The enmity put by the Lord between the seed of the Woman and the seed of the Serpent, Gen. 3.15. soon began to work, even in the infancy of the Church, in the family of our first Parents, as we see Gen. 4.8. by the Martyrdom of righteous Abel. No small portion of that fixed hatred, and hostility of the old Serpent, hath ever since been discovered against the young ones of Christs little flock. The multiplication of the Children of Israel, is the occasion why Pharaoh deals so wisely as we read; endeavouring first by the Midwives, secretly to destroy the male Children: and after that, more openly by an Edict, to drown them in his Egyptian waters; for which what ever his pretence might be, alleged Exod. 1.10. yet no doubt (as Calvin on the place somewhat that way hint's) Satan had a design therein, to cut of the name and posterity of Abraham (who is the Father of all them that believe, even of US all: the Father of many nation, Rom. 4.11, 16, 17.) and so to evacuate, and annihilate the promise of God, even that great promise of his everlasting Covenant, to be a God to him, and to his seed for ever, in their Generations. Hence also afterward we find this spite of the great accuser of the brethren, vented against these poor little ones, in the forbidding them Communion with the Church of God in that Worship which God had ⟨image 3⟩instituted, and which he had Commanded his People by the hand of Moses and Aaron, to observe, Exod. 10.3. let my People go, that they may serve me, saith the Lord▪ but hardhearted Pharaoh seems to scruple whether the young Children are a part of the Lord• People, as appears by his question verse 8. [But who are they that shall go•?] Moses pleads for the young, as well as the old; for the Sons, and the Daughters, verse 9. but Pharaoh is of another apprehension, and resolution, verse 10, 11. he will let the men go and serve the Lord, but not the little ones. Again Haman the Agagite we find is not satisfied with the destruction of the old Generation of the Jews, but the little Children of the Church also are expressly mentioned, and designed to the same condemnation, and Massacre with their Fathers Esth. 3.13.
The enmity put by the Lord between the seed of the Woman and the seed of the Serpent, Gen. 3.15. soon began to work, even in the infancy of the Church, in the family of our first Parents, as we see Gen. 4.8. by the Martyrdome of righteous Abel. No small portion of that fixed hatred, and hostility of the old Serpent, hath ever since been discovered against the young ones of Christs little flock. The multiplication of the Children of Israel, is the occasion why Pharaoh deals so wisely as we read; endeavouring first by the Midwives, secretly to destroy the male Children: and after that, more openly by an Edict, to drown them in his Egyptian waters; for which what ever his pretence might be, alleadged Exod. 1.10. yet no doubt (as Calvin on the place somewhat that way hint's) Satan had a design therein, to cut of the name and posteri•y of Abraham (who is the Father of all them that beleive, even of US all: the Father of many nation, Rom. 4.11, 16, 17.) and so to evacuate, and annihilate the promise of God, even that great promise of his everlasting Covenant, to be a God to him, and to his seed for ever, in their Generations. Hence also afterward we find this spite of the great accuser of the brethren, vented against these poor little ones, in the forbidding them Communion with the Church of God in that Worship which God had ⟨image 3⟩instituted, and which he had Commanded his People by the hand of Moses and Aaron, to observe, Exod. 10.3. let my People goe, that they may serve me, saith the Lord▪ but hardhearted Pharaoh seemes to scruple whether the young Children are a part of the Lord• People, as appears by his question verse 8. [But who are they that shall go•?] Moses pleads for the young, as well as the old; for the Sons, and the Daughters, verse 9. but Pharaoh is of another apprehension, and resolution, verse 10, 11. he will let the men goe and serve the Lord, but not the little ones. Again Haman the Agagite we find is not satisfied with the destruction of the old Generation of the Iewes, but the little Children of the Church also are expresly mentioned, and designed to the same condemnation, and Massacre with their Fathers Est•. 3.13.
