Works, Book 1 · Discourse 40
DISCOURSE XL.
GENESIS 3. 13.
And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The Serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.
THE Story whereof the words I have read are part is so well known to all, that it would be needless to spend time in any long Preface thereof. Who knows not the Story of Adam's Fall? who hath not heard of the Sin of Eve our Mother? If there were no Scripture, yet the unsampled irregularity of our whole nature, which all the time of our life runs counter to all order and right reason; the wo…ul misery of our condition, being a Scene of sorrow without any rest or contentment; this might breed some general suspicion that ab initio non suit ita, from the beginning it was not so; but that he who made us Lords of his creatures, made us not so worthless and vile as now we are; but that some common Father to us all had drunken some strange and devilish poison, wherewith the whole race is infected. This poison, saith the Scripture, was the breach of God's commandment in Paradise, by eating of the forbidden fruit: for which Adam being called to an account by the great Iudge, and laying the fault upon the Woman which God had given him for an helper; God vouchsafes (as ye hear in my Text) to examine the Woman, saying, What is this that thou hast done? And she answers, The Serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.
These words contain in them two parts: First, God's Inquisition accusing; Secondly, The Woman's Confession excusing her fact. The first in the first words, And the Lord said unto the woman, &c. The second in the last words, And the woman said, The Serpent beguiled me, &c. For the first words which God speaks, being considered absolutely, are an Indictment for some crime; as they are Interrogative, they are an Inquisition concerning the same; and therefore I call them an Inquisition accusing. So the second are a Confession, as the Woman says, I have eaten; but with an excuse, when she says, The Serpent beguiled me; and therefore I call them a Confession excusing.
In the Inquisition are two things to be considered. First, The Author and Person who makes it, which is the Lord God himself; so saith my Text, And the Lord God said unto the woman. Secondly, The Inquisition it self, What is this that thou hast done?
In the Person who comes and makes this Inquest, being the Lord God himself, we may observe and behold his foreign, his wonderful Goodness and unspeakable Love to mankind, which here reveals it self in four most remarkable Circumstances.
First, In his forbearance; And the Lord said: When said the Lord? namely, not till Adam had accused her; she who was first in the sin, was last questioned for the same; and that too because her husband had appealed her. God knew and observed well enough the first degree and every progress of her sin, he needed no information from another: yet as though he were loth to take notice thereof, as though he were loth to find her guilty, yea as though he were loth to denounce the punishment which his Iustice required, he comes not against her until now; and that as though he were unwilling to come at all.
If we look back into the Story, we shall yet find a further confirmation thereof. How long did God hold his hand before he stripped the woman especially of that glorious beauty of her integrity, and made her with opened eyes to see her shameful nakedness? She had at the first onset of her Conference with the Serpent sinned a sin of Vnbelief of God; and yet God spared her: In the progress she sinned more in her proud Ambition of being like to God himself, and to be wise above what was given her; and God yet spared her: She sinned when she coveted and longed once to eat of the forbidden fruit, when it began to seem more pleasing and desirable unto her than Obedience to God's Commandment;Gen 3. 13. and God yet spared her: At last she takes and eats thereof, and so came to the height and consummation of her sin; and yet behold and see the Clemency and Longanimity of our good God, he paused yet a while until she had given unto her husband also; and then, and not till then, he opened their eyes to see their woful misery.
A Lesson first to us men, if so be we think the Example of God worthy our imitation, to bear long with our brother, as God bears with us; to admonish him, as it is in the Gospel, the first, second and third time, before we use him like an Heathen or a Publican;Matth. 18. 15, &c. to forgive him seven times, yea, (as Christ says to Peter) if he repent and ask forgiveness, seventy times seven.
Secondly, This may be a cordial of spiritual comfort unto us sinners; Though we make a shift to keep our selves from the execution of sin, yet we find our hearts full of sinful thoughts, ungodly desires and unclean lusts, and such like sinful motions from the infirmity of our flesh: which notwithstanding we cannot ever expel or be rid of; yet let us hope that God out of his mercy will bear with our weakness, and pass by our infirmities, who bore with the sin of our first Parents until it came to execution.
