is permitted by God to feed on this flesh, that is, to torment and tear the bodies of believers, but not to have any power over the foul.

the fer

pent's

XII. The third expreffion, by which the deftruc What the tion of the devil is fet forth, is the bruising his head. bruifing In the head of the ferpent are his poifon, craft, ftrength and life. The head of the ferpent therefore head. fignifies the crafty fubtilety of the devil, his venomous power, and all that tyranical dominion, which, by fin, he has acquired over man. The bruifing his head is the abolishing of all his power, according to the Apostles explication, Rom. 16. 20, and the God of peace fhall bruife fatan under your feet shortly. The fymbol of this bruifing was that extraordinary power granted to the difciples of Christ, mentioned Luke

Third be

nefit.

10. 19, behold, Igive unto you power to tread on ferpents and fcorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing shall by any means hurt you. And Mark 16. 18. they fball take up jerpents; namely, without being hurt, as appears from the hiftory of Paul As 28. 5. Which power of depriving ferpents of their venom and of bruifing their heads without harm, Tertullian as quoted by Grotius on Luke 10. 19, teftifies was not quite extint in his time among chriftians. Tho' the devil imitated this miracle in the temple of Ifs in Egypt, as Bochart has remarked from Allian Hierozoic. lib. I. c. 4, at the clofe; yet our Lord exprefsly declares, that the deftruction of his kingdom was thereby fignified, when, to ferpents and fcorpions, he adds, all the power of the enemy. Thus the devil was conftrained, by his juggling tricks and delusions, to give a prelude of his own deftruction.

XIII. The third benefit, God promifes here, is the putting enmity between the ferpent and the woman and her feed: thefe words include man's fanctification. For, when man becomes an enemy to the devil, then he abhors and avoids all intercourie with him, hates and detefts his works, endeavours to deftroy him and his kingdom in himfeif and others, and most willingly does, what he knows fhall mortify the devil. And tho' the devil, on that account, wages war against him, because he endeavours after godliness: yet he is fo far from fuffering himfelf to be thereby diverted from that which is good, that, on the contrary he goes on, with the greater alacrity to oppofe him. While a man continues unfanctified, he cultivates peace with the devil, and calmly fubmits to his dominion: enmity and hoftility against the devil can only proceed from an infused principle of holiness. And this is what God promiles to man, when he fays, I will put enmity &c; he not only commands the woman, to have no intimacy or friendship with the devil, or to have any commerce with a fworn enemy; nor, by this fanction, did he again open a door of repentance for

our

our first parents, as Pareus obferves on this place; but he also promises, that, by the unfurmountable efficacy of his power, he would perform and bring it about; namely, that he would put that enmity against the devil, which cannot fubfift, where there is not the love of God. Rivet fays well, Exerc. 36. in Gen. When a state of enmity is foretold, in the fame breath it is alfo foretold, that men fhall return to fuch foundness of mind, as difpleafed with that grievous yoke of Sathan's tyranny, to feek the shaking it off: and having once happily fucceeded, afterwards to watch by a continual strug♣ gle against being entangled therein again. But fulleft of all Cloppenburgius, Schol, Sacrific. p. 75. There could have been no enmity between the woman and the devil, without removing, by juftification, the enmity with God, which the devil, by his feduction, had brought the woman and her pofterity to; and without conquering and fubduing, by fanctification, the dominion of fin in the woman. Putting therefore, that enmity against the devil, he appoints a covenant of peace and friendship, whereby he promises to the woman the grace of justification and fanctification.

