And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: For God, [said she], hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.
Ver. 25. She bare a son, and called, &c.] Sic uno avulso, non deficit alter Aureus. a Dead bones may revive, and out of the ashes of a phoenix another phoenix spring. Iana iacet phoenix nato phoenice ,& c. The two witnesses that were killed, received the Spirit of life from God again. Rev 11:11 John Baptist reviveth in our Saviour (qui huic succenturiatus est), and Stephen in Paul; John Huss in Luther (the goose in the swan); and the suppressed Waldenses in the Protestants. The Papists gave out that when Luther died, all his sect would die with him: and when Queen Elizabeth's head was laid, we should have strange work in England. A false Jesuit in a scandalous libel published it, b that she wished that she might, after her death, hang a while in the air, to see what striving would be for her kingdom. But she both lived and died with glory; her rightful successor came in peaceably, not a dog moving his tongue at him; the true reformed religion was established, and is hitherto maintained among us, evil the malice of Rome and hell. It was the legacy left us by our ancestors: the blood of those blessed martyrs was the seed of our Church, of which I may say, as he of his city,
“ Victa tamen vinces, eversaque Troia resurges:
Obruit hostiles illa ruina domos. ”
When the devil and his imps had got Abel into his grave, and saw Adam without another in his place for a hundred and thirty years' space, or near upon, what a deal of joy was there, think we, among them, and sending of gifts! But God in due time sets up a Seth, instead of Abel, and so cuts the devil's comb, confutes his confidence. He will have a Church, when all's done. The Pope c could tell the Turk so much in a message,
“ Niteris incassum Christi submergere navem:
Fluctuat, at nunquam mergitur illa ratis. ”
a Virgil. The Duke of Florence gave for his ensign a great tree with many spreading boughs, one of them being cut off, with this posie, Uno avulso ,& c.
b Camdon's Elis.
c Plus II. ad Imperat. Turc .