food of Angels whereby this their intellectuall life and vegetation is strengthned and continued is that unspeakable joy and delight which accompanies this contemplation of God and which they finde in the beholding of whatsoever else hath any conformity or sutableness with him his power his wisdome his glory his goodnesse According to that in the Gospel There is joy in heaven and in the presence of the Angels of God for one sinner that repenteth This is that Manna which feeds the blessed Angels and which makes them unweariable and unsatiable in their contemplation and imitation of God as corporall food enableth the body for the continuance of corporall works And such as this had been the Devils fare had he not fallen from his first estate by sin whereas now in stead of that Manna he is fain with the Serpent to feed of a food as course and as base as the dust of the earth for as of a glorious Angel he is fallen to be a damned spirit so is his diet answerable to continue him in that damnable estate namely a food clean contrary to that of the blessed Angels and a very earth to their heaven A most execrable joy and a malicious delight in whatsoever is opposite to the power the wisdome the goodnesse the glory of God his Creator this is that he hungreth and hunteth after and nothing but this If there were no sin no confusion no misery of creatures in the world the Devil would be soon starved for this is that he preys after this is that carrion he seeks for when he goeth about as S. Peter saith like a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devour I have read of a people of America that will eat no flesh before it be stinking rotten and then it seems to them most tender and delicate These are of a diet like unto the Devil for nothing but garbage and carrion are his dainties the more rotten with sin the more pleasing to his palate that which stinks most in Gods nostrils that smels the sweetest in his The last part of this curse remains I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed c. In which we will first consider the parties who are to be at this deadly feud Secondly the event and successe they have one against the other For the first the parties are on one side said to be the Serpent and his seed on the other side The woman and her seed By the Serpent we are to understand Satan the Prince of darknesse and Father of Devils This Serpents seed in the first place are the whole crue of Devils and damned spirits who are fallen from their first estate and condition These are the Serpents first-born begotten by him not by corporall generation nor as they are spirits but by spirituall deformation as they are Devils For it is the opinion of Divines that Satan fell first himself and afterward propagated his Apostasie by drawing others after him over whom therefore he worthily deserveth to have the principality and chiefdome in which respect also were there no other yet he might be called their Father and they his sons or seed as we know the use of the Scripture is to call Princes Fathers and Subjects sons The latter off-spring of the Devil being a second brood are the whole company of wicked and reprobate worldlings for that such as these are the spawn of that foul fiend it appears clearly by the words of our Saviour to the Pharisees Ioh. 8. 44. Ye are of your Father the Devil and the lusts of your Father ye will do And again 1 Ioh. 3. 10. The children of God are opposed to the children of the Devil Therefore Christ cals Iudas a Devil Ioh. 6. And Paul Act. 13. 10. cals Elymas the Sorcerer A child of the Devil The case is plain And as the Vanguard consisted of the first crue so these latter are the Rere of Satans Army Now on the other side against this Army of Hell-hounds stand the Woman and the Womans seed The woman though only named excludes not the man who was to be at enmity with the Devil as well as the woman But the reason of this unusuall Trope which cals the kind by the name of the weaker and inferiour sex is because of the words following of â—he seed wherein is contained the great mystery of Christs Incarnation under whose colours and in whose power alone this Army is both to march and overcome for this great Captain was to be as you know the seed of the woman only and not of the man A Virgin should conceive a Son whose name is called Emmanuel Whence it comes to passe that some by seed will have no other seed to be understood but the person of Christ only both because he is alone that seed of the woman which is not the seed of man and because S. Paul Gal. 3. 16. in those words In thy seed shall all the Nations of the earth be blessed expoundeth seed singularly and individually of Christ himself alone But if it be well observed the case here is not the like for the seed of the woman is opposed to the seed of the Serpent which seed cannot chuse but be taken collectively for Satan and all his regiments of Devils and hell-hounds And why should not also the seed of the woman be understood of Christ mysticall that is of Christ the Head with all his members who are incorporate into him by faith into one mysticall body For although they are naturally the seed of man as well as of the woman yet spiritually by this incorporation they are the feed of the woman only as is their Head with whom they are one And this it is which makes them of the party against the Serpent for till they once became the seed of the woman only there was no enmity betwixt them The seed therefore of the woman I expound to be Christ and his Members He 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the seed of the woman by nature they 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by their spirituall engraâ—ment into him Hence appears the difference of these two Armies First in Satans Army all march under their Father who begot them but Christs Army sighteth under the Colours of their elder brother the first begotten seed of the woman Secondly in their ranging Christ and his Army are as one body informed by one Spirit the Devil is far more disunited Thirdly in their fighting for in Satans Army every Souldier useth his own strength and fights with his own weapons but in Christs Army the whole strength lies in Christ their Generall All our Armour is on his back and our weapons guided by the power of his hand So we may learn out of S. Paul Ephes. 