done amiss doe as the Hebrewsspake put their trust in the strength of their fâce and in deceitfull lips saying with them Job the twenty fourth chapter Quis me vidit or with her in the thirtieth chapter of the Proverbs that having committed sinne wipeth her mouth and saith Non seci For albeit Cain would not confesse his sault but denyed it saying Nescio and not only but excused his sinne 〈◊〉 without charity toward his Brother so without all humilitie or modesty to God that he was not bound to take care of Abel yet for all that God proceedeth to convict him The verse stands of two parts First the question Quid fecisti Secondly a plain detection in the words following For the first point there are diverse exceptions For the nature of this question some make it a new question touching the same thing that God asked in the former verses Others referre it to Cains deniall as if God should say What hast thou done in saying thou knowest not If we understand it to be a second question then we are to remember what the Prophet saith in the sixty second Psalm that God speaketh not once but twice to shew that he is mercifull and that his oath is a true oath whereby he affirmeth that he desires not the death of a sinner in the thirty third chapter of Ezekiel and the eleventh verse for if a man do but say I have sinned and perverted righteousnesse and it did not profit me he will deliver his soul from going into the pit in the thirty third chapter of Job and the eighteenth verse so greatly is God pleased when men doe willingly 〈◊〉 their sinnes to him And that is the rea on that God having once already asked Cain Where is thy brother Abel doth now ask him again the second time What hast thou done which is all one in effect with the first question The other question seemed far off from the matter but this comes more near to the point Wherein God doth more presse Cain as if he should say thou hast done this murther I will have thee confesse it Which is all one with that speech of Joshuah to Achan My son give glory to God and confesse Joshuah the seventh chapter Wherein he willeth Cain to do as they did of whom Luke recordeth that they came and confessed and shewed their works Acts the nineteenth chapter for it is Gods will that we should call to minde our own deeds before he come to set before us the things which we have done Psalm the fiftieth But others referre this question to Cains deniall why didest thou not confesse thy fault that I might have had mercy on thee Wherein we see that verified that the Prophet affirmeth of God in the second chapter of Joel That he is sorry for our afflictions and withall it is an admonition teaching us our duties For God maketh two sermons to Cain one before he sinned verse the seventh the other after he had sinned in these words Ubi est Abel frater As by the first he 〈◊〉 us to say with Paul in the ninth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles Quid faciam so when we have sinned we must smite our hearts with David in the second of Samuel and the twenty fourth chapter and say as the prophet speaks Jeremiah the eighth chapter and the sixt verse quid feci Gods question to Cain doth plainly 〈◊〉 to us thus much that when we have sinned we must repent us of the evill and say what have I done for if man repent not that he hath sinned against God God will repent that he hath made man Genesis the sixt chapter and the sixt verse but there is to be noted further in this question that the reason thereof is that Cain by murthering his brother did not only shew himself like the Devill that evill one as St. John calls him in the first of John the third chapter and the twelfth verse who was a murther from the beginning but that he sheweth himself like unto him in denying the truth as the Devill is said to be the Father of lies John the eighth chapter The detection of Cains Crime is in these words the voice of thy brothers blood 〈◊〉 to me from the earth God goeth forward and sheweth that although the Devill doe stop Cains mouth that he will confess his fact yet all is to no purpose albeit he himself will not say he hath killed Abel yet God setts before his eyes the things which he hath done Psalm the fiftieth and the twenty first verse Concerning these words there are two interpretations First that Gods meaning in these words is that howsoever man needs an Accuser yet he needs none for he knoweth who is guilty though there be none to accuse that man heares nothing but vocall speech but God heares blood speak as God doth loquisurdis so he doth audire muta He calleth those things that are not as if they were Romans the fourth chapter he makes things deaf to hear and 〈◊〉 things speak which are dumb as he heard Moses though he spake not a word Exodus the fourteenth chapter Man cannot see in the dark without the light But the darknes and the light are all one to him Psalm the one hundred and thirty ninth All things are naked and bare before his eyes Hebrews the fourth chapter so that he needs no Accuser Secondly the other sense is the fuller and the more generally embraced which is this though the person guilty being arraigned will not confess himself and albeit there be none to accuse him yet he escapes not as for the Accuser there could be none for there were now but three persons upon earth Cain himself and his Father and Mother as for Cain he denyed the deed as for Adam