thou shalt bruise his heele Quest What is meant here by Enmity Answ A bitter immoderate inveterate irreconciliable and endlesse hatred and division opposite to that amity and familiarity which formerly had been betweene the Woman and the Serpent Quest Betweene whom was this Enmity proclaimed Answ Betweene the Serpent and his seed on the one side and the Woman and her seed on the other Quest What is meant by the Serpent and his Seed Answ First by the Serpent we are to understand Satan who opened the Serpents mouth and caused it to speake with mans voice as the Lord by an Angell opened the mouth of Balaams Asse Numbers 22. Secondly By the Serpents seed is meant the whole generation of wicked men as all Interpreters conclude and other Scriptures make cleare calling them Serpents Generation of Vipers and Children of the Devill Matth. 23.33 John 8.44 1 John 3.10 Quest What is meant by the Woman and her Seed Answ By the woman is meant Eve by her seed we are to understand first and chiefly Christ the singular Seed who was so the Seed of the Woman as that he was not of the Man Gal. 4.4 being borne of a Virgin Isaiah 7.14 Secondly It imployeth all his members the Elect when once regenerate who are not onely Eves seed as she was the Mother of all living by nature but by faith also as else where they are called the seed or children of Abraham Gal. 3.29 Quest What occasioned the Lord to proclaime this enmity Answ Adams sinne in eating the forbidden fruit and Satans malice in moving and seducing him thereunto was the meritorious cause the originall of this discord is from Originall sin Quest What Instruction affords this Answ First That to be without reproaches and persecutions wee may rather wish then hope For what peace can we looke for betweene the Seed of the Woman and the Seed of the Serpent seeing God himselfe from the beginning hath set them at enmity Yea once to expect it were an effect of frenzy not of hope Secondly If the Lord hath put this enmity between us and the wicked here is comfort in suffering warrant in opposing Thirdly If the Seed of the Woman fight on Christs side and they have Gods Word for their warrant they are sure to have him assist them and prevent their enemies And is not that God we fight for able enough to vindicate all our wrongs Quest Doth that hatred and enmity continue to this day Answ Yes the words are set downe indefinitely without limitation and so signifie that it shall be perpetuall from the beginning of time to the end of all time When time saith one began this malice first began nor will it end but with the latest man it is an everlasting Act of Parliament like a Statute in Magna Charta Quest To proceed from Explication to Confirmation and so to Application How prove you That there hath beene in all ages past is now and ever shall bee betweene the wicked and the godly a perpetuall Warre enmity and strife according to the Lords Prediction or Proclamation Answ For proofe I could produce testimonies and examples innumerable there being scarce a page in the Bible which doth not expresse or imply somewhat touching this enmity Yea as if the Scriptures contained nothing else the Holy Ghost significantly calls them the Booke of the Battles of the Lord Numb 21.14 as Rupertus well observes But I will confine my selfe and onely mention three examples in every age 1. To begin with the first age Viz. the old World before the Flood We reade of this war enmity and strife betweene Caine and Abel 1 John 3.12 Between Lâ—mech and the holy Seed Gen. 4.23 24. and between those wicked Gyants which Moses speakes of and the sonnes of God Gen. 6.2 to 12. Yea those Gyants bade battle to Heaven as our Mythologists add to ver 4. 2. After the Flood before the Law betweene all the men of Sodome and righteous Let Gen. 19.4 9.11 2 Pet. 2.8 Betweene Hagar and Ishmael the Bondwoman and her sonne and Sarah and Isaac the Free-woman and her son Gen. 21.9 10. Gal. 4 29. And between Esau and Jacob first in the wombe the more plainely to shadow out this enmity Gen. 25.22 23. and after they were borne Gen. 27.41 3. After the Law before Christ betweene Doeg and the eighty five Priests which he slew with the edge of the sword 1 Sam. 22.18 19. Betweene Jezabell and all the Prophets of the Lord which she destroyed 1 Kings 18.13 14. And betweene the Heads in Israel in Micahs time and all that were good Micah 3.2 4. Since the Gospell in the time of Christ and his Apostles this enmity so manifested it selfe not onely in the Gentiles but in the Jewes Gods owne people who first moved those persecutions against Christ and his Members that having beheaded John Baptist his Harbinger and crucified himselfe the Lord of life we read that of all the Twelve none dyed a naturall death save onely Saint John and he also was banished by Domitian to Pathmos and at another time thrust into a Tun of seething oyle at Rome as Tertullian and Saint Hierom doe report See Acts 7.51 to 60. 