6. 11 12. Put on saith he the whole armour of God that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the Devil For we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities against powers against the rulers of the
darknesse in this world against spirituall wickednesse in high places Thus then having seen the marshalling of these two Armies which are at so deadly an enmity let us at last see the successe of their skirmishes and of the stratagems which they practise one against the other these are described on the Devils part very terrible that his head should be mauled But on Christs side the losse should be very small the Devil prevailing but to the wounding or bruising of his heel But what is this Head of the Serpent and what the Heel of the womans seed Those who understand the seed of the woman singularly of the person of Christ only make his head to be the Godhead against which the Serpent could prevail nothing but his heel to be the manhood which the Serpent so bruised at his Passion that the grave became his bed for three days together This indeed is true and no marvell for the head is as it were the whole bodies epitome But we who have expounded the seed of the woman collectively of Christ and his Members must also in this mysticall body find a mysticall head and a mysticall heel and so in like manner for the Serpent and his seed The Head therefore or if you had rather Headship is nothing else but Soveraignty The Serpents head is the Devils Soveraignty which is called â—rincipatus mortis the Soveraignty of death namely both objectivè and effectivè that is such a Soveraignty as under which are only such as are liable to death both temporall and eternall and such a Soveraignty whose power consists not in saving and giving of life but in destroying and bringeth unto death both of body and soul. Under the name also of death understand as the Scripture doth all other miseries of mankind which are the companions of this double death I speak of This is that damnable head of the Serpent the Devillish Soveraignty of Satan Now the Sword whereby this Soveraignty was obtained the Scepter whereby it is maintained or as S. Paul speaks the sting of this Serpents head is Sin This is that which got him this Kingdome at the first and this is still the right whereby he holds the greatest part thereof Imporium iisdem artibus conservatur quibus acquiritur This Soveraignty of the Devil which once overwhelmed nigh all the world the womans seed should break in pieces and destroy which according to this Prophecy we see already performed in a great measure and the grounds laid long ago for the destruction of all that remaineth As saith S. Iohn Ep. 1. c. 3. v. 8. The Son of God is revealed for this purpose that he might destroy the works of the Devil And Christ himself said that the time was come that the Prince of this world should be cast out and bade his Disciples be of good chear for he had overcome the world If you would see what a wonderfull victory he hath long ago gotten of the Serpent when after a terrible battell he overcame and destroid the Soveraignty of the Serpent in the Romane Empire see it described in the 12. of the Revelation where a Michael that is Christ and his Angels fought against the great Dragon and his Angels till the Dragon with all his Army was discomfited and their place found no more in heaven that is he utterly lost his Soveraignty in that state whence there was a voice in heaven Now is come salvation strength and the Kingdome of our God and the power of his Christ. And what he will at the length do with the remainder yet of the Devils Soveraignty you may finde in the 19. and 20 of the Revelation For he must reign as S. Paul saith untill he hath put all his enemies under his feet untill he hath destroyed all power rule and authority adverse unto him And then last of all destroying death by giving immortality to our raised bodies shall surrender up his Kingdome unto his Father as it is 1 Cor. 15. But Satan saith my Text shall prevail something against him for the Serpent shall bruise his heel What is this heel Those who understood the seed of the woman singularly as I told you made it Christs Manhood But how we expound the seed Christs mysticall body what shall we make the heel thereof I could say that by it were only meant a light wound or the Devils assaulting the Body of Christ ex insidiis at unawares for that is his fashion since the great overthrow which our Michael gave him to work his feats underhand and to undermine our Lord in his members But this though true is not full enough It may seem therefore the fittest to make hypocriticall Christians who professe Christ outwardly but inwardly are not his to make those the heel of his mysticall body for against such the Devil we know prevaileth somewhat and by them annoyeth the rest of the Body with his venome though he be far enough yet from impeaching our Lords Headship and Soveraignty But will you give me leave to utter another