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. [Sidenote: 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. [Sidenote: 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_.