Disciples in another case This is a hard saying or we may beg with them Master teach us these things there wants some Oedipus of holy writ to dissolve this doubt It hath beene the fond opinion of some that Devills are corporeall and have seminall propagation Psellus set it a foote Cardanus maintained and confirmed it and Scaliger justly confutes it Math. 9.34 Probable it is that there is a chiefe of those wicked spirits stiled the Prince of Divels Ephes 2.2 and the Prince of the power of the Aire and pointed at before in the Text in that single terme thee And many others there are it not seduced by him as Aquinas thinkes yet subjected to him or at least sharers with him both of his sinne and punishment Math 25. called his Angels and in my text his seed There are also others which are of the Serpents seed we shall not need rake hell to finde them they are not of the nature of spirits but cloathed with flesh and blood As Tully speakes of Cataline Vivunt in Senatum veniunt They live and daily converse amongst us Christ cals Iudas a divell Iohn 6.70 Iohn 8.44 Marlorat in locum Aug. in Ioh. tract 42. tels the Pharisees Ye are of your Father the Divell Non quoad substantiae traducem sed naturae corruptelam not in regard of the traduction of their substance but the corruption of their nature non nascendo as the Manichees held but imitando by imitating his cursed workes These two waies they are the divels seed by corruption of their nature by imitation of the divels workes Such are those qui conantur destruere fidem that endeavour to destroy faith and take that out of the earth as Tyrants or corrumpere fidem to corrupt the faith as Heretickes When Marcion asked Policarpus Agnoscis me Doest thou know me His answer was Agnosco te primogenitum Satanae I know thee to be the divels first borne childe or those that seeke disrumpere charitatem to breake the bond of Christian charity as Schismatiques and in generall all carnall unregenerate men that either truely know not Christ or in the whole course of their lives deny him are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Saint Iohn saith of that evill one the Divell Her seed The womans seed must be conceived to be Christ and Christians Christ in the first place He was the womans seed of her loynes of her bowels bone of her bone and flesh of her flesh Eusebius Emissenus he tooke from her a true reall substantiall body Sanguinem quem pro matre obtulit antea de sanguine matris accepit Contrary to that of the Marcionites and Manichees the one dreaming of an imaginary body of his onely in shew semblance and apparition corpus Phantasticum the other of a bare heavenly body which hee brought with him from heaven and with which hee passed through her body as water through a Conduit-pipe without any assumption of her nature In my text he was the seed of the woman 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 1.3 Iohn 1.14 Galat. 4.4 Ierem. 31.22 he was made flesh made of a woman though not by the usuall course of nature The Lord shall create a new thing in the earth a woman shall compasse a man Foemina circundans virum est virgo concipiens Deum Bernard Hom. 2. A Virgin shall conceive and beare God incarnate But how a mother and yet a Virgin wonder we may yet we cannot but believe when the holy Ghost supplies the place of a parent Non goneratione sed jussione Aug. benedictione 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not by carnall effusion of seminall humour but by manufacture or handyworke I may conclude with Saint Ambrose Ambros Multa in Christo invenies secundum naturam ultra naturam It was naturall that he should be the seed of the woman above nature that it could be without the seed of man And this is the complement of all humane generations Adam was neither of man nor woman but slime Eve of a man without a woman all wee of man and woman Christ of a woman without a man Her seed i. Christians in the second place which are not so properly the womans seed as her seeds seed borne not of flesh and blood Iohn 1.13 1 Pet. 1.23 Psalm 22.30 nor of the will of man but of the Will of God the Word of God the seed that serve God and are accounted to him for a generation not that naturall seed of Abraham of which God said to him that his seed should be as the dust of the earth Genes 13.16 But that spirituall seed which should be as the Starres of Heaven Genes 15.5 So then his meaning is that betwixt Christ and beleevers on him and the Devill and his adherents in hell on earth there is a perpetuall enmity Christs enemy the Divell was in his Cradle on the Crosse an enemy at the temptation in his preaching in his miracles and in that whole worke of mans redemption An enemy to Christians he is and ever will be He makes warre with the remnant of her seed which keepe the Commandements of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ Apoc. 12.17 Apoc. 13. He persecutes those that dwell in heaven those that live here with erect conversations lifted up