itled to expect at the first beginnings of the human
race; a gradual progress is observable in the kingdom of grace, as well
as in that of nature.

It is certainly, however, not a matter of chance that the posterity of
the woman is not broken up into a plurality, but that, in order to
designate it, expressions in the singular ([Hebrew: zre] and [Hebrew:
hva]) are chosen. This unity, which, in the meanwhile, it is true, is
only _ideal_, was chosen with regard to the person of the Redeemer, who
comprehends within Himself the whole human race. And it is not less
significant, and has certainly a deeper ground, that the victory over
the serpent is assigned to the seed of the woman, not to the posterity
of Adam; and though, indeed, [Pg 30] the circumstance that the woman
was first deceived may have been the proximate cause of it, yet it
cannot be exclusively referred to, and derived from, it. By these
remarks we come still nearer to the view of the ancient Church.

Footnote 1: So, _e.g._ _Cramer_ in the _Nebenarbeiten zur Theologischen
Literatur_, St. 2.

Footnote 2: The positive reasons by which I there proved the reference
to Satan, have not been invalidated by the objections of _Hofmann_ in
his _Schriftbeweis_ i. 379. He says: As an adjective formed in a manner
similar to [Hebrew: qlql] (Num. xxi. 6) must have an intransitive
signification, it cannot mean "separated," but according to its
derivation from [Hebrew: azl] = [Hebrew: ezl], it means: "altogether
gone away." But this argument has no force. The real import of the form
of the word is gradation, and frequent repetition. Instances of a
passive signification are given in _Ewald's Lehrbuch der Hebr.
Sprache_, Sec. 157 c.: compare, _e.g._, Deut. xxxii. 5. There is so much
the stronger reason for adopting the passive signification, that in
Arabic also,--which alone can be consulted, as the comparison with the
Hebrew [Hebrew: azl] has no sure foundation on which to rest,--the root
has the signification: _remotus, sepositus fuit_, and the participle:
_a ceteris se sejungens_. Compare _Egypt and the B. M._, p. 169.

Footnote 3: He says,--This, therefore, is the sense of the passage:
"The human race, whom Satan had endeavoured to destroy, shall at length
be victorious. But, meanwhile, we must bear in mind the mode in which,
according to Scripture, that victory is to be achieved. According to
his own pleasure, Satan has, through all centuries, led captive the
sons of me