at thy sole disposall These shall allways receive laws from thy pleasure and motions from thy beck Nor shall their velocity nimblenesse or terriblenesse be able to render them contumacious to thee Give them names as thou pleasest that so they may the more willingly obey thee and may be the more strongly obleiged to thy commands In reward of all this that I have done for thee I demand no more but a bare acknowledgement I have given thee the Monarchy of the Earth I may well therefore reserve to my selfe the Supremacy with a small tribute as a badge of my superiority and thy obedience Therefore suffer not the allurement of thy taste to perswade thee to eate of the Tree of the knowledge of good and evill for if thou dost thou shalt feele the severity of death God first named the Fishes and afterwards all the other Animalls to teach those in Authority to have a more especial care of the irremotest Subjects as those who may be more easily opprest by their Ministers and Officers or to give them to understand that they take those into protection which like the Fishes are naked and cannot speake His divine Majesty forbade Adam the fruites of the tree of knowledge of good and evil because having the power over all things created he should not excercise the same with pride and ambition God would have Adam command with the curb of being commanded There being nothing will more moderate the Statelynesse of a Prince then his subjection to Law Or else the fruits of this tree having a virtue to make Man know the misery of Mankind God forbad Adam to taste of it both because he would have him free from all those inquietudes which did accompany the necessities of the body and because he would have him imploy all the ardor of his affections in a carefull sollicitude for the welfare of his soul God gave Adam a Prohibition to eat of the fruits of the Tree of the knowledge of good and evill although he knew he would not observe it to shew that Laws are necessary notwithstanding they may be abused And againe how could God triumph in the excesses of his mercy in the extremes of his goodnesse in the trophyes of his justice if he should not permitt man to sinne and if he should favour all universally with efficacious grace God threatned Adam with death as the punishment of his transgression because Death is the extreamest of all evills and the greatest of all terrours All other evills all other pains had so-much of bitternesse as they had affinity resemblance to death Death is the Center in which all the lines of worldly passions meete His Divine Majesty might have prescribed him Hell but he would propose a chastisement of which there was no retraction by repentance and with all because he knew that humane affections were more to be moved and amated with the certaine knowledge of a small evill then with the incertain beleife of a greater His Divine Majesty made all Birds and other Animals of the earth to come before Adam that from him who had received from God the knowledge of their Natures they should receive their Names The Lord did this to make Adam see by comparison how much he was obliged in seeing himselfe so different and so upright above all other Creatures Or because God having created Man Prince of all creatures would have him know his vassalls and the Animals reverence him as their Prince Or else he permitted that he should name the creatures according to their natures to shew him what a gift of wisdome he had bestowed upon him that so sinning he might not excuse himselfe with ignorance The animalls came by two and two with an obedience moved by the divine will to receive their names Adam sitting in an eminent place with a face so full of splendor that breathing Majesty it taught veneration he gave them names proper to their natures calling them one by one in the Hebrew tongue which was the universall language untill the confusion of tongues The Fishes came not either because they could not live out of their element or because they could no way be serviceable to man not as yet used for food or else because God would thereby give us to understand that Grandees in Progresses should not expect the attendance of their poor vassalls who cannot stirre from home to accompany their Lord or to attend him at his beck God permitted Adam should give names to all creatures but not to Himselfe to give him to understand that as all other creatures were his inferiours having taken their names from him so on the contrary he should acknowledg God for his Lord seeing he had been named by him In the mean time his Divine Majesty considered that it was not good for man to be alone for there 's little contentment in those delights we receive without other's participation Or else it was that God foreseeing that the heighth of his glory consisted in acts of Clemency and Mercy would not have man to be alone those faults seldom proving either great or frequent which have not company for spurres incentives