It hath been promoted in some constructions from a passage in the _Canticle_ [SN: _Can._ 8.], as it runs in the vulgar translation, _Sub arbore malo suscitavi te, ibi corrupta est mater tua, ibi violata est genetrix tua_; Which words notwithstanding parabolically intended, admit no literal inference, and are of little force in our translation, I raised thee under an Apple-tree, there thy mother brought thee forth, there she brought thee forth that bare thee. So when from a basket of summer fruits or apples, as the vulgar rendreth them, God by _Amos_ foretold the destruction of his people, we cannot say they had any reference unto the fruit of Paradise, which was the destruction of man; but thereby was declared the propinquity of their desolation, and that their tranquility was of no longer duration then those horary or soon decaying fruits of Summer. Nor when it is said in the same translation [SN: Fructus horæi.], _Poma desiderii animæ tuæ discesserunt à te_, the apples that thy soul lusted after are departed from thee, is there any allusion therein unto the fruit of Paradise. But thereby is threatned unto _Babylon_, that the pleasures and delights of their Palate should forsake them. And we read in _Pierius_, that an Apple was the Hieroglyphick of Love, and that the Statua of _Venus_ was made with one in her hand. So the little Cupids in the figures of _Philostratus_ [SN: _Philostrat._ figur. 6. De amoribus.] do play with apples in a garden; and there want not some who have symbolized the Apple of Paradise unto such constructions. Since therefore after this fruit, curiosity fruitlesly enquireth, and confidence blindly determineth, we shall surcease our Inquisition; rather troubled that it was tasted, then troubling our selves in its decision; this only we observe, when things are left uncertain, men will assure them by determination. Which is not only verified concerning the fruit, but the Serpent that perswaded; many defining the kind or species thereof. [SN: _Opinions of what kind the Serpent was_, etc.] So _Bonaventure_ and _Comestor_ affirm it was a Dragon, _Eugubinus_ a Basilisk, _Delrio_ a Viper, and others a common snake. Wherein men still continue the delusion of the Serpent, who having deceived _Eve_ in the main, sets her posterity on work to mistake in the circumstance, and endeavours to propagate errors at any hand. And those he surely most desireth which concern either God or himself; for they dishonour God who is absolute truth and goodness; but for himself, who is extreamly evil, and the worst we can conceive, by aberration of conceit they may extenuate his depravity, and ascribe some goodness unto him. CHAPTER II That a Man hath one Rib less then a Woman.