found the works of God, and to be the author of iniquity, it might have given great countenance to this error, of two principles: or, to prevent it, Moses must have writ an history of the angels' fall likewife; a point, I fuppofe, to which his commiffion did not extend, and of which perhaps we are not capable judges; and fince this difficulty might in a great measure be avoided, by having recourse to the common usage of the eastern countries, which was, to clothe history in parables and fimilitudes, it feems not improbable that for this reafon the hiftory of the fall was put into the dress in which we now find it.

The ferpent was remarkable for an infidious cunning, and therefore ftood as a proper emblem of a deceiver; and yet, being one of the loweft of the creatures, the emblem gave no fufpicion of any power concerned that might pretend to rival the Creator.

This method has not fo obfcured this history, but that we may with great certainty come to the knowledge of all that is neceffary for us to know. Let us confider the history of Mofes, as we fhould do any other ancient eastern hiftory of like antiquity: fuppofe, for instance, that this account of the fall had been preserved to us out of Sanchoniatho's Phoenician History: we should in that cafe be at a lofs perhaps to account for every manner of representation, for every figure and expreffion in the story; but we should soon agree, that all these difficulties were imputable to the manner and customs of his age and country; and fhould fhew more refpect to fo venerable a piece of antiquity, than to charge it with want of sense, because we did not understand

Difagree we could The ferpent is evi

every minute circumftance: we should likewise agree, that there were evidently four perfons concerned in the ftory; the man, the woman, the perfon reprefented by the ferpent, and God. not about their feveral parts. dently the tempter; the man and the woman the of fenders; God the judge of all three: the punishments inflicted on the man and woman have no obfcurity in them; and as to the ferpent's fentence, we fhould think it reasonable to give it such a sense as the whole feries of the story requires.

It is no unreasonable thing furely to demand the fame equity of you in interpreting the fenfe of Mofes, as you would certainly use towards any other ancient writer. And if the fame equity be allowed, this plain fact undeniably arises from the history: "that man was tempted to difobedience, and did "difobey, and forfeited all title to happincfs, and "to life itself; that God judged him, and the de"ceiver likewise under the form of a ferpent." We require no more; and will proceed upon this fact to confider the prophecy before us.

The prophecy is part of the fentence paffed upon the deceiver: the words are thefe; I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy feed and her feed: it shall bruife thy head, and thou fhalt bruife his heel: Gen. iii. 15. Chriftian writers apply this to our bleffed Saviour, emphatically styled here the feed of the woman, and who came in the fulness of time to bruife the ferpent's head, by deftroying the works of the devil, and reftoring those to the liberty of the fons of God, who were held under the bondage and captivity of fin. You will

fay, What unreasonable liberty of interpretation is this? Tell us, by what rules of language the feed of the woman is made to denote one particular perfon, and by what art you discover the mystery of Christ's miraculous conception and birth in this common expreffion? Tell us likewife, how bruifing the ferpent's head comes to fignify the deftroying the power of fin, and the redemption of mankind by Christ? It is no wonder to hear fuch queftions from those who look no further than to the third chapter of Genefis, to see the ground of the Chriftian application. As the prophecy stands there, nothing appears to point out this particular meaning; much less to confine the prophecy to it. But of this hereafter. Let us for the present lay afide all our own notions, and go back to that ftate and condition of things, which was at the time of the delivery of this prophecy, and fee (if haply we may discover it) what God intended to difcover at that time by this prophecy, and what we may reasonably fuppofe our first parents understood it to mean.

They were now in a state of fin, ftanding before God to receive fentence for their difobedience, and had reason to expect a full execution of the penalty threatened, In the day thou eateft thereof, thou shalt furely die. But God came in mercy as well as judgment, purposing not only to punish, but to restore man. The judgment is awful and fevere: the woman is doomed to forrow in conception; the man to forrow and travail all the days of his life; the ground is curfed for his fake; and the end of the judgment is, Duft thou art, and unto duft thou shalt return. Had they been left thus, they might have continued in

their labour and forrow for their appointed time, and at laft returned to duft, without any well-grounded hope or confidence in God: they must have looked upon themselves as rejected by their Maker, delivered up to trouble and forrow in this world, and as having no hope in any other. Upon this foot, I conceive there could have been no religion left in the world; for a sense of religion without hope is a ftate of frenzy and diftraction, void of all inducements to love and obedience, or any thing else that is praiseworthy. If therefore God intended to preferve them as objects of mercy, it was abfolutely neceffary to communicate fo much hope to them, as might be a rational foundation for their future endeavours to reconcile themselves to him by a better obedience. This feems to be the primary intention of this firft divine prophecy; and prophecy; and it was neceffary to the state of the world, and the condition of religion, which could not poffibly have been supported without the communication of fuch hopes. The prophecy is excellently adapted to this purpose, and manifeftly conveyed fuch hopes to our firft parents. For let us confider in what fense we may fuppofe them to understand this prophecy. Now they muft neceffarily understand the prophecy, either according to the literal meaning of the words, or according to fuch meaning as the whole circumftance of the tranfaction, of which they are a part, does require. If we suppose them to understand the words literally, and that God meant them fo to be understood, this paffage muft appear ridiculous. Do but imagine that you fee God coming to judge the offenders; Adam and Eve before him in the utmost distress;

that you hear God inflicting pains and forrows, and misery and death, upon the firft of human race; and that, in the midft of all this fcene of woe and great calamity, you hear God foretelling with great folemnity a very trivial accident that fhould fometimes happen in the world: that ferpents would be apt to bite men by the heels, and that men would be apt to revenge themselves by ftriking them on the head. What has this trifle to do with the lofs of mankind, with the corruption of the natural and moral world, and the ruin of all the glory and happiness of the creation? Great comfort it was to Adam, doubtless, after telling him that his days fhould be fhort and full of mifery, and his end without hope, to let him know, that he should now and then knock a snake on the head, but not even that without paying dear for his poor victory, for the fnake fhould often bite him by the heel. Adam, furely, could not underftand the prophecy in this fenfe, though fome of his fons have fo understood it; a plain indication how much more fome men are concerned to maintain a literal interpretation of Scripture, than they are to make it speak common fenfe. Leaving this therefore as abfolutely abfurd and ridiculous, let us confider what meaning the circumstances of the tranfaction do neceffarily fix to the words of this prophecy. Adam tempted by his wife, and fhe by the ferpent, had fallen from their obedience, and were now in the prefence of God expecting judgment. They knew full well at this juncture, that their fall was the victory of the ferpent, whom by experience they found to be an enemy to God and to man: to man, whom he had ruined by feducing him to fin; to God, the