to appear unto men after the same fashion And this also I suppose Eve knew Now from these grounds it will follow that good Angels can take upon them no other shape but the shape of man because their glorious excellency is resembled only in the most excellent of visible creatures the shape of an inferiour creature would be unsutable no other shape becomming those who are called the sons of God but his only who was created after Gods own image And yet not his neither according as now it is but according as he was before his fall in that glorious beauty of his integrity Age and deformity are the fruits of sin and the Angel in the Gospel appears like a young man his countenance like lightning and his raiment white as snow as it were resembling the beauty of glorified bodies in immutability sublimity and purity Hence also it follows on the contrary that the Devil could not appear in humane shape whilest man was in his integrity because he was a spirit fallen from his first glorious perfection and therefore must appear in such shape which might argue his imperfection and abasement which was the shape of a beast otherwise no reason can be given why he should not rather have appeared unto Eve in the shape of a woman then of a Serpent for so he might have gained an opinion with her both of more excellency and knowledge But since the fall of man the case is altered now we know he can take upon him the shape of man and no wonder since one falling star may well resemble another And therefore he appears it seems in the shape of mans imperfection either for eyes or deformity as like an old man for so the Witches say and perhaps it is not altogether false which is vulgarly affirmed that the Devil appearing in humane shape hath always a deformity of some uncouth member or other as though he could not yet take upon him humane shape entirely for that man himself is not entirely and utterly fallen as he is By this time you see the difficulty of the question is eased now it appears why Eve wondred not to see a spirit speak unto her in the shape of a Serpent because she knew the law of spirits apparitions better then we do Again when she saw the spirit who talked with her to have taken upon him the shape though of a beast yet of the most sagacious beast of the field she concluded according to our forelaid suppositions that though he were one of the abased spirits yet the shape he had taken resembling his nature he must needs be a most crafty and sagacious one and so might pry farther into Gods meaning then she was aware of And thus you may see at last how the opinion of the Serpents subtilty occasioned Eves fall as also why the Devâ—â— of all other beasts of the field took the shape of a Serpent namely to gain this opinion of sagacity with the woman as one who knew the principles aforesaid Here I observe that overmuch dotage upon a conceived excellency whether of wisdome or whatsoever else without a speciall eye to Gods commandement hath ever been the occasion of greatest errours in the world and the Devil under this mask useth to blear our eyes and with this bait to inveigle our hearts that he may securely bring us to his lure It was the mask of the Serpents wisdom and sagacity above the rest of the beasts of the field whereby he brought to passe our first Parents ruine The admired wisdome of the long living Fathers of the elder world having been for so many ages as Oracles to their off-spring grown even to a people and Nation while they yet lived was the ground of the ancient Idolatry of mankinde whilest they supposed that those to whom for wisdome they had recourse being living could not but help them when they were dead This we may learn out of Hesiod The men saith he of the golden age being once dead became 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they became godlings and Patrons of mortall men c. So the opinion of the blessed Martyrs superlative glory in heaven was made the occasion of the new-found Idolatry of the Christian Churches wherewith they are for the greater part yet overwhelmed And the esteem which Peter had above the rest of the Apostles in regard of chiefdome even in the Apostles times was abused by the old Deceiver to install the man of sin This made S. Paul to say the mystery of iniquity was even then working and therefore laboured as far as he could to prevent it by as much depressing Peter as others exalted him Nay he puts the Churches in minde of this story of the Serpents beguiling Eve that her mis-hap might be a warning to them 2 Cor. 11. 