conceit If the blessed souls in heaven be the upper part of Christs mysticall Body the Saints on earth the lower part of the same may not the bodies of the Saints deceased which lye in the earth be accounted for the heel for I cannot beleeve but they have relation to this mysticall Body though their souls be severed from them and yet must that relation be as of the lowest and most postick members of all If you will admit this then it will appear presently what was this hurt upon the heel when Christ had once mauled the Devils head for the Text seems to intimate that the Devil should give this wound after his head was broken I will hold you in suspence no longer read the 13. of the Revelation and see what follows upon Michaels Victory over the Dragon what the Devil did when he was down He forms a new instrument of the wounded Roman Empire by whose means under a pretence of the honour given to the precious reliques of the Saints and Martyrs he conveyed the poison of Saint-worship and Saint-invocation into the Kingdome of Christ with which wound of the heel the Devil comming on the blinde side the true Church had been long annoyed and limpeth still THE Christian Sacrifice OR The Solemne VVorship in the EVCHARIST Foretold by the Prophet Malachi Taught by our blessed SAVIOUR AND Practised by the Primitive CHVRCH BY JOSEPH MEDE B. D. and late Fellow of Christs Colledge in CAMBRIDGE LONDON Printed by M. F. for JOHN CLARK and are to be sold at his Shop under S. Peters Church in Cornhill MDC XLVIII THE Christian Sacrifice MALACHI 1. 11. Abortu solis usque ad occasum magnum erit nomen meum in Gentibus in omni loco offeretur Incensum Nomini meo Munus purum quia magnum erit nomen meum in gentibus dicit Dominus exercituum THIS place of Scripture howsoever now in a manner silenced and forgotten was once and
the seventh from the Creation or not the Scripture is silent for where it is called in the Commandement the seventh day that is in respect of the six days of labour and not otherwise and therefore whensoever it is so called those six days of labour are mentioned with it The seventh day therefore is the seventh after six days of labour nor can any more be inferred from it The example of the Creation is brought for the quotum one day of seven as I have shewed and not for the designation of any certain day for that seventh Neverthelesse it might fall out so by disposition of Divine Providence that the Jews designed seventh day was both the seventh in order from the Creation and also the day of their deliverance out of Egypt But the Scripture no where tels us it was so howsoever most men take it for granted and therefore it may as well be not so Certain I am the Jews kept not that day for a Sabbath till the raining of Manna For that which should have been their Sabbath the week before had they then kept the day which afterward they kept was the fifteenth day of the second month on which day we reade in the 16. of Exodus that they marched a wearisome march and came at night into the wildernesse of Sin where they murmured for their poor entertainment and wished they had died in Egypt that night the Lord sent them Quails the next morning it rained Manna which was the sixteenth day and so six days together the seventh which was the two and twentieth it rained none and that day they were commanded to keep for their Sabbath now if the two and twentieth day of the month were the Sabbath the fifteenth should have been if that day had been kept before but the Text tels us expresly they marcht that day and which is strange the day of the month is never named unlesse it be once for any station but this where the Sabbath was ordained otherwise it could not have been known that that day was ordained for a day of rest which before was none And why might not their day of holy rest be altered as well as the beginning of the year was for a memoriall of their comming out of Egypt I can see no reason why it might not nor finde any testimony to assure me it was not And thus much of the Jews Sabbath how and wherein it was a sign whereby they professed themselves the servants of Iehovah and no other God Now I come to the second thing I propounded to shew how far and in what manner the like observation binds us Christians I say therefore that the Christian as well as the Iew after six days spent in his own works is to sanctifie the seventh that he may professe himself thereby a servant of God the Creatour of Heaven and Earth as well as the Jew For the quotum therefore the Jew and Christian agree but in designation of the day they differ For the Christian chooseth for his Holy day that which with the Jews was the first day of the week and cals it Dominicum that he might thereby professe himself a servant of that God who on the morning of that day vanquished Satan the Spirituall Pharaoh and redeemed us from our Spirituall thraldome by raising Iesus Christ our Lord from the dead begetting us in stead of an earthly Canaan to an inheritance incorruptible in the Heavens In a word the Christian by the day he hallows professes himself a Christian that is as S. Paul speaks To beleeve on him that raised up Iesus from the dead so that the Jew and Christian both though they fall not upon the same day yet make their designation of their day upon the like ground the Jews the memoriall day of their deliverance from the temporall Egypt and temporall Pharaoh the Christians the memoriall of their deliverance from the spirituall Egypt and spirituall Pharaoh But might not will you say the Christian as well have observed the Jewish for his seventh day as the day he doth I answer No he might not For in so doing he should seem not to acknowledge his Redemption to be already performed but still expected For the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt by the Ministery of Moses was intended for a type and pledge of the spirituall deliverance which was to come by Christ their Canaan also to which they marched being a type of that heavenly inheritance which the redeemed by Christ do look for Since therefore the shadow is now made void by the comming of the substance the relation is changed and God is no longer to be worshipped and beleeved in as a God foreshewing and assuring by types but as a God who hath performed the substance of what he promised And this is that which S. Paul means Colossians 2. 