to fet out the obfcurity of this promise, I would ask one question; Was not this promise or prophecy, though furrounded with all this obfcurity, a foundation for religion and truft and confidence towards God after the fall, in hopes of deliverance from the evils introduced by difobedience? If it was, it fully answered the neceffity of their cafe, to whom it was given, and manifefted to them all that God intended to make manifeft. They could have had towards God no religion, without fome hopes of mercy: it was neceffary therefore to convey fuch hopes; but to tell them how these hopes fhould be accomplished, at what time and manner precifely, was not neceffary to their religion. And what now is to be objected against this prophecy? It is very obfcure you say: so it is; but it is obfcure in the points which God did not intend to explain at that time, and which were not neceffary to be known. You see a plain reason for giving this prophecy, and, as far as the reafon for giving the prophecy extends, so far the prophecy is very plain: it is obfcure only, where there is no reason why it fhould be plain; which furely is a fault eafily to be forgiven, and very far from being a proper fubject for complaint.

But if this prophecy conveyed to our first parents only a general hope and expectation of pardon and reftoration, and was intended by God to convey no more to them, how come we, their posterity, to find fo much more in this promise than we suppose them to find? How is it that we pretend to discover Chrift in this prophecy, to fee in it the mystery of his birth, his fufferings, and his final triumph over all the

E

powers of darkness? By what new light do we difcern all these fecrets? by what art do we unfold them?

It is no wonder to me, that fuch as come to the examination of the prophecies applied to Chrift, expecting to find in each of them fome exprefs character and mark of Chrift, plainly to be understood as fuch antecedently to his coming, should ask thefe, or many other the like questions; or that the argument from ancient prophecy fhould appear fo flight and trivial to those who know no better use of it.

Known unto God are all his works from the beginning; and whatever degree of light he thought fit to communicate to our firft parents, or to their children in after-times, there is no doubt but that he had a perfect knowledge at all times of all the methods by which he intended to rescue and reftore mankind; and therefore all the notices given by him to mankind of his intended falvation, muft correfpond to the great event, whenever the fulness of time fhall make it manifeft. No reafon can be given why God fhould at all times, or at any time, clearly open the fecrets of his providence to men; it depends merely upon his good pleasure to do it in what time and in what manner he thinks proper. But there is a neceffary reason to be given, why all fuch notices as God thinks fit to give fhould answer exactly in due time to the completion of the great defign: it is abfurd therefore to complain of the ancient prophecies for being obfcure, for it is challenging God for not telling us more of his fecrets. But if we pretend that God has at length manifested to us by the revelation of the Gospel the method of his falvation, it is

neceffary for us to fhew, that all the notices of this falvation given to the old world do correspond to the things which we have heard and feen with our eyes. The argument from prophecy therefore is not to be formed in this manner: "All the ancient prophe"cies have expressly pointed out and characterized "Chrift Jefus :" but it must be formed in this manner: "All the notices which God gave to the fathers "of his intended falvation are perfectly anfwered by "the coming of Chrift." He never promised or engaged his word in any particular relating to the common falvation, but what he has fully made good by fending his Son to our redemption. Let us try these methods upon the prophecy before us. If you demand, that we fhew you a priori Chrift Jesus set forth in this prophecy, and that God had limited himself by this promise to convey the bleffing intended by fending his own Son in the flesh, and by no other means whatever; you demand what I cannot fhew, nor do I know who can. But if you inquire, whether this prophecy, in the obvious and most natural meaning of it. in that fenfe in which our first parents, and their children after, might eafily underftand it, has been verified by the coming of Chrift; I conceive it may be made as clear as the fun at noon-day, that all the expectation raised by this prophecy has been completely answered by the redemption wrought by Chrift Jefus. And what have you to defire more, than to fee a prophecy fulfilled exactly? If you infift, that the prophecy should have been more exprefs, you must demand of God why he gave you no more light; but you

ought at least to fufpend this demand till reason to fhew for it.

I know that this prophecy is urged further, and that Chriftian writers argue from the expreffions of it to fhew, that Chrift is therein particularly foretold: he properly is the feed of a woman in a sense in which no other ever was; his fufferings were well. prefigured by the bruifing of the heel; his complete victory over fin and death by bruifing the ferpent's head. When unbelievers hear such reasonings, they think themselves entitled to laugh; but their fcorn be to themselves. We readily allow that the expreffions do not imply neceffarily this fenfe; we allow further, that there is no appearance that our first parents understood them in this fenfe; or that God intended they should fo understand them: but fince this prophecy has been plainly fulfilled in Christ, and by the event appropriated to him only; I would fain know how it comes to be conceived to be fo ridiculous a thing in us, to fuppofe that God, to whom the whole event was known from the beginning, fhould make choice of fuch expreffions, as naturally conveyed fo much knowledge as he intended to convey to our first parents, and yet fhould

a "Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and "there is none elfe; I am God, and there is none like me; de

claring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the

things that are not yet done, faying, My counsel shall stand, " and I will do all my pleasure." Ifa. xlvi. 9, 10.

"The works of the Lord are done in judgment from the beginning and from the time he made them, he difpofed the "parts thereof." Ecclus. xvi. 26.

:

appear in the fulness of time to have been peculiarly adapted to the event which he from the beginning faw, and which he intended the world fhould one day fee; and which, when they fhould fee, they might the more easily acknowledge to be the work of his hand, by the fecret evidence which he had inclosed from the days of old in the words of prophecy. However the wit of man may defpife this method, yet is there nothing in it unbecoming the wisdom of God. And when we fee this to be the cafe, not only in this inftance, but in many other prophecies of the Old Teftament, it is not without reafon we conclude, that, under the obscurity of ancient prophecy, there was an evidence of God's truth kept in reserve, to be made manifeft in due time.

As this prophecy is the first, so it is the only confiderable one, in which we have any concern, from the creation to the days of Noah. What has been difcourfed therefore upon this occafion, may be understood as an account of the first period of prophecy. Under this period the light of prophecy was proportioned to the wants and neceffities of the world, and fufficient to maintain religion after the fall of man, by affording fufficient grounds for ruft and confidence in God; without which grounds, which could then no otherways be had but by promise from God, religion could not have been supported in the world. This prophecy was the grand charter of God's mercy after the fall; nature had no certain help for finners liable to condemnation; her right was loft with her innocence :it was neceffary therefore either to deftroy the offenders, or to fave them by raising them to a capacity of falvation, by giving