IDIVINE - HONOUR UNTO rejected as useless, and no foundation be left in the truth of God,for the introduction of the new. 2. It was the person of Christ, his incarnation and mediation, that were promised under the name of the seed of the woman, and the work he shoulddo in break- ing the head of the serpent, with the way whereby he should do it, in suffering, by his power. The accom- plishment hereof was in God's sending his Son in the likeness ofsinful flesh, in the fulness of time, made un- der the law, or by his manifestation in the flesh, to de- stroy the works of the devil. So is this promise inter- preted, Gal. iii. 10. chap. iv. 4. Heb. ii. 14, 15, 16. 1 John iii: 8. This cannot be denied but upon one of these two grounds. (1.) That nothing is intended in that divine revel, tien, but only a natural enmity that is between mankind and serpents. But this is so foolish an imagination, that the Jews themselves, who constantly refer this place tothe Messiah, are not guiltyof. All the whole truth con- cerning God's dipleasure on the sin of our first parents, with what concerneth the nature and consequents of that sin, is everted hereby. And whereas the founda- tion of all God's future dealing with them- and their posterity is plainly expressed herein, it is turned into that which is ludicrous, and of very little concernment in human life. For such is the enmity between mankind and serpents, which not one in a million know any thing of, or are troubled with. This is but to lay the axe of atheism unto all religion built on divine revela- tion. Besides, on this supposition there is in the words not the least intimation of any relief, that God tendered unto our parents for their delivery from the state and condition whereinto they had cast themselves by their sin and apostacy. Wherefore they must be esteemed to be left absolutely under the curse, as the angels were that fell, which is to root all religion out of the world. For amongst them who are absolutely under the curse without any remedy, there can be no snore than is in hell. Or, (2.) It must be, because some other may of deliverance and salvation, and not that by Christ, is here proposed and promised. But whereas theywere to be wrought by the seed of the woman, if this were not that Christ in whomwedobelieve, there was another promised, and he is to be rejected. And this is fairly at once to blot 3 THE PERSON OF CHRIST. 5y -out the whole scripture as a fable. For there is not a line of doctrinal truth in it, but what depends on the traduction of Christ from this first promise. 3. This promise was confirmedand the way of the de- liverance of the church by virtue of it declared, in the institution of expiatory sacrifices. God in them and by them declared from the beginning, that without shed- dingof blood there was no remission; that atonement for sin was to be made by substitution and satisfaction. With respect unto them the Lord Christ was called the Lamb of God, even as he took away the sins of the World by the sacrifice of himself, John i. 29. For we "'were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot," 1 Pet. i. 19. wherein the Holy Spirit refers unto the institu- tion and nature of sacrifices from the beginning; and he is thence represented in heaven as a Lamb that had been slain, Rev. iv. 6. the glory of heaven arising front the fruits and effects of his sacrifice. And because of the representation thereof in all the former sacrifices, is he said to be a " Lamb slain from the foundation of the world," Rev. xiii. 8. And it is strange to me, that any who deny not the expiatory sacrifice of Christ, should doubt whether the originalof these sacrifices were of divine institution, or the invention of men. And it is so amongst others for the reasons ensuing. (1.) On the supposition that they were of mendsfind- ing out, and voluntaryobservation, withoutany previous I divine revelation, it must be granted that the foundation , of all acceptable religion in theworld, was laid in, and resolied into the wisdom andwills of men, and not in- to the wisdom, authority and will of God. For that the great solemnity of religion, whichwas as the centre and testimonyof all its other duties, did consist in these aas-rrfices even before the giving of the law, will not be denied. And in the giving of the law, God did not on this supposition confirm and establish his own institutions with additions unto them of the saine kind, but set his seal and approbation unto the inventions of men. But this is contrary unto natural light, and the whole cur- rent-of scripture - revelations. (2.) All expiatory sacsjfces were from the beginning, types and representations of the sacrifice of Christ, whereon all their use, efficacy, and benefit among men, all their acceptance with God, did depend. Remove
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