argument for her hope concerning the seed, eminently so called, who was to arise in his appointed time. Seeing she laid hold of this with a great assurance of faith, and made it, as it were, present to her mind, she now so speaks, as if, in the birth of Cain, she was actually possessed of that seed, which, by an argument taken from that birth, she expected with an assured faith. For had she thought that Cain was the promised Messiah, and Jehovah himself, she would have paid him, though her own son, religious worship, and by this means incurred the guilt of a horrid idolatry; till being apprized, either by the vicious disposition of the child, or by some other means, she had owned her mistake. Which our pious respect to our common parent forbids us to believe. She moreover publishes an eminent confession concerning the person of the Messiah, whom she acknowledges to be God-man. She declares him to be man, by calling him man at the same time pointing out his excellence above other men: for Adam and Ish are usually distinguished, so that the last, viz. Ish, implies excellency; and the first, viz. Adam, meanness. Christ, indeed in his humiliation, was a worm, and not man, Psal. xxii. 6. but considered in himself, he is the man of the right hand of the Lord, Psal. lxxx. 17. and the man his fellow, Zech. xiii. 7. She also makes profession of the divinity of the Messiah, when she calls him Jehovah; and signifies, that both natures should be united in one person, by joining these two, ISH ETH JEHOVAH. Paul calls him, God manifest in the flesh, 1 Tim. iii. 16. XXXIV. To this explication three things are principally objected. 1. If Eve intended this, she would have said, ETH ISH ETH JEHOVAH, doubling the sign of the accusative case; as in the following verse, ÆTH ETH ACHIV ETH HABEL, TON ADELPHON AUTOU TON ABEL. 2. ETH often signifies the same as NGIM, with; ETH JEHOVAH therefore signifies with Jehovah, as SUN THEO, with God. In this sense, Jonathan is said to have wrought NGIM ELOHIM, with God, 1 Sam. xiv. 45. that is, under the conduct and direction, or by the assistance and help of God. 3. Filial respect prompts us to entertain right sentiments concerning the faith of our mother Eve; namely, that she knew and believed, the Messiah was not only to be God-man, but also the seed of the woman, that is, the son of a virgin for without this her faith had been a mistaken, not a true faith, nor have yielded her any comfort. She could not therefore think, she got in Cain the Messiah; as she was perfectly well assured, that Cain was not the son of a virgin. : XXXV. We answer, to the first, That the repetition of that particle is indeed frequent, but yet not uni versal for we have instances of the contrary, 1 Kings xi. 23. Is. viii. 2. Ezek. iv. 1. 1 Sam. xv. 4. where the sign of the accusative case is placed between two nouns, without a repetition. a repetition. To the second: We deny not, that ÆTH is often equivalent to NGIM: but there is no instance to prove, that what the Greeks say, SUN THEO, the Hebrews express in their language by ETH JEHOVAH, OF ÆTH ELOHIM: as it is well known they usually express it by BEJEHOVAH or BEELOHIM. What is adduced from 1 Sam. xiv. 45. is not to the purpose. For there we have NGIM, but not ÆTH. For though those particles are sometimes equivalent, yet they ought not to be confounded. And then, with God, does not so much signify with God's assistance, as God not disapproving. Compare Is. xxxvi. 10. With greater shew of reason might be urged Micah iii. 8. I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord, that is, by the help of that Spirit; and Hab. iii. 13. Thou wentest. forth for the salvation of thy people, even for salvation with thy Messiah, that is, salvation to be procured by his means. But the former passage is very properly rendered, I am full of power with the Spirit of Jehovah ; full of power no less than full of the Spirit. And the latter should seem to be thus pointed, that God may be said to go forth with Christ for salvation. To the third, it might be answered, That there would be no absurdity to suppose, that Eve was not so well acquainted with every thing regarding the condition of the Messiah. Who can assert, that she knew, the Messiah was to be born of a virgin, when the blessed virgin herself did not know it, when she heard it from the mouth of an angel, as appears from her words; How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? Luke i. 34. We deny not, that the Messiah is eminently called the seed of the woman, because he was to be born of