274 Chap.3. An Expofition upon the Boók of J Q B. ÿerf. I2. parents c, .'damand Eve, before they finned, atetcalled (ren.2. 25. ) naked ; And the Serpent in thevery next verfe, ( being the firft of the third chapter) iscalled fubtile, by one and the lame word. Our firfl Parents were nakedoutwardly( innocency need- ed none, and glory /hall need no cloatbing ) they were alto ( to evil )naked inwardly ; they were fimpie , plain- hearted, without any cloake of malice or wickednefs. But the Serpents nakednefs, notes only a fitnefs, fl-ynefs, readinefs or aalvenefs to doevil: For he was double cloath'd with craft, Cloakt and Hooded with fubtilties,-to aft mifchief unfeen. The naked-crafty ones of theTexc,are the Seed of the Serpent, his childreu,and the rcfore they bear their Fathers name. The Chaldee paraphraft tells us chat the crafty ones here meant by. Intetligit fegi Elipban,.,were efpecially the Egyptians, who when they would totrones Egyt,- prcfl'e thepeople of God,faid, Cime en,let yes dealt wifely with them, tiarum, qui fa- leaf/ they multiply, Exod. I. i o. A crafty man , it one , who bath tienter fuerunt not atwayes more underflandirg then hie neighbour, bat ever left con- ed malefacien- dum fraeli. pcienee Tea, howgreatfoever bis wit is, his confcience iif little, that Tat, itnever-1144s in bis light, wbatfoever be is doing.. He takes meaftore of, his aelionr, net by what he ought to de, but by what he would have dóne ; and yet, he can feldom do what he would , for the Lord disappoints the devices of the crafty fo, that as it follows . in the Text, Their bandy cannot perform their enterprift. For every bufinefs, two things are required , Invention and A&ion ; or the elcaing of Means, and the purfuing of the End: The former is Head-work, the latter is Hank work. The hands arc the inliruments of a;etions, as the Head is the inflrument of invention and confultation. Thefe crafty heads wereat work before, now their Hands go to it : What they devife craftily, they would aft induflrioufly;but they cannot.Tbtir hands cannot perform their enterprife. mean. The word which we trar,flatc e,.terprife, fignifies Ben, , tra,8 as alto reafon,wifdome, and vertuc;becaufe wifdom,vertue and urgt abni reafon areas it were,thebeing,flabiliry,ót.permanency of things; llenotat (Pa- And therefore as in the Hebrçw,this word fignifying wifdom 8c tiam,raaionetn, venue, is derived from a root, which notes Being. So the word fapientiam vinwem fem, fignifying wickednefs and folly,is derived from a root (as fom pertianen- Criticks obfeIve) whichnotes only a negative, or a not Being of any
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