16 17. where he saith Let no man judge you henceforth in respect of a Feast day New Moon or Sabbath days which were a shadow of things to come but the body is of Christ. 1. CO◠〈◊〉 5. Every woman praying or prophecying with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head I Have chosen this of the woman rather then that of the man going before it for the Theme of my Discourse First because I conceive the fault at the reformation whereof the Apostle here almeth in the Church of Corinth was the womens only not the mens That which the Apostle speaks of a man praying or prophecying being by way of supposition and for illustration of the unseemlinesse of that guise which the women used Secondly because the condition of the sex in the words read makes something for the better understanding of that which is spoken of both as we shall see presently What I intend to speak upon this Text shall consist of these two parts First of an enquiry what is here meant by prophecying a thing attributed to women and therefore undoubtedly some such thing as they were capable of Secondly what was this fault for matter and manner of the women of the Church of Corinth which the Apostle here reproveth To begin with the first and which I am like to dwell longest upon Some take prophecying here in the stricter sense to be foretelling of things to come as that which in those Primitive times both men and women did by the powring out of the Holy Ghost upon them according to that of the Prophet Ioel applied by S. Peter to the sending of the Holy Ghost at the first promulgation of the Gospel I will powre out my Spirit upon all flesh and your sons and daughters shall prophecy and your young men shall see visions And that such Prophetesses as these were those four Daughters of Philip the Euangelist whereof we read Acts 21. 9. Others take prophecying here in a more large notion for the gift of interpreting and opening Divine mysteries contained in holy Scripture for the instruction and edification of the hearers especially as it was then inspired and
nothing else but an all-fruition of good or to have a sufficient provision and furniture of good both for being and well-being So therefore that creature is happy and blessed which hath a sufficiency of all good for the being and preservation of it self which wants neither endowments inward nor means outward for the attaining of that end whereof it is by nature capable To be accursed is to have the contrary of this to be despoiled either of indowments internall or inherent without which it hath no dignity among the creatures or externall without which it cannot live or preserve it self but with much penury difficulty toil and danger Whatsoever therefore among the beasts of the field for with such only is the comparison made is for inherent perfections of all the most unworthy and base or for the outward furniture of means for the preservation of that ignoble being by unprovision of all others the most wretched and miserable this is that which is accursed above all cattell and above every beast of the field And such was the Serpents condition to be for the generall And now for the particulars Let us go on and see how they are expressed and that is in three things First To go upon the brest or to have the posture of the body groveling on the earth whereby as I shall shew presently is implied the abasement of the creature Secondly to have for meat the dust of the earth wherein is shewn its unprovision of food for the maintenance of its life being of all beasts of the field to have the basest and coursest fare Thirdly to be in continuall mortall and irreconcilable enmity with man both his Lord and the Lord of the rest of the creatures from whom it should be in continuall danger and fear of its life and once espied be sure to have its brains dash'd out by him And which makes the misery so much the greater to be no way able to be revenged of his enemy other then to come unawares behind him and then neither not able to reach above his heel as being most unequally matched he walking aloft with his head and whole body advanced while the miserable Serpent shall lie groveling on the ground ready to be trodden apieces under his feet Of these three particulars let us speak severally and first of the first Vpon thy brest shalt thou go In the Hebrew it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which some turn upon thy belly which interpretation hath been one great cause of the difficulty to understand the meaning of this malediction For if the shape of the Serpent were after the fashion it is now it is not possible to imagine how it could ever have gone otherwise then upon the belly for to think that ever it went an end were a conceit more worthy to be derided then to be beleeved By which means there appeared no other way of evasion out of this difficulty but to affirm that the Serpent indeed went upon his belly from the beginning but either it was not so toilsome to him