He would therfore provide him of a fit Companion in his owne likenesse that so he might love her the more and she might be more capable of assisting him Whereupon he cast Adam into I know not whether an exstasy or a ravishing slumber It was Gods pity that he should be asleepe for he knew that in the company of woman hee should lose his sleep Or else He made him shut his eyes to shew that he would have men blind in understanding Divine operations Or else it might be that he cast Adam into a sleep as if he feared that he would contradict him whilest with the spirit of prophesy given him he might foresee the mischeifes accrewing to mankinde in the making of Eve And besides men are with much difficulty perswaded to part with any thing of what they have though therby to receive the greater profit Whereupon God would bereave him in his sleep of that which perhaps he would not have consented to have parted with of himself Whilst Adam was taken up with the dulcity of repose rejoycing in those phantasms with which he was honoured of the most abstruce secrets of secular adventures the power of God which hath no impossibility that can prescribe it bounds took with a delicacy which is to be supposed in a Divine hand a ribbe of which he formed Eve filling up the void place with flesh God was pleased to make Woman of Man to shew the union affection that ought to be in Matrimony or to admonish women to acknowledge with obedience the cause of their being God made choice of the ribb taken from the left side to advert us that the woman ought to be the heart of the man and not his head Or God tooke a ribb of Adam in the making of Woman because being about to forme a body worse haply than
by the walking of God soon remembred the deserts of his owne inconstancy which deprived him of eternity The pleasing aires that accompanied his Divine Majesty fraze his heart the more clouded with a thousand terrours the approaching setting of the Sun made him perceive that the darknesse of chastisement was neere at hand whereupon not being able to suffer Gods voice who hitherto was meditating a reproof and to endure the guerdon of his crime he hid himselfe and his wife under a Tree which inriched with an infinity of boughs seemed to thrust forth those armes to defend every one from the dartings of the Sun's rayes He had good reason to run to the umbrages of Trees that was not able to withstand the heat of sense How blind are the counsells of humane reason Adam perhaps pretended that if a Tree had administred to him matter of sin a Tree also would cover it But Adam hid not himselfe to fly from God but for that he could not sustaine the sight of God whilst he heard the checks of Conscience upbraiding the demerits of his disobedience ingratitude and rebellion because We cannot brook the sight of those whom we have offended and who can punish us Or it being the proper effect of sin to take away the judgement and blind the understanding he pretended to be able to hide himselfe from the sight of God Foolish Adam that beg'd security from a Tree that was the instrument of his perdition God now articulating his words though hid to the eyes of Adam said unto him Adam Adam Where art thou God said not this for that he was ignorant of the place where he was since the sight of God hath no prescription of place nor obstacle of impediment but to invite him to confesse his crime with repentance and implore his pardon with humillity It was the voice of a Pastor and Father that called back his strayed Sheep and Son God perhaps with these words would declare the infelicity of Adam whilst by the fault committed he was in such manner departed from God that he knew not where he was Or he would say Adam Where art thou whither hath thy disobedience carri'd thee Hast thou lost thy primitive felicity Who hath led thee into the Gulph of misery where is thy pristine tranquillity of heart thy security of mind and thy peace of Conscience Where are the effects of thy hopes the fruits of thy pretentions the promises of the Serpent God would say poore Adam to what a plunge art thou brought from what good from what beatitude from what grace art thou faln Thou hast lost eternall life art made subject to the miseries of death and art become a Sepulcher of errors Adam was hid under that very tree that had been the occasion of his sin Therfore God sought Adam with anxiety scarce being able to imagine that a wise man as Adam should be so imprudent as to approach so near that occasion which had brought upon him the extremity of his miseries He strove to speake with reverence to deceive himself in seeing Adam to beg shelter from that Tree which had deprived him of the Divine Grace Or else God would give us to understand that sin maks us lose the shapes of men and therfore though God saw Adam he called him with a replicated voice as if he knew him not to shew us that sin had transformed him even in the eye of God himselfe God called Adam