THE LIFE OF ADAM Written in Italian BY GIOVANNO FRANCESCO LOREDANO A Venetian Noble-man AND RENDERD INTO ENGLISH By J. S. LONDON Printed for Humphrey Moseley and are to be sold at his Shop at the Prince's Armes in S. Paul's Church-yard 1659. TO THE INCOMPARABLE LADY THE LADY S. B. Madam YOur Incomparable Beauty and exemplary Vertue so justly intitle you to the services of all those whose happinesse it is to know you that your interest in this Dedication is rendred unquestionable coming from him who may without vanity professe himselfe best acquainted with the Power of the one Sublimity of the other Nor let any judge the concealment of your Name to proceed from other than the experience of your exact Modesty which declineth all publique applauds together with a consciousnesse of the vast disproportion which this triviall Present beareth either to your Merit or my Duty And for its subject as being the History of the First of Men it could not make a more proper or more honourable Addresse than to the Best of Women In which quality you shall ever be acknowledged and obsequiously admired by Madam Your most constant and most devoted Servant T. S. TO THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS LORD PIETRO MICHIELE My Lord I Have readd and readd again the ADAM of the most Ilustrious Lord Gio Francesco with excessive delight O what Witt O what a happy hand he had But it was necessary it should be no lesse for the making of an Adam nor is it fit that any one should write the life of the first Man but one of the first Writers of the Age. The alteration of the style in some places hindred not but that without seing the name of the Author I should easily have known this Work for his I hold it not fit that because Adam used to cover himselfe with leaves he should therfore be deckt in flowers All dresses become not all matters a History extracted out of holy Writt is not to be trimmed like Playes and Romances Noble Loredano was desirous to give us not only the history but together with it also the true manner of writing it Doth your Lordship require my thought of it Adam in my opinion will receive no lesse grace from these lines then from the ruddy earth of which he was formed yea somuch the greater inasmuch as then he was a sinner mortall and here he is revived sanctifyed immortall We must needs acknowledge him very ingratefull that will not render perpetuall applauds to that pen that hath so learnedly in this Treatise eternized our Common father My Lord. I remaine of your most Illustrious Lordship The most partiall Servant Nicoló Crasso Reader I Have at length more to gratify friends than to comply with any humour of appearing in publique exposed to thy veiw these indigested productions of a few vacant hours after the approvall of some esteemed competently judicious shall not go about to court thee into a liking hereof but freely remit that to thy censure without any solicitude how thou receivest it which was not so much intended to please thee as to satisfie others whose power over me could onely have induced mee to this publication Farewell J. S. THE LIFE OF ADAM BEhold O Ambitious man thy first originall Thy pride and statelinesse which contendeth for reverence with the soveraign power of God came from a vile masse of clay And thou o Sensuall man that debasest thy selfe in adoring a face so much the more unworthy of Love by how much the more unchaste consider how thou renderest thy self odious in the eys of that God that condescended to give thee a beeing and contemptible to that divine hand which hath vouchsafed to form thee of Nothing God had with Idea's suitable to his own omnipotence compiled the machine of Heaven and of the World The Chaos retained no longer either confusion or darknesse The Elements though proud of their variety of qualities united themselves for the conservation of the Whole The Sun and Moon received light and did impart it Hearbs Plants Birds and the sensitive appetite and which procure pain and torment perceiving himselfe to excell in beauty above all things created with an infused knowledge that inabled him to understand all sciences knowing perfectly the nature of all Plants Stones Herbs and animalls and understanding the vertue and properties of the heavens elements and stars perceiving himself finally to have the scepter of dominion over all creatures possessing the World and Paradise after he had a good space beheld the Heavens with admiration of that cognition he threw himselfe at the feet of his Creatour and thus began to thank and praise him O Lord I did not returne thanks for so many gifts because I would not diminish them seeing contemplation cannot arrive to comprehend them By how much the more is the admiration by so much the greater is the silence What tongue although made by God can worthily extoll the workes of God the greatnesse of God the gifts of God Of what expressions shall I make use to praise that God which hath been pleased to communicate his Divinity Lord I ought not to praise thee because all praise would fall