and Eve who were his Parents such was their naturall affection that they could not finde in their hearts to accuse their Son though it were for killing a Child that was more deer to them than he was Of which compassion we have a like example in the Widdow of Tekoah in the second of Samuel the fourteenth chapter and therefore as Ambrose saith quis potuit alter occidere Abelem though there be neither confession nor accusation yet God proceeds to convince him and grounds himself upon the grievousness of his sinne The voice of thy Brothers blood cryeth to me This kinde of proceeding in Judgment is usuall though Juda spake not a word himself and there was none to accuse him yet he was convinced by those tokens which he left with Thamar Genesis the thirty eigthth chapter and the twenty sixt verse And the Garments of Joseph which he left with his Mistris when she enticed him was thought evidence enough Genesis the thirty ninth chapter so we see that albeit there be neither confession nor accusation yet God proceeds against Cain by conviction and he doth convince him not by the voice of persons which is the more usuall witnesse but per vocem
contain the Serpents rejoynder or replie in his second Dixit to the Woman in which he now having occasion doth plainly lay himself open and discover himself to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a blasphemous mouth opposing himself to the holy word of God wherefore though at the first sight he was hid under a Mask yet now he seeing the time doth uncover himself bewraying how foul a spirit he is by his impudent lies and horrible impiety by which one would think that she might now at last and not too late have espied him though at the first sight in simplicity she took him for a Serpent indeed for she might well know that no Creature of God unless he had by Apostacy rebelled and oppugned the truth and will of God that ever could speak such horrible and impious blasphemies and lies as these But it may seem that she giving such eare and credit to the spirit of lies having the knowledge of Gods truth that by Gods just judgements she was blinded and could not see as it oftentimes commeth to pass Rom. 1. 21. 24. 26. Now we are come to speak of the particulars of this reply in which we see first his drift and intent is to remove and take away that little fear of Gods judgements which was yet remaining in her and kept her from eating the forbidden fruit wherefore in this speech he seemeth friendly to reprove her q.d. Alas you are more timerous and fearfull a great deal than needs you are all this while in an error if you perswade your self that you shall die for eating this fruit for I tell you and will prove to you that without all peradventure you shall be so sarre from any danger of death hereby that you shall not once taste of death at all Thus we see him with an impudent face and blasphemous mouth to face her out with his bragging argument drawn from his own authority for if we consider the matter of his speech it is nothing at all but that which commeth out of his forge of lies for he is a lier from the beginning John 8. 44. Thus he opposeth his own word to the infallible word of Gods truth and would have it taken and believed before that which God hath said q.d. You are too credulous to beleeve all that God saith to be true for I tell you in this point it is not true for you shall not die Now because there might be a question and doubt whether all this that the Devill saith be gospell and true therefore he craftily rendereth a reason for the proof and confirmation of his assertion His first reason to 〈◊〉 is scit deus which is a calling of God to witness by way of protestation and oath to appeal to the knowledge of God for 〈◊〉 that he saith true which ever since hath been the practise of the Devill in wicked men to teach them by swearing to call God to witness against the truth as if he were the maintainer of their falsehood and lies which is not only the taking of Gods name in vanum but also in falsum which is most divelish Secondly he will take in hand by a plain demonstration that they should not die by eating of this fruit after this sort God doth envy your good estate which by eating this fruit you may come unto for God knowing that by eating it you should become equall to himself doth therefore take this order and course to keep you from it namely to tell you and make you beleeve that if you once eat of it you are poysoned and undone as if it were deadly whereas indeed it is most sovereign and precious In which you see how impiously and bla phemously he chargeth Almighty God of envy and of a malicious minde and that of a Serpentine malice such as is indeed the Devill namely that he under the colour and pretence of good will doth cover and hide his hatefull and spitefull minde withall which might have made her to say of the Devill as Paul did of Elimas the Childe of the Devill Acts 13. 10. O pater mendacii plenus omni dolo O inimice veritatis justitiae For as blasphemous Rabshakeh did Isaiah 36. 