and not the Woman Or because he had been the last sinner and his crim was nerer or not to provoke the woman to new errors lying being too natural to her sex He called not the Serpent for the same reason because being accustomed to lye he would have denyed every thing Adam answered Lord My nakednesse made me fly from thy face I could not suffer that thy Divinity should fixe its eye on these members which I could not till now cover Poore Adam greived and lamented more for his nakedness then for having offended God lost his favour Thus we have derived from Adam this weaknesse of human nature to be more afflicted with the incommodities we receive in our persons or estates then with the injuries done to his Divine Majesty or the losse of Heavens injoyments Who gave thee ingratefull Adam replyed God to understand thy nakednesse unlesse thy disobedience Thou hast woven thy owne miseries and contrived thy owne infelicities Thou wouldest not at present receive such horrour at the presence of him that honoured thee with a beeing if thou hadst not tasted of the forbidden fruit God would understand from Adam the truth of his sin as if he knew it not to teach us with what accuratenesse and with what diligence men ought to proceed in judging others crimes and condemning others errors whilst God himselfe that enters into the secret corners of the heart questions and enquires with somuch circumspection Or else he intended to make Adam to diminish his punishment by the blushes of Confession Adam perswading himselfe that silence would be an aggravating his sin whereas the case may in great part obnubilate the fault instead of imploring the mercy of God with supplications and teares grown confident in his owne merits he subjoyns Lord I have sinned without sinning My Error hath been promoted by the prayers and solicitations of others Who can resist the power of beauty The commands of her that thou gavest me for a Companion hath in such manner tyrannized over my reason and intellectualls that I have not power to dispose of my selfe That her right hand which brought me the fruit was a snare that captivated my mind and it seemed to me that lifted up it menaced its displeasure in case I should not obey I have a heart too tender in its affects He that can withstand the importunate solicitude of the fairest piece that ever came out of thy hands either knowes not how to Love or deserves not to be Beloved The sins of my inadvertency though they be very great yet they are not mine That Companion Lord which thou gavest me hath corrupted the acts of my obedience and contaminated the devoirs of my fidelity Alone I should not have known sin for bad-company is a fomentor of the greatest sins Lord turne against her thy reproofs and chastisements The woman alone hath sinned in my sinne My consent obliged to the will of Thy Divine Majesty hath not in the least part strayed from the lawes of its duty Oh bold conceits Oh rash expressions fruits of guilt which transports men into extreams No sooner hath man sinned but confident of himselfe he despiseth all and feares not his forfeiture of Heaven's favour How interest alters affection That Adam who professed himselfe so passionate a Lover of the Woman that to call her part of himselfe he believed was the least argument of his Love now makes her guilty before the justice of God of all his crimes When we speak in excuse of our owne faults we spare not so
the good shall be the victime sacrificed to Gods anger You have no way to avoid these evils but by loving serving and obeying God Stupid people why do you not imploy your selves in those works which promise you beatitude Is it happily so great a toyle to exercise the works of temporall and spirituall Mercy Children please God please God for else you are neere to destruction Educate your Children in his feare that happily with their righteousnesse and your penitence you may be able to divert the impending judgements of Divine Justice I know that these my words will not prevail upon those minds who have devoted themselves to ambition jollity dishonesty thievery murther and dissolutenesse But the griefe I conceive for your calamities urgeth me to speak though it may prove ineffectuall I comfort my selfe neverthelesse that if you observe not all these my precepts yet one shall fulfill them for you all I see in the more hidden Arcana of God that She shall spring from the Loins of these who being a Virgin and a Mother shall break the Serpents head beare God into the world and open Heaven to the Just Adam was heard with more admiration then successe for all his sonnes except Seth were maculated with a thousand enormous vices His prophesies were derided because That is with great difficulty believed that is not desired and it is the property of Sinne to bereave men of reason and understanding To Seth who by his virtue merited all his Affections and Benedictions Adam familiarly imparted all the particularities