mans ruin this policy and power is to be bruised or crushed the word is used only here and Job 9.17 He breaketh me with a tempest this is expounded Joh. 12.31 Col. 2.14 15. 1 Joh. 3.8 heel or footstool a figurative expression also intimating the ineffectualness of Satans attempts against Christ and his seed he may wound them but not mortally he had a hand in bringing Christ to the Cross thereby he wounded his heel his Humane nature but that brought him under Christs feet some think it Musculus not proper to attribute bruising to Satan and therefore render Conouliel he shall smite his heel Tunius thinks there is nothing here attributed to Satan as if he could hurt Christ or his Kingdom but that the word imports only Satans cunning and indirect attempts as Gen. 49.17 and that when he is just about to bite Christ shall tread upon him Isa 25.8 1 Cor. 15.53 57. Some think the Psalmist has an eye to this Promise Psal 49.6 26. 2. We have in the words the manner of our Deliverance pointed out 1. Whence it has its rise from infinite Wisdom and Mercy I will put 2. How will he do it Hee 'l break that league and friendship that sin had made between Man and the Devil from this their sin and misery had it's rise Now this does import the recovery of Man to favour with God and to the Image of God for while man abides in sin this friendship lasts John 8.44 His work he does But what shall be the event and issue of this Enmity and War I Answer This seed of the woman shall conquer Satan and destroy his Kingdom but first he must suffer by Satans means and have his heel bruised In the latter part of the words the singular number is used he and they rather than thy seed because Christ was to vanquish the old Serpent who seduced our first Parents and he being destroyed his seed perish with him John 12.31 14.30 Now it 's observable that though first the womans seed is mentioned which meaneth all the godly which were to come of her yet the Pronoun it or he as it 's in the Hebrew does plainly denote some single person viz. Christ the vulgar Edition has it ipsa as if it respected the Woman not her Seed or any one to come of her This was the first and for ought we know the only Declaration of Gods Purpose about our Redemption made to our first Parents This was all that the faith of the people of God had for some Ages to live upon and this was the soundation of all the Religion of succeeding Ages and to which all the Sacrifices from the beginning had respect There be some that would hence infer the Covenant of Grace to be as large as the Covenant of works and the one to be made with all mankind as well as the other and that all mankind had some Revelation of Christ in their first Parents and thus they think to weaken that Argument against universal Redemption taken from the non-revelation of Christ to most of mankind seeing we connot suppose God to have really intended the salvation of all by Christ and not have given all a sufficient Revelation of him But 1. Adam is never spoke of in Scripture as a publick person in respect of the second Covenant as he is in respect of the first Rom. 5.15 16 17 18 had Adam been guilty of Unbelief and so have forfeited the benefit of the second Covenant that had not prejudged his posterity of the good of it Now it is certain that this Revelation of Jesus Christ was in a few Ages utterly lost and no wonder considering the obscurity of it and mans proneness to corrupt all divine Revelations and Institutions Indeed all the Superstition and Idolatry which the Apostate world fell into was founded on an Opinion That there was some way for attaining to the favour of God but what that way was they were in a few Ages as ignorant as if there never had been any such Revelation and the knowledg of it not being transmitted to Posterity or there being no Revelation made of it to them by no Law were they bound to know it and so shall be judged only by the Covenant of works And for the Heathens Notion of a possible way of recovering the favour of God whatever it was founded on for some Ages at first it does now and did partly then proceed from the mistakes and carnal apprehensions of God and then ignorance of their exceeding sinfulness for we see that when Adam has any fresh and lively sense of it he runs away from God Indeed it is natural to apprehend a Natural love in God which Arminians call Antecedent love strongly inclining him to the salvation of all which destroys Free-grace and is as unsuitable to the nature of God as the Jewish Fables of Gods afflicting himself in a secret place for the burning of the Temple and for their Captivity And that for these he smites his breast and pours two tears into the Ocean every day so the Heathens made Jupiter to lament the Destinies which he could not mend and the Alcoran makes God wish well to Mahomet but