The second Circumstance is The temper of his Iustice; in that he vouchsafes first to enquire of the offence, and examine the fact, before he gives Sentence, or proceeds to execution. The like example we have Gen. 11. 5. where it is said, The Lord came down to see the City and Tower which the children of men had builded, afore he would confound their language, or scatter them abroad from that ambitious Babel upon the face of the earth. Again, Gen. 18. 20, 21. the Lord says, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and their sin is very grievous; I will go down, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it which is come unto me; and if not, I will know. He from whom no secrets are hid, he that formed the heart of man, and knows all the works we do, he that trieth and searcheth the heart and reins, even he will first examine the fact, will first hear what miserable man can say for himself, before his Sentence shall pass upon him: not out of ignorance of what was done, for how should the omniscient God be ignorant? but out of his wonderful clemency, and unspeakable moderation towards Man: I say, towards Man; for to him alone he shews this favour; for as for the Serpent, we see he vouchsafes nor to ask him one question, nor to expect what he could say for himself, but presently without examination proceeds to judgment against him.
Doth the great God, the Almighty Creator of heaven and earth, deal with so unspeakable: temper with his creature; and is vile man, a base earth-worm, so austere unto his brother? It was the height of Eve's whole ambition to be like unto God; but her off-spring's ambition is to be most unlike unto him: He glories in mercy and clemency, we in rage and rash austerity; He hears his creature speak before he condemns him we condemn our brother before we hear him speak.Psal. 2. 10. Be wise, be instructed, ye Iudes of the earth, let this great Example of God be the pattern of your imitation: yealet no private man condemn another rashly, until he hath heard what he may say fo… himself, as God himself here vouchsafed to go before us.
The third Circumstance is God's condescent unto man, in that he sends neither Angels nor Ministers to examine our first Parents and to make inquisition of their offence, but he co…s himself in person to take notice thereof. When men are offended, especially great …en, they will not deign to look upon or to admit into their presence those that have offended them: How great therefore is this indulgence of Almighty God, who deig…s here his presence to our most wretched and most naked Parents who had so grievously sinned against him? How happily graced would a poor offender think himself, if he night be admitted to the presence of his Prince, there to say what he could either for his defence or excuse, or else to sue for mercy and move compassion? By how much therefore God is greater than the greatest Monarchs of the world, even as much as they are greater than nothing; so much is this indulgence of God here exp…essed in my Text to Eve, as before to her husband, surpassing all the favour and …ondescent of men, who sent not for man, but came himself unto him; yea who vouchsafed then to seek them out when they ran away from him.
Now all this is spoken foreign, after the fashion of men, and therefore not so much to express what God himself did, as what men ought to do. Let it be a Lesson therefore to those who are set over others, not to be too hard of access to such as are obnoxious unto them. If God himself vouchsafed so far unto his creature so wretched, much more should man unto his brother.
The fourth Circumstance is The manner of his speech to Eve, in that he that was the Lord God should so mildly speak unto her, What is this thou hast done? The Lord God said it, saith my Text; but who would not think it rather the speech of a familiar and condoling friend, than of so great a Iudge so greatly offended? Here is no word of asperity, but of lenity; no menacing, no upbraiding terms, but only, What is this thou hast done?
And should not we learn hence not to insult over such whose offences make them liable either to us or others? should we upbraid, rail, triumph, and vomit our impotency upon them? Certainly we seem not to remember what a gentle and commiserating Iudge God is, or that our selves are men, and have to deal with humane frailty, and man's miserable condition, which we ought to behold with pity, and not handle with bitterness.