or not for a curse unto him till now which for my part it being so far from the letter of the Text I could never yet beleeve I had much rather in this follow the Vulgar or Ieromes Translation which reads super pectus tuum gradiêris for upon the belly I beleeve the Serpent went from the first Creation but not upon the brest untill this present malediction The brest of the Serpent I call the upper part of the Serpents body from the navell to the head the other part of the other half downward with which though at the first he walked prone to and upon the earth yet was the other part his brest and head reared up and advanced untill for having been abused to the ruine of mankind he was now with his whole body to creep groveling upon the earth And perhaps thus much the Septuagint meant to insinuate by their Translation which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon thy brest and thy belly where it may seem that they rendred two words for one in the Text for illustration and for intimation of this that whereas the Serpent before went only upon his belly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 now he should from henceforth walk 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon his brest and belly too As for the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here used there is no necessity at all to translate it the belly but rather some probability of the contrary in the etymology of the word for though in the Hebrew the theme be not used yet in the Chaldee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies incurvatus fuit to bow downward and seems to mean the inclination of the head and brest or upper part of the body to the earth as may be gathered from that of Eliah 1 King 18 42. where it is said that Eliah went up to the top of â—armel pronum se abjecit inâ—terram and put his face between his knees for here the Targum useth this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the radix of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Again Mark 1. 7. in those words of Iohn Baptist There is one commeth after me the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose here for the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stoop down the Syriack hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of as near a kin to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as is the Syriack to the Chaldee The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it self is of rare use in the Bible besides in this place and therefore we can receive no great help from the comparing of places It is read again Levit. 11. 42. and that with a singular mark as the Masorites have observed for the Vau cholem in the last syllable is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a great Vau and exactly the middlemost letter of all the Law of Moses if their Arithmetick failed them not But no particularity of signification can from that place be gathered the speech being of creeping things which go as well upon the brest as the belly and the belly as the brest Since therefore the word here used neither hindreth our opinion nor much furthereth it we will come to such other grounds as may prove our assertion for the Serpents going with brest advanced afore the fall of man and not groveling till his malediction And first let it be considered there is no impossibility of it in regard of the frame of the Serpent which appears both by their advancing themselves when they assault a man which the Painters expresse in their Pictures and also when they swim through the water which is with their head and some part of their brest raised above water even as a Swan holdeth up her neck as I have heard affirmed by such as have been eye-witnesses and lastly Plinie and Solinus report of the Basilisk that the Basilisk walks so still as I shewed a little before And it may be as when the Giant-like
stature of mankind was diminished after the stood in a manner throughout the world and for many ages yet was there by Gods disposition still a race of Giants left even till the time of David for a monument and witnesse of the truth of a far bigger stature in former times which else could not so easily have been beleeved or imagined Such were the Zanzummims in Abrahams time the sons of Anak in Moses and Goliah in the time of David and it may be there are yet some in some part of the world to be found So I say as these seem to have been preserved by God as a memoriall unto men that they were not now as at the first so it may be it was the will of God and is amongst so many kinds of Serpents to preserve this one that it should not as the rest go groveling upon the earth but might be as a monument of the truth of the malediction of the rest to all posterity Thus much of the possibility which would be far greater if we should with S. Basil Ephrem Bar Cephas and many others affirm that the Serpent had feet namely some short ones beneath the navell for feet are not essentiall to the nature of a thing as appears by the lame who can live without them and by others sometimes by the defect of nature born without them And those who can beleeve the wonderfull change of man by his fall of an immortall creature to become mortall of one to have been born with all glorious endowments both of body and soul now to be brought into the world the most unfurnished of the creatures Those who beleeve the great alteration of the earth it self when it was accursed for mans sin the diminution of the time of mans life and of his stature even since the flood Can any who believe these things think it so incredible for the Serpent once to have had some small feet and afterward