short of that Omnipotence which is the more incomprehensible whilst that a mouth so much obliged confesseth it selfe uncapable to sing thy wonders He that attempts to commend thee O Lord either knowes Thee not or else is unworthy to know thee To say that thou art greater then the greatest is the most that my voyce can expresse but yet the least that thy greatnesse can admit The greatest attributes that my judgement can invent would not expresse the Soveraignty of that God that is greater than all things I would make thee an oblation of my being but I know not what to offer thee that is not thine and that I have not received from thy bounty who hast pleased with an incomprehensible benignity to make a gift of my selfe to my selfe That part therfore of my selfe over which thou hast granted me dominion and superintendency even that I offer thee Disdain it not ô Lord because it conserves the impression of thy image I cannot offer to thee any thing greater then the resemblance of thy selfe The excesse of thy liberality permits me so much for otherwise I cannot dispose of the aire that gives me breath And as I am what thou wast pleased to make me so I will be what with thy commands thou art willing I should be God willingly lent his car to the words of Adam for being the workmanship of his own hands he could not but love him and loving him hearkened to him with such a tenderness as a father hearkens to the voice of his children And thus in all likelyhood he answered him Adam I rejoyce in the inclinations of thy heart and I forbore to prescribe man any other lawes than those of the will to delight my selfe in the affections of man See here the Fishes Birds and other animalls formed to be
assigning Adam for food the fruits of the earth intended not to teach us what our viands ought to be knowing very well that the cloudes of the aire nor the gulphs of the Sea are not secure from mans Gluttony After that sense in Adam had given place to reason and that delight had in a great measure seated and rebated the edge of his appetite the woman was adverted by Adam not to touch that Fruit which was so mortiferous in its effects to the eater Such saith he my Dear is the commandement of God The transgressing it would be ingratitude and impiety would ravish us of all these delights and our Empire over the Creation It is unworthy of the affection of great ones that know not how to part with their obedience and if obedience is necessary to all how much more doth it beseem us that have a God so prodigal of his bounties that he hath vouchsafed to us together with his image a part of his Divinity The Woman became at those prohibitions the more curious To forbid a woman is to increase her appetite He that denies the any thing adds a spurre to that desire which is ardent in all things but in things prohibited insatiable The Woman therfore transported by those impatiencies that interposed between them and their felicity left Adam desiring to injoy without testimonys and without check the sight of that fruit which being forbidden was to be supposed the more exquisite The Woman the more distant she is from her Husband the more adjacent she is to Sin and whilst alone is in perill of destroying herselfe because she gives incouragement opportunity to any one to tempt her A solitary Woman is exposed to the temptations even of Serpents The Moon is eclipsed by the vicinity of the Sunne The Woman on the contrary commonly finds her honesty eclipsed in the absence of her Husband Having found the tree she beheld the fruits with so-much curiosity that it induced the Devill to tempt her He that takes away opportunity from the Devill takes away his strength he can do litle harme to those that do not give him accesse Curiosity is the mother of sinne and daughter of disobedience Amongst the infinite forms of animals there was a Serpent with the face of a Damsel which God had replenished with all subtility In sagacitie and in craftinesse there was not that creature under Heaven that could match him This the Divell chose for the instrument of his wickednesse envying the felicity of Man because created after him and of a more ignoble substance he triumphed with the Dominion of the World and the possession of the favour of his Divine Majesty He served himselfe of a serpent that had the face of a Damsell to advertize us that trecheries alwaies maske themselves with the pretexts of simplicity and mansuetude Or because the Divell beleived himselfe unable to deceive a Woman if he did not make use of a mouth or face like that of a Woman The Devill would tempt the Woman and not the Man because he knew her more facil of beleife and more feeble of resistance He began from the inferiour part that so with order he might come to possesse himselfe of the whole He knew that men seldome give credit to promises and fall easilier by yelding to the errors of others than being deceived in their owne This enemy of Mankind first suffered the eyes of the Woman to convey to the heart the desire of tasting that forbidden Tree And then