It was in this manner therefore that Adam and Eve understood this text and comforted themselves against sin and despair by the revealed hope of this future crushing of the serpent's head, by Christ, the Seed of the woman. And through this, their hope in the promise thus given unto them, they shall also rise again at the last day unto life eternal. V. 15b. _He shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel._ Who is not filled with wonder, yea, rather with execration, at the malicious design of Satan in having attempted to transfer this divine text, so full and running over with consolation concerning the Son of God, to the Virgin Mary! For in all the Latin Bibles, the pronoun _ipse_ is put in the feminine gender _ipsa_, "_She_ shall bruise." And Lyra, who was by no means unacquainted with the Hebrew language, was carried away by this error as by the violence of an overflowing and resistless stream into the same impious interpretation; so that in the face of its plain meaning, he interpreted the passage as applying to the blessed Virgin; making her the person, by whom the power of Satan should be broken through the mediation of her Son. And he applies to the Virgin also that passage in the Song, "Thou art terrible as an army with banners." And, although Lyra professes to hold this interpretation of the present passage as received from others, yet his sin is great in not refuting it. Many afterwards followed him. And all the more recent interpreters have perverted this most holy passage to serve idolatry, finding no one to stop or resist them. All this however has arisen either from the ignorance or negligence of the rulers in the Church. Because these did not set themselves against idolatry, sound doctrine was by degrees suppressed and became extinct. And since we have now by the blessing of God restored the sound doctrine, these disgraceful beasts, given to serve the belly, plainly show that they care not for religion, but for their own benefices only. And because such idolatry promotes the interests of these men, they even show their indignation at people being taught the truth. But these blind beings do not see that the Gospel is a doctrine of the divine nature, that those who receive it lose nothing by it but their sins and eternal death; and that they gain in their stead deliverance from all idolatry and from the dominion of Satan.