Chapter II: The promise made to Adam.
The promise made to Adam.
Ant. I beseech you, sir, proceed also to the second thing; and first tell us, when the Lord began to make a promise to help and deliver fallen mankind.
Evan. Even the same day that he sinned, [57] which, as I suppose, was the very same day he was created. [58] For Adam, by his sin, being become the child of wrath, and both in body and in soul subject to the curse, and seeing nothing due to him but the wrath and vengeance of God, was "afraid, and sought to hide himself from the presence of God," (Gen 3:10), whereupon the Lord promised Christ unto him, saying to the serpent, "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed"; he [that is to say, the seed of the woman, for so is the Hebrew text] "shall break thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." This promise of Christ, the woman's seed, (verse 15), was the gospel; and the only comfort of Adam, Abel, Enoch, Noah, and the rest of the godly fathers, until the time of Abraham. [59]
Nom. I pray you, sir, what ground have you to think that Adam fell the same day he was created?
Evan. My ground for this opinion is, Psalm 49:12; which text Mr. Ainsworth makes to be the 13th verse, and reads it thus, "But man in honour doth not lodge a night; he is likened unto beasts that are silenced." [60] That may be minded, says he, both for the first man Adam, who continued not in his dignity, and for all his children.
Ant. But, sir, do you think that Adam and those others did understand that promised seed to be meant of Christ?
Evan. Who can make doubt, but that the Lord had acquainted Adam with Christ, betwixt the time of his sinning and the time of his sacrificing, though both on one day?
Ant. But did Adam offer sacrifice?
Evan. Can you make any question, but that the bodies of those beasts, whose skins went for a covering for his body, were immediately before offered in sacrifice for his soul? Surely these skins could be none other but of beasts slain, and offered in sacrifice; for before Adam fell, beasts were not subject to mortality nor slaying. And God's clothing of Adam and his wife with skins signified, that their sin and shame were covered with Christ's righteousness. And, questionless, the Lord had taught him, that his sacrifice did signify his acknowledgment of his sin, and that he looked for the Seed of the woman, promised to be slain in the evening of the world, thereby to appease the wrath of God for his offence; the which, undoubtedly, he acquainted his sons, Cain and Abel, with, when he taught them also to offer sacrifice.
Ant. But how doth it appear that this his sacrificing was the very same day that he sinned?
Evan. It is said, (John 7:3), concerning Christ, "That they sought to take him, yet no man laid hands on him, because his hour was not yet come"; but after that when the time of his suffering was at hand, he himself said, (John 12:23), "The hour is come"; which day is expressly set down by the Evangelist Mark to be the sixth day, and ninth hour of that day, when "Christ, through the eternal Spirit, offered up himself without spot to God," (Mark 15:34,42). Now, if you compare this with Exodus 12:6, you shall find that the paschal lamb, a most lively type of Christ, was offered the very same day and hour, even the sixth day, and ninth hour of that day, which was at three of the clock in the afternoon: and the Scripture testifies, that Adam was created the very same sixth day; and gives us ground to think that he sinned the same day. And do not the before alleged Scriptures afford us warrant to believe that it was the very same hour of that day, (Gen 1:26); when Christ entered mystically and typically upon the work of redemption, in being offered as a sacrifice for Adam's sin? [61] And surely we may suppose, that the covenant [as you heard] being broken between God and Adam, justice would not have admitted of one hour's respite, before it had proceeded to execution, to the destruction both of Adam and the whole creation, had not Christ, at that very time, stood as the ram [or rather the lamb] in the bush, and stepped in to perform the work of the covenant. And hence I conceive it is, that Saint [62] John calls him the "Lamb slain" from the beginning of the world, [63] (Rev 13:8). For as the first state of creation was confirmed by the covenant which God made with man, and all creatures were to be upheld by means of observing the law and condition of that covenant; so that covenant being broken by man, the world should have come to ruin, had it not been, as it were, created anew, and upheld by the covenant of grace in Christ.
Ant. Then, sir, you think that Adam was saved?
Evan. The Hebrew doctors hold that Adam was a repentant sinner, and say, that he was by wisdom, [that is to say, by faith in Christ,] brought out of his fall; yea, and the Church of God doth hold, and that for necessary causes, that he was saved by the death of Christ; yea, says Mr. Vaughan, it is certain he believed the promise concerning Christ, in whose commemoration he offered continual sacrifice; and in the assurance thereof, he named his wife Hevah, that is to say, life,
[64] and he called his son Seth, settled or persuaded in Christ.
Ant. Well, now, I am persuaded that Adam did understand this seed of the woman to be meant of Christ.
Evan. Assure yourself, that not only Adam, but all the rest of the godly fathers did so understand it, as is manifest in that the Targum, or Chaldee Bible, which is the ancient translation of Jerusalem, has it thus: "Between thy son and her son"; adding further, by way of comment, "So long, O serpent, as the woman's children keep the law, they kill thee! and when they cease to do so, thou stingest them in the heel, and hast power to hurt them much; but whereas for their harm there is a sure remedy, for thee there is none; for in the last days they shall crush thee all to pieces, by means of Christ their king." And this was it which did support and uphold their faith until the time of Abraham.