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
come toward my Text a like instance to this I take to be that of the Daemoniack so often mentioned in the Gospel For I make no question but that now and then the same befals other men whereof I have experience my self to wit To marvel how these Daemoniacks should so abound in and about that Nation which was the people of God whereas in other Nations and their writings we hear of no such And that too as it should seem about the time of our Saviours being on earth onely because in the time before we finde no mention of them in Scripture The wonder is yet the greater because it seems notwithstanding all this by the Story of the Gospel not to have been accounted then by the people of the Jews any strange or extraordinary thing but as a matter usuall nor besides is taken notice of by any forrain Story To meet with all these difficulties which I see not how otherwise can be easily satisfied I am perswaded till I shall hear better reason to the contrary that these Daemoniacks were no other then such as we call mad-men and Lunaticks at least that we comprehend them under those names and that therefore they both still are and in all times and places have been much more frequent then we imagine The cause of which our mistake is that disguise of another name and notion then we conceive them by which makes us take them to be diverse which are the same That you may rightly understand this my Assertion before I acquaint you with the reasons which induce me thereunto you must know that the Masters of Physick tell us of two kindes of Deliration or alienation of the understanding One ex vi morbi that namely which is with or from a Fever called Delirium or Phrenitis the latter being a higher degree then the former Another kinde sine Febre when a man having no other disease is crased and disturbed in his wits And this they say is either simple dotage proceeding from some weaknesse of the brain or intellective faculty or Melancholia and Mania which they describe and distinguish thus Both of them to be when the understanding is so disturbed that men imagine speak and do things which are most absurd and contrary to all reason sense and use of men But their difference to be in this that melancholia is attended with fear sadnes silence retirednesse and the like symptomes Mania with rage raving and fury and actions sutable which is most properly styled madnesse Now then I say that those Daemoniacks in the Gospel were such as we call mad-men understand me to mean not of Deliration ex vi morbi or of simple dotage but of these two last kindes Melancholici and Maniaci whereunto adde morbus Comitialis or the falling sicknesse and whatsoever is properly called Lunacy Such as these I say the Jews beleeved and so may we to be troubled and acted with evill Spirits as it is said of Sauls Melancholy That an evil Spirit from the Lord troubled him and therefore passing by all other causes and Symptomes they thought fit to give them their Name from this calling them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An occasion of the more frequent use of which expression in our Saviours time and the ages immediately before him then formerly had been or may seem to have been given by the sect of the Sadduces which after the time of Hyrcanus had much prevailed and affirmed as S. Luke tels us that there was no resurrection neither Angel nor Spirit To affront and cry down whose errour it is like enough the Pharisees and the rest of the right-beleeving Jews who followed them affected to draw their expressions wheresoever they could from Angels and Spirits as presently they did in the Acts when Saint Paul awakened their faction in the Councell saying I am a Pharisee and the son of a Pharisee c. We finde no evill say they in this man but if a Spirit or an Angel hath spoken unto him let us not fight against God Having thus sufficiently stated and explicated my assertion now you shall hear what grounds I have for the same First therefore I prove it out of the Gospel it self and that in the first place from this Scripture which I have chosen for my text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he hath a Devil and is mad Where I suppose the latter words to be an explication of the former Secondly I prove it out of Mat. 17. 15. where it is said There came to our Saviour a certain man kneeling down to him and saying Lord have mercy on my son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because he is Lunatick and sore vexed For oft times he falleth into the Fire and oft into the water That this Lunatick was a Daemoniack it is evident both out of the 15. ver of this Chapter where it is said Our Saviour rebuked the Devill and he departed out of him and the childe was cured from that very hour As also out of the 9. of the Gospel of Saint Luke where it is said of the self-same person Lo a spirit taketh him and he cryeth out and it teareth him that he foameth again and bruising him hardly departeth from him By comparing of these places you may gather what kinde of men they were which the Scripture cals 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now I come to other Testimonies And first take notice that the Gentiles also had the like apprehension of