Selected quad for the lemma: woman_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
woman_n	enmity_n	seed_n	serpent_n	8,737	5	10.2957	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96039	Wisdome and innocence, or prudence and simplicity in the examples of the serpent and the dove, propounded to our imitation. By Tho. Vane doctor in divinity and physick.	Vane, Thomas, fl. 1652.	1652 (1652)	Wing V89; Thomason E1406_1; ESTC R209492	46,642	189

WISDOME AND INNOCENCE OR PRUDENCE And SIMPLICITY In the examples of The SERPENT And the DOVE Propounded to our imitation By Tho. Vane Doctor in Divinity and Physick LONDON Printed for J. Crook and J. Baker and are to be Sold at the sign of the Ship in St. Pauls Church-yard 1652. To the Right Honourable MILDMAY Earl of Westmorland Baron Despencer and Burwash MY LORD YOu who have bin my Patron have most right to the Patronage of any thing that is mine Hence it is that I presume to present this unto your Lordship both to confess my obligation express my gratitude Which although it be in a small proportion yet seeing men doe not refuse their dues though never so little nor courteous men sleight gratitude although offered in never so small a service if it hold any proportion with the ability or opportunity of the offerer I hope that this under these considerations shall not be rejected by your Lordship being tendred by him who is Your Honours Most humble obliged and grateful Servant THO. VANE Of the Prudence of the Serpent and Simplicitie of the Dove CHAP. I. OUR Saviour Jesus Christ sending forth his Apostles to preach unto the world and knowing well what enmitie God put from the begining betwixt the Seed of the Woman and the Serpent and that from thence the children of this world should persecute the children of God like a wise Captain discovers unto them the strength and power of their Enemies and withall furnisheth them with armes fit for their defence He tells them in the 10. chapter of S. Matthews Gospell that he came not to send peace but the sword that they must not look like Samson to be lulled asleep in the lap of Dalila but like Jona to be cast into the sea to appease the storm to be swallowed up by the whales the tyrannous monsters of the earth to be arraigned before the seats of justice to be chased from citty to city yea to have those in whose names are included the greatest notes of friendship to be as farr from it in exercise as they are neer it in title and to have for a mans enemies those of his own howshold In sum to find nothing in the world but a world of wolf-turn'd men as it is in the 16. verse of the said chapter Behold I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves whence followeth this instruction Be yee therefore prudent as serpents and simple as doves Christ also came as he saith to seek and to save that which was lost Luke 19.10 and that which was lost in Adam being the wisdome of the understanding and the innocence of the will he propounds unto us these two as patterns to renew them thereby no beast being so wise as the Serpent Gen. 3.1 as the scripture saith who was therefore in the brasen Serpent set up in the wilderness a type of Christ who is the wisdome of the father nor any so simple and innocent as the Dove which is therefore the Emblem of the Holy Ghost who is the fathers love Bee prudent to encounter with the policies of the world be simple and free from pursuing the pleasures of the world Be prudent as serpents to discover the worlds snares be simple as doves to cover their sins Be prudent as serpents to decline the worlds injuries be simple as doves in not revenging the injuries of the world Be not altogether as Doves left yee fall into others dangers be not altogether as Serpents left yee endanger others for as prudence joyned with malice is not more prudence than wickedness so simplicity joyned with ignorance is not so much simplicity as folly In simplicity therefore avoid folly in wisdome malice Prudence without simplicity is the mother of evill doing simplicity without prudence is the mother of evill suffering but prudence simplicity joyned together are like the two fires Castor Pollux whereof if one appear alone unto the sea-men it threatneth shipwrack but both together promise a safe harbour So prudence and simplicity joyned together doe cause all the actions for which we embarque our selves to arrive at the port of prosperous successe but parted asunder shipwrack our souls on the rocks of malice or the flats of folly Therefore as the Cherubims over the Ark had their faces towards each other and both toward the mercy seat so must prudence and simplicity be joyned together and both will tend unto blessedness Prudence is practicall wisdome and is in the generall of verie large extent consisting in the knowledge of what is best and fittest to be done in all emergent occasions and in working accordingly It hath also divers parts and divers kinds which I intend not to pursue my purpose only being to speak of it so farr forth and no further than it may be attributed to some particular actions of the Serpent wherein there is though not a realitie which is properly the habit of a reasonable soul yet a resemblance of spirituall wisdome by our Saviour thought worthie our imitation Which exhortation though directed immediatly to the Apostles only yet is applyable to every Christian And as our Sauiour said to his auditors concerning watching What I say unto you I say unto all watch Luke 13.37 So what he saith in this case to his Apostles he saith unto all Christians Bee prudent as serpents and simple as doves What therefore the cabinet of truth grave historie hath preserved for us concerning the wisdome-presenting qualities of the Serpent I will unlock and proportionate our imitating actions unto their just measure Now the Prudence of the Serpent whereon our imitation must attend doth emblazon it self in divers particulars which are these that follow CHAP. II. THE first is the renewing of his youth with the handmaids thereof the vigor of his senses and their operations which he effecteth on this manner When he feeleth the heavie plummets of age swiftly moving toward their end the wheeles of the clock of life he thus winds up again He fasteth certain dayes saith Aristotle whereby his body is dryed and his skin loosened then by the eating of a certain bitter herb he doth vomit up a virulent poysonous humour which was the cause of his infirmity at length that he may temper the roughnesse of his skin he bathes himself in water and seeking a narrow chink or hole in some rock or other place he wriggles himself in and forceably drawing himself through slips off his skin and lastly resting in some such place where the sun doth most favourably display his beams he recovers a new skin and hardens it fit for his use and with it investeth himself with new vigor adding thereby cleenesse to his eyesight strength to his bodyes motion increase to his stomacks appetite and digestion and by this meanes doth he renew the almost expired league between his bodie and his soul This also affirmeth both Avicen and Pliny To this line of the Serpents example must we