15. so doth the Devill here facet Deum falissimum falacissimum the rather to deceive simple men Now for the second part of his speech it conteineth a promise to open their eyes to deifie them and make them as God if they eat this q.d. Tush what talk you of dying the death God which maketh a shew of loving you as a friend doth goe about to hide and keep from you the fruit which is most precious and more beneficiall to you than all the trees of the Garden besides for it is not only good and wholesome for meat but also of such rare and divine virtue that it will make them that eat thereof as God knowing all c. So that by advice ye should rather forbear all the trees in the Garden than this one which is forbidden you This may seem to be the effect of his speech but now particularly he will goe forward to shew her what the speciall hidden virtues of this tree are first saith he it hath a power to open your eyes In which speech he seemeth to perswade her that as yet they were in the state of blinde men as if the eyes of their mindes were hooded and blinde-folded so long as they had not the knowledge of evill as well as of good So the Devill misliketh their estate because they knew not evill but God would have had them so holy harmeless and good that they should not so much as once know what any evill should mean much less to doe or seell evill but the Devills intent and desire was to make them know evill both by act and also by wofull experience to their utter overthrow But suppose that it were a want and imperfection in them we know that their duty had been to have sought to God for remedy who in Revel 3. 18. willeth all such blinde ones to buy eye salve of him but they making the Devill their Physitian became indeed starke blind and had both eyes 〈◊〉 clean out The second bait wherewith hee doth fish to take and entrap her is sicut Dei in which hee doth promise to deifie her and canonize her as a God in heaven he would perswade her that it were too base an estate for her still to remain as a Lord and Prince on earth he would have them to aspire to all Honor Power Glory and Majesty that they might once come to bee as God without check or controll of any other superior power This apple of preferment renown and dignity is the bait at which all ambitious and vain-glorious men doe greedily gape after and are taken by the Devill By this then appeareth that the devill was the first which went about to make and have more gods than one and his speech is to this effect q.d. Your God
which inward desire of revenge must likewise be overcome as the Apostle willeth Romans the twelfth chapter Avenge not your selves sed vince malum bono we must overcome the evil of our fleshly lusts and desires of revenge with the grace of mortification and patience 2. Extra Secondly The seed of the Serpent is without us for there are filii Belial of whom were those to whom Christ said John the eight chapter You are of your Father the Devil Such as will doe mischief for doing well such enemies are men of corrupt mindes and understandings that are destitute of the truth and are bold to say that gain is godlinesse from which we must separate our selves the first epistle to Timothy the sixt chapter and the fift verse And if we overcome in this warre then we shall be partakers of this promise But who overcommeth in this warre and who can say he is a conqueror in this battall The Apostle saith That he that sinneth is overcome of sinne and brought into bondage of the sinne the second epistle of Peter the second chapter and the nineteenth verse Therefore where the promise is here made only to him that overcommeth we must see if the Scripture offereth more graces James the fourth chapter and the sixt verse And if we look into Apocalyps the second chapter and the fift verse we shall finde there he that makes this promise offers more graces that is Remember from whence thou art fallen and repent and doe thy first works Dâ—… victoria So there are two victories the first is continere a peccato the other is paenitere de peccato If we cannot get this victory over the Serpent that he doe not cause us to sinne at all yet if we so farre overcome him that sinne reign not in our mortal bodies Romans the sixt chapter and the twelfth verse if we wound his head which was promised Genesis the third chapter and the fifteenth verse so as though he cause us to sinne yet he get not the head or set up his throne in our hearts then we are to hope that we shall be 〈◊〉 of this promise if we return from whence we are fallen and repent us of the sinnes we have committed and doe the first works then no doubt we shall be restored to our first estate and Christ shall give us a new right in the tree of life But he that either fighteth not at all but is at a league with Hell and hath made a Covenant with death Isaiah the twenty eighth chapter he that will deny sinne nothing but will fulfill the lusts of the flesh or if he fight yet he fight not lawfully nor strive to overcome but is content to follow every temptation as an oxe led to the slaughter Proverbs the seventh chapter and not only so but put stumbling blocks before himself which may make him fall Ezekiel the fourteenth chapter and use all means that he may be overcome And if having fallen they labour not to get the victory after by repenting of his former sinnes and doing the first works then they have no part in this first promise Men may draw neer to the holy mysterie of Christs body and blood and snatch at the tree of life but Christ gives it not except they be such as overcome either by the grace of abstinencie from sinne or of repentance and sorrow for sinne They may be partakers of the tree of life de 〈◊〉 but not de jure The bread