their mad-men whence they called them Larvati and Cerriti where Larvati is as much as Larvis id est Daemonibus acti so Festus Larvati saith he furiosi mente moti quasi Larvis exterriti And for Cerriti they were so called quasi Cereriti hoc est à Cerere percussi And therefore you may remēber that when Menechmus in Plautus fains himself mad and talks accordingly the Physitian who was sent for to cure him asks the old man who came to fetch him whether he were Larvatus or Cerritus If the Gentiles thought thus of their mad-men should we think it strange the Jews should I could tell you here that the Turks conceit of their madmen is not unlike this but that they suppose the spirit that works in them to be a good rather then an evill one But I let this passe My next testimony shall be out of Iustin Martyr who in his second Apology ad Antoninum to prove at least to a Gentile that the souls of men have existence and sense after death brings for an argument their Necyomantia and their Evocationes Mortuorum together with other the like in the last place this of Daemoniacks where by his descriptiō of them we may easily gather what kinde of people they were which were so taken to be Item illi saith he qui à mortuorum manibus corripiuntur for such were these Daemonia taken to be atque humi abjiciuntur homines 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which all call Daemoniacks and mad-men
of the Saints and so translated accordingly This tradition is farther testified by Ionathan ben Vziel the Chaldee Paraphrast Gen. 11. 7. where the Lords words spoken in the plurall number Venite descendamus confundamus linguam eorum are paraphrased in this manner Dixit Dominus septem Angelis qui stant coram eo Venite nunc c. Whether rightly or fitly in this place it matters not The testimony is sufficient for the Jewish tradition of seven Arch-angels that stand before the Throne of God This tradition Iunius saith is magicall and not a little triumphs therein as an undoubted Argument to evince the Book of Tobit not to be Canonicall But whatsoever the Book of Tobit be I hope to shew this tradition to have firm ground and footing in Scripture and not so rashly to be rejected The chief and most clear place is that I have now read which gives us to understand that these seven Angels were represented by that Candlestick of Seven Lamps which continually burned in the Temple before the vail over against the Mercy seat which was the Throne of God For in the beginning of the Chapter the Prophet being shewed this Seven-lamped Candlestick in a Vision and two Olive-branches on each side ministring oyle to the Lamps thereof The Angel asketh him if he knew what these meant The Prophet answers No my Lord Then the Angel discoursing a little by way of Preface tels him what they were These seven saith he that is the seven Lamps are the seven eyes of the Lord which run to and fro through the whole earth that is those Seven Vigiles or prime Ministers of his Providence the seven Arch-angels As for the two Olive-trees on each side These are saith he two anointed ones which stand before the Lord of the whole earth that is Zorobabel and Iesua the Prince and Priest at that time which should be Gods two instruments on earth whereby his Church signified by the Candlestick should be re-established and his Temple builded and that not by force or strength as he saith in his Preface but by the Spirit of God working with them as the olive trees here conveyed oyle to the Candlestick not after a naturall and usuall but a supernaturall and secret manner This interpretation of the latter hath the suffrage of the best Expositors both Jews and Christians and so I shall need say no more of it but betake my self to make good the first concerning the words I chose for my Text That those seven eyes of God signified by the seven Lamps are seven Angels That this is so I prove out of two places in the Apocalypse derived from hence where as well the Seven Lamps before the Throne as the Lambs Seven eyes are said to be the Seven Spirits of God I saw saith Saint Iohn cap. 4. 5. Seven Lamps before the Throne which are the Seven Spirits of God And again cap. 5. 6. I saw in the midst of the Throne and of the four Beasts as we translate it and of the four and twenty Elders a Lamb as if he had been slain having seven horns and seven eyes which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth Here first we have Zacharies very words Seven eyes sent forth into all the earth Secondly That these seven eyes are the seven Spirits of God Thirdly that these seven Spirits were represented by the seven Lamps burning before the Throne If this be not sufficient to make my interpretation of Zacharie good I know not what can be For who can now but think that the Jews derived their tradition of these seven Angels from this place of Zachary and the Apocalypse from them both And that indeed the Jews supposed some such thing meant by the seven Lamps in the Temple appears by the report of Iosephus though depraved and fashioned unto the capacity of the Gentiles For he tels us both in his Antiquities Lib. 3. cap. 7. and in his De Bello Iudaico Lib. 6. cap. 14. that the seven Lamps signified the seven Planets and the most holy place within the vail ibid. cap. 5. the