THE next thing is, The Inquisition it self; What is this thou hast done? Some read,*Vulg. Lat. Quare hoc …ecisti? Why hast thou done this? expounding foreign. But Eve's answer following, where she saith, I have eaten, plainly argues the question was What she had done, and not Why she had done it: And therefore I take the words as our*And so the Syriack Version; So Iuniu… and Tremillius. Translation hath them, and understand this manner of asking by God to be a Scheme of admiration, and to imply an exaggeration of the woman's sin; as if he had said, O what an horrible sin is this thou hast committed! How grievously hast thou transgressed! O what hast thou done! And therefore, God enquiring of her sin with exaggeration, she makes answer with diminution; Indeed she had offended, because she had eaten; but yet the offence was the less, for the Serpent had deceived her.
This then being the meaning of the words, let us behold in them the greatness of the sin of our first Parents; which made the Lord God himself to say, What is this thou hast done? The greatness of this sin I will first consider as it concerns them both in general, and then as in particular. The greatness of the sin in general appears in these four Considerations.
First, It was a transgression of such a Law as was given only to prove man whether he would be under God or no. For the Moral Law which was written and engraven in the Hearts of our first Parents was for the doing of things simply good, and abstaining from things simply evil; such things as a good man would do were there no Commandment, and such things as he would not do were there no Prohibition; so that in these there was no trial whether man would obey God or no, only because he commanded him and merely for obedience sake. And therefore had God ordained this Symbolical Law, prohibiting a thing in it self neither good nor evil, neither pleasing nor displeasing unto God, but indifferent; that man's observance thereof might be a profession and testimony that he was willing to submit himself to God's pleasure, only because it was his pleasure. And that it might yet the more appear, God made not choice of such a thing as man cared not for, but of a*Gen. 3. 6. pleasant and desirable thing; whereunto the more his inclination was carried, the more by his abstaining might his willing subjection be approved. The violating therefore of this Law was an open profession that he would not be under God, and renouncing of him to be his Lord. And this is the first respect wherein appears the greatness of Adam's sin.
The second Consideration arguing the same is, That he on whom God h…d bestowed so many glorious endowments, whom he had as it were stuffed with so man… excellent abilities, and adorned with so many precious graces, that he should sin against him, and set so light by his commandment: For of those to whom God had given so much, he might justly require and expect much. Therefore those whom God hat… furnished with the best gifts, either of knowledge or other abilities, they, if they s…, sin most grievously: So that in this respect the sin of Adam and Eve exceeded the …ns of their posterity, as much as their integrity did our corruption. The‖Quanto splendoris honore celsior quisque est; tanto, si delinquit, peccat… major est. Isidor. greater …he person, the greater his sin: The sin of a Prince greater than the sin of a vulgar person; and therefore in the*In Levit. 4. 3. the Sacrifice for the anointeded Priests (that is, the High Priest; foreign, as the LXX, and the Targ…m of Onk…los render it) was a Bullock: and the same Sacrifice was to be for the whole People or Congregation, Ver. 14. The Sacrifice for …e Ruler or Prince, was a Kid of the Go…ts, a male, Ver. 23. The Sacrifice for one of the common people, was a Kid of the Goats too, but… female, Ver. 28. For any one private person was inferior to the Prince who was to bring a male, as Ab…n Ezra here observes. Law there was a*In Levi…. 4. 3. the Sacrifice for the anci…ed Priests (that is, the High Priest; foreign, as the LXX, and the Targ… of Ouk…lo… render it) was a Bullock: and the same Sacrifice was to be for the whole People or Congregation, Ver. 14. The Sacrifice for …e Ruler or Prince, was a Kid of the Go…ts, a male, Ver. 23. The Sacrifice for one of the common people, was a Kid of the Goats too, but… female, Ver. 28. For any one private person was inferior to the Prince who was to bring a male, as Ab…n Ezra here observes. greater Sacrifice to be offered for the sins of the Prince and Priest than of the people.