2 3. I am jealous over you saith he with a godly jealousie for I have espoused you to one husband that I might present you as a chaste Virgin to Christ. But I fear lest by any means as the Serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilly so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. And to come a little nearer home have not our Adversaries when they would get Disciples learned this of the Devil to possesse them first with an opinion of superlative learning in their Doctors surpassing any of ours I will say no more in this point but that we ought so to prize and admire the gifts and abilities of learning which God hath bestowed upon men that the pole-starre of his sacred word may ever be in our eye THE next thing to be spoken of is the action Guile and first I shall shew what it is To beguile is through a false faith and perswasion wrought by some argument of seeming good to bereave a man of some good he had or hoped for or to bring upon him some evill he expected not Practice hath made it so well known that I should not need to have given any definition or description thereof but only for a more distinct consideration whereas therefore I said that guile wrought by forelaying a false perswasion or beleef I would intimate that it was nothing else but a practicall sophism the premisses whereof are counterfeit motives the conclusion an erroneous execution Now as all practice or action consists in these two The choice of our end and the execution of means to attain thereunto so is this practicall sophism we call Guile found in them both either when an evil end is presented unto us in the counterfeit of a good and so we are made to embrace Nubem pro Iunone and find our selves deceiv'd in the event whatsoever the means were we have used or else we apply such means as are either unlawfull or unsufficient to attain our end as being so mask'd that they appear unto us far otherwise then they are With both these sorts or parts of guile the Devil wrought our first Parents ruine first by making it seem a
would eat no meat as long as the world lasteth rather then make his brother to offend Would they would consider this who are not content alone to sin themselves but play the Devil in corrupting others It seems they long to be double damn'd I would also they would think of this who make no conscience at all by extremities and vexations and other grievances to drive a man to perjury and other grievous sins and yet think themselves free when they should know that he that is the author of anothers sin makes anothers guilt his own and shall share in the punishment every whit as deep as he But this shall suffice to have observed in the first part the reason of the Serpents doom Now I come to the second the doom it self wherein the words as you see have all relation to the Serpent for the Lord said unto the Serpent Thou are cursed c. Thou shalt go upon thy brest c. But because this Serpent was more then a brute Serpent the Devil himself being the chief agent in this his instrument it is a thing much controverted upon which of these this curse is here pronounced Some would have it spoken only of the brute Serpent because here is a comparison made with cattell and beasts of the field thereby accounting the Serpent one of that number Besides Satan they say was accursed before this time and some of the words in this curse cannot well be applied to any but the brute Serpent as that he should eat the dust of the earth c. Others would have this curse pronounced only upon the spirituall Serpent the Devil because the brute Serpent was only an instrument abused by the Devil and neither knew what was done nor could do withall and why should it therefore be punished Others would divide the controversie applying the first part of the curse in the 14. verse to the brute Serpent the latter in the 15. verse to the Devil or spirituall Serpent because as the latter of the promised seed of the woman which should destroy the Serpent and his seed must needs be meant of Christ and Satan so the former words are most fitly appliable to the brute Serpent only But against this may be said that the same Thou and Thee spoken of in the first part of the curse is all one with the Thou and Thee in the latter and therefore of whatsoever the first is meant of the same is also meant the latter There is therefore a fourth opinion that this curse is throughout pronounced upon both both upon the Serpent and the Devil In which though there be some difference about the manner how yet I imbrace it as the truest as not only conceiving it may be so by the fitnesse of all the parts so applied to both but think moreover that this only ought to be the meaning and no other if it be conceived as I am now to shew For in the first place the Devil when he beguiled man came not as a naked spirit but in the shape and figure of a Serpent as I have shew'd heretofore and therefore that his punishment in the manner might be sutable and answerable to his offence he was to receive his doom likewise under the figure of a Serpent and the style thereof framed unto a Serpents condition for it is the constant method of the all-wise God to brand the punishment with the stamp of the sin that the offender thereby might not only know what he felt but also read why he suffered Why was Adonibezeks thumbs and great toes cut off but that he might read therein as he did his former cruelty Threescore and ten Kings having their thumbs and toes cut off gathered meat under my Table As I have done so God hath requited me Why was Pharaoh with his Host rather drowned in the Sea then slain in the field but that all the world might read it was for his cruell Edict to drown all the male children of the Hebrews Why did Absalom lie with Davids Concubines but to put David in minde that he had lien with Vriahs wife And why was the curse of the Devil shaped here in and unto the condition of the Serpent but because he had beguiled man in a Serpents shape Secondly for the Serpent The fashion excellency and subtilty of the Serpent above all the