Gen. 49. 9.
Revel. 5. 5.
Matth. 3. 7.
5. Again how can Judah literally be a lions whelp, or Christ called the lion of the tribe of Judah? must it needs be understood that Christ either assumed the shape of a natural Lion, or that he entred into the Body of a natural Lion? Surely not, that were most absurd to think or believe. Even so must it be accounted most absurd and abominable for Pererius, or any other to fancy that the Devil may not properly enough in an Allegory, or Mystical sense be called a Serpent in that action of tempting of Evah, without either assuming the shape of a Serpent, or entring into the Body of a natural one. I appeal to all rational Men to judge if the absurdities of both be not alike, if barely and literally taken. But this being one of Cajetans Arguments, was too hard a morsel for the teeth of Pererius; and therefore he past it over without an answer. Further when our Saviour called the Pharisees, and Sadducees a generation of vipers, must any Man be so extreamly mad as to believe that naturally and literally they were generated by vipers? Must it not be understood that they were called so from their poysonous and wicked minds, by way of Metaphor? Yes surely: and so is the Devil called a Serpent by a Metaphor, or else literally so taken, both appellations are equally absurd. And let Pererius or any other unloose this knot.
John 8. 44.
6. How can the Devil be a very murtherer from the beginning, (which he is Mystically so considered) if he had no hand in the destroying of Evah and Adam both in Souls and Bodies? But if by the Serpent the Devil was not understood, then he stands acquitted, and was not guilty of the murdering Adam and Evah both in Souls and Bodies. But we must affirm that all learned and rational Divines, whether antient, middle or modern, that have expounded or commented upon that place, do by the words of our Saviour calling Satan a murderer from the beginning, understand the murdering of Adam and Evah both in Souls and Bodies; And we dare referr all those that have taken, or will take pains to examine them upon that piece of Scripture, that they shall be found as we have averred.
2 Cor. 11. 3.
7. Moses (in that action) doth purposely intitle the Devil by the name of a Serpent, because (by his effectual creeping into the interiour senses, as also by infecting Mens minds with venomous perswasions) he doth very lively represent the nature, disposition and qualities of the venemous Serpent. And in this same sense was the Apostle jealous over the Corinthians, left as that Serpent ὁ ὄφις, (which must necessarily be understood of Satan by a Metaphor of that Serpent) beguiled Evah through his subtilty, so they might by the cunning of Satan in his false Apostles have their minds corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
8. The Serpent that tempted Evah in Paradise, is there said to be more subtile than every beast of the field, the which (if the writing of such as have observed and described the nature of all sorts of animals be true) cannot be avouched truly of the natural Serpent. For there are many other creatures more subtil than the Serpent. And therefore it must needs be understood of the spiritual Serpent, that is, Satan who is (indeed) the old Serpent.
Judg. 9. 7, 8, 9, 10, &c.