assigning Adam for food the fruits of the earth intended not to teach us what our viands ought to be knowing very well that the cloudes of the aire nor the gulphs of the Sea are not secure from mans Gluttony After that sense in Adam had given place to reason and that delight had in a great measure seated and rebated the edge of his appetite the woman was adverted by Adam not to touch that Fruit which was so mortiferous in its effects to the eater Such saith he my Dear is the commandement of God The transgressing it would be ingratitude and impiety would ravish us of all these delights and our Empire over the Creation It is unworthy of the affection of great ones that know not how to part with their obedience and if obedience is necessary to all how much more doth it beseem us that have a God so prodigal of his bounties that he hath vouchsafed to us together with his image a part of his Divinity The Woman became at those prohibitions the more curious To forbid a woman is to increase her appetite He that denies the any thing adds a spurre to that desire which is ardent in all things but in things prohibited insatiable The Woman therfore transported by those impatiencies that interposed between them and their felicity left Adam desiring to injoy without testimonys and without check the sight of that fruit which being forbidden was to be supposed the more exquisite The Woman the more distant she is from her Husband the more adjacent she is to Sin and whilst alone is in perill of destroying herselfe because she gives incouragement opportunity to any one to tempt her A solitary Woman is exposed to the temptations even of Serpents The Moon is eclipsed by the vicinity of the Sunne The Woman on the contrary commonly finds her honesty eclipsed in the absence of her Husband Having found the tree she beheld the fruits with so-much curiosity that it induced the Devill to tempt her He that takes away opportunity from the Devill takes away his strength he can do litle harme to those that do not give him accesse Curiosity is the mother of sinne and daughter of disobedience Amongst the infinite forms of animals there was a Serpent with the face of a Damsel which God had replenished with all subtility In sagacitie and in craftinesse there was not that creature under Heaven that could match him This the Divell chose for the instrument of his wickednesse envying the felicity of Man because created after him and of a more ignoble substance he triumphed with the Dominion of the World and the possession of the favour of his Divine Majesty He served himselfe of a serpent that had the face of a Damsell to advertize us that trecheries alwaies maske themselves with the pretexts of simplicity and mansuetude Or because the Divell beleived himselfe unable to deceive a Woman if he did not make use of a mouth or face like that of a Woman The Devill would tempt the Woman and not the Man because he knew her more facil of beleife and more feeble of resistance He began from the inferiour part that so with order he might come to possesse himselfe of the whole He knew that men seldome give credit to promises and fall easilier by yelding to the errors of others than being deceived in their owne This enemy of Mankind first suffered the eyes of the Woman to convey to the heart the desire of tasting that forbidden Tree And then with a smile which nourished and confected the poyson he said unto her O fairest Woman the miraculous gift of Heaven to blesse the eyes of your beholder I doe for my part believe that this Garden can only so far boast the name of Paradise as it injoyes your presence which hath efficacy to imparadise not only the affections of all hearts but also the insensibility of all plants stones But be pleased to honour me with the solution of one doubt Why are you prohibited by God to taste of all the fruites of this Garden since they are prostituted to the desire even of the vilest animals and are so delicate that it sufficeth to say that they are of Paradise Did it not suffice God to have subjected you to the law of nature and moreover to have added the supernaturall without imposing the yoak of a positive law upon you to which the irrationall Brutes themselves are not obliged This God is too severe that prohibits you the very fruition of the Trees of the earth And too parsimonious in that he would reserve those fruits which were given by the seasons I compassionate your condition restrained within so narrow bounds that to observe them is of necessity to contend with impossibility How great is the malice of the Divell God had prohibited the fruite of one only Tree but he making the commands of God difficult by aggravating them demands why they were not forbidden all As if the greatnesse of precepts excused and warranted in some part their non-observance and disobedience The woman wondred not to heare a Serpent which articulated his voice and pronounced words either because she believed it a miracle of the Soveraigne power of God or because Women when