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