Rib superfluous in him For to use Thomas Aquinas his comparison this Rib was like the seed of Animals and Vegetables superfluous for the Perfection of the Individuum but necessary for the Generation of the Off-spring The Rib was superfluous to Adam as a private person but necessary as the Origin from which the Woman and all Mankind was to be produced As for the Absurdity you would infer from the smallness of the quantity of matter in a Rib to make a Woman of if you will be pleased to think but of an Acorn or a Mustard-seed you will never use that Argument more Phil. But supposing Credentius we grant you all you require as to the supernatural formation of this Couple yet methinks it does not appear from your Mosaical History that these two were the primogenial Parents of the whole World I am rather apt to think they were but only the first of the Holy Race forsooth the Original Parents of the Jews who could not daign to proceed from that stock which the common herd of Mankind came from and therefore they must have an Origin more immediately from the Deity to imprint a more peculiar 〈…〉 of Dignity and Holiness up 〈…〉 Just like sâ—me of thâ— Anciâ—â—◠〈…〉 would pretend to be Bastards to soâ—â—â—â—od or other that they might ride top gallant upon the necks of other people Praadamitae Lib. 3. Cap. 4. O. R. And for my part I cannot see that the Jewish Legislator had any other design in this relation for he intimates that there were more Men in the World than the two that were thus miraculously created For he perfectly relates two Creations of Mankind one of the common Race of men within the six days Gen. 1.27 and another of the sacred Race of the Jews Gen. 2.9 Before God created Eve he said there was not a Meet help for him that is none of the wicked Ante-Adamical race were fit Wives for that Holy Man When Moses said Cain was a Tiller of the Ground he must needs suppose there were at that time all the Artificers which have relation to Tillage not only Smiths and Carpenters but Millers and Bakers So when Cain murthers his Brother Abel he entices him into the field for fear any body should see him which supposes that they dwelt in some Town where there were too many Eyes to watch him where note the word field does plainly answer to Town or City When Cain says every one that findeth me shall slay me he supposes a great number of men in the World And when God set a mark upon this Parricide for fear any one should slay him it supposes there were many men in the World which might accidentally do it Besides Moses says Cain went into the Land of Nod and married a Wife and builded a City where it must be thought there were Women for him to marry and Men to inhabit his City But Josephus is more plain for he says he struck in with a pack of rascally Robbers and became their Head Now it is plain from all this that Moses would not have it presumed that he wrote here of the primitive Parents of all the World seeing that within a few lines he le ts fall so many Expressions which denote the contrary He designed only to give an account of the Origin of the Jews as other Legislators have given out of other Countries but the later Jews out of partiality to their Country mistook his meaning as if he had delivered the History of the Universal Creation and they have lead the Christians by the Nose ever since Cred. Well I see there is nothing so plain and literal but men of a Paradoxical humour will strain to an odd meaning No Race of Men before Adam One would think the Mosaical Writings were so plain in making Adam and Eve the first of Mankind that no one could either mistake or pervert their meaning till the contrary was maintained from them by the Author of the Praeadamitae or Men before Adam And yet all that that Author could do with the assistance of a great deal of Wit and a considerable degree of Learning was only to put some odd glosses upon a few Texts of Scripture to make them look to his purpose which though they may seem a little surprising as he has dressed them out make nothing at all for him when seriously attended to nay he is so far from proving Praeadamites from Moses that not only the express Assertion of that holy Writer but the whole Tenour of his Book contradicts it It is needless to cast about for Arguments and Passages of Scripture to confute such a wild Paradox for that one passage Gen. 3.20 Must for ever overthrow it And Adam called his Wife's name Eve because she was the Mother of all Living Now if this be Scripture the Hypothesis of the Praeadamites as grounded upon Scripture is necessarily false unless the Scripture can be at the same time false and true So that I strangely wonder at the ingenious Author of that odd Book that he should take no notice of this Text that confutes his whole Hypothesis for he was a Man of too much Scripture learning to be ignorant of the place and one would think of too much sense to be guilty of so palpable a disingenuity The Arguments for the Praeadamites answered But to speak to the Arguments you have urged out of him As for the two several Creations which is pretended in the first and second of Genesis there is nothing like it Not that we need have recourse to Father Simon his Whim of the Scribe-Offices Simon Crit. His V. T. Lib. 1. Cap. 8. as if this was as he pretends a Repetition occasioned by the scatter'd or mixed Copies out of these Repositories But Moses having given an account of the six days Creation in geneâ—â—â—â—â—y in the second Chapter he reasâ—… the Argument and treats of the 〈…〉 in particular Now to conâ—… 〈…〉 of Man whom God design'd 〈…〉 of the Creation the more particular concern we must needs have to be informed of our own rise and the great importance this bears in order to a holy Life and a Religious gratitude I think this is no more than might well be expected in this Case But however to deferr a remarkable passage in History and to reassume it to speak more largely of it in another place is a thing common to all Historians But they that ground a new Creation upon that Re-assumption or Repetition may as well make as many Creations as they find the old one mentioned in the Psalms or Prophets or New Testament As for the next Argument of Adam's not finding a help meet for him that does not in the least imply that there were a number of other Men and Women in the World but it only denotes that there was as yet no Woman in the World Which is an expression not unlike that of Ovid. Sanctius his Animal mentisque capacius altae c.