a virgin; which the Holy Ghost afterwards more clearly foretold. But it is no crime to doubt, whether our mother Eve could have gathered this from those words; since, in the sacred language, even they are said to be born of a woman, who are conceived in matrimony, as we shewed sect. 17. One may assert this, and not transgress against that respect due to our common mother; as it is certain, God gradually brought his people to the knowledge of the Messiah: nor does it overturn the faith of Eve, which might have been genuine and saving, though it was under this imperfection, ignorance, and mistake; as Peter had a true faith concerning Christ, that is, a saving, and not a hypocritical, though he imagined through mistake, that Christ could be the Saviour of his people, without sufferings, Matth. xvi. 22. But we are under no necessity to be obliged to say any of these things; for we do not assert, our mother Eve received Cain for the very Messiah: but only we are of opinion, that, in the birth of Cain, she observed a sign or token of God's performing the promise, and something to support her faith, which she was willing to declare and preserve the memory of, by giving him that name: and consequently that argument does not affect us. XXXVI. And we are not to pass over in silence, that when she afterwads brought forth another son, she called his name Seth, because God (SHATH) hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew, Gen. iv. 25. A sentence full of spiritual assurance and of prophecy. She calls him seed, having a view to the promise, and foretelling, that he would not only carry on the enmity with the serpent, but also that from him, that eminent seed would come forth, by whose power the serpent's head was to be bruised. This seed she proclaims was given by God; as a son not of nature only, but also of grace and promise, and accounted by God himself for a seed not only given, but also appointed, of God, that is, established and secured by the counsel of God, that he should not be slain, but be the foundation of the future church, to be propagated in an uninterrupted succession in his posterity, and preserved down to Christ. For the word to appoint, denotes a determination and steadiness; as John xv. 16. I have chosen you, and ordained (appointed) you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit. She therefore acknowledges Seth for the chosen seed, and the parent of him, in whom all the elect are chosen. XXXVII. This doctrine of salvation flourished both in the mouths and in the hearts of believers, who began LIKRO BESHEM JEHOVAH, that is, as Aquila translates it, KALEISTHAI EN ONOMATI KURIOU, to be called by the name of the Lord, Gen. iv. 26. and they were called the sons of God, as distinguished from the sons of men. Above all, the prophecy of Enoch is very remarkable, which the apostle Jude relates in his epistle, not from any apocryphal book, nor from the mere authority of any unwritten tradition, nor by a sagacious conjecture from the history of Moses, but by the inspiration of that same Spirit, who prompted Enoch to prophesy, ver. 14, 15. in these words: And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these things, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them, &c. That Lord of whom Enoch speaks, is the Messiah, in unity of essence the same Jehovah with the father and the Holy Spirit; to whom also all power is given in heaven and in earth, and whose peculiar property the elect are on a special account. He foretells his coming by a verb of the preterperfect tense, to express the undoubted certainty of the thing, and the full assurance of his own faith he prophesies, that the Messiah, at that coming, will be attended with myriads of angels. Which happened, when he came down upon mount Sinai to`give the law, Deut. xxxiii. 2. and when he came in the flesh, to visit his people : for then a multitude of the heavenly host, declaring his nativity, was seen and heard in the country of Bethlehem, Luke iii. 13. But this will be the case in a most illustrious manner, when he shall come in the clouds of heaven, and all the holy angels with him, Matth. xxv. 31. The end of this coming will be to execute judgment upon all; for the Father hath committed all judgment to the Son, John v. 22. and to convince all that are ungodly, by inflicting the punishments due to their impiety. These things Enoch preached to the people in his days, who, giving a loose to their lusts, impiously denied the future coming of the Lord. And seeing that prophecy contains an universal truth, |