Prison-pietie, or, Meditations divine and moral digested into poetical heads, on mixt and various subjects : whereunto is added a panegyrick to the right reverend, and most nobly descended, Henry Lord Bishop of London / by Samuel Speed ...

¶ On Enmity.

PLiny affirmeth, that the Serpents Brood Cannot be reconcil'd to man: nor wou'd The learn'd Bodinus this Relation tell, Did not his own experience know it well. A capital Antipathy is spread Between the Woman and the Serpent's head:

So that within a multitude of men If but one woman croud i'th' middle, then The Serpent doth his Enmity reveal By finding her, and stings her in the heel: Well verifying what their Maker sed, Th'Serpent should bruise her heel; her seed, his head. Perswasions may o' come an Enemy; Irreconcilable is Enmity: It is a mutual Malevo'ence, 'That between parties studies for offence. A dire antipathy that doth create The killing Canker of a mortal hate. Magirus saith, Nature makes it appear In divers Creatures, namely Horse and Bear, The Eagle and the Swan, among all Fowl, The lesser sort of Birds oppose the Owl. The Toad and Spider likewise do agree Each one to poyson by antipathy. The stately Lion of couragious stock, Though bold and fierce, is fearful of a Cock. But the most sharp hostility indeed, Is between Satan and the Womans seed.