heaven of God or heaven of Glory and that therefore the Lamps stood slopewise as it were to expresse the obliquity of the Zodiack Now it is true that the Jewish Astrologians savouring of Gentilism make these seven Angels the prefects of the seven Planets which they seem to have learned in part from the Greek Philosophy which conceit howsoever it be vain and groundlesse yet may be as a key to understand the meaning of this of Iosephus And one thing more If the visible things of God may be learned as Saint Paul sayes from the Creation of the world why may not the invisible and intelligible world be learned from the Fabrick of the visible the one it may be being the pattern of the other But to let this passe and return again to the Apocalypse Where concerning the places alledged there may be two things objected First That the seven spirits there mentioned are and may be expounded of the Holy Ghost thus represented in respect of those seven-fold that is manifold Graces he communicates unto the Church I answer that many indeed have so taken it but besides the uncouthnesse of expressing one spirit by seven there is a reason in the Text why they cannot be so taken namely because not onely the seven Lamps are said to be those seven Spirits of God but the seven Eyes and seven Horns of the Lamb also to be the same Now it will be very hard and harsh to make the Holy Ghost the Horns and Eyes of Christ as he is the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world that is as he is a Man Above Angels indeed the Man Iesus is exalted and that too for the suffering of death that is as the Lamb but not above the Holy Ghost This made not onely Drusius but even Beza himself in his Notes upon this place to affirm it could not be meant of the Holy Ghost but of seven created Spirits A second scruple is how if they be created spirits Iohn could pray for Grace and Peace from them Grace be unto you saith he and peace from him which is which was and is to come and from the seven spirits which are before his Throne and from Iesus Christ the faithful witnesse c. would he pray for Grace and peace from Angels I answer Why not For first he prayes not to them but unto God unto whom such votes are tendered Secondly he prayes for Grace and Peace from them not as Authors but as the Instruments of God in the dispensation thereof Are they not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sent forth to minister for them who are heirs of salvation And if it be no Idolatry to pray unto God to give Grace and Peace from the outward Ministery of his word no more is it to pray unto him for it from the invisible Ministery For certainly it is lawfull to
excellent creatures when an inferiour nature the nature of man was now to be advanced into a Throne of Divine Majesty and to become Head and King not only of men but of the heavenly Host it self O ye blessed Angels what did these tidings concern you that ruined mankinde should be restored again and taken into favour whereas those of your own Host which fell likewise remained still in that gulf of perdition whereinto their sin had plunged them without hope of mercy or like promise of Deliverance what did it adde to your eminent Dignity the most excellent of the creatures of God that the Nature of man should be advanced above yours that at the Name of Iesus every knee should bow of things in Heaven and things in Earth and things under the Earth The Observation therefore which this Act of the Angels first presents unto us is the ingenuous goodnesse and sweet disposition of those immaculate and blessed spirits in whose bosomes Envy the Image of the Devil and deadly poison of charity hath no place at all For if any inclination to this cankered passion had been in these heavenly creatures never such an occasion offered nor greater could be to stir it up to envy But heaven admits of no such passion nor could such a torment consist with the blissefull condition of those who dwell therein It is the smoke of that bottomlesse pit a native of hell the character and cognisance of those Apostate Angels which kept not their first estate but left their own habitation and are reserved for chains of everlasting darknesse These indeed grieve no lesse at the happinesse of men then the Angels joy witnesse the name of their Prince Satan which signifies the Fiend or malicious one who out of envy overthrew mankinde in the beginning out of envy he and all his fellow-fiends are so restlesse and indefatigable to seduce him still The Use of this Observation will not be far to seek if we remember the admonition our Saviour hath given us in the prayer left unto his Church which is To make the Angels the pattern of our imitation in doing the will of our heavenly Father for so he teacheth us to pray Let thy will be done in earth as it is done in heaven that is Grant us ô Lord to do thy will here as thy holy Angels do it there And as we should imitate them in all things else so in this affection towards the happinesse and prosperity of others And good reason I think if we mean at all to approve our selves unto God our Father why we should endeavour rather to be like unto them then unto Devils But in nothing can we be more like them then in this to rejoyce at the good and not repine at the