Rom. 9. 5. Rom. 1.3.should come of David and Abraham, and so of Eve according to the flesh, for she was the mother of all living. Christ God and man is made of God an Adam (often opposed to the first Adam, 1 Cor. 15. 21, 22, 23, 45.) Head, root, common receptacle and store-house, in whom are treasured all good things, which from him are communicated to the faithfull. As in Adam our being naturall, our hopes of life and death, and in event our condemnation, was received, before ever they came to be applyed and received actually in us: So in Christ as in a common store-house every thing is first placed, which afterward is to be imparted to any beleever. The first Adam, created after the Image of God, but a meere creature only, was intrusted with the Promise of life for his posterity, and betrayed all the body: Matth. 28.19.But now God of his infinite mercy ordaineth a second Adam, even the It is cleare, that this battle pertained to the woman and her seed on the one party, and to this Devill that spake by the Serpent, and all the wicked, on the other party. Dow. But then it cannot in speciall be applyed to the Virgin Mary. If the Virgin Mary may be said to bruise the Serpents head, because Christ was borne of her, by the same reason we may say, she was crucified and died for us, &c.seed of the woman, that is, Christ-man, but lifted up above the condition of a creature by union unto the Divine Person, that so as man he might be fit to receive that trust for men, as God he might undergoe the burden and charge, which was now greater then God laid upon the first Adams shoulders. To have put the prime right of the Covenant upon every particular, had left occasion to infinite fals; and withall opened a gap to dis-union, which the Lord abhorreth: To have chosen out a meere creature, and under the fall, how could he have made satisfaction for sinne formerly committed, or free himselfe from the bondage of Satan? Therefore that the Promise might be sure to the Heires of Promise, God puts this honour and charge upon Jesus Christ, Gal. 3.19.who was the seed to come, to whom the Promises were made, and 2 Cor. 1.20.in whom all the Promises for all his brethren are Yea and Amen.
The parties who are to partake of the benefits promised, are inclosed in the woman as the Mother of the good, or rather under the former terme, the womans seed. For the word Gen. 4.25.
and 21.13.seed is sometimes taken for one, but often collectively, which must be judged by the circumstances of the place. Now in this Text by the woman is meant Eve, and by the seed of the woman, the posterity of the woman, those, scil. which degeneratenot