beasts which God had made the Devil had abused to gain credit with the woman that he was an excellent and a most sagacious spirit and therefore might be able to pry farther into Gods meaning then she could which was the cause of her attention and so of her ruine For I have shewed heretofore that the woman in the state of integrity knew well enough that as it was the law of spirits in their commerce with men to present themselves under the shape of some visible thing so it must be likewise under the shape of some such thing as may more or lesse resemble their condition And that as the glorious spirits might take no other shape but of man the glory of visible creatures so the fallen spirits could not then afore mans fall take any other shape but of a beast thereby to bewray his abasement yet because the Devil here took upon him the shape of the most wise and most excellent of beasts he so bleared the womans eyes with an opinion of his excellency and sagacity that in a manner she forgot or regarded not that he was one of the evil and abased spirits which was the ground of her miserable ruine and overthrow Now because the excellency and sagacity of the Serpent had thus been the occasion of mans confusion by being made the lying counterfeit of the Devils excellency and wisdome and the mask whereby he so covered his vilenesse that the woman took him not to be as he was indeed Therefore God in his wisdome thought good to change the copy and henceforth to blurre and deface that unhappy physiognomicall letter and by abasing the Serpent for the time to come to make him an everlasting embleme and monument wherein man might hieroglyphically read the malice vilenesse and execrable basenesse of that wicked spirit which had beguiled him to hate him as now we do the Serpent with mortall hatred and by his unlucky and brained fortune to expect the Devils destiny In a word that which was once used for a mask to cover the Devils knavery should for the future be a glasse wherein to behold his villany These being the reasons which have led me to understand this curse in an equall sense both of the brute Serpent and the Devil and in the literall applied unto the Serpent yet therein shaping out the malediction of the Devil as truly as the Devil had taken upon him the Serpents shape Let us now come to the particular handling of the words and first consider them as they are the curse of the unreasonable Serpent Secondly as they include the Devils malediction But for the better understanding
of worship in speciall which was confessed by both sides to be tied to one certain place onely that is of worship by Sacrifice and the appendages In a word of the typicall worship proper to the first Covenant of which see a description Heb. 9. This Iosephus expresly testifies Lib. 12. Antiq. cap. 1. speaking of the Jews and Samaritans which dwelt together at Alexandria They lived saith he in perpetuall discord one with the other whilest each laboured to maintain their Country customes those of Ierusalem affirming their Temple to be the sacred place whither sacrifices were to be sent the Samaritans on the other side contending they ought to be sent to Mount Garizim For otherwise who knows not that both Jews and Samaritans had other places of worship besides either of these namely their Proseucha's and Synagogues wherein they worshipped God not with internall onely but externall worship though not with sacrifice which might be offered but in one place onely And this also may seem to have been a type of Christ as well as the rest namely that he was to be that one and onely Mediator of the Church in the Temple of whose sacred body we have accesse unto the Father and in whom he accepts our devotions and services according to that Destroy this Temple and I will rear it up again in three daies He spake saith the Text of the Temple of his Body This sense divers of the Ancients hit upon Eusebius Demon. Euang. Lib. 1. Cap. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not by Symbols and Types but as our Saviour saith in Spirit and Truth Not that in the New Testament men should worship God without all externall services for the New Testament was to have externall and visible services as well as the Old But with such as should imply the verity of the promises already exhibited not by types and shadows of them yet to come we know the Holy Ghost is wont to call the figured Face of the Law the Letter and the Verity thereby signified the Spirit As for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both together they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but once found in holy Writ to wit onely in this place And so no light can be borrowed by comparing of the like expression any where else to expound them Besides nothing hinders but they may be taken one for the exposition of the other that to worship the Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the same with to worship him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But howsoever this Exposition be fair and plausible yet me thinks the reason which our Saviour gives in the words following should argue another meaning God saith he is a Spirit therefore they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and Truth But God was a Spirit from the beginning If therefore