nostrils the breath of life and man was made a living soul Gen. 2.7 But after another manner and of other matter was the Woman built viz. with one of Adams small bones for as Adam lay asleep God took away one of his ribs and out of that made Eve The words of Moses are these And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam and he slept and he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh instead thereof And the rib which the Lord God had taken from man made he a woman and brought her unto the man for a wife Gen. 2.21 So much for the forming of the first Man and first Woman according to the literal Reading Now Moses has likewise given us a large account of their first habitation he says that God made them a certain famous Garden in the East or as others render it ab antiquo of old and gave it to them as a Farm to cultivate and inhabit which Garden was a most delightful place watered with four several Fountains or Rivers planted with Trees of all kinds as well those that bore fruit as those that were agreeable for their shade and aspect Amongst which Trees in the midst of the Garden stood two more remarkable than the rest whereof one was called the Tree of Life the other the Tree of Death or of the Knowledg of Good and Evil. Why one was called the Tree of Life is not certain perhaps because whoever had eat of it would have from it received Immortality as many conjecture The effect of the other fatal experience has sufficiently taught us Hino illae Lachrymae infandus dolor 'T is for our first Parents eating the fruit of this Tree that all their Posterity now smarts and is punished for a crime committed some thousands of years before they were born But of this I 'le here present you with a full relation God upon pain of death prohibits Adam and Eve from tasting the fruit of this Tree But it happened upon a time that Eve sitting solitarily under this Tree without her Husband there came to her a Serpent or Adder which tho I know not by what means or power civilly accosted the Woman if we may judg of the thing by the event in these words or to this purpose Serp. All Hail most fair one what are you doing so solitary and serious under this Shade Eve I am contemplating the beauty of this Tree Serp. 'T is truly an agreeable sight but much pleasanter are the fruits thereof Have you tasted them my Lady Eve I have not because God has forbidden us to eat of this Tree Serp. What do I hear who is that God that envies his Creatures the innocent delights of Nature Nothing is sweeter nothing more wholsom than this very fruit why then should he forbid it unless he were in jest Eve But he has forbid it us on pain of death Serp. Undoubtedly you mistake his meaning This Tree has nothing that would prove fatal to you but rather something Divine and above the common force of nature Eve I can give you no answer but will first go to my Husband and then do as he thinks fit Serp. Why should you trouble your Husband about such a trifle Use your own judgment Eve Let me see had I best use it or no what can be more beautiful than this Apple How sweetly it smells but it may be it tasts ill Serp. Believe me 't is a bit worthy to be eaten by the Angels themselves do but try and if it tasts ill throw it away and say I am a great Lyar. Eve Well I 'le try then thou hast not deceived me it has indeed a most agreeable flavour Give me another that I may carry it to my Husband Serp. Very well thought on here 's another for you go to your Husband with it Farewell happy young Woman In the meantime I 'le go my ways let her take care of the rest Accordingly Eve gave this Apple to the too uxorious Adam which he likewise eat off when immediately upon their eating of it they became both I know not how ashamed of their Nakedness and sowing together Fig-leaves made them a sort of Aprons to cover their Pudenda Now after these transactions God did in the Evening descend into the Garden upon which our first Parents fled to hide themselves among the thickest of the Trees but in vain for God called out Adam where art thou When he trembling appeared before the Almighty and said Lord when I heard thee in this Garden I was ashamed because of my nakedness and hid my self amongst the most shady parts of the thicket Who told thee said God that thou wert naked Have you eaten of the forbidden fruit That Woman thou gavest me brought it 't was she that made me eat on 't You have finely order'd your business you and your wife Here you Woman what is this that you have done Alas for me thy Serpent gave me the Apple and I did eat of it This Apple shall cost you dear and not only you but your posterity and the whole race of Mankind Moreover for this crime I will curse and spoil the Heavens the Earth and whole Fabric of Nature But thou in the first place vile beast shalt bear the punishment of thy craftiness and malice Hereafter shalt thou go creeping on thy