of life is to them as the bread of wrong Proverbs the fourth chapter and the seventeenth verse and the bread of deceit which shall in the end fill their mouths with gravell Proverbs the twentieth chapter So both the promise and condition are touched But the question is How we shall overcome that we learn Apocalyps the twelfth chapter where the Saints are said to overcome the great dragon the old Serpent with the blood of the Lambe Which blood hath two uses First that which the Apostle calls the sprinkling of the blood of 〈◊〉 Christ the first epistle of Peter the first chapter and the second verse Secondly That by receiving the cup of blessing we are partakers of the blood of Christ the first epistle to the Corinthians the tenth chapter and the sixteenth verse So that in these words is a reciprocation vincenti ut comedat comedenti ut vincat dabo edere the body and blood of Christ is the fruit of that tree of life which the Apostle speaks of the first epistle of Peter the second chapter and the twenty fourth verse That he bare our sinnes in his body upon the tree Of which fruit whosoever are partakers in the Sacrament when it is ministred to them doe receive power to overcome that so they may eate of the tree of eternal life For in this Sacrament we have both a means of victory and a pledge of our reward that is the life of grace begun in us here to assure us of a glorious life in the world to come Every tree must have a root and the root of that tree which Christ speaks of is here in this Sacrament for in it is sown in the hearts of the receivers as it were a kernel which in time shoots forth and becomes a tree for as there was a death of the soul by sinne before God inflicted a death of the body so answerable to that first death of sinne there must be in us a life of grace which is the root of that tree from whence we shall in due time receive the life of glory In this sacrament the tree of the life of Grace is town in us that is a measure of grace wrought in our hearts by the power of Gods spirit by which we shall at length attain to eate of that tree which shall convey unto us the life of glory As there are two trees of life so we must have a double Paradise We must have liberty to be of the Paradise on earth that is the Church Militant which is called hortus conclusus Canticles the second chapter before we can be received into the heavenly Paradise that is the Church Triumphant So there is a plain analogie between those As when we are dead in sinnes and in the uncircumcision of the flesh Colossians the second chapter and the thirteenth verse we receive the life of grace by the sprinkling of the blood of Christ in baptism so when we are fallen from the life of grace and are restrained from the life of God Ephesians the fourth chapter and eighteenth verse and dead in trespasses and sinnes Ephesians the second chapter then we obtain victory against sinne and death by the blood of the Lamb being drunk in the Sacrament Apocalyps the twelfth chapter and the eleventh verse For if the material tree of life in Paradise received such influence from God Genesis the third chapter that being dead in it felse it had power to convey the natural life of our Parents while they eat of
Surely all this was for his advantage and ease indeed but seeing he yeelded cowardly to the Devill notwithstanding all these helps therefore they doe 〈◊〉 his sinne and make it more 〈◊〉 and more immeasurably sinfull before God and man Now it is said that the Devill did possesse and enter into the Serpent as being well content to try whether this instrument and means would serve his turn and this is not a thing any whit strange or incredible but very usually seen and often heard that the Devill can and hath really possessed and dwelt in the bodies of earthly creatures as he entred into man Luke 11. 24 Into Swyne Luke 8. 33. Acts 16. 16. All which doe make this matter plain and easie to believe But for the other point of the Devills power to make a dumb creature to speak this hath been a stumbling block at which Athiests and carnall men led by corrupt and sensuall reason have stumbled and fell down into flat infidelity saying they would never believe it but we must not be moved with the infidelity of such for the truth of Gods word shall stand undoubted and true in despite of them which resist it One father shewing the truth of this place saith thus what will you not believe that the Devill can speak in a Serpent nor make a Serpent to speak because it is against his nature to speak will ye think that which is strange in reason to be impossible to the Devill God permitting him to doe it Then saith he if ye will believe nothing but that for which a reason may be yeelded give me a reason of the nether Jaw or Chap which only having a small little sinew as a thread to hold it up is notwithstanding in some of such strength as to be able to bite in sunder a ten-penny nail tell me saith he how the Liver and Stomack having in them such a 〈◊〉 heat as can consume and digest very substantiall things and yet notwithstanding should not be consumed or wasted thereby it self Again saith he are there not in all ages of the world many strange and wonderfull things seen and heard of which are most true of which no reason at all can be gathered why then should this thing seem incredible and so strange as that ye should deny ever it was done And thus much of his answer to their incredulous objection Ille dixit mulieri Et jamne edixisse Deum ne comedatis omni fructu arborum hujus horti Gen. 3. 