12.1 to 5. Rom. 8.36 Iohn 21.18 19. Now all these besides many other of his Disciples suffered martyrdome meerely for professing the faith of Christ whereof some were stoned some crucified some beheaded some thrust thorow with Speares some burnt with fire with a multitude of other Beleevers for Ecclesiasticall History makes mention of two thousand which suffered the same day with Nicanor Acts and Monuments page 32. which makes Saint Pâ—ul cry out I thinke that God hath set forth us the last Apostles as men appointed to death 1 Corinâ—h 4.9 5. After the Apostles if we consider the residue of the ten Persecutions raysed by the Romans against the Christians which was for three hundred yeares till the comming of godly Constantine we find that there was such an innumerable company of innocent Christians put to death and tormented that Saint Hierome in his Epistle to Chromatius and Heâ—â—odorus saith There is no one day in the whole yeare unto which the number of five thousand Martyrs might not be ascribed except onely the first day of Ianuary who were put to the most exquisite deaths and torments that ever the wit or malice of men or Devils could invent to inflict we reade of no lesse then twenty nine severall deaths that they were put unto if no other be omitted 6. From the Primitive times and infancy of the Church hitherto the Turke and the Pope have acted their parts in shedding the blood of the Saints as well as the Jewes and Roman Emperours touching which for brevities sake I referre you to the Booke of Acts and Monuments Yet because a taste may please some I will insert what the Holy Ghost hath foretold in the Revelation touching the Pope who cals himselfe Christs Vicar and supreame Head of the Church the Angell
goodnesse and yet crucified and abused every way he must be It was indeed for his zeale purity and holinesse and because his life and practice was cleane contrary to theirs his Doctrine too powerfull and pure for such carnall hearts to imbrace or endure So that it is plaine and all men may see who are not dead in sense how it would fare with us might our enemies the same Seede of the Serpent have their wils Qu. What uses may this serve for which hath been spoken touching the properties of this enmity and our Saviours suffering An. First by this taste of its fruits learne we to detest them all Secondly it may serve to informe every man whether he be of the Serpents seed a child of the Devill as he came into the world or regenerate and so become of the womans Seed a child of God and member of Christ for as our Saviour saith speaking of false Prophets By their fruits ye shall know them so I of the seed of the Serpent and children of the Devill By these 22. fruits of enmity you shall know them aswell as you shall know the life by breathing or the day by its light Wherefore all ye that read reflect and cast your eyes on these examples which are such lively emblemes and representations of your selves if you be the Sepents seed and yet in your sins Yea let it make you tremble for know assuredly that if this spawne of enmity formerly spoken of remaine in you if any of these wayes you persecure Christ in his members or but hate the good because they will not be so evill as you are you have not cast off this serpentine quallity which you drew from the loynes of old Adam but it is an infallible signe that you are of the Serpents seed children of the Devill enemies to God and all goodnesse the brethren of Cayne yea Cayne himselfe in another person and without repentance your portion shall be with Cayne and the rest of that cursed crue On the other side doth any conscionable Christian find himselfe hated and persecuted by ungodly men for weldoing for Christs sake for Religion and for righteousnesse sake Let him be comforted for it is a manifest signe and a notable strong evidence that he is of the Womans Seed regenerate and borne a new the child of God a member of Christs mysticall body and an heire of eternall life Thirdly these examples being written to admonish us upon whom the ends of the world are come may inform the godly what they are to expect from the world Shall any hope to be free from suffering or thinke it a strange thing when he doth suffer for well doing when our Saviour Christ himselfe suffered so much as he did being the onely begotten Sonne of God full of grace and truth No the Disciple is not above his Master nor the servant above his Lord If they have persecuted Christ they will persecute you also John 15.20 If they have called the Master of the house Beelzebub how much more them of his houshold Mat. 10.25 Yea senslesse were it once to thinke that the same enmity which spared not to strike at the Head will forbeare the weakest and remotest limbe Wherefore arme thou us O God with an expectation of that evill which we cannot avoyd yea make thou us as strong as Satan and his instruments are malicious and then let them doe their worst And so much of the kinds and properties of his enmity The Causes Qu. What