they are once ravished by any appearance regard not the very impossibility of Nature herselfe She started not at the sight of a Serpent for seeing it resemble her selfe in countenance she rather rejoyced then feared it being naturall to joy in those things which resemble us Or else because in the primitive state of Innocence all creatures obeyed man and as they had not power nor poyson to offend so much lesse did they retaine any thing of terror to affright This was the will of God who would not permit that any greivance or annoy should occurre to man unlesse he was first provoked to it by sinne The Woman answered to the Divell The command of God is not so restrictive as thou sayest We may injoy all Trees at our election having a Dominion over all The fruit of this alone that is in the midst of the Garden is forbidden us God hath commanded us not to tast nor to touch this because perhaps it would subject us to death The fear of Death hath power to refrain all desires Nor am I such a fool to desire by a wicked transgression to provoke and irritate the wrath and judgements of God His Divine Majesty had commanded only that they shouid not eat of the Tree of the knowledge of good and evill but the Woman moreover addes the Touching it because as a Woman she could not discourse without aggravating or over-reaching Or it may bee she was thus advertised by Adam who knowing the frailty and weaknesse of his Wife would also remove the occasion for when sin gets into the hands it 's almost impossible but that it should at last to the mouth To touch with the hands the things forbidden to the mouth is either a voluntary meeting sin or
a presuming too high upon our selves The woman put the pain of the transgression in doubt saying Perhaps we shal be subject to death because we faine those things always easy and of litle danger which we most desire and put the Judgements of God ever in uncertainty so much the more in that incredulity is the particular defect of the Woman The Divell animated by the lye and incredulity of the Woman began to hope for victory perswading her to violate the precept of God He indeavour'd therefore with admirable artifice to remove the fear of the punishment menaced by his Divine Majesty to allure her with the hope of that good which is the most desirable to man Wherefore he said unto her Comfort your self ô Woman your fears are vaine for death is an imaginary subject to terrify the simplicity of the more weak How can a thing die that is the immediate production of Gods hands It would be too great a disparagement to the divine workmanship to say that his labours could be subject to death Works that have took their qualities from God cannot dissolve without the dissolution of God himselfe He hath intimated death unto you as being an ordinary thing in them that command to menace their vassalls with impossible chastisements for to be served with the more blind obedience He prohibited you to tast of this fruit because he feared that ye should be equall to Him And he that hath Supreame authority can very hardly be perswaded to admit of Competitors Envy is of the quality of thunder that smites the sublimest things Her fangs exempt not Divinity it selfe God knows very well that with tasting these fruits you shall open the eyes of your understanding and obtaine the science of good and evill And what is it that renders God considerable what makes God admirable what maketh God GOD more than this knowledge These words of the Serpent were false impious absurd and incredible He made God a Lyer and Envious He would perswade that a Tree had power to communicate Sapience and that men with this should equall themselves with God and this by taking the fruit to eate The woman not adverted of this so impious and so impossible a falsity was deceived by his promises The Ambition of becoming equall with God and the desire of tasting the Apple forbidden deprived her of judgment and reason What thing more contrary to sense and possibility than to style truth falshood and clemency envy and to say that by tasting this fruite we should gaine the Sapience and similitude of God Yet in the opinion of the Woman these things past for truths because when Women treat of their interests they take shadows for substances The Woman might have said to the Serpent If thy words be not masked with deceits wherfore takest not thou of that fruite and givest that to thy selfe which thou promisest to me How came I to merit so much of thy affection that thou shouldest desire that I should first obtaine a benefit so great a prerogative so rare as to be divine Eat thou first and testify whether thy promises are true If God envying our state so great a felicity did prohibit us this Tree why did he not rather not create it or having made it extirpate it The unfortunate woman believed all for truth because she desired all to be true She did not contradict him because she reputed it a lesse crime to sin with the hazzard of acquiring divinity than by not sinning to