cannot free him from death But to conclude this Gods discriminating love is plain from this first promise there 's the seed of the Woman and the seed of the Serpent The Messiah is not promised to all Christ the seed of the Woman is not promised to the seed of the Serpent nor suffers for that seed Jesus Christ broke the Serpents head and destroyed Satan as a publick person for the whole elect Seed but not in the room and stead of the seed of the Serpent yea you see that in the very first promise of Christ there are some excluded viz. all the Reprobate called the Serpents seed their enmity is foretold as soon as Christ is promised and their ruin is foretold as soon as the salvation of the elect Seed and indeed if we observe the words and consider the Context they are as much threatning to the one as they are a promise to the other The Text affords great variety of weighty matter I shall only touch upon it and give some truths from the words We see that there is an established enmity and irreconcilable feud between Satan and his followers on the one side and Christ and his followers on the other Satan gets power to vex and trouble the Church of God and to leave some marks of his malice upon them both in their inward and outward condition but Christ with his followers shall at length utterly overthrow and crush him And O what a sweet Scripture is this and how much to be studied here 's the Marrow of the Old and New Testament and the first out-breaking of Gods Eternal Council and glorious Contrivance about fallen Man Observ 1. That God did not leave all Mankind to perish in their Apostacy from him and in their contracted friendship with Satan
The salvation of Sinners was now as near to an Impossibility as could be Satan knew the threatning and concluded That if he could entice man to sin he had ruin'd and involved him in as remediless Wrath as himself was under he knew man could not and supposed God would not interpose or if he would he could not die nor suffer therefore Christ must be Man and God both that he may suffer and triumph also Satan was at his first fall cursed he is again for his accession to mans sin cursed and the Beast that was but the Instrument is cursed ver 14 The earth is cursed for his sake ver 17 yet himself is not cursed And here appears the kindness and love of God our Saviour he will not have us looking only to the kindness of Christ our Saviour but chiefly to the Fountain-love of God Tit. 3.3 4 5. Here is opened up the Sealed-fountain of his heart which no sin could dry up Man is now wholly at Free-graces courtesie and yet unmeet for mercy but Mercy unasked and no doubt unexpected steps out when they had no Confidence to ask it It was in contemplation of this promised seed that they were fot a moment reprieved that the sentence of Death did not immediately after they had sinned take place and this was all they had to quiet their fearful Consciences with The womans seed dieth which upon the account of the lowness of his Humane nature and his overcoming of Death is called but the bruising of his heel and bruiseth the Serpents head which carries in it the destruction of Death for thereby he destroyed him that had the power of death see Heb. 2.14 Observ 2. That albeit this be not a personal satisfaction made by the guilty man yet it is a legal satisfaction according to Gods own Law By which the near kinsman was to redeem the last Inheritance he is our near kinsman Job 19.25 Heb. My kinsmen the seed of the woman God did not alter the first Covenant or Law nor the Sanction of it for Unbelievers are yet under it John 13.36 Some say there was here a Relaxation of the Law in the Translation of the punishment to another Indeed all positive Laws are relaxable and the admitting of this infers no change in God for he can abrogate Laws which is more as he has done the Ceremonial supposing he had not declared he would not do it and this without any change in himself Some say that in reference to the Elect the Obligation to death first and second was declared null by the Promise in the Text but neither is this true for before they are in Christ they are obnoxious to it Ephes 2.3 Some chuse rather to call it a Declaration of the meaning of the threatning which in Gods intention and purpose was purely legal viz. in respect of the Reprobate that they should actually and eventually die the first and second death except that God intended in many to suspend the present execution of it and that upon Christs account also and that it was in respect of the Elect partly Evangelick In the day thou eatest thou or thy Kinsman or thou and all thy Children shall die the first and second death or else I must substitute one in thy room It 's true Adam was not to believe this exception till it was revealed nor was he bound to believe that God would not