for whom even themselves being Judges it would be an uncomely thing to wear a vail that is a womans habit so by the like reason was it as uncomely for a woman to be without a vail that is in the guise and dresse of a man And howsoever the Devils of the Gentiles sometimes took pleasure in uncomelinesse and absurd garbs and gestures yet the God whom they worshipped with his holy Angels who were present at their devotions loved a comely accommodation agreeable to Nature and Custome in such as worshipped him For this cause therefore saith he ought a woman to have a covering on her head because of the Angels Lastly he concludes it from the example and custome both of the Iewish and Christian Churches neither of which had any such use for their women to be unvailed in their sacred assemblies If any man saith he be contentious that is will not be satisfied with these reasons let him know that we that is we of the Circumcision have no such custome nor the Church of God For so with S. Ambrose Anselme and some of the ancients I take the meaning of the Apostle to be in those words Thus you have heard briefly what was the fault of these Corinthian Dames which the Apostle here taxeth From which we our selves may learn thus much That God requires a decent and comely accommodation in his House in the act of his worship and service For if in their habit and dresse surely much more in their gestures and deportment he loves nothing that is unseemly in the one or in the other TITUS 3. 5. By the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost THese words as it is easie to conceive upon the first hearing are spoken of Baptisme of which I intend not by this choyce to make any full or accurate tractation but onely to acquaint you as I am wont with my thoughts concerning two particulars therein One from what propriety analogy or use of water the washing therewith was instituted for a sign of new birth according as it is here called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the washing of regeneration The other what is the counter-type or thing which the water figureth in this Sacrament I will begin with the last first because the knowledge thereof must be supposed for the explication and more distinct understanding of the other In every Sacrament as ye well know there is the outward Symbole or sign res terrena and the signatum figured and represented thereby res coelestis In this of Baptism the sign or res terrena is washing with water The question is what is the Signatum the invisible and celestiall thing which answers thereunto In our Catecheticall explications of this mystery it is wont to be affirmed to be the blood of Christ That as Water washeth away the filth of the body so the blood of Christ cleanseth us from the guilt and pollution of sin And there is no question but the blood of Christ is the fountain of all the grace and good communicated unto us either in this or any other Sacrament or mystery of the Gospel But that this should be the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the counterpart or thing figured by the water in Baptism I beleeve not because the Scripture which must be our guide and direction in this case makes it another thing to wit the Spirit or Holy Ghost this to be that whereby the soul is cleansed and renewed within as the body with water is without so saith our Saviour to Nicodemus Ioh. 3. Except a man be born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God And the Apostle in the words I have read parallels the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost as type and countertype God saith he hath saved us that is brought us into the state of salvation by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost where none I trow will deny that he speaks of Baptism The same was represented by that vision at our Saviours Baptism of the holy Ghosts descending upon him as he came out of the water in the similitude of a Dove For I suppose that in that Baptism of his the mystery of all our Baptisms was visibly acted and that God sayes to every one truly baptized as he said to him in a proportionable sense Thou art my Son in whom I am well pleased And how pliable the analogy of water is to typifie the Spirit well appears by the figuring of the Spirit thereby in other places of Scripture As in that of Isay I will pour water upon him that is thirsty and slouds upon the dry ground I will pour my Spirit upon by seed and my blessing upon thine off-spring where the latter expounds the former Also by the discourse of our Saviour with the Samaritan woman Iohn 4. 14. Whosoever saith he drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up to everlasting life By that also Ioh. 7. 37. where on the last day of the great feast Iesus stood and said If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink He that beleeveth on me as the Scripture saith that is as the Scripture is wont to expresse it for otherwise there is no such place of Scripture to be found in all the Bible out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water But this saith the Euangelist he spake of the Spirit which they that beleeve on him should receive Nor did the Fathers or ancient Church as far as I can finde suppose any other correlative to the element in Baptism but this of this they speak often of the blood of Christ they are altogether silent in their explicatioÌ„s of this mystery many are the allusioÌ„s they seek out for the illustration thereof and some perhaps forced but this of the water signifying or having any relation to the blood of Christ never comes amongst them which were impossible if they â—ad not supposed some other thing figured by the water then it which barred them from falling on that conceit The like silence is to be observed in our Liturgy where the Holy Ghost is more then once paralled with the water in Baptism washing and regeneration attributed thereunto but no such notion of the blood of Christ. And that the opinion thereof is novell may be gathered because some Lutheran Divines make it peculiar and proper to the followers of Calvin Whatsoever it be it hath no foundation in Scripture and we must not of our own heads assigne significations to Sacramentall types without some warrant thence For whereas some conceive those two expressions of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or sprinkling of the blood of Christ and of our being washed from our sins in or by his blood do intimate some such matter they are surely mistaken for those expressions have reference not to 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 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not fancying him as a body but as indeed he is a Spirit For those who worship him under a corporeall similitude doe bely him according as the Apostle speaks Rom. 1. of such as change the glory of the incorruptible God into an Image made like to corruptible man Birds or Beasts They changed saith he the truth of God into a lie and served the creature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 juxta Creatorem as or with the Creator who is blessed for ever Hence Idols in Scripture are termed Lies as Amos 2. 