THE

SPIRITUAL MAGAZINE.

THE

PROMISES & PROPHECIES

OPENED AND EXPLAINED.

FRIENDLY.

received in our former converfations great

HAVING fatisfaction and fpiritual folace; and knowing your wonted folicit your further affiftance, by opening to my weak undergoodness and aptnefs to communicate, I am emboldened to ftanding, the Promifes and Prophecies, especially fuch as have their fulfilment in CHRIST?

it fills me with inexpreffible joy to see your thirst after holy Truth. Your requeft is extremely agreeable to me; nay and divine things increafe. I shall therefore, begin with the first promife, which we find recorded Gen, iii. 15. And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, between thy feed and her feed: it fball bruife thy head, and thou shalt bruife his heel. As here is two feeds mentioned, viz. the feed of the woman, and the feed of the ferpent, I fhall endeavour to define both. Jubtle than all the beafts of the field. From his natural fagacity at that time poffeffed the ferpent, because the ferpent was more By the feed of the ferpent is meant the feed of the Devil, who and policy, his cunningness and deceit, it appears, that he

VOL. 11.

B

was the moft fit and proper inftrument the Devil could make ufe of to accomplish his defigns. The ferpent for his fagacity, wifdom and deceit, bearing fuch a natural likeness unto him, from whence he is called, that old ferpent the Devil, Rev. xii. 9. The word feed, hath various fignifications in fcripture, particularly it fignifieth children, Gen. xv. 5. Moreover he brought him forth, and faid, look up now unto Heaven, and tell the ftars if thou be able to number them; and he faid unto him, fo fhall thy feed be; that is, thy children. By the feed of the ferpent, we are alfo to understand his children: that is, the children of the Devil; therefore called ferpents, Matt. xxiii. 33. Yeferpents, ye generation of vipers, (faith CHRIST to the Scribes and Pharifees) and again he tells them, John viii. 44. Ye are of your father the Devil, and the luft of your father ye will do.

But, by the feed of the woman, we are to understand, CHRIST, who is faid to be made of a woman, Gal. iv. 4. and in the text faid to be her feed, as the word feed is used as a collective word to denote a fingle perfon, Gen. iv. 25. God hath appointed me another feed; that is another fon, for Abel whom Cain flew. For her feed cannot, with any truth, be meant of all her progeny, and children, because many of them were the feed of the ferpent, as before mentioned; but muft denote fome peculiar feed, or offspring, of whom she was to be the mother, as the is, according to her name, faid to be the mother of all living, v. 19. of whofe feed, as mentioned v. 15. I might fay, as the Apostle does of the feed of Abraham, Gal. iii. 16. He faith not unt feeds as of many, but as of one, and to thy feed, which is Chrift; which will appear, if we confider what was spoken of this feed, v. 15. I will also put enmity between thee and the woman, between thy feed and her feeed: he fhall bruife, or as fome tranflations have it, which is more full, break thy head, and thou shalt bruife his heel. Obferve, this feed of Eve's is fpoken of in the fingular number HE, which denotes it to be fomething wonderful, extraordinary, and above the common courfe of nature. Had it been meant of her natural offspring, it would have been laid to the ferpent, they shall bruife thy head; but it is faid, HE fhall bruife thy head, and thou shalt bruife his heel; which plainly points out an utter and implacable enmity between the ferpent and one that was to be a peculiar feed of Eve: therefore it is, as I before obferved, called her feed, and, fays the Apoftle, he was made of a woman; which was exactly fulfilled in CHRIST, and never in any other, Ifa. vii. 14. Behold a virgin fball conceive and bear a fon, and fhall call his name Im

manuel; which was fo wonderful and amazing, that when tidings came from Heaven thereof to Mary, the faid, how can this be, fecing I know not a man? Which hews, that this feed Was not to come forth in an ordinary and common manner, not begotten by man, but to be the wonderful formation of the HOLY GHOST in the womb of Mary, as in Luke i. 35. or otherwife how could the Prophet with verity have faid, a virgin fhall conceive and bear a fon? The Prophet Jeremiah speaks thing, fomething wonderful, as what was never done before, Jer. xxxi. 22. For the Lord hath created a new thing in the earth, a woman shall compass a man; the meaning of which I conceive, is, a woman fhall encompafs in her womb, and bring forth a fon, in a fupernatural way, without the help or affiftance of man; for other wife it would have been thing, and therefore would not have been delivered as

of it as a new

no new

fuch a prodigy.