provide a Remedy he was not obliged to despair between his fall and the promise in the Text but to believe that God was able to save him and to rely upon that according to the law of Nature for the Threatning did only shew what God might justly do not what he absolutely would do so Adam was not absolutely to believe that he should die nor yet that he should not die as the Serpent would have perswaded him Gen. 3. If any say May not Sinners hope that all his Threatnings against them in reference to this life and that which is to come may admit of Tacit Conditions I answer Gospel-Threatnings are not only declarative of what sin deserves but also of what shall be the event they are not simple Threatnings but certain predictions or they are such Threatnings as are confirmed by an Oath and so declared to be irrevocable and this may also obviate a doubt which some may have about the Promises Why may not the Lord relax them or have some secret Condition that I know not of in his Promises as he had in this first Threatning for in the Promises we have all the evidences that can be of the certainty of them as to the event And indeed there 's a great odds between Promises and Threatnings in this respect that Promises give to the party a right to the thing promised and he cannot be loosed without the parties consent a meer Threatning does only declare the desert of sin in the person sinning yet when confirmed by an Oath as Heb. 4.3 or Heb. 3.11 18 And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his Rest but to them that believe not or has any other Declaration of Gods purpose annexed to it as irrevocable as his Promises We might hence draw many useful inferences Hence what support to our Faith and what answer to make to the Law our kinsman was bruised c. We may learn with what boldness all the seed of the woman may now come to Christ as being some way in kin to Christ he was the Churches comfort in all their straits of old in case of sin as in the Text and in case of outward distress the renewing of the Promises was the great encouragement that God would not destroy them Isa 7.14 Mic. 5.5 and still it is so to us Now his Divine Nature is the great support to our faith and comfort yet his being of our flesh is a great inducement to come to him and a help to our faith and comfort Without his Divinity it will be comfortless but as united to his Godhead it s a rich Mine May we suppose you had a Brother in any Court that were in as much favour with the King as he is with God and whom you could acquaint with your case as easily as you can do to him would you not be often at Court and would you not come more freely at least be often sending thither Are the promises far off to you Is pardon grace peace healing righteousness or strength far off from you Why are they strange to you Why are you strange to Christ Will he hide himself from his own flesh Rich and poor are equally near to him May not this help our weakness in coming to God Of old few Sea-faring men ventured on the Ocean but coasted along the shoar for want of skill the Godhead is a boundless Ocean you dare not venture on it here 's a safe and easie shore by which you may come at God without being swallowed up And learn hence to plead your part in him
solve the doubt and refers the reason that sin is not destroyed wholly in every believer to the good pleasure of God but the Hypothesis of free-will and sufficient-grace will never do it 2. Let the feeling of the reliques of sin further self-denial and humility and hide pride from thine eyes 2 Cor. 12.7 Let them provoke the lively exercised and train thee up in prayer ver 8 For this I besought the Lord c. and in dependance ver 9 My grace is sufficient for thee c. Admire the freeness of his grace and the greatness of his power in carrying a poor weak Creature to heaven which is more wonderful than the carrying of a small burning Candle through the tempestuous and blustering air 3. See the ugliness and the treachery of the old man and the misery that Christ came to deliver from If you credit not what the word says of it see it in your selves see the enmity that is in your nature to God If you see not evil enough in one lust look on more had you only seen this at your first Conversion you might have forgot the sin and miisery the Lord has delivered you from 4. Let this provoke compassion to such as are in bondage to sin and meekness to such as through weakness fall and are intangled with sin Gal. 6.1 Tit. 3.2.5 Let this confirm you also in the doctrine of Justification by free-grace all natural men go about to establish their own righteousness and in the renewed man there 's often some Inclination to it and some neglect of Christs righteousness this inclination may rise when other lusts are almost buried It troubled Mr. Knox when he was near to