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was 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 con→ queft of the powers of darkness, and the re demption of the world was effected by the fufferings of Chrift; and when He, who was in the most proper and eminent sense "the feed of the woman,' not only withstood the temptations of Satan, but "cast out his evil spirits, and faw him as lightning fall

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fore him, might look to this fon for the completion of the promise made to Adam, or he might forefee that from him the promised deliverer should proceed; but that a deliverer from the miseries, 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 seem 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-feven years after the death of Adam, to fupport 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 fome such visible manner as Elijah afterwards was, by a glorious appearance of the Shechinah, or token of God's fpecial prefence, from whence angels were fent to convey him up to heaven. See Patrick's Commentary.

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from heaven.' Thus, as the guilt of Adam was tranfmitted to all his race, fo was this most ancient 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 difobedience many were made finners, fo by the obedience of one many were made righteous;" and that" as in Adam all die, fo in Chrift 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

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

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

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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 Verfions, that were in ufe immediately after the Babylonish captivity, are inferted in them. Many other Prophecies, in addition to those above mentioned concerning the Meffiah, are explained in these Targums, exactly as they are by Chriftians. In addition to the fervice which they render fo evidently to the Christian caufe, they are of great ufe, 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.

8 Critici Sacri, tom. i. p. 79.

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In the fentence, pronounced by the God of infinite justice and mercy upon our first parents, we fee the groundwork and basis of all the Prophecies. It is the foundation of the glorious hope, in the fulfilment of which, every defcendant of Adam has the strongest intereft. It was the first gracious intimation peace and deliverance, of redemption and happiness, given to fallen and miferable man -the earliest of the Sun of righteousness" which in the last days illumined a guilty race, and fpread its light over the world.

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CLASS

CLASS I.

CHAPTER THE SECOND.

The Promifes made to Abraham respecting his Pofterity and the Meffiah.

ABRAHAM, it is well known, was the most diftinguished of the Patriarchs, the venerable ancestor of the Ifraelites and Ifmaelites, or, as they are now called, of the Jews and Arabs. His name is at this day celebrated through

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out the East; and various writings and traditions, carefully preferved through the long lines of his pofterity, confirm and illustrate the hiftory, which we find recorded of him in the Old Testament. From this history, every part of which is interefting, and almost every circumstance prophetic, I have felected one of the most striking examples of the truth of prophecy, ftill open to the eyes of man, and which is alfo an important link

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