The third circumstance aggravating his sin was, The easiness of the commandment, and the easiness man had to keep the same; Both in regard of himself, whom no itching Concupiscence urged, as being altogether free therefrom, and not as we his off-spring are continually vexed with the boiling thereof: Secondly, in regard of the thing it self he was to abstain from being only one fruit, in so great a liberty of all the garden besides. How easily might he have abstain'd from one, to whom God had given the use of all saving this one? He wanted not to feed him, he wanted no variety of food, he had even enough to surfeit on; only to approve his obedience to Him who had given all the rest unto him, he was to abstain from one, and yet he would not. Quanta …uit (saith S. Austin) iniquitas in peccando,De …ivit. Dei lib. 3. cap. 1…. ubi tanta erat uon peccandi facilitas? How great an iniquity was it there to sin, where it was so easie a thing not to sin?
The fourth circumstance aggravating this sin was The place, which was Paradise, as it were in God's own presence, even afore his face: For as Heaven above other parts of the world is the place of God's special presence; so was Paradise above other parts of the earth as it were an Heaven upon earth, the place wherein he singularly revealed himself, and therefore an Holy place and the Temple of God. Do not men, otherwise giving the loose rein to wickedness, yet abhor to commit it in God's Temple? How impudently contumelious was this Sin therefore which was committed in God's very presence-chamber?
All these Aggravations are common to both our Parents, which all laid together make their Sin as great as ever any was, saving the sin against the Holy Ghost; for so the best Divines do think. But Eve adds one Aggravation more to her weight, in that she was not content to sin her self alone, but she allured and drew her husband also into the like horrible transgression with her; whereby she was not only guilty of her own personal sin, but of her husband's also. And this added so much unto her former sum, that S. Paul (1 Tim. 2. 14.) speaks of her as if she had been the only transgressour; Adam was not deceived; but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. So great and horrible a thing it is in the Eye of God to be cause or mover of another's sin. Wo be unto them who by any means are the cause of another's fall. And justly might God say to Eve for this respect, though there had been no more, What is this that thou hast done?
NOW I come to the Woman's excuse, The Serpent beguiled me. In which words are three things considerable. The Author, The Serpent. The Action, Guile. The Object, Me.
Concerning the Author, The Serpent, two things are inquirable. First, What the Serpent was indeed. Secondly, What Eve supposed him to be.
For the first, I think none so unreasonable as to believe it was the unreasonable and brute Serpent: For whence should he learn, or how should he understand God's commandment to our first Parents? and how is it possible a Serpent should speak; and not only so, but speak the language which Eve understood? For though some there be who think that Beasts and Birds have some speech-like utterings of themselves; yet none, that a Beast should speak the language of Men. It remains therefore that according unto the Scriptures it was that old deceiver the Devil and Satan, who abused brute Serpent, either by entring into him, or taking his shape upon him. The last of which I rather incline unto, supposing it (as you shall hear presently) to be the Law of Spirits, when they have intercourse and commerce with men, to take some visible shape upon them, as the Devil here the Serpent's; whence he becomes styled in Scripture,Rev. 12. 9. & 20. 2. The old Serpent.
Now for the Second question, What Eve took him to be, whether the Serpent or Satan, If we say she thought him to be the brute Serpent, how will this stand with the perfection of Man's knowledg in his integrity, to think a Serpent could speak like a reasonable creature? Who would not judge her a silly woman now that should think so? and yet the wisest of us all is far short of Eve in regard of her knowledg then. Again, If we say she knew him to be the Devil; I will not ask why she would converse at all with a wicked spirit, who she knew had fallen from his Maker; but I would know how we should construe the meaning of the Holy Ghost in the beginning of this Chapter, where he saith, The Serpent was the subtillest of all the beasts of the field which God had made, and so implies the woman's opinion of the Serpent's wisdom was the occasion why she was so beguiled; otherwise to what end are those words spoken, unless to shew that Satan chose the Serpent's shape, that through the opinion and colour of his well-known wisdom and sagacity he might beguile the Woman?
