ought at least to suspend this demand till you have a reafon 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 fenfe in which no other ever was; his fufferings were well prefigured by the bruising of the heel; his complete victory over fin and death by bruifing the ferpent's head. When unbelievers hear fuch reafonings, they think themselves entitled to laugh; but their scorn 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 firft 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 counfel fhall ftand, "and I will do all my pleafure." 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 should 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 truft and confidence in God; without which grounds, which could then no otherways be had but by promise from God, religion could not have been fupported 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 destroy the offenders, or to save them by raifing them to a capacity of falvation, by giving

them fuch hopes as might enable them to exercife a reasonable religion. So far the light of prophecy extended. By what means God intended to work his falvation, he did not exprefsly declare; and who has a right to complain that he did not, or to prefcribe to him rules in difpenfing his mercy to the children of men? This prophecy we, upon whom the latter days are come, have feen fully verified; more fully than those to whom it was delivered could perhaps conceive. View this prophecy then with respect to those to whom it was given, it answered their want, and the immediate end proposed by God; view it with respect to ourselves, and it anfwers ours; and fhall we still complain of its obfcurity?

The bringing in of prophecy was not the only change in the state of religion occafioned by the fall. Sacrifice came in at the fame time, as appears by the course of the history; and it is hardly poffible it fhould come in, especially at the time it did, any otherwise than upon the authority of divine inftitution. It is the first act of religion mentioned in the facred story to be accepted by God; which implies ftrongly that it was of his own appointment; for we can hardly suppose that such a mark of diftinction would have been fet upon a mere human invention. In later times, when the account of things grows clearer, facrifice appears to be appointed by God as an expiation for fin; and we have no reason to imagine that it was turned aside from its original ufe. There is indeed no express declaration of the use of facrifice in religion at its first appearance, and yet fomething there seems to be in the account that may give light in this matter. We read, that Cain brought an of

fering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel of the firstlings of his flock, and the fat thereof: the Lord had refpect unto Abel and to his offering; but unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. Allowing the maxim of the Jewish church to have been good from the first inftitution of facrifice, that without blood there is no remission, the cafe may poffibly be this: Abel came a petitioner for grace and pardon, and brought the atonement appointed for fin; Cain appears before God as a juft person wanting no repentance, he brings an offering in acknowledgment of God's goodness and bounty, but no atonement in acknowledgment of his own wretchedness. The expoftulation of God with Cain favours this account; If thou doeft well, shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou doeft not well, fin lieth at thy door: i. e. if thou art righteous, thy righteousness fhall fave thee; if thou art not, by what expiation is thy fin purged? it lieth ftill at thy door. Add to this, that the Apoftle to the Hebrews fays, that Abel's facrifice was rendered excellent by faith. What could this faith be, but a reliance on the promises and appointments of God? which faith Cain wanted, relying on his well-doing.

If you admit this interpretation, it plainly fhews that the true religion inftituted by God has been one and the fame from the fall of Adam, fubfifting ever upon the fame principles of faith; at firft upon only general and obfcure hopes, which were gradually opened and unfolded in every age, till the better days came, when God thought good to call us into the marvellous light of his Gospel.

This piece of history is all the account we have of

the religion of the antediluvian world: it was proper to be confidered for the relation there is between prophecy and the state of religion in the world; and for this reafon alfo, because facrifice may perhaps be found to be one kind of prophecy, or reprefentation of the one great facrifice once offered for the fins of the world.