Deerat adhuc Now one might with as good a Colour pretend that the Poet allow'd with the Author of the Praeadamites there was a wicked Generation of Men before and his Description is the Creation of the Holy one But to be short methinks this expression considering the circumstances is very apposite in the ordinary sense Adam had just before all the Animals Male and Female brought before him to name them now he might very well think it strange that he of all the Creation should be the single species and so might the Reader of this Relation as well as he and therefore Moses subjoins but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him for God had defer'd the Creation of the Woman till some time afterwards And I don't see how any other tolerable sense can be put upon the words As for your next Objection of Cain's being a Tiller of the Ground which requires the Assistance of many other precedent Arts this is easily to be answered by saying that this Art of Tillage was not in its full perfection in Cain's time that he might be a Tiller of the Ground without all those Instruments we use for our Convenience now he might make use of wooden Ploughs or Spades and form his Tools with sharp flints or shells instead of Knives and Hatchets which were the first Instruments of cutting Devolvit ipse acuto sibi pondera silice Catul. de At. and were retained in Religious uses in latter Times as in Circumcision Exod. 4.25 Jos 5.3 Herod Lib. 2. and in Castration of the Cybelline Priests Plin. Lib. 35. Juv. Sat. 6. so when Cain is said to have slain his Brother in the Field the word Field is not opposed to City but to the place of Abode the House or Tent where they dwelt And again as for Cain's saying every one that findeth me shall slay me God's setting a mark upon him his marrying a Wife and building a City in the land of Nod it does by no means suppose a former Generation of Praeadamites For the word Nod does not necessarily signify a Country but it may signify a fugitive so that the sense may be he lived a Fugitive or Vagabond in the Land Neither if we should grant there were a considerable number of Men in the World at that time would it make for this Praeadamitical Hypothesis for they might all be descended from Adam For this Murder of Abel happened in all probability in the 129 year of Adam For the Scripture says expresly that Seth was born in the 130th year Gen. 5.3 and Seth was given in the lieu of Abel For Eve says Gen. 4.25 God has appointed me another seed instead of Abel whom Cain slew Therefore it is most probable that he was born the year after the murder to be a Comfort to the first Parents after so sad an affliction having never seen the death of any of their Off-spring before So that then Cain must be 129 years old when he took his flight at least Now 't is no wonder that then there should be a considerable number of Inhabitants in the World for it is not likely that Adam and Eve had no Children all that time it is probable they had a great many and that there was a competent stock of Mankind by this time to the number it may be of an hundred thousand considering the primitive fecundity For if the Children of Israel from 70 Souls in the space of 210 years became 600,000 fighting men whereas a great number of them died during the Increase we may well enough suppose that the Children of Adam might amount to 100,000 in 130 years A M 30 10. 60 100. 90 1000. 120 10,000 130 100,000 Â 111,110 Substract 1. Â 111,109 which is almost five Generations So that Cain might very well build a City or grow out of the knowledge of many when there were such a number of People in the World Phil. O. R. p. 46. 47. From Gataker's Cinnus Another thing which makes my Faith strain a little is the making Adam give names to all the Animals in the World in one bit of a day and this upon mature consideration of their nature and faculties and playing the Philosopher upon each of them as the Divines will have it And indeed he must be a very expedite Philosopher and they must be very nimble Creatures to come and go in that little time of this day allotted by Moses for this purpose For a small pittance of time must serve for this when the day was taken up with so many other matters This believe me is the busiest day of all the rest for Moses then makes the Deity bestir himself to some purpose as if he began to grow weary of his Creating and was resolved to have his work over by the Week's end For to set aside this naming of the Animals which to consider the nature of each and to adapt them a name to it would require no small time let us see what a hurry there must be for the transaction of other matters In the first place there were so many thousand of Animals created then there was a counsel called for the Creation of Man who had at first a Body formed out of Clay and a Soul Breathed into it by God then Adam falls a sleep and had a Mistress formed out of one of his Ribs when he wakes he performs as must be supposed some Ceremonies of Courtship to the new-found Lady gains her Affections and celebrates an Extemporary Marriage the Woman leaves her new Husband and falls a parlying with an ugly Serpent or the Devil about an Apple after a deal of arguing pro and con the Woman yields to the Beast eats the Apple tempts her Husband makes his mouth water and he eats too then their nature is altered they lose their Glory and their sense find out one anothers blind side are ashamed of their nakedness commence Tailors extempore sew Fig-leaves together and make themselves fine green Aprons Then God in the Evening comes into the Garden the Guilty Criminals hide themselves in the Thickets God summons them they appear there is a fair hearing of the Cause they make their excuses and after a full Examination God decrees to the Man Woman and Serpent the Punishments they had merited Then they are drove out of Paradise two Angels with brandisht Swords are set Centinels at the Garden door and poor Adam and Eve are forced into the Woods to take up their Lodging among the Beasts So that here is almost the whole Opera of the Creation of the World performed this day and there is but a very little time left for Adam's making his Vocabulary and reading his Philosophy Lectures I am unwilling to teize you with absurdities I could raise from all these Particulars but one thing I must needs tell you lies cross my Throat mightily which I can never swallow and that is to consider what a nimble March the grave Elephants