happinesse of our brethren Hoc enim Angelicum est This is the Character of the Angelicall nature and consequently of those who one day shall have fellowship with them To be contrarily affected Diabolicum est the badge and brand of Devils and Fiends and those who wear their Livery reason good they should keep them company Let every one therefore examine his own heart concerning this point that he may learn upon what terms he stands with God and what he may promise himself of the blessednesse to come Do the gifts of God Doth his favour or blessing vouchsafed to thy brother when thou seest or hearest of them torment and crucifie thy soul Dost thou make their happinesse thy misery Is thine eye evill to thy Brother because Gods is good If this be so without doubt thy heart is not right before God nor doth his Spirit but the spirit of Devils or Fiends reign therein But if the contrary appear in any reasonable measure with a desire to increase it for we must not look to attain the perfection of Angels in this life but in some measure and degree only if thou canst rejoyce at anothers good though it concerns not thy self the Spirit of God rests upon thee For emulations and envyings saith the Apostle Gal. 5. are the fruits of the flesh but the fruits of the Spirit are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 kindnesse and goodnesse So he cals the opposite vertues to those former vices But as any good that betides our brother ought to affect us with some degree of joy and not with grief and envy so chiefly and most of all his spirituall good and that which concerns his salvation ought so to do This was that the holy Angels praised God for in my Text on the behalf of men that unto them a Saviour was born who should save them from their sins and reconcile them unto God Which sweet disposition of those good and blessed spirits our Saviour himself further witnesseth when he saith Luk. 15. 17. There is joy in heaven namely among the holy Angels for one sinner that repenteth But is there any man will you say such a son of Beliall as will not do this will not imitate the holy Angels in this Judge ye There is an evil disease which commonly attends upon Sects and Differences in opinion that as men are curious and inquisitive into the lives and actions of the adverse party so are they willing to finde them faulty and rejoyce at their fals and slips hear and relate them with delight namely because they suppose it makes much for their own side that the contrary should by such means be scandalized and the Patrons and followers thereof disreputed But should that be the matter of our grief whereat the Angels joy or that the matter of our joy whereat the Angels grieve How is this to do our Fathers will on earth as the Angels do in heaven Nay if this be not to put on the robes of darknesse and to shake hands with hellish fiends I know not what is O my soul come not thou into their secret unto their assembly mine honour be not thou united There is another Lesson yet more to be learned from this act of the Angels namely that if they glorifie God for our happinesse and the favour of God towards us in Christ much more should we glorifie and magnifie his goodnesse our selves to whom solely this Birth and the benefit of this Birth redounds If they sing Glory be to God on high for his favour toward men we to whom such favour is shown must not hold our peace for shall they for us and not we for our selves No the Quire of heaven did but set us in we are to bear a part and it should be a chief part since the best part is ours As therefore the Church in her publick Service hath ever since kept it up so must every one of us in particular never let it goe down or dye on our hands Thus much of the Quaere Now come we to the Antheme or Song it self whose contents are two First the Doxology or Praise Glory be to God on high Secondly a gratulation rendring the reason thereof Because of
to blesse all the rest and the worthiest of all because by it the party blessed is enabled to blesse the rest of his Brethren 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Always that by which another is that thing it self is more then the other In the words themselves we will consider first the subject blessed and then the quality of the blessing it self The subject blessed is expressed both by name and by description by name Levi by description Gods Holy One. The blessing it self is contained in words few in substance plentifull Vrim and Thummim nay more then so Thy Thummim and Thy Vrim that we might know whence this blessing comes how that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a divine thing the gift of God who is the Author and giver of all good things And of Levi he said Let thy Thummim c. To begin first with the Subject Levi What Levi was is so well known that it were needlesse to say much to make it better known Only this that Levi was the Tribe which God had especially bequeathed to himself and set apart for the Ministery of the Altar Concerning whose name though observations drawn from names are like an house raised upon the sand yet because of old and among the Patriarchs Names were given by the Spirit of Prophecy it will not be altogether unworthy our speculation to remember the reason why this