The Online Library of Liberty

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• Introduction
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• The Divine Feudal Law Represented
• §1.
• §2.
• §3
• §4
• §5
• §6
• §7
• §8
• §9
• §10
• §11
• §12
• §13
• §14.
• §15
• §16
• §17
• §18
• §19
• §20
• §21
• §22
• §23
• §24.
• §25
• §26
• §27
• §28
• §29
• §30
• §31
• §32
• §33
• §34
• §35
• §36
• §37
• §38
• §39.
• §40
• §41
• §42
• §43
• §44
• §45
• §46
• §47
• §48
• §49
• §50
• §51
• §52
• §53
• §54
• §55
• §56
• §57
• §58
• §59
• §60
• §61
• §62
• §63
• §64
• §65
• §66
• §67
• §68
• §69
• §70
• §71
• §72
• §73
• §74
• §75
• §76
• §77
• §78
• §79
• §80
• §81
• §82
• §83
• §84
• §85
• §86
• §87
• §88
• §89
• §90
• §91
• §92
• §93
• §94

§28

The Promulgation of this Covenant.The notice of this Covenant was given by God to Man immediately after the Fall, as we have it, Gen. 3:15. The Seed of the Woman shall break the Serpent’s Head, who on the other side shall bruise his Heel. By which Allegorical Way of speaking it is intimated that of Woman, who had been drawn into the Fall by the Devil, under the Form of a Serpent, (add 2 Cor. 11:3.) he should be Born, who should bruise his Head, or crush his Strength, which exerts it self through the Sin of Man, but he himself should upon that account undergo Death. Compare Gen. 22:18. Gal. 3:16. and 4:4. And ’tis absurd and ridiculous to think that all which is meant here is the Natural Aversion that Mankind have to Serpents. Yet neither is it to be doubted but that God did expound that Fundamental Principle of Religion in clear and simple Expressions, that he should be Born of a Woman, who should destroy the Power of the Devil, and Sin, the consequent of it, in whom Mankind should repose their Trust for this purpose, and whom they were with a devout Hope to live in the Expectation of. But I would not positively affirm that the first Ages of Mankind were so distinctly acquainted, as afterwards the World was with the Person, Office, and Benefits, of the Saviour; it being suitable enough to the Divine Wisdom to feed Men with Milk, before strong Meat. This is certain, that as the World grew in Age, we find more Light in this Matter to have been afforded it, while the following Prophecies give more distinct Notices of it than the former ones. That Covenant also we must understand belongs in its Nature to all Men, there being no appearance in it of the Exception of any. Nor does it seem Congruous to the Justice of God, while he propos’d to heal the Pollution which was common to all Men, to offer a new Covenant only to a few of them, and to leave the rest, without any particular Fault of theirs, destitute of any Remedy of their Misery. As also the first Promulgation of this Covenant was universal, for it was made to them who were then the whole of Mankind in Being, from whom their Posterity might easily derive the notice of it. Yet afterwards the greatest Part of Mankind did, in the dispersion of Nations about the Earth, through Negligence, or a wicked Contempt of this Covenant, fall by little and little into a forgetfulness of it: So as that Times of Ignorance and Darkness thence ensued, which it pleased God to wink at till the coming of the Saviour thus far, that in all that Space there was not made an Universal Promulgation of this Covenant, Acts 17:30. And in this respect it is, Eph. 2:12. that the Nations in that time are said to have been without Christ, and to have had no Knowledge of a Messiah that had come, or that was to come for the Redemption of Mankind: They were also Aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel; not only from the Communion of Believers, Gal. 6:16. but of the People of Israel, to whom God had made a peculiar Revelation of his Will, Psal. 147:19, 20. They were Strangers to the Covenant of Promise; because, tho’ it had been publish’d first to Adam, and then to Noah, and so to all Mankind without exception or difference, being publish’d and offer’d to the common Parents of all; yet there was after this a particular Repetition of this Covenant made to Abraham, and his Posterity alone, when other Nations, the Posterity of Cham and Japhet, had by little and little separated themselves from the Doctrine and Communion of the Patriarchs, and falling to the Worship of Idols, rendred themselves Strangers to the Covenant. Therefore they came in that Way to want the Participation of those good Things which were promised them in that Covenant; and were without God in the World, or without a Knowledge of God sufficient to Salvation, and without a true and right Worship of him. Add Eph. 3:5, 6, 9.