SECT. 25, 26.] PROMISED OF OLD. 1738
did they leave thy commandment and follow my commandment ?’ and therefore he presently pronounced sentence against him.” And the same words are repeated in Midrash Vaiikra, ad cap. xiii. 2; which things can be understood of Satan only. I know some of the later masters have other thoughts of. these things, because they dis- cover what use may be made of the truth and the faith of their forefathers in this matter.
Aben Ezra, in his commentary on this place, disputes the opinions of their doctors; and although he acknowledges that Rabbi Saadias Haggaon, and Rabbi Samuel Ben Hophni, with others (that is, in- deed, their Targums, and Talmuds, and all their ancient writings), affirm Satan to be intended, yet he contends for the serpent only; on the weak pretences, that Satan goeth not on his belly, nor eateth dust, which things in the letter are confessed to belong unto the instrument that he used. And hereon they would have it that the serpent was deprived of voice and understanding, which before he had; so making him a rational subsistence who is expressly reckoned amongst the beasts of the field.
The root of all evil, also, they would have to lie in the matter whereof we were originally made; an impossible figment, invented to reflect the guilt of all sin on Him that made us. Thus every thing seems right to them that will serve the present turn, whilst they shut their eyes against the truth. But we have the consent of the ancientest, best, and wisest of them in this matter, as also unto the deliverance here promised. The two Targums, [that] of Ben Uzziel, and that called Jerusalem, both agree that these words contain a remedy of the effects of Satan’s temptation, and that to be wrought by the Messiah, or, as they speak, “in his days”’ And hence they have a common saying, that “ in the last days” (which is the Old Testament periphrasis for the days of the Messiah), “all things shall be healed but the serpent and the Gibeonites;” by whom they understand all hypocrites and unbelievers. Satan, therefore, is to be conquered by the “bruising of his head;” and conquered he is not, nor can be, unless his work be destroyed. In the destruction of his work con- sists the Misery of mankind from the twofold evil mentioned ; and this is to be effected by “the Seed of the woman,” to be brought forth into the world unto that end and purpose: for when the pro- duction of this Seed is restrained unto the family and posterity of Abraham, it is said expressly that in, or by it, all the kindreds of the earth should be blessed; which they could not be without a re- moval and taking away of the curse.
26. We may now, therefore, take the sum of this discourse, and of the whole matter that we have insisted on, about the entrance of sin into the world, and the remedy provided in the grace and wis- dom of God against it. It appears, upon our inquiry, First, That the
174 MESSIAH, THE DELIVERER FROM EVIL, [EXERC. VIII.
sin of our first parents was the occasion and cause of all that evil which is in the worid,—of all that is felt or justly feared by mankind; for as those who knew not, or received not, the revelation of the truth in these things made unto us in the Scripture, could never assign any other cause of it that might be satisfactory unto an ordi- nary rational inquirer, so the testimonies of the Scripture make it most evident, and especially that insisted on. Secondly, It hath been evinced that mankind could not recover or deliver themselves from under the power of their own innate corruption and disorder, nor from the effects of the curse and wrath of God that came upon them; neither is there any ground of expectation of relief from any other part of God’s creation: but. yet, that God, for the praise of the glory of his grace, mercy, and goodness, would effect it and bring it about. Thirdly, That this relief and deliverance is first intimated and declared in these words of God unto the serpent, “I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel;” which appears,—
First, Because, in and with the serpent, Satan, who was the head of all apostasy from God, and by whom our first parents were beguiled, is intended in these words. This we have made evident from the confession of the Jews, with whom principally, in this matter, we have to do. And to what hath been already observed unto that purpose, we may add the testimonies of some other of them to the same purpose. Rabbi Bechai, he whom they call jpr »n2, “ Bechai the elder,” in his comment on the law, upon these words, Gen. iii. 15, speaks to this purpose: “We have no more enmity with the serpent than with other creeping things. Wherefore the Serip- ture mystically signifies him who was hid in the serpent; for the body of the crafty serpent was a fit instrument for that force or vir- tue that joined itself therewithal. That was it which made Eve to ~ sin; whence death came on all her posterity. And this is the en- mity between the serpent and the seed of the woman; and this is the mystery of the holy tongue, that the serpent is sometimes called Saraph, according to the name of an angel who is also called Sa- raph. And now thou knowest that the serpent is Satan, and the evil figment, and the angel of death.” And Rabbi Judah, in 7p. ‘So: “Many interpreters say that the evil figment hath all its force from the old serpent, or Satan.” To the same purpose, the author of mp) nD, “Caphtor Vapzerach:” “The devil and the serpent are called by one name.” And many other testimonies of the like im- portance might be collected out of them.