From hence it is evident, that the feed of Eve, which bears the perfonal character HE, is CHRIST; and this will further appear, if we confider what is promifed of this feed, that it fball break the ferpent's head. As by the ferpent we are to un- . derstand the Devil, called the Old Serpent, Rev. xii. 9: So by bruifing, or breaking his head we are to understand CHRIST'S'. overthrowing the defigns of Satan, and divefting him of his power, crufhing his attempts, and triumphing over him, which CHRIST accomplished by his death, and therefore the promife is exactly fulfilled in him, Col. ii. 15. Having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a fhew of them openly, triumphing over them. He bath led captivity captive, &c.

Friendly. But wherein does it appear that the ferpent wounded, or bruifed CHRIST's heel?

Truth. Satan may be faid inftrumentally to bruife CHRIST'S heel, in perfecuting him, as foon as he was born, by Herod, and continually by stirring up the enmity and malice of the Scribes and Pharifees against him, till they cried, away with him! crucify him! crucify him! and really by entering into the heart of Judas to betray him, which made CHRIST fay, Luke xxii. 53. This is your hour, and power of darkness. Satan may alfo be faid to bruife CHRIST's heel, infomuch as he was an inftru

to death, though by this act CHRIST broke the ferpent's head; for by his death he gave the Devil fuch a blow that he made all hell to tremble, Heb. ii. 14, 15. That through death he might deftroy him that had the power of death; that is, the Devil;

mat in the hands of divine juftice to bring his human nature

and deliver them, who through fear of death, were all their lifetime fubject to bondage.

Friendly. What may I apprehend by the enmity between thefe two feeds?

Truth. First, a contrariety of nature between CHRIST and Satan is principally intended, Rev. xii. 7, 8, 9. And there was a war in Heaven; Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was his place found any more in Heaven. And the great dragon was caft out, that old ferpent called the Devil.

Secondly, It might denote, the contrariety of nature that there is between the children of GOD, and the children of the Devil; as the children of GOD are called CHRIST's feed, Ifa. liii. 10. He fball fee his feed. And God hath promised, that his fpirit fhall not depart out of his feed, nor out of the mouth of thy feed's feed, faith the Lord, from henceforth and for ever. Now the children of the Devil, are called the children of the flesh, and the Apostle faith, Gal. iv. 29. But as then, he that was born after the flesh, perfecuted him that was born after the Spirit, fo it is now; and gives an irrefutable reason for it, Rom. viii. 7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God ; it is not fubject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

Thirdly, It might denote, the natural antipathy there is between the serpent and mankind; there being nothing which we dread in common fo much as a ferpent; from whence that proverbial faying proceeds, flee from it as from the face of a ferpent.

Friendly. What might I apprehend by the curfe which was inflicted upon the ferpent, when it appears that the ferpent was only the Devil's agent and inftrument?

Truth. The denunciation of the curfe, though against the ferpent, was principally defigned against Satan, and therein God fhewed his great indignation against fin, inasmuch as he punished both the principal and inftrument, Gen. iii. 14. Then the Lord God faid unto the ferpent, because thou haft done this, thou art curfed above all cattle, and above every beaft of the field; upon thy belly fhalt thou go, duft shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. Though this curfe was literally fulfilled in the ferpent, yet I apprehend that it had its principal accomplishment in Satan. Though Satan was curfed before, and caft out of hea ven for his rebellion, yet upon this fresh tranfgreffion, and enmity against both GoD and man, I make no doubt, but he received a fresh curfe, and freih mifery took place upon him. The Lord God faid unto the ferpent, because thou haft done this thou art curfed, &c. now the ferpent only did this as an inftru