unto the Author and sinisher of their faith It is not thus with the wicked they feele not the forces of his enmity Pax Pax all that they possesse is in peace while Satan peaceably possesseth them they make a covenant with hell are at an agreement with death and sticke not to say Apoc. 18. as the great Whore I sit as a Queene and shall never be removed No man hunts for tamed Fowles but wild and estranged these are his already it is in vaine to seeke their further Captivation But he lookes with the aspect of a Basiliske upon the life of a righteous man A Saints soule is a pearle in his condemned eye true believing Christians are the maliced parties whom hee and his doe prosecute with deadly hatred In sanctificatis nobis maxime diaboli tentamenta grassantur quia magis exoptata est ei victoria de sanctis Sanctified men are the marke of his temptation and over them he doth principally desire a victory As there is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth so is there joy in hell over one righteous man that fals into sinne and the snares of the Devill more then over many that are his bond-slaves Chrys Adhoc praelium accinge te Christiane Buckle thy selfe O Christian to encounter this enemy of thy Master and of thy selfe that hath undone thy parents and seekes to destroy thee likewise et pro affectu pro charitate pro ipsa denique naturâ for affection for Charity even for natures sake revenge on him these injuries and let him never triumph and set up his banners for tokens in the ruines of them and thee
Sitnah hatred contention and hatred are in it open violence and secret circumvention God himselfe the breeder of this contention the occasioner of this quarrel 't is vox Dei the voice of God and not of man who here is both a Prophet and a Preacher of enmity I will put Enmity and therefore it is not evill for God himselfe who is goodnesse it selfe is author of it It is not casuall or contingent as the Philistines were halfe perswaded of their plague of Emerodes a chance had happened to them but a predestinate prevised decree 1 Sam. 6. a setled enmity I will put t is not a slender and triviall discord but enmity it self in the abstract t is not unjust in regard of the adverse parties the Serpent and the woman once at a false amity now God puts a true enmity betwixt them which was not onely personall bounded to themselves alone but derived to their posterities perpetuum certamen an everlasting conflict betweene them and their seedes for ever nor is the issue uncomfortable for the victory is already determined for the woman and her seed he shall breake c. Now whereas the Septuagint render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 observabit te it should rather be as a Critick observes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 conteret or else it is too short and though the Originall be equall in both yet Divines have generally noted an inequality multo gravius accipies damnum quà m offeres He shall breake thy head Tremell and thou shalt but bruise his heele So that my text is Castrorum acies bene ordinata an army well marshalled where every one keepes his place and ranke First here is the prime agent and heavenly disposer I. Secondly his active power determination or constitution it selfe will put Thirdly the Instrument or meanes used to effect it enmity Fourthly the subjects of this contrariety the serpent and the woman his seed and her seed opposite ex Diametro one to the other Fiftly the effects He shall breake thy head and thou shalt c. or in military tearmes we have First the moover of this quarrell divine goodnesse justice and providence Secondly the measure of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 enmity not onely simultas a secret spleene but open manifest malice and detestation joyned with a desire to do hurt Thirdly the Antagonists or Combatants The serpent and the woman and their innumerable armies Lastly the Successe of the Combat the conflict is fierce there are hurts on both sides but the conquest is glorious He shall breake thy head c. In the one Champion you may see valour and victory valour in that he aymes and strikes at the head victory in that he breakes the head In the other Wicednesse and Weakenesse Malice joyned with power restreyned and disabled to performe his mischievous intents In that he can but bruise though he desires to doe more and that but the heele though he desires to goe farther Thou shalt but bruise his flesh is impenetrable and but his heele his body is impregnable Gal. 4.24 Yet this is but the casket there is a rich jewell within for I must use the Apostle his phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These things are an Allegory there is a sweet kernell shut up under this shell of words And this particle he or it hath a double portion among the rest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a most faire and rich Margarite Christ himselfe a precious treasure hid here in this field of enmity and he whom