for this reason he must be worshipped in Spirit and Truth he was so to be worshipped in the Old Testament as well as in the New Let us therefore seek another meaning For the finding whereof let us take notice that the Samaritans at whom our Saviour here aimeth were the off-spring of those Nations which the King of Assyria placed in the Cities of Samaria when he had carried away the ten Tribes captive These as we may reade in the second Book of the Kings at their first comming thither worshipped not the God of Israel but the gods of the Nations from whence they came Wherefore he sent Lyons amongst them which slew them which they apprehending either from the information of some Israelite or otherwise to be because they knew not the worship of the God of the Countrey they informed the King of Assyria thereof desiring that some of the captiv'd Priests might be sent unto them to teach them the manner and rites of his worship which being accordingly done they thenceforth as the Text tels us worshipped the Lord yet feared their own gods too and so did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Saint Chrysostome speaks mingle things not to be mingled In this medly they continued about two hundred years till toward the end of the Persian Monarchy At what time it chanced that Manasse brother to Iaddo the High Priest of the returned Jews married the daughter of Sanballat then Governour of Samaria For which being expelled from Jerusalem by Nehemiah he fled to Sanballat his Father in Law and after his example many other of the Jews of the best rank having married strange wives likewise and loth to forgo them betook themselves thither also Sanballat willingly entertains them and makes his son in Law Manasse their Priest For whose greater reputation and state when Alexander the Great subdued the Persian Monarchy he obtained leave of him to build a Temple upon Mount Garizim where his son in Law exercised the office of High Priest This was exceedingly prejudicious to the Jews and the occasion of a continuall Schism whilst those that were discontented or excommunicated at Ierusalem were wont to betake themselves thither Yet by this means the Samaritans having now one of the sons of Aaron to be their Chief Priest and so many other of the Jews both Priests and others mingled amongst them were brought at length to cast off all their false gods and to worship the Lord the God of Israel onely Yet so that howsoever they seemed to themselves to be true worshippers and altogether free from Idolatry neverthelesse they retained a smack thereof in as much as they worshipped the true God under a visible representation to wit of a Dove and circumcised their Children in the name thereof as the Jewish Tradition tels us who therefore always branded their worship with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or spirituall Fornication Just as their predecessors the ten Tribes worshipped the same God of Israel under the similitude of a Calf This was the condition of the Samaritan Religion in our Saviours time and if we weigh the matter well we shall finde his words here to the woman very pliable to be construed with reference thereunto You ask saith he of the true place of worship whether Mount Garizim or Ierusalem which is not so greatly materiall for as much as the time is at hand when men shall worship the Father at neither But there is a greater difference between you and us then of place though you take no notice of it namely about the object of worship it self For ye worship what ye know not but we Jews worship what we know How is that Thus Ye worship indeed the Father the God of Israel as we doe but you worship him under a corporeall representation wherein you shew you know him not but the houre commeth and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and Truth In spirit that is conceiving of him no otherwise then in spirit And in truth that is not under any corporeall or visible shape For God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and Truth that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
sin The sin of a Prince greater then the sin of a vulgar person and therefore in the Law there was a greater Sacrifice to be offered for the sins of the Prince and Priest then of the people The third circumstance aggravating his sin was the easinesse of the commandment and the easinesse man had to keep the same both in regard of himself whom no itching concupiscence urged as being altogether free therefrom and not as we his off-spring are continually vexed with the boiling thereof Secondly in regard of the thing it self he was to abstain from being onely one fruit in so great a liberty of all the garden besides How easily might he have abstain'd from one to whom God had given the use of all saving this one he wanted not to feed him he wanted no variety of food he had even enough to surfet on only to approve his obedience to Him who had given all the rest unto him he was to abstain from one and yet he would not Quanta fait saith S. Aug. iniquitas in peccando ubi tanta erat non peccandi facilitas The fourth circumstance aggravating this sin was the place which was Paradise as it were in Gods own presence even afore his face for as heaven above other parts of the world is the place of Gods speciall presence