For the assoiling of which difficulty I offer these Propositions following. First, I will suppose There is a Law in the commerce of Spirits and Men, that a Spirit must present himself under the shape of some visible thing. For as in natural and bodily things there is no entercourse of action and passion, unless the things have some proportion each to other, and unless they communicate in some Common Matter: So it seems God hath ordained a Law that invisible things should converse with things visible in a shape as they are visible: which is so true, that the conversing presence of a Spirit is called a Vision or Apparition. And Experience with the Scriptures will shew us, that not only evil Angels, but good, yea God himself converseth in this manner with men. And all this I suppose Eve knew.
Secondly, I suppose further, That as Spirits are to converse with men under some visible shape; so is there a Law given them, that it must be under the shape of some such thing as may less or more resemble their condition. For as in nature we see every several thing hath a several and sutable Phisiognomy or figure, as a badge of their inward nature, whereby it is known as by a habit of distinction: so it seems to be in the shapes and apparitions of Spirits. And as in a well-governed Commonwealth every sort and condition of men is known by some differing habit, agreeable to his quality: so it seems it should be in God's great Commonwealth, concerning the shapes which Spirits take upon them. And he that gave the Law, that a man should not wear the habit of a woman, nor a woman the habit of a man; because that as he had made them diverse, so would he have them so known by their habits: so it seems he will not suffer a good and a bad Spirit, a noble and ignoble one, to appear unto men after the same fashion. And this also I suppose Eve knew.
Now from these grounds it will follow, That good Angels can take upon them no other shape but the shape of Man, because their glorious excellency is resembled only in the most excellent of all visible creatures; the shape of an inferiour creature would be unsutable, no other shape becoming those who are called the sons of God, but his only who was created after God's own image. And yet not his neither according as now he is,Ma…. 16. 5. but according as he was before his fall in his glorious beauty of his Integrity.Matth. 28. 3. Age and deformity are the fruits of Sin; and the Angel in the Gospel appears like a young man, his countenance like lightning, and his raiment white as snow, as it were resembling the beauty of glorified bodies in immutability, sublimity and purity.
Hence also it follows on the contrary, That the Devil could not appear in humane shape whilest Man was in his integrity, because he was a Spirit fallen from his first glorious perfection, and therefore must appear in such shape which might argue his imperfection and abasement, which was the shape of a Beast: otherwise no reason can be given, why he should not rather have appeared unto Eve in the shape of a Woman than of a Serpent; for so he might have gained an opinion with her both of more excellency and knowledg. But since the fall of man the case is altered, now we know he can take upon him the shape of Man; and no wonder, since one falling star may well resemble another. And therefore he appears it seems in the shape of Man's imperfection, either for age or deformity, as like an old man, (for so the Witches say:) and perhaps it is not altogether false which is vulgarly affirmed, That the Devil appearing in Humane shape, hath always a deformity of some uncouth member or other; as though he could not yet take upon him Humane shape entirely, for that Man himself is not entirely and utterly fallen as he is.
By this time you see the difficulty of the Question is eased. Now it appears why Eve wondered not to see a Spirit speak unto her in the shape of a Serpent, because she knew the Law of Spirits apparitions better than we do. Again, when she saw the Spirit who talked with her to have taken upon him the shape, though of a Beast, yet of the most sagacious Beast of the field, she concluded, according to our forelaid suppositions, That though he were one of the abased spirits, yet the shape he had taken resembling his nature, he must needs be a most crafty and sagacious one, and so might pry farther into God's meaning than she was aware of. And thus you may see at last how the opinion of the Serpent's subtilty occasioned Eve's fall; as also why the Devil, of all other Beasts of the field, took the shape of a Serpent, namely, to gain this opinion of sagacity with the Woman, as one who knew the Principles aforesaid.