are the Causes why wicked and ungodly men thus hate and persecute the religious Answ They are so many that the time would be too short or this Treatise too long if I should speake of every one yea or relate halfe of what is requisite to to be spoken of each for they require whole Volumes besides instructions if they exceed are wont as nailes to drive out one another Qu. Then select out the principall I meane such as in regard of our edification are most behoovefull for us to know And lest the pages should still grow as fish into a multitude garble your notions and give us onely the marrow of the matter Answ The Causes best deserving our discovery and the worlds notice I take to be Eleaven First a maine Cause why wicked men hate and persecute the godly is the contrariety of their natures Qu. How contrary are they Answ As contrary and opposite one to the other as are God and the Devill for the one are Children of God 2 Cor. 6.18 Gal. 3.26 Joh. 1.12 And partake of the Divine Nature 2 Pet. 1.4 Being begotten Iames 1.18 And borne a new of God Joh. 1.13 1 Joh. 3.9 by the immortall seed of the word Iames 1.18 And the spirits powerfull working with it Ioh. 3.5.8 whereby they are become like God in holinesse 1 Pet. 1.15 And not children onely but heires also even the heires of God and heires annexed with Christ Rom. 8.17 being his brethren Rom. 8.29 Members of his body 1 Cor. 12.27 Bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh Ephes 5.30 having his Spirit dwelling in them Rom. 8.9 to witnesse with their spirits that they are the children of God vers 16. And being Temples of the Holy Ghost 1 Cor. 6.19 And the other are the Seed of the Serpent and children of the Devill and so partake of his nature 1 Ioh. 3.8.10.12.14 Act. 13.10 Ioh. 6.70 and 8.44 and 14.30 and 16.11 Matth. 13.38.39 2 Cor. 4.4 2 Tim. 1.26 Gen. 3.15 and 5.3 Ephes 2.1 to the end and 5.14 1 Cor. 15.22 Rom. 5.12.18 Titus 3.3 to 8. 1 Pet. 2.9.10.25 Joh. 3.3.5.6 which being so they must needs be very contrary and if contrary no marvell they should so ill agree although God had not proclaimed an enmity between them For there can be no amity where there is no sympathy No reconciling of the Wolfe and the Lambe the winds and the sea No neighbourhood no aliance no conjunction is able to make the cursed seed of the Serpent and the blessed seed of the Women ever agree For fire and water light and darknesse heaven and hell are not more contrary One blood one belly one house one education could never make Cayne and Abel accord Iacob and Esau Isack and Ishmael at one Yea though they be man and wife parent and childe yet if they be not like they will not like 2 Cor. 6.14.15 And indeed what is the corporall sympathy to the spirituall antipathy Can there be such a parity betweene the parent and the child the husband and the wife as there is a disparity betweene God and Satan No certainly A wicked man can agree with all that are wicked be they Papists or Turkes or Atheists prophane and loose persons civill or morall men for all these agree with him in blindnesse and darknesse as who feeles the smart of their tongues or hands not the Idolator or vile person not the professed Atheist the Canker fretting Arminian or state betraying Jesuite For with all
the sound of a Bell that is rung O this is a difficult Devill to be cast out even like that which we read of Math. 17.16 For as all the Disciples could not cast out that Devill no more can all the Preachers this for the Cure of Prejudice alone in one man is more then to cure the seaven deadly sinnes as the Papists tearme them in another Nay if I may speake it with reverence what meanes can God use that shall be able to convert such an one The nine plagues shall not prevaile with Pharaoh the graves opening the dead arising the vayle of the Temple renting the light of the Sunne fayling the Centurion confessing c. will doe no good uppon the Scribes and Pharisees Yea though Ahab be told from the Lord that if he goe to Warre hee shall perish yet he goeth and speeds accordingly Quest But how should weake Christians know the mystery of this iniquity shake off this slavish yoke of bondage and feare in which Satan for the present holds them Answ Search the Scriptures and they will so cleare your judgement and cure your Prejudice that in some measure you shall be enabled to quench those fiery darts Ephes 6.16 I meane the reproaches of those evill tongues which are set on fire from Hell James 3.6 for Virgil most excellently and profoundly couples the knowledge of cause and the conquest of all feares together First for the informing of your judgement our Saviour Christ and his Apostles hath abundantly foretold the same Of a multitude of predictions I 'le only instance three or foure All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution 2 Tim. 3.12 Not some but all and what all but even all that will live godly Now me thinkes if there were no other texts in the Bible but this one it were omnisufficient to take away Prejudice and wonder touching the Worlds hatred and calumny but the Scriptures are full of the like Yee shall be hated of all men and Nations saith our Saviour for my Names sake Matth. 