belly and instead of eating Apples shalt lick the dust of the Earth As for you Mrs. Curious who so much love Delicacies in sorrow shall you bring forth Children you shall be subject to your Husband and shall never depart from his side unless having first obtained his leave Lastly as for you Adam because you have hearkened more to your Wife than to me with the sweat of your brow you shall obtain your food both for her and her Children You shall not gather fruits which as heretofore grew of themselves but shall reap the fruits of the Earth with labour and trouble May the Earth for thy sake accursed hereafter grow barren may she produce thistles thorns tares with other hurtful and unprofitable herbs and when thou hast here led a troublesom laborious life Dust thou art to Dust thou shalt return In the mean while let these Rebels be banished out of my Garden and sent as Exiles into strange Lands least they also eat the fruit of the Tree of Life and live for ever However for fear they should perish through the cold or inclemency of the Weather the Almighty made them Doublets of the Skins of Animals and being thus clad he thrusts them out of Paradice Finally to prevent their return he placed Angels at the entrance of his Garden who by brandishing a Flaming-sword and waving it on all sides guarded the passage that led to the Tree of Life This is the Summ and Substance of Moses's Account concerning Paradice and the first State of Minkind which keeping always close to the Sense I have explained in other words that we may more freely judge
be very difficult to solve But God seems to intimate quite another Vertue in this Tree when he says Behold Adam is become as one of us knowing good and evil viz. by the force and Vertue of the Fruit which he had eaten Now certainly whatever heat or transport arises from a vicious inordinate Motion is so far from making us like God that it on the contrary renders us but the more dissimular to him Having thus therefore spoken sufficiently concerning the Trees let us next proceed to the rest Now after the eating this Apple Fig or whatever other Fruit it was our Parents made themeselves Aprons For says the Text they sewed together Fig-leaves and therewith made themselves Aprons From whence you may deduce the Original of the Taylors Trade but where had they Needles And where their Thread that very first Day of their Creation since the Thread-makers Art was not yet found out nor yet the Art of Working in Iron All which Questions may perhaps be thought a little too free but the thing it self requires us to deal freely when we are seeking for naked Truth When they had thus made themselves Aprons God gave them likewise Coats made of the Skins of Animals But here again we run into other Difficulties wherefore to soften the Thing let us suppose an Angel to have been in the place of God that 't was an Angel who killed and flead the Animals or pull'd off their Skins whilst they were yet alive and Innocent Notwithstanding this too smells more of the Butcher or Executioner than of an Angel Besides through this Butchery some entire Species of Animals must necessarily have perish'd for 't is not believed that from the beginning there were more than two of each kind created and one alone without another for its Consort could never have produced any Off-spring After all this what follows Why God expell'd our Parents thus cloath'd out of Paradise and placed at the Entrance of the Garden Cherubims with a great two-handed flaming Sword that continually waved about the same for fear least either by open force or by stealth they might have repossest themselves again of those happy Mansions Now is there any one of the Interpreters that will put an exact literal Construction upon these Things that will make Angels to have stood like Centinels with drawn Swords before the Doors of the Garden for I know not how many Ages as Dragons are feign'd by the Poets To have guarded the Apples of the Hesperides But how long did this Angelical Corps du Guard last To the Flood I suppose if not longer So that you here suppose the Angels to have been for above Fifteen Hundred Years employed in keeping a Garden Sic vacat exiguis Rebus adesse Deos How much easier would it have been in a place so well watered as Paradise to have Fenced the Garden about with a River which to Adam and Eve who were as yet ignorant of the manner either of Building or conducting Boats and Vessels would have been a more than sufficent Obstacle But these and other Things of this Nature least they should be thought to savour of Malice I had rather leave for others to reflect upon Thus have we in short run over the chief Heads of the History of Paradise the only thing now remaining to be consider'd is in how short a time all these things are said to have been transacted in one Days time or perhaps but in half a Day Divines suppose Adam to have consummated