XIV. The fourth benefit is the refurrection of the Fourth be body, which was brought to duft, by his means nefit. who hath the power of death: this is more obfcurely intimated, when it is faid, that the ferpent fhall eat duft all the days of his life; which we have fhewn, fet V. to be the days preceding the last judgment. From which we concluded, that the time of the devil's power, and of his going about to devour, is limited, and to have a final period. And, when that is elapfed, the bodies of the righteous fhall be raifed from the duft, and all the effects and remains of the power of the devil, and of fin, by which he acquired his power, be entirely abolished; that he may not detain, under his power, the duft of our bodies, which ought to be temples of God, and of his Holy Spirit, in a ftate of glorious holiness. Nor was this, indeed, alto

[merged small][ocr errors]

Author of

nefits.

gether unobserved by Fagius, who thus fpeaks ? the days of Satan's life are the whole time to the confummation of the world, and the coming of Chrift. For, then be and all his fervants fhall be thrown headlong into everlasting fire, Mat. 25. 41.

XV. JEHOVAH GOD, who fpeaks to the ferpent, these be and declares, that he would put that enmity, of which we have been fpeaking, takes the honour to himself of being the AUTHOR of all those benefits. Tho' we are not to deny, that the conferring fo great a benefit is to be ascribed to the whole undivided Trinity; yet, in the oeconomy of our falvation, the Father, who is firft in order, holds the principal place. And whereas the eternal furetifhip of the Son, according to the tenour of the covenant between the Father and the Son, on the fuppofition of fin, began immediately to exert its efficacy, thefe words are not improperly referred primarily and immediately to the Father, who, on account of the furetiihip of the Son, appoints his grace to the finner; and who expressly enough diftinguishes himself from the mediator, or the feed of the woman. And indeed, God was in Chrift reconciling the world to himfelf, 2 Cor. 5. 19, that is, the Father in the Son, the mediator.

Seed of

the wo

Meritori-, XVI. The MERITORIOUS CAUSE of those beneous caufe. fits is the SEED OF THE WOMAN, eminently fo called. I own, indeed, when the feed of the woman is op-man what. pofed to the feed of the ferpent, and between both an enmity established, both feeds are to be underftood collectively: that by the feed of the ferpent, all the wicked are intended, who Mat. 3. 7, are called the generation of vipers; by the feed of the woman, elect believers, together with Chrift their head: yet it is without all doubt, that, in this feed, there is fome eminent one, to whom that name does chiefly belong, and by whofe power the reft of the feed may perform the things that are here foretold.

Juft

Juft as the feed of Abraham is fometimes to be understood more largely, at others more ftrictly; fometimes denoting his pofterity by Ifaac and Jacob, as Gen. 17. 8, I will give unto thy feed the land wherein thou art a Stranger: fometimes more especially believers of his pofterity, who walk in the steps of the faith of their father Abraham, and to whom the promife of the inheritance of the world, by the righteouf ness of faith, is made, Rom. 4. 12, 13: fometimes, most especially, that eminent one in the feed of Abrabam, who was to be the fpring of every bleffing, as Gem 21. 18, in thy feed fball all the nations of the earth be bleed; which is Chrift, Gal. 3. 16. Thus alfo the things here faid are, in their measure, common to all believers; but then some effects are primarily and principally to be afcribed to him, who, in this feed, is the eminent one, namely, Chrift: as the Apoftle alfo diftinguishes the feed that fanctifieth, and that which is fanctified; both which are of one, Heb. 2.

11.

feed of the

woman?

. XVII. But the reafons, for which Chrift is called Chriftwhy the feed of the woman, feem to be chiefly these two: called the one peculiar to Christ, the other common to him with other men. That which is common, is his being of the fame blood with us, that we might know him to be our brother and next kinfman. For, men, in Scripturelanguage, are called, born of a woman, Job 14. 1, and Job 15. 4; and 25. 4: born of women, Mat. 11. 11. But then, we must add that which is peculiar to himself, that though Chrift, indeed, had a woman for his mother, being made of a woman, Gal. 4. 4, yet he had no man for his father, being without father, Heb. 7. 3. See Jer. 31. 22, a woman shall compass a man. For, though this laft reafon holds not in believers, who are likewife called the feed of the woman, for another reason, to be explained directly; yet, feeing Chrift holds the principal place in this feed, as he bruifes the head of the devil in one sense, and believers in another; fo therefore he

« PreviousContinue »