1. HAving spoken of the principall actor in this temptation and of the instrument which he used we are now by order come to speak of the manner of this temptation For here we see that it is said that the Devill used the Serpents tongue that by way of speech and conference he might intrap mankinde where first we see the policy which the Devill useth for his advantage that is not to set upon the man and the woman being both together but to watch when he might take them separate one from another and being asunder he assaulted not the man but the woman which is the weaker Vessel thinking that if he could make her his friend and to consent to 〈◊〉 perswasion that then she being so deer to the man might be a means the rather to enforce and draw him also thereto And the best means he can invent to perswade the woman to 〈◊〉 is fair flattering speech full of falsehood and lies and that his speech might be affectuall he doth not only lay siege unto the eares by his Dixit but also layeth an alluring object before her eyes and so by both offereth the thing forbidden unto her taste He hath venom like a Crocodile to infect the eye and cunningly conveyeth his poyson also in by her eares and so at the last maketh it take hold upon 〈◊〉 heart to her destruction as we have heard in Gen. 1. 16. 17. God Sermon teaching him his commandement and duty so 〈◊〉 we shall hear the Devills Sermon to disgrace and disannul 〈◊〉 In which speech of the Serpent the scope of the Devill at which he 〈◊〉 is to separate man and God and to undoe the knot of love by which they were united for he knew that the dissolving of the Law would 〈◊〉 the undoing of man and so the overthrow of all the world To this end therefore he doth falsly and blasphemously here 〈◊〉 and accuse God unto man to make his holy word become odious unto him And whereas the Devill had many waies to bring into hatred Gods Commandement and to call in question Gods good-will as he might have taught her to quarrell with God and to make her beleeve that he was durus Dominus very hard to them because God had denyed them many things which the dumb Creatures have granted to them namely because they cannot 〈◊〉 as Fowles doe 〈◊〉 runne as swist as Horses nor goe as strong as Lyons doe But he 〈◊〉 all such petty quarrels he will 〈◊〉 issue with her in the 〈◊〉 weighty matter that is namely to make God odious in his word 〈◊〉 commandement which he gave them and so it commeth to 〈◊〉 that he qui in veritate non stetit etiam veritati resistit knowing that Gods Dixit is that by which all things were made and that by 〈◊〉 all things are mainteined and therefore hoped that 〈…〉 〈◊〉 be ruinamundi and he dealeth not with Gods generall word of 〈◊〉 but with his speciall word of Commandement which 〈◊〉 knew did most properly and that only belong upto man in 〈◊〉 for by it Adam held Tenure of Eden and by it only he enjoyed 〈◊〉 of life and the favour of God and it being broken then 〈◊〉 presently morte morieris that is all miseries of this life which 〈◊〉 to a miserable death First of all therefore the Devils devise is to call in question and 〈◊〉 make a doubt of the truth of Gods word and thereby at last 〈◊〉 to bring a plain and flat contradiction of it denying yea opposing his false word to the truth thereof for from dixitne we shall see him come to non dixit deus Thus we see what he laboreth to wring out of the heart of Eve by little and little the love and delight she had in the word of God To which end he craftily maketh his first Dixit to be a speech of question or interrogation asking whether God indeed and in good earnest ever said so and from thence he proceedeth unto nequaquam moriemini which is a positive speech of presumption that though they break that Law yet they should not die In the first he is the interogative Devill but at last he is the negative Devill not only doubting but denying 〈◊〉 the truth thereof A Serpent hath a double tongue under one is the gall of bitterness which is doubtfullness under the other is the poyson of Aspes which is open unbeliese The first speech dixÃtne is called sibilus Serpentis but his last
fruit which would make us as Gods when he knew that it would be as poison to our bodies and make us damned Devils Now this following of the Devills counsell and advise in this place is so much the worse in Adam and so much the more to be condemned because twice before he had followed it with ill success and saw he was deceived which might have been a double caveat and fair warning to him now to beware but as he had followed the Devils counsell twice before in practise and deed so we shall see him to follow it twice hereafter in word For first of all touching his word and speech the Devill teacheth him a peece of his Sophistry teaching him that he must needs answer to put non causam pro causa And secondly in the other place he teacheth him a peece also of the Devils Rhetorick which is called translatio criminis a laying the fault upon another and so shifting it from himself outward covering and inward dissembling hath a very good correspondence and therefore hypocrisie is compared to a Cloak or masking Hood Job saith 31. 