with a smile which nourished and confected the poyson he said unto her O fairest Woman the miraculous gift of Heaven to blesse the eyes of your beholder I doe for my part believe that this Garden can only so far boast the name of Paradise as it injoyes your presence which hath efficacy to imparadise not only the affections of all hearts but also the insensibility of all plants stones But be pleased to honour me with the solution of one doubt Why are you prohibited by God to taste of all the fruites of this Garden since they are prostituted to the desire even of the vilest animals and are so delicate that it sufficeth to say that they are of Paradise Did it not suffice God to have subjected you to the law of nature and moreover to have added the supernaturall without imposing the yoak of a positive law upon you to which the irrationall Brutes themselves are not obliged This God is too severe that prohibits you the very fruition of the Trees of the earth And too parsimonious in that he would reserve those fruits which were given by the seasons I compassionate your condition restrained within so narrow bounds that to observe them is of necessity to contend with impossibility How great is the malice of the Divell God had prohibited the fruite of one only Tree but he making the commands of God difficult by aggravating them demands why they were not forbidden all As if the greatnesse of precepts excused and warranted in some part their non-observance and disobedience The woman wondred not to heare a Serpent which articulated his voice and pronounced words either because she believed it a miracle of the Soveraigne power of God or because Women when they are once ravished by any appearance regard not the very impossibility of Nature herselfe She started not at the sight of a Serpent for seeing it resemble her selfe in countenance she rather rejoyced then feared it being naturall to joy in those things which resemble us Or else because in the primitive state of Innocence all creatures obeyed man and as they had not power nor poyson to offend so much lesse did they retaine any thing of terror to affright This was the will of God who would not permit that any greivance or annoy should occurre to man unlesse he was first provoked to it by sinne The Woman answered to the Divell The command of God is not so restrictive as thou sayest We may injoy all Trees at our election having a Dominion over all The fruit of this alone that is in the midst of the Garden is forbidden us God hath commanded us not to tast nor to touch this because perhaps it would subject us to death The fear of Death hath power to refrain all desires Nor am I such a fool to desire by a wicked transgression to provoke and irritate the wrath and judgements of God His Divine Majesty had commanded only that they shouid not eat of the Tree of the knowledge of good and evill but the Woman moreover addes the Touching it because as a Woman she could not discourse without aggravating or over-reaching Or it may bee she was thus advertised by Adam who knowing the frailty and weaknesse of his Wife would also remove the occasion for when sin gets into the hands it 's almost impossible but that it should at last to the mouth To touch with the hands the things forbidden to the mouth is either a voluntary meeting sin or
punishments feares them to be much greater then they are A Hell to a soul that hath proved it shall be no greater nor more horrible To one that dreads it the torments and stripes represent themselves centuplicated Because saith God thou hast bent thy eare to the flatteries of thy wife touching and tasting the fruites of the forbidden Tree I will that thy labours curse the earth instead of cultivating it With the sudors of thy industry shalt thou spend thy days Thornes and thistles shall over-run thy feilds and like a bruit thou shalt be constrained to take herbes for thy sustentation Thou shalt not be able to eat without imploying thy hand or sweating thy brows These thy miseries shall determine with the ultimate period of thy life for I will for thy disobedience that thou returne to thy beginning and that earth become earth and dust dust How unexplicable is the mercy of God! Adam sinnes and transgresseth the precepts of his Divine Majesty and He in pronouncing the sentence of condemnation curseth the Earth What will not love make one doe What share had the earth in the faults of Adam With what demerit had it irritated the indignation of its Lord Unlesse perhaps it was cursed by God for that it did nor suddenly open a gulph to swallow him who had not known how to obey his Creator Or unlesse that God would have it cursed because it was always to serve the serpent for food It argues also the goodnesse of the Lord to remember Adam of the end of his miseryes whilst in minding him of his death he sets before him the period of his infelicity And although Death is the wages of sinne it proves notwithstanding profitable and necessary that so mans miserys and misfortunes become not immortall Mercifull God that blessest even