of the past and future eveniences which with the gift of Prophesie had been communicated to him by God He foretold him the Ruine of their posterity the birth of the Virgin Mary the passion and death of God the delivery of the righteous souls from Hell and the Institution of new Lawes He advertised him to instruct his posterity laying up these memorialls in two Towers whereof one to be of a matter that could beare out the impetuosity of water the other resist the violence of fire He commanded him above all that he should never permit any of his children to marry into the family of Cain Vices are ever transmitted to posterity and it would be a great benefit to the world that wicked men were deprived of Issue Wolves-bane and Hemlock grow not on wholesome roots Serpents bring forth only Serpents Thus Adam being arrived to his Nine hundred and thirtieth year oppressed either by infirmity or old age departed this life bequeathing his soul to his Maker and his body to the Earth there to remain till the Resurrection when all the Holy Patriarks shall be freed from the prison of the Grave It is the opinion of many that he dyed on Friday the 3d of March being the day on which he was created to hint that misery comes in the very instant of our felicity He was of very great strength according to the Giant like stature he was of We may believe that he was proportionable of person and very handsome for coming out of Gods hands he could not be otherwise He was buried in Hebron in a Sepulcher of Marble and was afterwards transported to Calvary to the very place where Christ dyed It was so decreed by God that so the innocent blood of a God should wash away the guilty ashes of a Sinner Oh excesse of Love Oh stupendious Mercy And hereupon I am of opinion that a deaths head is alwayes affixed to the feet of the picture of Christs Crucifixion to shew us that it is the head of Adam Of Eves age the Scriptures make no mention perhaps because we ought not to know the death of her that deserved to dye before she was born all the miseries of mankind taking rise from her It s probable that she was oppressed by age and passion for Adams death It pleased his Divine Majesty perhaps that she should survive Adam to double her punishment in beholding the death of the dearest part of herselfe This Reader is the Life of the first Man first Father and first Saint He possessed all those benefits which were vouchsafed by nature or acquired by industry He was endowed with all Sciences was the inventer of all Arts. He preceded all mortalls in Wisdome and the perfect knowledg of all naturall things both because it depended on the cause not on the effects and because he could not lose it with the state of innocence He found in advancement downfall and in downfall glory He was then most infelicitous when he was in the height of all his felicity because he could not keep himselfe so I know not whether be greater the hurt he hath done his posterity in necessitating them to dye or the benefit in occasioning the most wonderfull Love of God to put himselfe upon it to undertake our humane nature And Reader consider in this Relation how vast difference there is between God and man Man brooks no parity nor equality in riches dominion nobility honours nor virtue God on the contrary is so full of benignity and so free from envy that he hath been pleased to forme man almost equall to himselfe And in every way that man resembled God God in every of those wayes hath been like Himselfe Consider that God hath given the dominion over all creatures to man as being indued with the light of reason to teach us that the superiour part of man wherin is the minde and reason the particular attribute of a man ought to precede over the inferiour to wit the senses and affections which we have common with beasts Consider that the greatest felicityes last not long resembling lightening which the more it abounds with light the sooner it vanisheth and leaves behind somuch a greater darknesse as Adam in the Terrestriall Paradise passed in a moment from Paradise into Exile Consider of what small avail are the favors of Nature the gifts of Wisdome the Divine admonitions and the Proximity of God himself whilst a depraved will tyrannizeth over the reason inslaves the understanding and resolves to idolize vice Consider that the greatest errors proceed from the greatest wits in that the wisest man in the world fell and that so much the more inexcusably in asmuch as it was easie not to have sinned Consider that it booteth not to confide in riches honours empire nor the love of great ones when an error of disobedience hath involved us in the extremity of misery and in the hatred of Him that hath given us a beeing according to his own similitude Consider lastly Reader how much Children and Grand children and Posterity lose in the sinne of their Progenitors and Ancestors in that all Ages pay a perpetuall penance for the transgression of Adam FINIS