The Promife made to Adam.

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promife as would mitigate the NIA

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horrors of their own.-When they heard that the fuccefs of their adversary was not a complete victory over themselves, or their pofterity; but that although there was to be a contest for fuperiority, their posterity should finally prevail, fome hope of restoration to the loft favour of their Creator must have netrated the gloom of defpair.-They had exchanged happiness, innocence, and life, for pain and forrow, fin and death. But this Prophecy, while it opened the prospect of deliverance from "the power of Satan, and of fin," encouraged them to place their trust and confidence in God, who could alone effect it-it was at once an earnest of pardon, and a motive for exertion in their appointed warfare-it was the foundation of hope and gratitude the incentive to penitence and obedience.

Thus the light of Prophecy was proportioned to the wants of our firft parents, and was tranfmitted by them to their children, as a facred treasure of confolation amidst the miferies, which their fin had entailed upon them, and as a fecurity for the maintenance of religion, on which their future happiness depended.

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pended. By what methods God intended to effect this wonderful reftoration to his favour, he did not at that time reveal'. This was the

Eve feems to have expected her firft-born fon would be the promifed feed-the Redeemer from death, and the Reftorer of happiness-the Meffiab. She called him Cair -fignifying acquifition, faying, "I have gotten a man from the Lord," according to his promife. No reason is given for the name of Abel, because his parents did not place in him their hope of the promised feed, as they did in their firft-born Cain; but to the fon born after the death of Abel, and the rejection and banishment of Cain, Eve gave the name of Seth, fignifying appointed; as the confidered this fon as fubftituted by God, to be the feed himself, or the feed from whom the promised Saviour of the world fhould come; for, whether the promise was to be fulfilled immediately, or at a remote distance of time, they were not informed by the Prophecy, nor was this declared for many fucceeding generations. Lamech called the name of his fon Noah, which fignifies reft, or refreshment after toil, or comfort; "Becaufe," faid he, "this fame fhall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands." It is to be obferved, that there was a general curfe upon the earth for the fin of Adam, and some have thought a particular curfe upon fome part of it for the fin of Cain. Lamech foretells, that in the time of this fon God would in great measure take them both off that he fhould be the reflorer of the world, after the flood predicted by Enoch (Enoch had named his fon Methu-he dies-felah-the fending forth of water, fignifying, when he dies, the flood fhall come. See Bochart, 1. ii. c. 13.)that he should give reft from confusion and desolation, and that the earth fhould be bleffed to his pofterity.-Lamech therefore, with the prospect of these mighty changes be

fore

the fubject of fubfequent Prophecies, delivered with progreffive clearnefs, and more circumftantial detail. This, as well as all the feries which followed, found its completion when the Son of God appeared "to deftroy the works of the Devil," when "the head of the ferpent was bruifed" by the conquest of the powers of darkness, and the redemption of the world was effected by the fufferings of Chrift; and when He, who was in the most proper and eminent fenfe "the feed of the woman," not only withstood the temptations of Satan, but " caft out his evil fpirits, and faw him as lightning fall

fore him, might look to this fon for the completion of the promise made to Adam, or he might foresee that from him the promised deliverer should proceed; but that a deliverer from the miferies, which fin had brought upon the earth, was expected, appears very evident. It is perfectly confiftent with the merciful difpenfations of God's providence, to fuppofe that these early Patriarchs, who feem to have fuffered great hardships from the curfe upon the ground, were permitted to indulge the hope of a speedy accomplishment of this promife; God having been pleased to take Enoch to himself, about fifty-seven years after the death of Adam, to support and comfort mankind in their state of mortality, with the affurance of a better life in another world. And it is therefore probable, that Enoch was tranflated in some such visible manner as Elijah afterwards was, by a glorious appearance of the Shechinah, or token of God's Special prefence, from whence angels were sent to convey him up to heaven. See Patrick's Commentary.

from heaven." Thus, as the guilt of Adam was tranfmitted to all his race, fo was this moft antient of the Prophecies, the harbinger of that atonement, which was to be made for it when the fulnefs of time was come," and "God fent into the world his Son made of a woman";" that "as by one man's disobedience many were made finners, fo by the obedience of one many were made righteous;" and that "as in Adam all die, fo in Christ all might be made alive."

That this commonly received interpretation is undoubtedly the true and antient interpretation of the Jewish Church before the coming of Chrift, is clear from their commentaries on this part of Scripture. They referred the fulfilment of this promise to Christ and to Satan, as plainly appears by the Targum of Onkelos, and the Targum of Jerufalem. In

the

* Targum is a Chaldee word, and signifies a translation. It is in general appropriated by the Jews to the Chaldee paraphrafes of the Old Testament. The firft Targums were compofed for the ufe of the common people, after their return from the Babylonish captivity. The Targum of Onkelos on the Pentateuch is the moft antient now remaining. It is rather a tranflation than a paraphrafe. It was antiently held in fuch high repute as to be read-alternately in the fynagogues with the facred text. Next

the latter the paraphrase of the words addreffed to the ferpent is exactly as follows. "It shall come to pass, when the fons of the woman fhall execute the commands of the Law, then they fhall wound thee in the head, and flay thee. But when the fons of the woman shall defert the commands of the Law, thou shalt bite them in the heel, and ftrike them in their weakness. There fhall, however, be a remedy for the fons of the woman; but for thee, the ferpent, there fhall be none. It fhall come to pass that they shall wound each other in the heel, in the laft days, in the days of Meffiah the king h."

in purity of style and antiquity is the Targum of Jonathan Ben Uzziel. It relates to the works of the Prophets. These Targums are allowed both by Jews and Chriftians to be as antient, if not, more fo, than the time of our Saviour. It is probable, that many of the gloffes and interpretations of the more antient Versions, that were in use immediately after the Babylonish captivity, are inferted in them. Many other Prophecies, in addition to those above mentioned concerning the Meffiah, are explained in thefe Targums, exactly as they are by Chriftians. In addition to the service which they render fo evidently to the Chriftian cause, they are of great use, as they contribute to establish the genuineness of the Hebrew text. This fubject is treated at large by Prideaux, vol. ii. p. 413, 426, &c.

Critici Sacri, tom. i. p. 79.