Here I observe That overmuch dotage upon a conceived excellency, whether of Wisdom or whatsoever else, without a special eye to God's commandment, hath ever been the Occasion of greatest Errors in the world; and the Devil under this mask useth to blear our eyes, and with this bait to inveigle our hearts, that he may securely bring us to his lure. It was the mask of the Serpent's wisdom and sagacity, above the rest of the Beasts of the field, whereby he brought to pass our first Parents ruin. The admired wisdom of the long-living Fathers of the elder world, having been for so many ages as Oracles their off-spring grown even to a People and Nation while they yet lived, was the ground of the ancient Idolatry of mankind, whilest they supposed that those to whom for wisdom they had recourse being living, could not but help them when they were d…ad. This we may learn out of*foreign … Hesi…d; The men, saith he, of the golden age being once dead, became foreign,
—foreign,
foreign
they became Godlings and Patrons of mortal men, and Overseers of their good and evil works. So the opinion of the blessed Martyrs superlative glory in Heaven was made the occasion of the new-found Idolatry of the Christian Churches, wherewith they are for the greater part yet overwhelmed. And the esteem which Peter had above the rest of the Apostles in regard of chief-dome, even in the Apostles times, was abused by the old Deceiver to instal the man of sin. This made S. Paul to say, The mystery of iniquity was even then working; 2 Thes. 2. ….and therefore he laboured as far as he could to prevent it, by as much depressing Peter as others exalted him. Nay, he puts the Churches in mind of this story of the Serpent's beguiling Eve, that her mis-hap might be a warning to them. 2 Cor. 11. 2, 3. I am jealous over you (saith he) with a godly jealousie; for I have esponsed you to one husband, that I might present you as a chaste Virgin to Christ. But I fear lest by any means, as the Serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. And to come a little nearer home; Have not our Adversaries, when they would get Disciples, learned this of the Devil, to possess them first with an opinion of superlative Learning in their Doctors surpassing any of ours? I will say no more in this point, but that we ought so to prize and admire the gifts and abilities of Learning which God hath bestowed upon men, that the Pole-star of his Sacred Word may ever be in our eye.
THE next thing to be spoken of is The Action, Guile: And first, I shall shew what it is. To beguile is, through a false faith and persuasion wrought by some argument of seeming good, to bereave a man of some good he had or hoped for, or to bring upon him some evil he expected not. Practice hath made it so well known, that I should not need to have given any definition or description thereof, but only for a more distinct consideration. Whereas therefore I said, that Guile wrought by forelaying a false persuasion or belief; I would intimate, that it was nothing else but a Practical Sophism, the Premisses whereof are counterfeit motives; the Conclusion an erroneous execution. Now as all Practice or Action consists in these two, The choice of our End, and The execution of Means to attain thereunto: So is this Practical Sophism we call Guile, found in them both; either when an evil End is presented unto us in the counterfeit of a good, and so we are made to embrace Nubem pro Iunone, and find our selves deceiv'd in the event whatsoever the Means were we have used; or else we apply such Means as are either unlawful or unsufficient to attain our End, as being so mask'd that they appear unto us far otherwise than they are. With both these sorts or parts of Guile the Devil wrought our first Parents ruin. First, by making it seem a thing desirable and by all means to be laboured for, To be like unto God: which was an ambition of that whereof man was not only not capable, but such as little beseemed him to aspire unto, upon whom God had bestowed so great a measure of glorious perfections, as he seem'd a God amongst the rest of the creatures. What unthankfulness was this, that he upon whom God bestowed so much, as he was the glory of his workmanship, should yet think that God should envy him any degree of excellency fit for him? For this was the mask wherewith the Devil covered both the unfitness and impossibility of the End he insinuated; but he beguiled them. Secondly, He put the same trick upon them in the choice of the Means to be used, which was to transgress the severe commandment of Almighty God. Had the Aim been allowable, yet could not the Means have been taken for good, but only of such as were beguiled; in that the Devil made the Woman believe with his questioning the truth of God's commandment, that the danger was not great, nor so certain as it seemed; or that evil which might be in the action, would be countervailed with the excellency to be attained thereby; the gloriousness of which End the Devil so strongly sounded, that it drowned in her imagination the least conceit of evil in the Means. And as a man which always looks upward sees not the danger in the pat… and way he walks in, until he tumbles into a pit: so was it here with our first Mother, when thus the Devil beguiled her.