wee after our fasting our eating of the bitter herb of contrition and vomiting our poysonous sins at our mouths by Confession and having washed our selves in the water of Gods word must passing through the streights of a firm resolution to forsake our sins and to serve God put off the old man with the lusts thereof and by the heat of the love of Christ drying up our pronenesse unto sin put on the new man Ephes. 4.24 which is created according unto God in justice and holynesse of truth Streight is the gate Math. 7.14 and narrow is the way Saith our Saviour which leadeth unto life through this streight way must wee resolve to passe that so wee may devest our selves of the old-man and invest our selves with the new by departing from evill and turning unto good Cease to doe evill Esay 1.16.17 learn to doe well saith the Prophet Esayas Eschew evill and doe good saith the prophet David 'T is said Psal 36.27 that when the Eagle groweth old his beak is so crooked that he cannot eat his meat he therefore goes to a rock beates his beak against it untill he have broken it off and then falls to his meat and growes young again So our hearts growing crooked toward the earth and earthy things whereby wee cannot receive the spirituall food of Gods word and Sacraments wee must strike them against the rock Christ Jesus by considering both his precepts and example whereby the crookednesse of our beaks shall be broken that is our earthly affections rectified and our souls directed unto God whereby wee shal be enabled to feed upon Christ in his Word and Sacraments and so renew again our youth As it is Psal 102.5 Who fileth thy desire with good things and thy youth shall be renewed as the eagles And as Samuels mother 1. Kings 2.19 as the Scripture saith brought him a new coat at set times when she went up to offer the yearly sacrifice so as often as wee offer the sin-offering of a contrite heart unto God wee must casting off the old rags of sin cloth our-selves with the new robes of justice For wee must not think to wear this new coat with our old to wear the linsy-wolsy garments of religion and wordlynesse together a thing forbidden in the old law nor yet with the Jewes to cry hayl unto Christ and yet crucify him to make a profession of him in words and contradict it in deeds This is to serve God and mammon Math. 9.16.17 to put new wine into old vessells to patch old garments with new cloth which as our Saviour saith is either impossible or dangerous therefore as the Scripture saith 1. Tim. 2.19 Whosoever nameth the name of our Lord let him depart from iniquitie Moyses when he went into the holy mount put off his shooes Elias when he ascended into heaven cast off his mantle and Elisha when he went to serve the Prophet bad adieu to his father and mother so when wee enlist our selves in the catalogue of Gods servants wee must put off the shooes of our evill affections we must cast off the cloak of our unrighteousnesse and take our leaves of all those sins which either through our pronenesse unto them or their long familiarity and acquaintance with us have so endeared themselves unto us that wee are forced to reproach our selves with the title of their acquaintance Moyses commanded that they that went unto the tabernacle should goe out of the Camp and we out of our sins if we will goe unto Christ Wherefore as S. Paul saith Heb. 13.13 let us goe out unto him without the Camp And being once out let us not prove retrograde in the sphear of goodnesse nor with Lots wife look back unto Sodom nor say of any sin as Lot did of Zoar Gen. 19.20 Is it not a little one It is certain the devill will be tempting of us to turn back and say unto us as Solomons mother did to him I have a small sute unto thee 3. Kings 2.22 I pray deny mee not to which if wee yeeld as he foresaw so wee shall find that it will cost us no lesse than the losse of the kingdome even the kingdome of heaven Therefore having once cast out the old Adam out of the Paradise of our souls let us place there the Cherubin of grace with the flaming sword of the Spirit to resist the entrance of sin and in all the temptations of the world the flesh and the devill unto sin let us answer in the words of the spouse in the Canticles I have put off my coat Cant. 5.3 how shall I put it on I have washed my feet how shall I defile them And thus if we be renewed as the serpent by recovering a new skin doth with it resume new strength sees more cleerely moves more lively feeds more hartily so shall wee by this means enrich our selves with the strength of well doing wee shall more cleerely understand spirituall mysteries wee shall walk more uprightly in the love of God and of our neighbour wee shall more eagerly feed on and more strongly digest the spirituall food of Gods word and Sacraments by the nourishment whereof we shall walk from grace to grace untill wee come to be perfect men in Christ Jesus from grace unto glory untill wee be perfect Saints in the kingdome of heaven CHAP. IIII. A Second property of wisdome in the serpent worthy our imitation is this The serpent by reason of that enmity which it hath with mankind to secure it self from the danger of mens invasions creepeth away and hideth it self under bushes and delighteth to dwell in desarts and unfrequented places so the children of God mindfull of that irreconcilable enmity which God hath put betwixt that old mysticall serpent the devill with his viperous brood wicked men and the seed of the woman the Children of the holy Church should shroud themselves under Gods protection who appeared unto Mayses in a bush and with Enoch walk with God in the desart of divine contemplation that so they may baulk the companie and the consequents thereof the mischiefs of the wicked The Poets feign of Arachne that contending with Pallas for the prize in workmanship and being conquered by her disdaining at the ill successe of her enterprize she did so swell with the poyson of envy and hatred that she turn'd into a Spider so the devill in the pride of his thoughts contending with his Maker and by him like lightning being cast down from heaven hath had his nature ever since transformed into a serpent full of the deadly poyson of envy and hatred against God and all good men continually assaulting them either by battery or undermyning by open force or secret fraud by the feircenesse of the lion or subtilty of the serpent Which enmity of the devill against God like that which often happens betwixt the fathers of two potent families here on earth hath devolved it self unto each