when thou chastisest us Indeed death was a necessary act in the world that so the feare of losing the life should spur man on to all good actions and refraine him from all bad What would not man dare what would not man atempt to do if death should not cut the thread of his sensuality of his ambition How would he despise the death of the soul and his last damnation in the fall of the world that dying every moment should neverthelesse pride himselfe in a hope of immortallity It would not doubtlesse be the least of his rash attempts with the union of the mountaines to attempt a scalado upon Heaven Let the goodnesse of God therefore be for ever praised that to preserve the soul from perpetual damnation and to interrupt a lethargy of vices which would determine only with the termination of time hath decreed the dissolution of this masse of humane flesh and permitted that a momentary paine that is circumscribed by the brevity of a grone should deliver us from an eternall torment accompanyed with such dolours as the just anger of God is able to produce Scarce had the Soveraign Monarch pronounced the punishment for the sinne of Adam but making either by virtue of his Divine power or by meanes of the Angels certaine garments of beasts skins he therewith covered the nakednesse of Adam and Eve who stupifyed with Gods displeasure knew not so much as how with pardon to beg the mercy of his Divine Majesty This also is an argument of the wonderfull beneficence of God in that he would not permit that sinners thrust out of Paradise should for all that be wholly deprived of his providence as to the necessity of covering their bodies Because divine favours are of the nature of the Sunne which participates its heat and its light even to those that despise it God rendered the bodies of these wretches so miserable that without clothes they could not suffer the violences of the seasons nor cover that part of the body which is unworthy of the eye He would have these clothes of skins that so they might daily weare about them the emblematicall tokens of their mortality which being of slaughtered beasts should daily remember them of death and advert them that they dwelt under the intemperancy of a Heaven that would have dealt with them as with beasts And who knows but that God in vesting our first Parents with skins intended to describe what ought to be the habit of wise and just men condemning silkes and purples which denote onely effeminacy and pride Unlesse perhaps he would give us to understand how full of blindnesse are the counsells of men that have not recourse to God in their miseries since the vesture composed by Adam covered not all his nudity nor defended him from externall incommodityes and was inconvenient pricking the flesh and bringing paine and trouble Adam being clothed God began to upbraid him saying Behold Adam thy hopes obtained behold thy pretensions determined Thou art made just like Us omnipotent wise and all composed of goodnesse and holinesse Behold thou art become of a nature immortall not obliged to any needing of none and blessed in thy selfe Behold thy enjoyment of the knowledg of good and evill so much coveted by thy incredulity Get thee packing therefore out of the Paradise of delights and fixe thine aboad where thou wast formed cultivating that earth from whence thou hast derived thy beeing It was one of the wonted effects of Gods benignity to drive Adam out of Paradise because if he had continued amongst those delights without enioying them he would have received too much torment there being no greater punishment to be found then to be in the midst of felicityes and to be denyed the fruition Or he was dismissed from Paradice because What could God hope from him that had not power to shew himselfe continent no not with the very Trees More out of an effect of feare then disobedience it was that Adam stood immoveable when God by force took him from thence appointing him a station wherein he might command with the eye all the delights of Paradise that so daily beholding the losse of his happinesse his pennance should become more severe and his repentance more sincere It was goodnesse in God to thrust Adam out of Paradise for that he thereby removed the occasion of sinning anew there not being a greater incentive to a relapse into sinne then the being in the place where the sinne was before committed Those remembrances are no other then stimulations which enkindle the desire and hurry the will to new faults What Adams condition was expulsed Paradise many be easier imagined then described His eyes pregnant with teares his mouth full of sighs were the least expressions of his griefe His Wife insted of comforting him augmented his torments not so much for her haveing been the originall of his sinne as for the griefs which he received from her afflictions Poore Adam that didst not scarce one whole day enjoy the gifts of Gods favour His felicity being shorter then that of an Ephemeris About three of clock he was brought into the Garden at six a clock he sinned and in