This first act of the Devil is that wherein we may behold as in a glass the*Eph. 6. 11. foreign. art he still useth to tempt us unto sin, and bring us to utter destruction: All his method is nothing else but Guile; he presents all things fair unto our face, and suffers not evil to appear before us in its own ugly shape; for so every man would fly from it. When he would tempt a man to Covetousness, he calls it Thrift; when to Bribes, he calls them Gratuities; when to Intemperance, forsooth it is Good-fellowship; when to Cruelty, it must be called Iustice; when to Prodigality, it must be taken for no other but Liberality, 2 Cor. 11. 14.and such like. This is that which the Scripture saith, The Devil transforms himself into an Angel of light: when he draws to Vice, he would seem to mean nothing but Vertue; when he tempts to works of darkness, he presents them as the works of light; when he plots our ruin and everlasting undoing, he bears us in hand that all aims at our welfare and felicity.
This is that which is meant in the following verse, where it it said, The seed of the woman should bruise the Serpent's head, but the Serpent should bruise his heel: as though the Serpent should love to assault at unawares, and so as he might not be seen to intend any such matter before he had done the feat; and therefore his fashion should be to come behind a man, and as it were to catch him by the heel. For that this was the Embleme of Guile and deceitful dealing, it may be gathered from the story of Iacob and Esau, when as Esau being beguiled of the blessing by the craft of his brother Iacob, makes an allusion to his name;Gen. 27. 36. Well (saith he) may he be called Iacob, for he hath beguiled me now these two times. Now Iacob had his name in the beginning, because he caught his brother by the heel when he came out of the womb; for foreign signifies the heel, and foreign is as much to say as an Heeler: whence the allusion of Esau hath this sense, if we take it verbatim, My brother may well be called an Heeler, for he hath heeled me these two times. Now because to come behind a man and take him by the heel was foul play, therefore of foreign an heel comes foreign (dolus, fallacia) guile, and foreign, a verb signifying to deceive or beguile; which is the second sense that Esau would imply by his allusion, That his brother might well be called a Beguiler, because he had beguiled him now these two times. But of this I shall have occasion to speak more hereafter.
Since therefore we have seen the Devil's practice, and learned that he works altogether by deceit; how wary should the consideration hereof make us to be in all the ways of our life? If we knew we had to deal with a man that used to beguile all that came into his fingers, in what continual jealousie and suspicion would we be? how would we cast about to find which way he might not circumvent us? how wary would we be to entertain any profer from him? there could be nothing made seem so fair, but we would suspect some foul meaning to be in it. If we would be thus disposed in matters of lesser moment, how careful should we be in greater? if where the ability of deceiving is lesser, what manner of men should we be when we know the Arch-deceiver of the world is continually attending upon us, labouring to beguile us? Should we here adventure upon any action rashly? No surely; but be first well advised. We should not be too confident in our own persuasions, lest they may prove the Devil's suggestions: And though the reasons we apprehend be never so good, and the case seem never so clear, and the way we are to walk in never so secure; yet ought we to make some pause, and act a fit of jealousie afore we adventure.
AND thus much of the Serpent's action, Guile: Now I come to The Object, Me. Me, the weaker of the two. Me, so much endeared in the affection of my Lord, that he could not but do any thing at my request. Of these two respects I will speak in order; and first of the first.
The Devil assaults us there where he finds us weakest; as here in this first sin he attempts the Woman, the weaker vessel; The Serpent beguiled me: for he knows this is the readiest way to overcome. A skilful Commander being to take a City, will not make his battery on that part of the wall which is strongly fortified, (for so he might make his shot in vain;) but will assault it there where it is least defensible, where a breach will be easily made, and yet entring he becomes Master of the whole how well fortified soever; even so the Devil will be sure to force us there where we are least able to resist; if he finds any part not well bulwark'd with resolution, there he plants the Canon of his temptation, and with an easie breach becomes Master of the whole piece.