lose the hope though impossible of obtaining it Howbeit the words of the Serpent were full of fallacie and ambiguity The not-dying might be understood of dying presently upon the transgression or of the death of the soule The opening the eyes referred to the misery confusion in which man should be after the sinne The resemblance to God might signify the Divell Lastly the knowledge of good and evill might be ment by the privation of good and the experience of evil How subtle a Sophist is the Divell The Woman had beheld the Tree before with some curiosity but after the words of the Serpent she betooke her selfe to contemplate it with ardent desire of tasting it Her eyes mis-led her soul and believing that the beauty of that plant must needs produce births equall in goodnesse contracted in that all her complacencies and affections It is probable that the debt of obedience and loyalty which liveth in those soules that have vowed their genius to rebellion might administer to the Woman these conceits Woman curb thy vaine curiosity Thou shouldest yield obedience to that God which after he had conferred upon thee thy beeing hath also given thee the dominion over all things created It s ingratitude its impiety to controvert those commands which deny thee nothing but the fruit of a Plant. All the fruits in Paradice are permitted thee but only that of the Tree of the knowledg of good and evill If therfore all the others be perfect and you know the good why will you eate of this Apple to know the evill also Seek not to know that which is not fit for thee The knowledg of evill is not knowledge but ignorance Keep thy selfe from the things prohibited that thou lose not those that be allready granted That Plant which thou beholdest with so much curiosity and with so much complacency compriseth in its fruit together with thy death the perdition of all mankind To what end doe you look upon a thing which cannot be tasted without offending God The hands commonly follow the delight of the eyes It s true thou art not forbidden the sight but the tasting of this Tree Yet neverthelesse though the beholding it be no sinne yet it is the beginning of sinne it is the occasion of Sinne. Give no credit to those promises which that they are deceitfull it sufficeth to know they are the promises of a Serpent the most sagacious of all beasts With giving thee an Apple he would rob thee of Paradise He treates thee with simplicity to take thee with Apples But inspirations avail not in a soule that suffers it selfe to be transported by promises and he cannot but sin who fixeth his eyes with immoderate delight on sinne The Woman tooke the Apple and with a disobedience so much the more inexcusable by how much the more unjust gathers it and makes it serve for food The woman had sinned with Sloth Lying and Gluttony whereupon she would Seal so many evills with the violation of the law of God because when praevarication begins in a soul there 's no end of sinning Shee called not Adam to eat of the Apple before her as was the duty of her subjection because believing divinitie to be reposed in that fruit she would not admit any to have the precedence of her In summe Self-interest destroyeth all the lawes of the will and of nature The woman having essayed the dulcity of the fruit and absolutely obliged her credulity to the lyes of the Serpent
much as those whom we most love Adam that refused not to be a companion in the sinne shunns to be a companion in the punishment His Divine Majesty though he saw Adams sin arrived to a supreme degree whilst to the exterior and interior consent and consuetude he addes also his excuse and apology and though the temerity of Adam retorted the crime on his Maker so that God seemed the Author of such a fault yet continuing in the exercise of his wonted Mercy he turned to the Woman and said Woman Chosen by me for a Companion and Comfort to Man why hast thou been the instrument of a sinne somuch the hainouser by how much the more unjust why hast thou deceived thy Husband Why hast thou not obeyed thy God The woman suffered not the words of His Divine Majesty to be ended but she replyes My simplicity Lord hath been deluded by the subtility of the Serpent He knew so wel how to dissemble his words that I believed he had neither wit or power to betray my credulity I could not perswade my self that there were treacheries in Paradise nor deceits in the face of a Damsell Thunder therefore O Lord thy punishments upon the Serpent as upon the author of all evill Guilt is a weight that superfluously aggravates every one Happy doth he think himself that to quit himselfe can accuse either the innocence or guilt of others God who had all this while been so full of patience and goodnesse in citing Adam in attending to his defence and in harkening to the excuse of the woman no sooner heares the Serpent to be the Author of so much evill but presently without hearing him he hastned to punish him O the wonderfull mercy of God that makes the punishment of all things