so was Paradise above other parts of the earth as it were an heaven upon earth the place wherein he singularly revealed himself and therefore an holy place and the Temple of God Do not men otherwise giving the loose rein to wickednesse yet abhorre to commit it in Gods Temple How impudently contumelious was this sin therefore which was committed in Gods very Presence-chamber All these aggravations are common to both our Parents which all laid together makes their sin as great as ever any was saving the sin against the holy Ghost for so the best Divines do think But Eve addes one aggravation more to her weight in that she was not content to sin her self alone but she allured and drew her husband also into the like horrible transgression with her whereby she was not only guilty of her own personall sin but of her husbands also And this added so much unto her former summe that S. Paul 1 Tim. 2. 14. speaks of her as if she had been the only transgressour Adam was not deceived but the woman being deceived was in the transgression So great and horrible a thing it is in the Eye of God to be cause or mover of anothers sin woe be unto them who by any means are the cause of anothers fall And justly might God say to Eve for this respect though there had been no more What is this that thou hast done Now I come to the womans excuse The Serpent beguiled me In which words are three things considerable The author the Serpent The action Guile The object Me. Concerning the author the Serpent two things are inquirable first what the Serpent was indeed secondly what Eve supposed him to be For the first I think none so unreasonable as to beleeve it was the unreasonable and brute Serpent for whence should he learn or how should he understand Gods commandment to our first Parents Or how is it possible a Serpent should speak and not only so but speak the language which Eve understood For though some there be who think that beasts and birds have some speech-like utterings of themselves yet none that a beast should speak the language of man It remains therefore that according unto the Scriptures it was that old deceiver the Devil and Satan who abused the brute Serpent either by entring into him or taking his shape upon him The last of which I rather incline unto supposing it as you shall hear presently to be the law of spirits when they have intercourse or commerce with men to take some visible shape upon them as the Devil here the Serpents whence he becomes styled in Scripture The old Serpent Now for the second question what Eve took him to be whether the Serpent or Satan If we say she thought him to be the brute Serpent how will this stand with the perfection of mans knowledge in his integrity to think a Serpent could speak like a reasonable creature who would not judge her a silly woman now that should think so and yet the wisest of us all is far short of Eve in regard of her knowledge then Again if we say she knew him to be the Devil I will not ask why she would converse at all with a wicked spirit who she knew had fallen from his Maker but I would know how we should construe the meaning of the Holy Ghost in the beginning of this Chapter where he saith The Serpent was the subtillest of all the beasts of the field which God had made and so implies the womans opinion of the Serpents wisdome was the occasion why she was so beguiled otherwise to what end are those words spoken unlesse to shew that Satan chose the Serpents shape that through the opinion and colour of his well-known wisdome and sagacity he might beguile the woman For the assoiling of which difficulty I offer these propositions following First I will suppose there is a law in the commerce of spirits and men that a spirit must present himself under the shape of some visible thing For as in naturall and bodily things there is no entercourse of action and passion unlesse the things have some proportion each to other and unlesse they communicate in some common matter so it seems God hath ordained a Law that invisible things should converse with things visible in a shape as they are visible which is so true that the conversing presence of a spirit is called a Vision or Apparition And experience with the Scriptures will shew us that not only evil Angels but good yea God himself converseth in this manner with men And all this I suppose Eve knew Secondly I suppose further that as spirits are to converse with men under some visible shape so is there a law given them that it must be under the shape of some such thing as may lesse or more resemble their condition For as in nature we see every severall thing hath a severall and sutable physiognomy or figure as a badge of the inward nature whereby it is known as by a habit of distinction so it seems to be in the shapes and apparitions of Spirits And as in a well governed Common-wealth every sort and condition of men is known by some differing habit agreeable to his quality so it seems it should be in Gods great Commonwealth concerning the shapes which spirits take upon them And he that gave the law that a man should not wear the habit of a woman nor a woman the habit of a man because as he had made them divers so would he have them so known by their habits so it seems he will not suffer a good and a bad spirit a noble and ignoble one