to have had none being a creature wherein God intended to leave a monument for ever But of this I will determine nothing neither doth my assertion simply depend upon it but may well enough consist without it But because possibility is not sufficient of it self alone to infer a probability I have therefore one thing to adde more thereto namely the reason and cause even in nature supposing still Gods abasing of the Serpents first creation of this alteration of the posture of the Serpents gate from that it was at the beginning First we know the more excellent and sublime the nature of a creature is the more it raiseth it self upward the more ignoble and baser the more it fals downward This we see in the elements themselves the fire the most excellent and operative of the four raiseth it self above the rest The earth the basest and most unactive of all is also of all the most dejected Secondly as there is this difference in the elements so there is in the mixed bodies some consisting of a more sublime and excellent temper others of a more base and ignoble mixture and that as in other so amongst such creatures as live and move upon the earth Thirdly this their noblenesse within discovereth it self in the body without by advancing them naturally in their gate and gesture whence man being of all creatures living upon the earth of the most excellent temper and sublimed condition of nature is therefore of all other the most advanced in body Pronáque cum spectant animalia caetera terram Os homini sublime dedit c. Yea experience will tell us that even amongst men themselves those who are of a more exalted nature either by heroick temper or predominancy of heat are also more advanced in the posture of their bodies Among beasts themselves the basest is the most creeping the noble Lion advanceth his head and brest so far as the frame of his body is thereof capable and so the rest and of all creatures we may observe besides that such creatures have the most sagacity who come most near to walk upright as a man doth If therefore the Serpent were of so sublime a nature at the first as thereby it was more subtle then any beast of the field which God had made how could so excellent a temper the ground of so much sagacity but advance the body thereof as far as the frame and shape thereof could admit On the contrary if afterward the Serpent became the most abased and accursed of all the beasts of the field how should not this alteration of his former temper and disposition of nature make the gesture of his body also sutable by stooping and groveling upon the earth Who knows not that the naturall position of man is erected agreeable to his excellency above other creatures having life and motion and yet notwithstanding so much hath the dejection of his primitive nature for sin weakned in him this propension that were it not for education it is supposed yea and by experience confirmed that he would walk upon all four like a beast And shall we wonder that the malediction of the Serpent exceeding that of mans should produce as much as this So then to conclude this first particular of the Serpents curse I understand it from the ground aforesaid as insinuating the cause by the outward and sensible effect according to the manner of the Scripture namely the abasement and fall of the Serpents whole nature from his primitive perfection discovered by the fall of his once advanced body thenceforth to go groveling upon the earth Even as the despoiling of the nature of man of the inward indowments of perfection is by the same sacred trope insinuated by his outward nakednesse that is the obsruration of that glorious and celestiall beauty which he had before his sin The difference whereof was so great that he could not endure afterward to behold himself any more but sought for a covering even to hide himself from himself And now I come to the second particular Dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life The coursest diet that any living creature hath allowed him None of the beasts of the field with whom he is compared are thus poorly provided for nay not any other unlesse the base earthworm not worthy to be named among the creatures Even with this vilest of creatures is now ranked that once so noble a creature the Serpent Which yet is not so to be understood as though the Serpent did not sometime eat something else for they sometime devour birds frogs and such like but that this is the ordinary fare which God hath provided him and if at any time he getteth any other he goeth beyond his limits Whence Esay 65. among the blessings of the new Jerusalem this is reckoned for one That the Serpent should eat dust that is be made contented with the diet God had appointed him and not to encroach upon the food appointed for others But why did God appoint him this food I answer