his Marriage with Eve the first Night afterwards say they if Eve whilst she was yet Innocent had conceived her first Born she would have likewise brought him forth Innocent and Free from all blemish of Sin Whence also his whole Progeny in Relation to the Father's side would have continued unspotted with it But there is none of that sort of Progeny unspotted or so much as half pure we are all of us tainted with the same Blemish have all the â—ame Disease Wherefore we must necessarily suppose all these Things to have been done on the sixth Day of the Creation before their lying together or the Embraces of their Nuptial Bed How many therefore and how great Things must we heap on this one Day We will if you please briefly run them over That Day did God create all manner of Cattle all manner of wild Beasts and all sorts of creeping Things Lastly he created Adam and when he had created all these things he brought each kind of Animal before Adam that to every one of them he might give a name according to their several Faculties As for me what Language Adam could speak the first Hour or Day of his Nativity I am wholly ignorant of but however it be since there are so many different Ranks and Familles of Animals to weigh and consider well the Nature of each and afterwards to give them a name adapted to it seems a Task that requires no small time Again when all this work was in some manner finished God cast Adam into a deep sleep and whilst he was snoring took from him a Rib out of which he built a Woman The same Day these new born Man and Woman commit Matrimony without Contract or the formal Preliminaries of Wooing And that very same Day Mistress Bride being to I know not what intent pleased to ramble among the Groves of the Garden happened to meet with the Serpent This Serpent begins a Discourse with her they argue on one side and t'other about a certain Tree and eating or not eating a certain Fruit. She at length overcome by his Reasons or seducing Expressions eats of this Fruit and not only that but carries it to her Husband who likewise eat of it Upon this there happens a great alteration they cast their Eyes on each other's Nakedness are ashamed and make themselves Aprons of Fig-leaves sew'd together When things being in this Posture God Almighty in the Evening descends into the Garden they conscious of their own Guilt fly away and abscond themselves among the Trees and shady Coverts but all in vain for God Summons the Criminals they appear and upon Examination of the whole Cause he Decrees to the Man Woman and Serpent the several Punishments they had merited Lastly to fulfil all parts of the Punishment our Parents are cast out of Paradice and sent into Exile When several Angels being placed at all the Avenues of the Garden they are forced to wander alone among the Woods and take up their Lodging among the Wild Beasts All which things we read to have been done within the small space of one day truly a very considerable and very numerous piece of business But I cannot bear to see that in so short time all Things were inverted and put into a total Disorder and that the whole Nature which had but just now been composed and polished should before the first time of the Suns setting fall to Ruin and Confussion In the Morning God said all things were
we conceive a divine Concourse or an influence from the little Finger of the Almighty Im sâ—lf says he could shew a Catalogue of Doubts never yet imagined nor questioned as I know of which are not resolved in Scripâ—ure at first hearing not fantastic Quaeries or Objections of Air For I cannot hear of Atoms in Divinity I can read the History of the Pigeon that was sent out of the Ark and returned no more yet not question how she found out her Mate that was left behind That Lazarus was raised from the Dead yet not demand where in the Interim his Soul waited or raise a Law Case whether his Heir might lawfully detain his Inheritance bequeath'd to him by his Death and he though restored to Life have no Plea or Title to his former Possessions Whether Eve was framed out of the left side of Adam I dispute not because I stand not yet assured which is the right side of a Man or whether there be any such distinction in Nature That Eve was Edified of the Rib of Adam I believe yet raise no question who shall arise with that Rib at the Resurrection Whether Adam was an Hermophrodite as the Rabbins contend upon the Letter of the Text Genes 1.27 because it is contrary to Reason there should be an Hermophrodite before there was a Woman or a Composition of two Natures before there was a second composed Likewise whether the World was creaâ—ed in Autumn Winter Summer or the Spring because it was created in them all 〈◊〉 whatsoever Sign the Sun possesseth those four Seasons are actually existent It being the nature of this Luminary to distinguish the several Seasons of the Year all which it