die yet was quickly overcome even when we have most need of it And hence our confidence grows as inherent righteousness grows O what then would we have done were there no sin in us nothing to necessitate us to flie to Christs righteousness if as it is there 's some inclination either to set up our own alone or in conjunction with Christ's The Lord will have his people looking both on their Justification and sanctification every day as new gifts and that song to be daily in our mouths Psal 103.1 3. Lastly Be longing for the coming of Christ and for thy full redemption welcome him for this final deliverance from sin Let this commend heaven to you and make it heaven indeed Mr. Carmichael's Three last Sermons GEN. III. 15. I 'le 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 THE poor mans head was now upon the block and lo here 's the first intimation of Relief Sin and misery was now got into the World and mankind was now in a hopeless and helpless condition and here 's the first break of day and dawning of Deliverance and the first discovery of Compassion grace and tender mercy of God to Sinners In the words we have 1. A Promise of deliverance wrapt up in a Threatning against the Serpent 2. A hint of the manner of mans deliverance and of the Serpents Ruin For the Explication of the words 1. They are directed to the Serpent by which is to be chiefly understood Satan called the old Serpent the Devil for though some part of the Threatning belong to the Instrument he used ver 14 yet it 's plain from comparing the Text with Rom. 5.11 12 13 16.20 1 John 3.8 Rev. 20.2 3 that Satan is mostly meant It cannot be conceived how 〈…〉 â—â—eature should have been capable of such a Plot against the glory of God and the happiness of Man nor how it should have managed it with speech and so much seeming-Reason Some say That God indued the Serpent with Reason and Speech for that season but that is no small reflection on God indeed being used by Satan as the Instrument it is involved in the Curse and is become hateful to man there is an enmity between man and it and the sight of it ought to quicken our enmity against Satan yet every one of them have nor their head bruised and but very few of mankind have their heel bruised by that Creature so that we must not understand it literally By the Woman is not meant Evah only or one individual hence some infer that there 's a bitterer enmity between Satan and the Woman than between him and men that Sex being the weakest and most subject to fears and suspitions and so the apter to conceive hatred By the seed of the woman is to be understood 1 and especially Jesus Christ in the same sense that he is called the seed of Abraham of David Sometimes seed is taken collectively for a Multitude sometimes for a single or particular person Gal. 3.16 To Abraham and his seed were the promises made he saith not and to seeds as of many but of one and to thy seed which is Christ It was Christ then that was mainly meant by seed in the promise to Abraham Gen. 12.1 2 3 18.18 22.18 which places are explicatory of this seed in the Text and a confinement of this Promise to the Family of Abraham Here he is called the seed of the woman It 's like with some respect to his taking flesh only of a woman Isa 7.14 Yet here 2. We must also take in Christ's select Seed Heb. 2.13 compare with Rom. 16.20 For they are parties in this quarrel and enmity they have their heel bruised and they bruise Satans head Rom. 16.20 And seeing all that 's here said of the womans seed agreeth to all the Elect why should we not think them included in this seed yet in a different sense the enmity and victory are perfect in Christ not in us It 's remarkable that when the Promise is made concerning the seed the believing Parents are included hence Gen. 22.17 I will multiply thy seed Heb. 6.14 I will bless thee and multiply thee even so when the promise is made to the believing Parent the believing seed are included Hence Gen. 12.3 In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed Acts 3.25 the Apostle expounds it In thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed the enmity then is not only between Christ personal and the Devil but also between Christ mystical c. And the victory over Satan is promised not only to Christ personally considered but to Believers who are his seed yet in a secondary sense only Rom. 16.20 By the Serpents seed are meant the Reprobate World for so they are called Matth. 3.7 Matth. 23.33 Generation of vipers John 8.44 Ye are of your father the devil Acts 13.10 Child of the devil 1. Joh. 3.8 He that committeth sin is of the devil and to them agree what is spoke of the Serpents seed viz. their enmity and opposition to the godly as far as in them lyeth By the Serpents head is meant his craft and power his cunning he had contrived