4. Their Lies have caused them to erre after which their Fathers walked The Vulgar hath Seduxerunt eos Idola ipsorum And Isa. 28. 15. We have made Lies our refuge And Ier. 16. 19. Venient gentes à finibus terrae dicent Verè mendacium possederunt the Chaldee hath coluerunt Patres nostri vanitatem in qua non est utilitas Nunquid faciet sibi homo Deos ipsi non sunt Dii This therefore I take to be the genuine meaning of this place and not that which is commonly supposed against externall worship which I think this demonstration will evince To worship what they know as the Jews are said to doe and to worship in spirit and truth are here taken by our Saviour for equivalents else the whole sense will be inconsequent But the Jews worshipped not God without Rites and Ceremonies who yet are supposed to worship him in spirit and truth Ergo to worship God without Rites and Ceremonies is not to worship him in spirit and truth according to the meaning here intended S. LUKE 24. 45. Then opened be their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures 46. And said unto them Thus it is written and thus it behoved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day OUr Blessed Saviour after he was risen from the dead told his Disciples not onely that his suffering of death and rising again the third day was foretold in the Scriptures but also pointed out those Scriptures unto them and opened their understanding that they might understand them that is he expounded or explained them unto them Certain it is therefore that somewhere in the Old Testament these things were foretold should befall the Messiah Yea S. Paul 1 Cor. 15. 3 4. will further assure us that they are I delivered unto you saith he first of all that which I received how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures 4. And that he was buried and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures Both of them therefore are somwhere foretold in the Scriptures and it becomes not us to be so ignorant as commonly we are which those Scriptures be which foretell them It is a main point of our Faith and that which the Jews most stumble at because their Doctors had not observed any such thing of Messiah The more they were ignorant thereof the more it concerns us to be confirmed therein I thought good therefore to make this the Argument of my Discourse at this time to inform both you and my self where these things are foretold and if I can to point out those very Scriptures which our Saviour here expounded to his Disciples Which that I may the better do I will make the words fore-going my Text to be as the Pole-star in this my search These are the things saith our Saviour which I spake unto you while I was with you that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and in the Prophets and in the Psalms concerning me Then follow the words I read Then opened he their understanding c. These two events therefore of Messiahs death and rising again the third day were foretold in these three parts of Scripture in the Law of Moses or Pentateuch in the Neb im or Prophets and in the Psalmes and in these three we must search for them And first for the first that Messiah should suffer death This was fore-signified in the Law or Pentateuch first in the Story of Abraham where he was commanded to offer his son Isaac the son wherein his seed should be called and to whom the promise was entailed That in it should all the Nations of the world be blessed What was here acted else but the mystery of Christs Passion to wit that the promised seed should make all the Nations of the world blessed by becomming a sacrifice for sin which that it might be the more evident the place is also designed the region of Mount Moriah there Abraham was bid to offer his son Isaac even where Messiah who was then in the loins of Isaac was one day to be offered upon the Crosse. The second prediction in the Law of Messiahs suffering death was by the slaying of Beasts for the atonement of sin in their sacrifices which were nothing else but shadows and representations of that offering upon the Crosse which Messiah was one day to make of himself for the sins of the world Which mystery of the end of those legall sacrifices was shewed in the former story of Abrahams offering Isaac For when he had now brought his son to the place appointed and had built an Altar and was now ready to slay him as he was commanded the Angel of the Lord stayed his hand and shewed him a Ram caught in a thicket by the horns which Ram Abraham took and offered for a burnt offering in stead of his son to signifie that the offering of the blessed seed was yet to be suspended and that God in the mean while would accept the offerings of Buls and Rams as a pledge of that expiation which the blessed seed of Abraham in the loyns of Isaac should one day make And thus much for the Law now I come to the Prophets wherein I finde three evident Prophecies that Messiah should suffer death The first is that famous one in the 53. of Isay the whole Chapter through I will not repeat it all but some two or three passages thereof ver 5. He was wounded saith the Prophet for our transgressions he was bruised for 〈◊〉 inâ—quities the chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed And ver 7. He was oppressed he was afflicted yet he opened not his mouth he was brought as a Lamb to the slaughter 〈◊〉 as a Sheep before his Shearers is dumb so he opened noi his mouth Ver. 8. He was cut off out of the Land of the living for the transgression of my people was 〈◊〉 smitten Now that this Prophecy was one of those by which the Apostles used to prove this verity appears by the story of the conversion of the Eunuch Acts 8. unto whom Philip comming whilst he was in his Chariot reading this place of Scripture and hâ— thereupon asking Philip of whom the Prophet spake these words the Text tels us that Philip began at the same Scripture and preached unto him Iesus The