makes at one time in the whole Earth and successive in any part thereof That there was a Deluge once whether in the time of Deucalion or Noah seems not to me so great a Miracle as that there is not one always How all kinds of Creatures not only in their own Bulks but with a Competency of Food and Sustenance might be preserved in one Ark and within the Extent of Three hundred Cubits will not appear very feasible There is also another Secret not contain'd in Scripture which is more hard to comprehend and put the honest Father St. Austin to the Refuge of a Miracle and that is not only how the distinct pieces of the World and divided Islands should be first Planted by Men but Inhabited by Tygers Panthers and Bears How America abounded with Beasts of prâ—y and noxious Animals yet contained not in it that necessary Creature a Horse is very strange By what Passage those not only Birds but dangerous and unwelcom Beasts came over How there be Creatures there which are not found in this tripple Continent All which must needs be strange to us that hold but one Ark and that the Creatures began their Progress from the Mountain Ararat 'T is a Paradox to me that Methusalem was the longest liv'd of all the Children oâ— Adam and no Man will be able to prove it when from the Process of the Text I can manifest it may be otherwise Also that Iudas perished by hanging himself there is no certainty in Scripture the two Texts Matth. 25. and Acts 1.18 seeming to contradict one another That our Fathers after the Flood erected the Tower of Babel to preserve themselves against a second Deluge is generally believed yet is there another Intention of theirs express'd in Scripture Besides it is improbable from the Circumstance of the Place which was a Plain in the Land of Shinar I believe there was a Tree whose Fruit our unhappy Parents tasted though in the same Chapter where God forbids it 't is possitively said the Plants of the Field were not yet grown for God had not then caused it to rain upon the Earth I believe that the Serpent if we shall literally understand it from his proper Form and Figure made his Motion his Belly before the Curse I find the tryal of the Pucillage and Virginity of Women which God ordained the Iews is very fallible Experience and History inform me that not only many particular Women but likewise whole Nations have escaped the Curse of Childbirth which God seems to pronounce upon the whole Sex Having perused the Archidoxes and read the secret Sympathies of things the Devil would disswade my Belief from the Miracle of the Brazen Serpent and make me conceit that Image workt by Sympathy and was but an Aegyptian Trick to cure their Diseases with a Miracle Again having seen some Experiments of Bitumen and read many more of Naphtha he whisper'd to my Curiosity the Fire of the Altar might be natural and bid me mistrust a Miracle of Elias when he entrenched the Altar round with Water since that inflammable Substance yields not easily to Water but flames in the Arms of its Antagonist And thus would he inveagle my Belief to think the Combustion of Sodom might be natural and that there was an Asphaltic and Bituminous Nature in that Lake before the Fire of Gomorrah I know that Manna is now plentifully gathered in Calabria and Iosephus tells me in his Days it was as plentiful in Arabia the Devil therefore made me Quaere where was then the Miracle in the Days of Moses since the Israelites saw but that in his time which the Natives of those Countries behold in ours Brown's Religio Medici Also in his Vulgar Errors our same Author writes thus It hath puzzled the Enquiries of others to apprehend and forced them to strange Conceptions to make out how Eve should be deluded by a Serpent or subject her Reason to a Beast which God had subjected to hers and how without Fear and Doubt she could Discourse with such a Creature or hear a Serpent speak without suspicion of Imposture Others wonder at her simplicity that when the Serpent told her the eating that Fruit would make them like Gods she did not question the Beast why he himself did not eat of it then Brown Vul. Err. Now as one observes very well in relation to Divine Miracles there is oftentimes great Errors committed in the manner of reading Scripture as when that is taken in a general Sence which ought to be particularly understood As that of Adam whom Moses made only to be the first Father of the Iews whilst others Hyperbolically make him to be the first Father of all Men. So likewise the Darkness at the Death of our Saviour which some say was spread over the Face of the whole Earth Others and some able Interpreters have only translated it Vpon all the Land of the Iews viz. Palestine which the Hebrews always meant when they said the Earth So likewise the Star which Conducted the Wisemen upon the Nativity of Christ some place in Heaven among the rest of the Stars but others say that could not be for then other People had seen it as well as those few Wisemen and Herod among the rest who being troubled at this Report and