precede mans punishment To Serpents that is to Divells he shewes not any mercy Hence we may argue that those who are men namely that prostitute not their reason to sense alwayes find God exceeding in new benefits The Serpents on the contrary namely those obstinate sinners which know not how to leave groveling in the dust of sinne receive their punishment before they be arraigned of their offence It admonisheth men to be men and to keep themselves men Because said God in cursing the Serpent thou hast been the Author of the breach of my precepts because rhou hast deceived Innocence because thou art opposite to the execution of my commands and desires and because thou hast been so bold as to be tampering with my image I wil make thee accursed among all the beasts of the earth Thou thy selfe shalt be a burden to thy selfe alwayes going upon thy belly Dust shall be the sustenance of thy life There shall be an antipathy between thee and the woman and enmity between her seed and thy seed The trechery of thy stingings shall be rewarded by her heel which by Crushing thy head shall take away thy Life In short the meanes of sinne become the instruments of punishment The serpent had lift up it self in tempting the woman and now God commanded him for ever after to creepe upon the earth With a thousand promises had he got the favour of the woman and now God condemnes him to a perpetuall enmity with her It s not to be doubted but that His Divine Majesty in the serpent understood also the divell but curst neverthelesse the Serpent only because he would not too much perplex the minds of Adam and the woman who as yet knew not that there was any other incorporeal spirits in the Terrestriall Paradise but only God himselfe and it s a divine Maxime not to offer new occasions to those who are apt to erre The Divell goes upon his brest and on his belly to advert us that he two wayes betrayes the state of innocence With Pride which is emblematically figured by the brest which is the seat of the heart and with Luxury which hath its residence in the belly Or it teacheth us that the irascibles being seated in the breast the concupiscibles in the belly he moveth mans affections with these to precipitate and hurry him into sinne He is condemned to eat the dust which is as much as to say those men onely who having consubstantiated themselves with terrene vices little differ from the earth or dust God to punish the Devill the more in cursing of him threatens him perpetuall enmity with the woman either because he knew her malice was implacable or to hint that he had overcome the woman with treachery and not with open warre After the maledictions of the Serpent God turnes to the Woman and saith And thou Woman for thy credulity for thy concupiscence and for having seduced others into thy sinne thy griefs and thy sorrows shall be multiplyed to thee according to the multiplicity of thy births With the bitternesse of those pangs which shall make thee desire death shalt thou give unto thy children life Thou shalt be always subject to the Man and he shall excercise over thee a perpetuall command It was with reason that three sins should receive three punishments Namely for overmuch credulity multiplicity of births for the pleasure of the palate the pangs of the belly and for the imperious and scandalous seducing the man obedience and servitude It seemes indeed a great felicity the multiplicity of children yet neverthelesse God intended by this multiplicity to curse the woman Because on many births attend many abortions many paines and many perills It is againe to contend with an impossibility that amongst many children there should not be some monstrous either in maners or else in wit or else in life the which is insupportable to the Parents Let us add that the number of children disquiets the affection and the desire of the Fathers either in their education or in their vices or in their misadventures In a word the more fruitfull the Woman is the lesse fortunate is she to be esteemed If haply with a contrary meaning we may not say that God intended by this sentence to curse the Woman obliging her to paines and to blesse her making her fruitfull to denote to us that God in the rigor of chastisments themselves is not forgetfull of the excesse of his Mercy The throws of childbirth are naturall to women but God in the state of innocency with admirable and supernaturall power would have eased her of the paine and anguish All is easy al is possible to the omnipotence of an Almighty God God came at last to pass Sentence upon Adam Perhaps the love he bore him was so ardent that he would make him the last that should prove the effects of his just anger Or he chastised him last because his sinne was greater then others that so he might receive greater terror and greater torment in beholding the punishment of the others The expectation of chastisement is haply a greater paine then the enduring of it He that is punished knowes the worst of his sufferings He that waites for