even to continue him in that accursed and vile condition to which he had dejected him For food is for the repairing and preservation of nature and the goodnesse and badnesse thereof doth make the temper of the body better or worse Hence according to the degrees of excellency in the creatures their food is finer or courser Plants suck the moisture of the earth beasts live most upon plants but man of the flesh of cattell fowl and fishes Since therefore the Serpent was to have no better fare then the dust of the earth as it argues the basenesse of his nature which can with such food be nourished so doth it necessarily imply his continuance in that his dejection and vilenesse whereas otherwise it were not impossible because his nature for the essence is still the same it was if his diet were as it had been for him to improve himself more near to his primitive temper then now he is But God who had decreed he should ever remain under this malediction appointed also the means to retain him therein VERSE 15. And I will put enmity between thee and the woman c. THE third and last particular remains to be treated of I will put enmity between thee and the woman c. This no doubt intendeth in some things more directly the spirituall Serpent then the brute yet for the generall it may and ought as well as the rest to be expounded of the brute Serpent as a glasse wherein to behold the malice and destiny of the other the Devil It containeth two parts The Enmity and the Event and managing thereof For the enmity how it is verified concerning the brute Serpent experience telleth It is some part of the happinesse of the creature to be the favourite of man who is the Lord thereof what honour could betide it greater then this But between the Serpent and Man is the most deadly enmity and the strongest antipathy that is amongst the beasts of the field Such an one as discovereth it self both in the naturall and sensitive faculties of them both For the first their humours are poison each to other the gall of a Serpent is mans deadly poison and so is the spittle of man affirmed to poison the Serpent For the sensitive antipathy it appears in that the one doth so much abhorre the sight and presence of the other mans nature is at nothing so much astonished as at the sight of a Serpent and like enough the Serpent is in like manner affected at the sight of man And that more especially as the Naturalists affirm of a naked man then otherwise As though his instinct even remembred the time of his malediction when he and naked man stood before God to receive this sentence of everlasting enmity And whereas the words of the Text do in speciall point out the woman in this sentence of enmity the Naturalists do observe that is greater and more vehement with that sex then with the male of mankinde Insomuch that Rupertus affirmeth that if but the naked foot of a woman doth never so little presse the head of a Serpent before he can sting her both the head and body presently dieth which no cudgell or other weapon will do but that some life and motion will still remain behinde Hoc saith he ita est ipsorum qui per industriam exploraverunt fide relatione comperimus Lib. 3. de Trin. c. 20. You know my Author The remaining words of my Text do expresse the managing and event of this enmity which is far more dangerous and unlikely on the Serpents part then on Mans for man is able to reach the Serpents head where his life chiefly resideth and where a blow is deadly but as for the Serpent he shall not be able to prevail against man otherwise then privily and unawares and that but in his lowest part namely when he shall passe him unseen to sting him by the heel And that this is the nature of a Serpent it appeareth in the words of Dans blessing Gen. 49. Dan shall be a Serpent by the way an Adder in the path that biteth the horse heels so that his rider shall fall backward And to make an end of this discourse also it is a thing to be observed in the nature of a Serpent that assoon as he perceiveth man ready to throw or strike at him he will presently roul his body for a buckler to save his head even as though he had some impression of that doctrine which God here read him in my Text Ipse conteret tibi caput Beware thy head And thus hitherto I have considered these words as they are the curse of the brute Serpent now I am to go over with them again to shew how they are propounded unto us by God as a glasse wherein to behold the Devils malediction the Serpent being made now the discovery of his vilenesse which once he abused for a mask to hide it from the woman As therefore the Serpent is the most accursed of all the cattell and beasts of the field so is the Devil the most accursed spirit amongst all orders and degrees of spirits namely of the highest of Angels become the abjectest of spirits more base accursed then the most cursed damned soul having little or nothing left him of that good which was sutable to a spirituall condition and this is the state of the Devil for the generall answerable to that of the Serpent Now for the particulars The first is Vpon thy brest shalt thou go How doth this befit the Devil The Devil hath no bodily brest to go upon But as I shewed in the Serpent that this groveling signified the abasement of his whole nature from his primitive excellency so in the Devil it signifies his stooping down and falling from his most sublime and glorious condition A wonderfull stoop this was when that which had been advanced as high as heaven was made to fall down as low yea lower then the earth it self This is the Devils going upon his brest this the groveling of that once so highly reared posture according to that description of Iude ver 6. who cals them the Angels that kept not their first estate but left their own habitation agreeable to that of S. Peter 2 Ep. c. 2. v. 4. God spared not the Angels that sinned but cast them down to hell The second particular is The dust of the earth shalt thou eat all the days of thy life The food wherewith spirits are fed is analogicall spirituall and not corporall we must therefore here seek out that which in them hath the fittest resemblance with corporall food The life of Angels consists in the continuall contemplation of the excellent greatnesse wonderfull goodnesse and glorious beauty of the essence of God both as it is in it self and as it is communicated unto his creatures This is that which our Saviour intimates Mat. 18. 10. Their Angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven The