The words are considerable —
1. For the person who speaketh them, the Lord God himself, who was the first preacher of the gospel in paradise. The draught and plot was in his bosom long before, but now it cometh out of his mouth.
2. For the occasion when they were spoken. When God hath been but newly provoked and offended by sin, and man, from his creature and subject, was become his enemy and rebel, the ofiended God comes with a promise in his mouth. Adam could look for nothing but that God should repeat to him the whole beadroll of curses wherein he had
* Preached the fifth of November. YOL. XYII. Q
242 SERMON UPON GENESIS III. 15.
involved himself, but God maketh known the great design of his grace. Once more, the Lord God was now cursing the serpent, and in the midst of the curses promiseth the great blessing of the Messiah. Thus doth God ' in wrath remember mercy,' Hab. iii. 2. Yea, man's sentence was not yet pronounced. The Lord God had examined him, ver. 8-10, but before the doom there breaketh out a promise of mercy. Thus mercy gets the start of justice, and triumpheth and rejoiceth over it in our behalf : James ii. 13, 'Mercy rejoiceth against judgment.'
3. They are considerable for their matter, for they intimate a victory over Satan, and that in the nature which was foiled so lately. Man by sin had not only incurred God's wrath, but put himself under the power of the devil, who had a legal power over fallen man, such as the execu- tioner hath from the judge over the condemned person, and a tyrannical power by conquest, man being seduced by him from God. Therefore it is good news to hear of a victory over Satan, and that his power shall be destroyed.
In the former part of the verse you have the combat ; in the text the success.
[1.] Tlie conflict and combat: 'And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed.' It cannot be understood of the hatred and antipathy between men and serpents, though that be alluded unto. To what end should God thunder curses and condemnation upon the serpent, a brute creature, that understood them not ? Therefore it is meant of the war between the devil and mankind, Satan and his instruments ; for wicked men are called his seed : John viii. 44, ' Ye are of your father the devil ; ' and Ignatius calleth Menander and Basilides, ttjv tov Karjov 6<^io<i '7rapa(j)voLSa, ' the spawn of the old serpent' And on the other side, the seed of the woman, by way of emiuency, Christ and his confederates. But I shall not consider the conflict now as carried on between the two seeds, but between the two heads, Christ the prince of life, and the devil ' who hath the power of death,' Heb. ii. 14. It was begun between the serpent and the woman ; it is carried on between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent : but the conflict is ended by the destruc- tion of one of the heads ; the prince of death is destroyed by the prince of life.
[2.] The success and issue of the combat Where observe — (1.) What the seed of the woman doth against the serpent, 'He shall bruise thy head ; ' (2.) What the serpent doth against the seed of the woman, ' Thou shalt bruise his heel.'
(1.) There is something common to both ; for the word bruised is used promiscuously both of the serpent and the seed of the woman. In this war, as usually in all others, there are wounds given on both sides; the devil bruiseth Christ, and Christ bruiseth Satan.
(2.) There is a disparity of the event, ' He shall bruise thy head,' and ' Thou shalt bruise his heel ; ' where there is a plain allusion to treading upon a serpent. Wounds on the head are deadly to serpents, but wounds in the body are not so grievous and dangerous ; and a serpent trod upon, seeketh to do all the mischief it can to the foot by which it is crushed. The wound given to the head is mor- tal, but the wound given to the heel may be healed. The seed of
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the woman may be cured, but Satan's power cannot be restored. The devil cannot reach to the head, but the heel only, which is far from any vital part.
(1st.) For the first clause, ' It shall bruise thy head.' The seed of the woman crushed the serpent's head, whereby is meant the overthrow and destruction of his power and works : John xii. 31, ' Now shall the prince of this world be cast out ; ' 1 John iii. 8, ' For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.' The head being bruised, strength and life is perished. His kingdom and strength is his head ; that is gone, that Kpa.To<; Oavdrov, ' that power of death/ Heb, ii. 14, the power to deceive and detain captive souls: Col. i. 13, ' Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness.'