10.22 24.9 Not of a few but of all Men and Nations that is all naturall men or the greatest part of men in all Countryes and Nations yea and for no other cause but for professing of Christs Name Neither is Christ a Signe to be spoken against of many in Babylon or Assyria but of many in Israel Luke 2.34 where Religion is profest publickly Yea when sincerity is wanting the nearer the line with any opposition the greater Eclips The Gadereans but besought Christ to depart his owne country-men drave him out and cast him downe headlong Luke 4.29 Yea who was his greatest enemy but his greatest friend even one of his houshold-Chaplains And who but Jeremies familiars watched for his haulting Againe faith our Saviour The Servant is not above his Master John 15.20 But Christ having suffered so much if we should rest the Servant were above his Master which were senslesse to thinke For could not his wisedome innocency and holinesse sence him from these scornes and can thine fence thee Besides that ancient prediction must be fulfilled I will put enmity betweene the seed of the Serpent and the seed of the Woman Gen. 3.15 But if there be no warre betweene the men of the World and the children of God if they should not hate and persecure us this Prediction were not fulfilled Yea all the former predictions of Christ and many that I omit should bee false which were blasphemy once to thinke Wherefore marvell not my brethren though the World hate you as Saint John speakes 1 John 3.13 Neither count it strange as Saint Peter hath it concerning the fiery tryall which is among you to prove you as though some strange thing were come unto you 1 Pet. 4.12 for Christ and his Crosse are unseparable Luke 14.27 Againe search the whole Bible over and you shall not finde one holy man mentioned without mention of something hâ—e suffered from ungodly men as it were easie to instance how Abel Lot Noah Righteous men Abraham the Father of the Faithfull Isaac Jacob Joseph Patriarches and Fathers of the Church meek Moses upright Samuel holy David wise Solomon all the Lords Priests Prophets Apostles yea the harmelesse Babes and our Saviour Christ himselfe did severally suffer from wicked and ungodly men Yea never man came to Heaven but first he past thorow this Purgatory God had one Sonne without sinne but never any one without suffering which makes our Saviour say Woe be to you when all men speake well of you that is when evill men speake well of you for so did the Jewes of the false Prophets Luke 6.26 Whereas he pronounceth them blessed which heare ill for well doing Matth. 5.11 Which leads me to the second point Secondly For Scriptures to confirme comfort and strengthen weake Christians against the Worlds hatred and calumny these would be applyed which follow Blessed are they saith our Saviour which suffer persecution for righteousnesse sake for theirs is the Kingdome of Heaven Matth. 5.10 And againe Blessed are yee when men shall revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evill against you falsly for my sake rejoyce and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in Heaven for so persecuted they the Prophets which were before you ver 11.12 And Saint Peter Rejoyce inasmuch as yee are partakers of Christs sufferings that when his glory shall be revealed ye may be glad also with exceeding joy for if ye be reproached for the Name of Christ happy are ye for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you Which on their part is evill spoken off but on your part is glorified 1 Pet. 4.12 13 14. Loe here is reward enough for all that men or devils can doe against us And what will not men undergoe so their reward may be answerable But yet further What saith Saint Paul In nothing feare your adversaries whose malice is to them a token of perdition but to you of salvation and that of God Phil. 1.28 Yea in the same Chapter vers 29. he preferreth the gift of suffering before the gift of beleeving And in his Epistle to the Church of Thessalonica peremptorily concludeth That they are elect of God from this ground That they received the Word in much affliction with joy in the holy Ghost Examine these Scriptures againe and againe for every word of them is ponderous and consider of whom and by whom they were spoken then certainely thou wilt confesse that if there be any Nectar in this life 't is in sorrowes wee endure for Righteousnesse And methinkes when I heare goodnesse calumniated I beare it the easier because the servants of vice doe it Quest What is the Originall ground of the Worlds hatred Answ That proclamation which God himselfe made in Paradise Gen. 3.15 where he saith unto the Serpent I will put enmity betweene thee and the woman and betweene thy seed and her seed be or it shall bruise thine head and