the heaven of heavens cannot containe is couched in this small continent The seed of the woman by whom the head of the serpent must be broken the Sonne of God in whom all the nations of the earth must be blessed I am sure full of grace and truth are these wordes in God the Father so fully freely and fitly promising to send his owne Sonne to save the world as soone as it was lost and to restore man as yet by an actuall sentence of Iudgement uncondemned These choice particulars are in this text all which with brevity I will orderly and plainly point at I must begin well 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with God himselfe l God is in this place in this particle Aug. Ego cum pondere pronuntiandum saith a Father But if any not satisfied with this Solecisme should aske this Question what is his name and his sonnes name Let him know Prov. 30.4 Deus est nomen suum nomen suum ipse est God is his name and his name is himselfe and if we will be wise to sobriety let us not be so curious to know what he is in himselfe as carefull to observe what he is to us Our Creatour in the first chapter our Redeemer in this verse J will the will of God is the first fountaine and Soveraigne cause of all things He worketh all things according to the counsell of his owne Will He is no idle Ephes 1.11 or Idoll God as ignorants make him that sits in the chayre of contemplation but he is alwaies active and operative Curiosus et plenus negotii ' Deus A curious exquisite provident God full of businesse Aug. Nor is he housed above the Moone as the Peripatetickes would have him but he taketh care of things below and that from the highest to the lowest yet nec superior in illis nec inferior in istis neither superiour in those Aug. nor inferiour in these he sees and forsees all things from eternity to eternity as if present he foreknoweth what they shal be he worketh them before they are decrees them before he workes them bringes to passe what he decrees and turnes all things he brings to passe to his owne peculiar designed endes and this is all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the counsell of his will and in my text it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the good will and pleasure of God prevising purposing providing aforehand that mercy and comfort which he meant to shew to his in future generations I will But can such bright beames produce such a foggy vapour as enmity can so pure a fountaine send forth such troubled streames Farre be it from the Maker of al things to do that which is unbeseeming his heavenly moderation and as farre be it from us to conceive so of our mercifull Creatour The rule is true Ideo misit Deus bonam separationem ut malam rumperet conjunctionem God therefore sent a good separation that he might dissolve an evill conjunction And as for the inference of this enmity Zach ◠7 Grace Grace unto it yea blessed be the wombe that bare it and the paps that gave it sucke This warre is our peace this strife is our attonement This enmity betweene Satan and us is our unity with God and our amity with the blessed Angells Heere are grapes of thornes and figs of thistles the sealed gates of everlasting life rend open by these brushes Ephes 3.10
This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the manifold wisedome of God that fetcheth about his purposes from a farre and by strange meanes effects his designements workes out his owne ends and our comforts by contrary instruments procures health by poison takes hony out of a weed water out of a Rock oile out of a stone good out of evill light out of darknes salvation out of enmity I will put enmity The next thing is the parties betwixt whom the litigation and contention is the Serpent and the woman two companions in evill confederates in rebellion now God sets them at variance It is a rule of Tacitus that society once throughly broken proves deadly and he gives the reason of it Quae apud concordes vincula charitatis Tacitus incitamenta irarum apud infensos sunt Those things which before coupled their friendship in a mutuall interchangeable familiarity are now occasions of greater detestation The text verefies it The serpent and the woman were as inward as might be in injustice they tooke sweet sowre counsell together had stricken their right hands together in a wrong fellowship now they are in an uproaâ—e and intestine insurrection The society that keepes not within the pale of obedience is nothing else but a partnership in conspiracy a disordered Order easily broken Concordia discors it begins in sedition and ends in contention and though wicked men symbolize in that which is naught yet God doth Commonly knap in sunder their staffe of bands bruise the heele or breake the head of their combination And though there be a day when Herod and Pilate be made friends Luke 23.12 and cleave together in their devices like the woman and the serpent against the first and second Adam Yet there shall be a time when they shall be