Hence we may learn what to esteem of those imperfect courses concerning the Commandments of God, too frequent among the sons of men: There are many who resolve firmly against diverse kinds of sins, that they will never be drawn by any means to commit them; but they have always some one wherein they demur whether they should resolve to yield to it or not, if occasion should be offered. Many will fortily themselves very strongly against the assaults of bribery, of covetousness, of theft, of promise-breaking, of drunkenness; but as concerning their lust they are unresolved what to do, if a temptation should assault them: and so in others, there is some other inclination but slenderly guarded, when for the rest they could glory how strongly they are fortified. But we must know, that when the Devil comes to assault us, he will pass by us where we are strong, and attempt us only there where our weakness lies; and then we shall find all our labour lost, and all our other strength to have stood us in little stead: For what will it boot to guard the walls of our City never so strongly, if but one part be left unguarded for the enemies to enter? Is not all the enemie's? A Ship, though in other parts never so sound, will sink if but one leaking hole be left unstopped. Let us therefore survey our Hearts diligently, and finding where we lie exposed to danger, there most strengthen our selves with resolution.
And thus I come to the second respect why the Devil made choice of the Woman, namely, because of the vehemency of her Husband's affection towards her; so that to have gained her was to have gotten him also. For he seemed to think that her strength in her Husband's affection was more powerful to prevail with him than his subtile motives were to overcome him: and indeed the Event prov'd he was not much deceiv'd. Hence we are to observe, That the Devil taketh advantage of the vehemency of our Passions to work our overthrow; if he once find these to fasten his hold by, he then thinks he may lead us whither he lift. To have gained our affections is as it were to have gotten a party within, which is a dangerous advantage to further the invasion of an enemy; especially when most of our Passions are our Favorites, which we can deny nothing they ask;Eph. 4. 27. and if they be once bribed, will work us wholly to the dispose of our Arch-enemy.
That we may not therefore afford the Devil this advantage, and as it were reach him a rope to hang us withal, it behoves us so to govern and temper our Passions and Affections that they transport us not into the Devil's jurisdiction: which that we may the better do, it will not be unfit to set down some Rules for performance thereof.
First therefore, It is best to resist our Passions at the beginning, and to use the same policy which Pharaoh did with the Israelites, that they might not over-run his Country, in killing all their Infants as soon as they were born. While the sore is green, Chirurgeons seldom despair; but festered once, they hardly cure it: So it is with the Passions of our Mind; when they are first growing, they are soon curbed; but being a little entertained, they will hardly be subdued.
The second means is, To inure our selves to cross our Passions when there is no danger, and to bridle our selves sometimes from ordinary and lawful desires, that we may do it with more ease when we are in danger. For how can he hope to be able to master his Passions when dangerous temptations assault him, who never used them to it in the time of his security? We know that men who would fit themselves for the Wars, will practice in the time of Peace when there is no enemy near, and will toil and labour when they might be at rest, will lie hard when they may command a soft bed, will watch when they might sleep, and all to make them able to endure the like when they shall have need: The like must we do, that we may get an habit to cross and subdue our Passions when we shall have need.
The third means is, To fly occasions which may incense the Passions whereunto we are inclined. Occasiones faciunt latrones, saith the Proverb, Occasion makes him a thief which else might have been an honest man. Wherefore he that commits himself to Sea in a boisterous tempest is worthy to suffer Shipwrack; and he that willingly puts himself in the company of infected persons may blame himself if he fall into their diseases.
Lastly, but chiefly, When thy Passions are most vehement, then seek for succour from Heaven: Fly under the wings of Christ as the Chickens under the Hen when the Kite seeks to devour them: Beat at the gates of mercy, and crave grace to overcome thy misery. He is thy Father, and will not give thee a*Matth. 7. Serpent, if thou ask him Fish. Humble thy self before him, open thy sores and wounds unto him; and the good Samaritan will pour in both wine and oyl, and thy Passions shall melt and fall away as clouds are dispelled and consumed by the Sun.