queror, as the Resurrection of the Saviour was soon to show,-His living again out of death in that life by which He was "declared [or determined] to be the Son of God with power," and "the Prince [or Author] of life" to His redeemed.† The wound was indeed mortal, but only as regards the life of the flesh, which the Saviour came,-not to reprieve from the sentence of its deserved death,—but to condemn by bearing its sentence Himself on the cross: that His redeemed, crucified also to it with Him, might live with Him out of His grave, and "walk," as he was raised, "in newness of life" (Rom. vi. 4). But of this mystery Satan was ignorant (as was even the Church, comparatively speaking), until it was developed in Jesus risen: and then he learned that, in killing the "Prince of Life," he was unconsciously fulfilling "the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God" as to the redemption, and was the very instrument in His hand of man's salvation!

And now, we would suppose, was come the time to execute the threatened judgment and to "bruise the serpent's head." So thought the disciples when they asked of the risen Saviour, "Lord, wilt Thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel ?"— that kingdom with which later Prophecies (as on future occasions will be shown) always identify the kingdom and glory of Messiah. But the time was not yet. The mystery of "The Seed" awaited a further development which was to give new scope to the serpent's "enmity," and with a like result. For * Rom. i. 4: compare ver. 3.

† Acts, iii. 15, Gr. and Marg.

Acts, i. 6.

now was come "the adoption" of the Church in Christ. Now was to be revealed that purpose which could not previously have been apprehended-that Christ in His resurrection should become "the Head of a Body;" of those, namely, who, quickened and regenerated by Him as the "quickening Spirit,"-(in which the Apostle makes to consist at once the analogy and the contrast between Him and man's original Head, the first Adam, 1 Cor. xv. 45),-should be made in very deed His members and united to Him; and with Him, their "Head," form, as it were," one new man."* A truth which there is no doubt affords the explanation of an incident recorded in immediate connexion with the first promise, and partaking no less of the character of prophecy, as an expression of faith in it-that "Adam called his wife's name EVE" (that is, "LIFE") "because she was the mother of all LIVING :" of the Saviour, namely, and in Him of all who should live through Him, who alone are" the living" in the true sense. But if one with Him, then with Him to be exposed to the enmity of the serpent, that with Him they may also share the triumph of the promised "Seed." In other words, it was now to be made known that, while it became Jesus, as "the Captain of our Salvation," the Joshua of His people, to be " made perfect through sufferings, for the bringing [or leading on] many sons unto glory," these whom He makes sons, and whom "He is not ashamed to call brethren," as being sanctified by one and the same

* Compare Ephes. ii. 15, 16, with 1 Cor. xii. 12, 13.

Spirit, were to track His path of tribulation through this world, that they might enter into His joy-to suffer with Him," that they may be also “glorified together."*

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Whence-for the development of this part of the mystery—a space was given to the enemy to work, and a prolongation of his power in the world was permitted in order (in the remarkable words of the same Apostle, in reference to his own sufferings, -Col. i. 24) to "fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ,"-His afflictions, that is to say, in His members, whose sufferings He vouchsafes to make His own, saying to their persecutor, "Why persecutest thou ME?" Which accordingly, it may be remarked, is the true purpose and character of this present dispensation, not (as so often stated) the day of Christ's power and of the triumph of His Church. As regards the enemy, a time for the working and maturing of a new plan of opposition to "the Seed of the woman," corresponding to His manifestation in this " the fulness of the time" opposition more strictly Antichristian than in former ages; the working of a "mystery of iniquity," the "revelation" of which will be the maturity of the "enmity." And, as regards the Church, a dispensation of militancy, which is its probation for sharing in the victory of its Head when, with the accomplishment of the number of His elect, the mystery of "THE SEED" shall also be perfected; when "in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of

* Compare Heb. ii. 10, 11, with Rom. viii. 16, 17.

an

the Son of God," the " saints,"—the members of the body, the Church,-having "ALL come to A PERFECT MAN, to the measure of the stature of THE FULNESS OF THE CHRIST" (Ephes. iv. 12, 13), the enmity of the serpent against Him and them shall be frustrated; and, as under His feet, so also under theirs (as a New Testament promise, already quoted, more expressly states), he shall be finally "bruised." But this leads us to,

2. The last question proposed,—When shall this be? or, What is the time of this Prophecy's com plete fulfilment ?

The answer to this question will, it is presumed, have been already anticipated: that it will be at the Second Advent, the coming in power," "the APPEARING and KINGDOM," of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

This would follow both from the scope of the Prophecy and its fulfilment hitherto : from its being, as we have seen, a denunciation of judgment; and also from the development of the predicted "enmity," which, as directed first against Christ, and then against His Church taken into union with Him, and forming (as we have also seen) part of the mystical" seed of the woman,"-was to continue so long as the Church is "militant on earth," and the baptismal profession and calling of Christ's disciples is "to fight under His banner against sin, the world, and the Devil;" which, it will be admitted, is until His return, or so long as this dispensation lasts.

C

But we are not left to inference: for the Spirit of prophecy has furnished us with a comment on the text before us, from which we learn not only what and when shall be the end as regards the bruising of the serpent's head, but also what shall be the last form and working of his enmity; and which, as an exponent of the brief oracle before us, is a most important context of Scripture, though not (that I can find) noticed by expositors in this connexion: namely, the history of the Dragon-power of the Apocalypse, occupying from ch. xii. to the end.

To enter into a detailed or circumstantial review of so large a portion of the sacred text is not (it is scarcely necessary to say) here intended, as that belongs rather to a commentary on this book of Scripture. Suffice it to say, that we have there, in the first place, vividly pictured in vision the enmity of the serpent to the woman and her seed at the opening of chapter xii :

"And there appeared a great wonder [or sign, Marg.] in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:

*The reader who would see such a notice is referred to the work of a predecessor of the Author's in this Lectureship:"Six Discourses on the Prophecies relating to Antichrist in the Apocalypse of St. John. Preached before the University of Dublin, at the Donnellan Lecture. By James Henthorn Todd, D. D., M. R. I. A., Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin." 1846.

The Author may be allowed also to refer to his own Exposition of the Book of the Revelation," fourth edition.