33. If I hide my sinne as Adam did concealing my sinne in my bosom will not God finde it out and punish it But Adam being bewitched and infatuated by the Devill that spirit of error had learned to make choice rather to strive with Gods justice than to appeal to his mercy for favour and grace whereas by confessing he might have had pardon he by defending it brought himself the more deeply into judgment and his sin the more into question and triall By confessing his sinne Christ would have been his advocate to plead for his pardon but by defending and justifying it he made him to be a Proctor to plead against him and Judge to give sentence against him whereas by confessing his disease God would have been his Physitian to heal him he è contra by taking on himself to heal his own sickness made himself and his disease more grievous and more desparare But let us come to see how he seeketh a quia and an ergo that is a good reason and argument to defend and justific his deed Let us I say come to the particulars of his answer and see the strength and validitie of his reasons for if it be good and justifiable it will hold the proof and the examination will doe it no hurt Concerning which first we know it in corrupt policy that it is good alwayes to begin a lye with a truth or at least with great likelyhood of verity that so the lye may after run more currant and goe more roundly away therefore at the first in the forefront of his answer he places indeed a manifest and known truth that he heard Gods voice and the second also is truly said that nothing might be suspected namely that he was afraid In which two truths confessed the Fathers doe say are contained the first and second degrees which by Gods Decree should have been the two chief inducements to move men to repentance and therefore in that he was not moved to submission and confession of his fault thereby they gather that this part of his confession also is against himself therefore these two evasions are nothing but to make against his cause The second excuse is of decencie and 〈◊〉 or comelinesse as who should say I saw it a shamefull thing and very unmeet and undecent to appear before thee being naked and therefore I hid my self in which he doth make his thought and imagination a rule to measure Gods estimation and judgement by as if that which he thinketh inconvenient and uncomely God must think and esteem to be unseemly and unmeet also The Prophet Samuell saith 16. 7. 1 Sam. 16. 7. That God seeth not as man seeth neither are our thoughts his thoughts he is not moved with the like passions that we are for Job in sterquilinio was more pretious and amiable in the eyes of God and more acceptable to his minde quà m Heredes in solio as a Father saith and the reason is because he looketh to that holiness which is within and accepteth a man thereafter and regardeth not the outward estate of the body whether he be 〈◊〉 or in poor aparrel as men of corrupt judgment doe Jam 2. 3. 4. therefore Adams thought and conceit of his bodily nakedness which seemed unseemly to him ought not to be taken as a rule to measure Gods thoughts and to prove and determine what is undecent and unreverent in the eyes and judgment of God touching the outward things for seeing that nakedness is factum dei it cannot simply displease him or be detestable in his sight for he saw all that he had made was passing good nothing to be ashamed of as undecent therefore it is certain that if this had been all the matter which he pretendeth he might have boldly for all his nakedness have presented himself without shame or fear before God for as I have shewed that nakedness of their bodies in which they were made and which they enjoyed being innocent was no matter of blushing but of beauty no blemish or undecencie but an ornament glory to them as the nakedness of the Sun and Moon is such a glory and beauty to them that if any should put upon these glorious bodies a Cloak of velvet or Cloth of gold it would be so farre from beautifying them that it were a blemish and disgrace undecent for them and this is the hope and expectation of the Sonnes of God one day to enjoy that happy estate again in which they shall want no bodily garments to cover them but shall all shine in glory as the Sun in the skie Thus we see that this quia and ergo will not stand it is not Gods art or workmanship nor his voice that made him feare flie or hide but somewhat else which he had done and committed whatsoever it be which God will bring to light and make apparent hereafter Now let us come to the consequence here set down ergo abdidi for which we shall perceive that this is no good or right reason or consequence which he should have inferred uppon the premisses for thus he should have concluded I was afraid and naked and fled for conscience of my sinne therefore I confess humbly my sinnes before thee and doe crave pardon for them Thou diddest open mine eyes that I saw my sinne and thou openedst mine eares by feare that I knew thy judgment ergo now also open my mouth that I may confess humbly and open my heart that I may repent truly for it thus he should have made his consequence I heard thy presence with majesty comming ergo I prepared my self to meet my Lord right humbly confessing my finnes that I might have found pardon this was Jacobs resolution and conclusion in policie Gen. 32. 7. when he heard that Esau came against him he feared and was troubled and therefore used all means preparing