Name Levi was imposed which we shall see as truly verified in that Function to which God did advance his posterity as it was by his Mother fitly given to himself upon the good hope she conceived at his birth For Levi signifies a Conjoyner an Uniter or maker of union for thus said Leah when she bare him Now at this time will my husband be joyned to me because I have born a third son And she called his name Levi. She called him Levi but for ought we reade in regard of her self she found him no Levi as she hoped but she prophecied of that sacred office whereby all the sons of Levi became conjoyners became makers of union not between Iacob and Leah but between God and Man between Christ and his Spouse between the spirituall Iacob and his deformed Leah For as truly as ever Leah spake might the Church then and may the Church now affirm when she hath born these sons unto her husband Now I know my heavenly husband my Lord my God will be joyned to me because I have born him these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these sons of Union these Ministers of reconciliation Plato could say a Priest was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A friend-maker between God and men Nay his whole office is nothing but the service of peace and that not only between God and man but between man and his brother for how can he love God who loves not his brother or how can he be at peace with God who is at variance with his brother Needs must he therefore that is Minister of the one be Minister of the other also and he that is so nay he alone that is so is a right Levite and a true son of Union How unworthy then of this holy name how unworthy to succeed in the holy Order of Levi are those who are Ministers of division who by their lives doctrine example or any other way divide God and his Church and the Church within it self who neither have peace with God themselves nor will suffer others to have it who neither agree themselves with others nor suffer others to agree among themselves Beati pacifici Blessed are the peace-makers especially in the sons of Peace This Christ prayed for in his Apostles Ioh. 17. saying Holy Father keep them through thy name that they may be one as we are one Christ is so one that he makes all one who are one in him so should every son of Levi be one In summe the Ministers of God are called Angels and therefore should sing a song like unto that song of Angels Glory be to God on high peace on earth and good will amongst men That Church which hath such a Levite such a Minister such a son of Union may truly take up the words of Micah Iudg. 17. and say Now I know the Lord will do me good seeing I have a Levite to my Priest And thus much of the name Levi Now I come unto the Tribe it self concerning which there may be two things asked First why God did confine the Priesthood to one Tribe alone and not suffer it to be common to all as it was before the Law and is now since the Law Secondly why Levi was chosen to this holy Function rather then any other Tribe To the first why God did limit this holy Function to one Tribe only some of the Jews make this answer That one of the sons of Israel with his whole posterity was due unto God by virtue of Jacobs vow Gen. 28. which was that if God would be with him in his journey and bring him back again unto his Fathers house of all that thou shalt give me saith he I will give the tenth unto thee Now because God gave children as well as beeves and sheep therefore they also must fall within compasse of his Vow And that there might be no difficulty about tithing the odde children because there were more then ten they devise this way to make all even for first say they the full number of Iacobs children was fourteen because that Iosephs two sons Ephraim and Manasseh go in the number of Iacobs sons for Iacob Gen. 48. said unto Ioseph Thy two sons which are born unto thee in the land of AEgypt before I came into AEgypt shall be mine as Reuben and Simeon are mine but thy lineage which thou begettest after them shall be thine Now of these fourteen four were the Lords by his right unto the first-born for so many there were which first opened the womb of their four Mothers Rahel and Leah Bilhah and Zilpah Iacobs two Wives and his two Concubines Now of the remainder being ten one fals to Gods share for Tithe as being comprized within their Fathers Vow This reason though it be as you see handsomely framed yet hath no great likelihood because men use not to be tithed and therefore this extent of the Vow is beyond the intent of the Vower And whereas they urge the words of all that thou shalt give me they seem to forget that God gave unto Iacob besides his sons great store of man-servants and maid-servants and yet we reade not that any of these were dedicate unto God or that he challenged any of their posterity The only or chief cause if I am not deceived why God restrained the Priestly Function to one Tribe was for a sign and band of restraint of his Church to one people For as the Church cannot be without the sacred Function of holy Ministery so likewise the condition thereof must follow the condition of the Ministery As long
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
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