separated each from other as farre as the East from the West Their affections as farre remote and distant as the Hyena and the dog the weake strings of their rotten society loosed and their bowes strongly bent in a mutuall opposition It is just with God to set them one against another who have set themselves against him and to make revolters from him their Captaine to mutinize among themselves Thus God threatned to set the Egyptians against the Egyptians as Cadmus his army bred of serpents teeth Isa 19.2 killed each other Capitall is this enmity betweene the serpent and the woman So that you may as soone bring the two poles of heaven together as these two to unity For it is enmity in the abstract and so it barres the subjects of any coalition Reconciliation may be made betweene enemies but never where enmity it selfe is setled as betwixt these two And being thus parted my discourse must likewise sever them Thee i. the Devill whose Creation or corruption it pleased God that Moses his pen should not exactly describe unto us et secretum suum sibi nec audemus hic aliquid coniicere quod ille curauit retinere As Saint Bernard well Bern. upon a better occasion Let the Lords secrets be with himselfe I will not have an eye to see where God hath not a finger to set downe And though I am ignorant of his nature yet will I strive not to be ignorant of his devises Revel 20.8 undoubtedly He it is whom the spirit of God cals 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Dragon the old Serpent which is the Devill and Satan A Father briefely describes him and his companions Aug. they are Spiritus nocendi cupidissimi a justitia penitus alieni superbia tumidi Jdem tract 100 in Ioh. invidentia lividi fallacia callidi And in another place the same Father tearms them both desertores forsakers of God and deceptores deceivers of us This is one of the Champions you may match him with that Goliah of the Philistines The other is a weake opponent but comes like David in the Name of the Lord. The woman mannesse or she-man according to the originall mans helper dimidium anime his better halfe his yoke-fellow his second selfe Yet Translators have heere rendered it Mulier à Mollitie from her nicenesse her tendernesse of constitution 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 genus mulierum a Creature that delights in Ornaments Saint Chrysostome sayth keenely she was the Devills engine to undoe man Tim. 2.14 But Saint Paul more mildely she was of two earthen vessells the weaker and deceived in the transgression And his conclusion is sweet through bearing of children she shall be saved for she should at the last beare him that should both save her and all true beleevers Prov. 31. Mulierem fortem quis inveniet sayth the wise man who can finde a strong or a vertuous woman which a Father expounds to be an admiration Bern. not a dubitation For though Solomon knew the weakenesse of that sex yet he looked at the stability of Gods promise that the same hand should be an instrument of wounding and healing Et qui vicerat per foeminam Bern. vinceretur per ipsam He that had overcome by the woman should bee overcome by the woman though not by the same individuall person For divines note that Eve imagined her selfe to be the mother of the holy seed and therefore when she bare Cain she sayd Genes 4 1. acquisivi virum a Iehovah I have gotten a man of the Lord Others more punctually making eth a signe of the accusative case and not onely so Genes 4.2 but an emphaticall demonstrative equivalent to the Greeke Article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 render it Acquisivi virum Iehovah I have gotten that man that is the Lord but seeing her expectation frustrate she names her next sonne Abel vanity to shew how vaine her opinion was For it was not Eve but that handmaid which the Lord had appointed These are the two combatants Numb 22. that stand in my Text like the Angell in Balaams way with their swordes in their hands drawne one against the other the persons whom God sets at variance yet neither is this their enmity personall bounded to themselves or limited to their proprietaries but diffusing it selfe through the veines of their seed and like a Gangren running over the whole body of their posterity thy seed and her seed Immortall is the hatred and dissension of mortall men and enmity runnes in a continuall line The malice kindled among Ancestors is cherished by succeeding progeny Nati natorum et qui nascentur ab illis Children and childrens children will adde fuell to it and possesse the inflamed bloud of their parents To have Ionathan Sauls sonne to love David Sauls reputed enemy is as great a wonder as to have Saul himselfe among the prophets following generations commonly tread the steps of the former Chrys but especially endlesse are those quarrells ubi inimicitiae divina authoritate firmantur As in the text betweene the serpent and the woman and their seeds Thy seed Whose The Divels Surely we may say as the