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Devil's Head, and the Devil should bruife his Heel. God would put Enmity between the Devil and him, that is to fay, they should be Oppofites and Antagonists to one another; and that the Meffiah fhould quite crush the Head, that is, the Power and Sovereignty of the Devil: And that the Devil, on the other hand, fhould do him fome flight Hurt, fignified by bruifing or biting his Heel, which fhould not affect his Head, or any principal Part of his Body.

TAKING this therefore for the Sense, it implies, 1. That the Race of Mankind fhould be continued. 2. That the Devil should be permitted to tempt them, even as he was permitted to tempt our first Parents, tho' not exactly in the fame way. 3. That God, as a new Act of Grace to Man, would appoint his only-begotten Son as an Opposite or Antagonist to Satan, to his Works and Agents, to enlighten and help Mankind in their fpiritual Conflicts, to maintain a Kingdom in the World oppofite to the Kingdom of Darknefs, by various Teachings and Difpenfations from Age to Age, till he fhould come in the Flefh, be born of a Woman, and by his Doctrine, Example, Obedience, and Death, give the last Stroke, by way of moral Means, to the Power and Works of the Devil. This, I prefume, is the utmost that can be made of this Place. Chrift, in Favour of Man, now feduced,

seduced, and liable to be hereafter feduced by the Devil, is made an Enemy to that Enemy; and fhould at length, though not without fuffering, bruife his Head, and totally crush his Kingdom and Power.

2. SENTENCE is past upon the WOMAN, ver. 16. which is easy to be understood namely, that she should bring forth Children with more Pain and Hazard than otherwise she would have done; and moreover, be in greater Subjection to the Will and Controul of her Husband. And this likewife may ferve as a fufficient Comment upon the last of the five above-mentioned Places; namely, 1 Tim. ii. 14. And Adam was not [first] deceived, but the Woman being deceived, was in the tranfgref fion: Which is given only as a Reason why the Woman ought not to teach, or ufurp Authority over the Man, but to be in Silence: See

ver. II, 12.

3. LASTLY, The Sentence upon the MAN, ver. 17, 18, 19. first affects the Earth, upon which he was to fubfift. The Ground fhould be encumbred with many noxious Weeds, and the Tillage of it more toilfome than before, which would oblige the Man to procure a Suftenance by hard Labour, till he fhould die, and drop into the Ground from whence he was taken. Thus Death entered

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by Sin into the World, and Man became mortal by tranfgreffing God's Law.

III. AFTER Sentence prónounced, these Things happened.

1. WHEREAS Adam had before called his Wife Iba, Woman, he now called her Eve, which fignifieth Life, or Life-giving; probably for Joy that Mankind were to be propagated from her, when he expected nothing but immediate Death in Confequence of his Tranfgreffion.

2. THE Labour to which they were condemned, and probably the weaker Condition of their Bodies, requiring they fhould be no longer naked, the LORD God, in Love and Tenderness, made them coats of skin, and clothed them.

3. THE LORD God fent the Man out of the garden to till the common and lefs fruitful ground, out of which he was taken. And being doomed to Mortality, it was alfo proper he thould be excluded from the Tree of Life. For that Tree can be confidered, with any Shew of Truth, only as either a Pledge and Sign of Immortality; or, as an appointed Means of preventing the Decay of the human Frame, fuppofing Adam had continued obedient. Confequently the Tree had relation only to

the

the Duration of his Being: and his Exclufion from it had relation to nothing but his being fubjected to Death. Accordingly we find, when Immortality shall be restored, the Benefit of this Tree fhall, in fome Sense or other, be restored, Rev. xxii. 2.

REFLECTIONS.

"THIS is all that I can fee, relating to "the Affair before us, in this Place. Now "obferve, 1. A Curfe is pronounced upon "the Serpent, and upon the Ground: but "no Curfe upon the Woman and the Man. "For although they are here manifeftly sub

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jected to Sorrow, Labour, and Death, yet "these are not inflicted under the Notion "of a Curse. The Spirit of God, it is ob"fervable, wholly abftains from the Ufe of "that Word, even with regard to their out"ward Condition; and much more with re"gard to their Souls, Not one Word of a "Curfe upon their Souls, upon the Powers "of their Minds, their Understanding and "Reafon. Not one Word of darkening or

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weakening their rational Powers; not one "Word of clogging those with any additional "Difficulties. This is undeniable. 2. Ob"ferve well: Here is not one Word, or the "least Intimation, of any other Death, but "that Diffolution, which all Mankind un

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"dergo when they ceafe to live in this World, whatever that Diffolution be. For "to this Diffolution alone, the Words of the great Judge evidently reftrain this Death. "Ver. 19. Till thou return unto the ground, for out of it waft thou taken: for duft thou art, and to duft thou shalt return. This "refers clearly to the Account of Man's "Creation. Gen. ii. 7. And the LORD God formed man out of the duft of the ground, and "breathed into his noftrils the breath of life; " and man became a living Soul. Thus Man "was made. And the judicial Act of Con"demnation clearly implieth a taking him to "pieces, or turning him again into the "Ground from whence he was taken, deprived of that Life which God had breathed " into him. This alfo feems to me unde"niable; and furely must be admitted, if "the Scriptures are really any Means of true "Knowledge, or a Rule of Faith. 3. Ob"ferve, That we, their pofterity, are, in fact, "fubjected to the fame Afflictions and Mor

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tality here by Sentence inflicted upon our "first Parents. Concerning which Afflictions "and Mortality we may truly affirm; that "tho' they are occafioned by the Sin of our "firft Parents; tho' they were not inflicted"till they tranfgreffed, and so descend to us "in Confequence of their Tranfgreffion;

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yet they are not inflicted upon us as Punish"ments for their Sin: because Punishment,

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