water of Baptism in the New Testament but to the rite and manner of sacrificing in the Old where the Altar was wont to be sprinkled with the blood of the Sacrifices which were offered and that which was unclean purified with the same blood whence is that elegant discourse of Saint Paul Heb. 9. comparing the sacrifices of the Law with that of Christ upon the Crosse as much the better And that whereas in the Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Almost all things were purified with blood so much more the blood of Christ who offered himself without spot to God cleanseth our consciences from dead works But that this washing that is cleansing by the blood of Christ should have reference to Baptism where is that to be found I suppose they will not alledge the water and blood which came out of our Saviours side when they pierced him For that is taken to signifie the two Sacraments ordained by Christ that of blood the Eucharist of water Baptism not both to be referred to Baptism I add because perhaps some mens fancies are corrupted therwith that there was no such thing as sprinkling or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used in Baptism in the Apostles times nor many ages after them and that therefore it is no way probable that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in S. Peter should have any reference to the Laver of Baptism Let this then be our conclusion That the blood of Christ concurres in the mystery of Baptism by way of efficacy and merit but not as the thing there figured which the Scripture tels us not to be the blood of Christ but the Spirit And so I come to my other Quaere From what property or use of water the washing therewith is a Sacrament of our new birth for so it is here called the washing of regeneration and our Saviour sayes to Nicodemus Except a man be born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God For in every Sacrament there is some analogy between what is outwardly done and what is thereby signified therefore in this But what should it be It is a thing of some moment and yet in the tractates of this mystery but little or seldom enquired after and therefore deserves the more consideration I answer this analogy between the washing with water and regeneration lies in that custome of washing infants from the pollutions of the womb when they are first born for this is the first office done unto them when they come out of the womb if they purpose to nourish and bring them up As therefore in our naturall birth the body is washt with water from the pollutions wherewith it comes besmeared out of the matrix so in our second birth from above the soul is purified by the Spirit from the guilt and pollution of sin to begin a new life to God-ward The analogy you see is apt and proper if that be true of the custome whereof there is no cause to make question For the use at present any man I think knows how to inform himself For that of elder times I can produce two pregnant and notable testimonies one of the Jews and people of God another of the Gentiles The first you shall finde Ezek. 16. where God describes the poor and forlorn condition of Jerusalem when he first took her to himself under the parable of an exposed Infant As for thy nativity saith he in the day thou wast born thy navell was not cut neither was thou washed in water to supple thee thou wast not salted at all nor swadled at all None eye pitied thee to do any of these things unto thee to have compassion on thee but thou wast cast out in the open field to the loathing of thy person in the day that thou wast born Here you may learn what was wont to be done unto infants at their nativity by that which was not done to Israel till God himself took pity on her cutting off the navell string washing salting swadling upon this place S. Hierome takes notice but scarce any body else that I can yet finde that our Saviour where speaking of Baptism he says Except a man be born of water the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God alludes to the custom here mentioned of washing Infants at their nativity The other testimony and that most pertinent to the application we make I finde in a story related by Plutarch in his Quaestiones Romanae not far from the beginning in this manner Among the Greeks if one that were living were reported to be dead and funerall obsequies performed for him if afterward he returned alive he was of all men abominated as a pro phane and unlucky person no man would come into his company and which was the highest degree of calamity they excluded him from their Temples and the Sacrifices of their gods It chanced that one Aristinus being faln into such a disaster not knowing which way to expiate himself therefrom sent to the Oracle at Delphos to Apollo beseeching him to shew him the means whereby he might be freed and discharged thereof Pythia gave him this answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arastinus rightly apprehending what the Oracle meant offered himself to women as one newly brought forth to be washed again with water from which example it grew a custome among the Greeks when the like misfortune befell any man after this manner to expiate them they called them Hysteropâ—tmi or Postliminiâ—nati How well doth this befit the mystery of Baptism where those who were dead to God through sin are like Hysteropotmi regenerate and born again by water and the Holy Ghost These two passages discover sufficiently the analogy of the washing with water in Baptism to regeneration or new birth according as the Text I have chosen for the scope of my discourse expresseth it namely that washing with water is a signe of spirituall infancy for as much as infants are wont to be washed when they come first into the world Hence the Jews before Iohn the Baptist came amongst them were wont by this rite to initiate such as they made Proselytes to wit as becomming infants again and entring into a new life and being which before they had not That which here I have affirmed will be yet more evident if we consider those other rites anciently added and used in the celebration of this mystery which had the self-same end we speak of namely to signifie spirituall Infancy I will name them and so conclude As that of giving the new baptized milk and honey ad infantandum as Tertullian speaks ad infantie significationem so S. Hierome because the like was used to infants new born according to that in the seventh of Isay of Immanuels infancy A Virgin shall conceive and bear a son butter and honey shall he eat that he may know to refuse evill and chuse good Secondly that of salt as is implied in that
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
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
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