of the Earth and ascend to the heads of their Rivers But of Rivers we have said enough let us now proceed to the rest We have in the third place a very strange account of a Serpent that talked with Eve and enticed her to mistrust God I must confess we have not yet known that this Beast could ever speak or utter any sort of voice besides hissing But what shall we think Eve knew of this business If she had taken it for a dumb Animal the very Speech of it would have so frightned her that she would not have durst to stay and enter into a Conference with it If on the other side the Serpent had from the beginning been capable of talking and haranguing and only lost his Speech for the crime of having by his seducements corrupted the Piety and Faith of Eve certainly Moses would have been far from passing over in silence this sort of Punishment and instead of that have mentioned so small a Penalty as that of licking the dust But besides all this pray will you have the particular Species of Serpents or all the Beasts of the Field that were then in Paradise to have been indued with the faculty of speaking like the Trees in Dodona's Grove If you say all pray what offence had the rest been guilty of that they also must loose the use of their Tongues if only the Species of Serpents enjoyed this priviledg how came it about that so vile an Animal and by nature the most averse and remote from Mankind should before all his other fellow Bruits deserve to be Master of so great a favour and benefit as that of Speech Lastly since all discoursing and arguing include the use of Reason by this very thing you make the Serpent a Rational Creature But I easily imagin those who are great sticklers for the Literal Interpretation will solve this difficulty another way For say they under the shape of this Serpent was hid the Devil or an Evil Spirit who using the Mouth and Organs of this Animal spoke to the Woman as it were with an human voice But what Testimony with Authority have they for this The most literal reading of Moses which they so closely adhere to does not express any thing of it for what else does he seem to say but that he attributes the seducing of Eve to the natural craftiness of the Serpent and nothing else For these are Moses's words Now the Serpent was more cunning than any Beast of the Field that the Lord God had made Afterwards continues he The Serpent said to the Woman yea hath God said But besides had Eve heard an Animal by nature dumb speak through the means of some Evil Spirit she would instantly with horror have fled from the Monster When on the contrary she very familiarly receved it they discoursed and argued very amicably together as tho nothing new or astonishing had happened again if you say that all this proceded from the ignorance and weakness of a Woman 't would on the other side have been but just that some good Angels should have succoured a poor Ignorant weak Woman those Just Guardians of human affairâ— would not have permitted so unequal a conflict for what if an Evil Spirit crafty and knowing in business had by his subtlety over-reached a poor silly Woman who had not as yet seen the Sun either rise or set who was but newly come of the Mould and wholly unexperienced in all things Certainly a Person who had so great a price set on her head as the Salvation of all Mankind might well have deserved a Guard of Angels Ay but perhaps you 'l say the Woman ought to have taken care not to violate a Law established upon pain of death The day you eat thereof you shall surely die both you and yours this was the Law Die what does that mean says the poor ignorant Virgin who as yet had not seen any thing dead no not so much as a flower nor had yet with her eyes or mind perceived the Image of death viz. Sleep or Night But what you add concerning his Posterity and their Punishment that is not at all expressed in the Law Now no Laws are ever to be distorted but especially not those that are poenal The punishment of the Serpent will also afford no inconsiderable question if the Devil transacted the whole thing under the form of a Serpent or if he compell'd the Serpent to do or suffer those things why did he pay for a crime committed by the Devil Moreover as to the manner and form of the punishment inflicted on the Serpent viz. that for the future he should go creeping on his Belly it is not easie to be explained what that means Hardly any one will say that the Serpent did before walk upright or after the manner of four-footed Beasts and if on the other side from the beginning he crept like our Modern Snakes it may seem ridiculous to impose on this Creature as a Punishment for one single Crime a thing which by nature he ever had before But let this suffice for the Woman and Serpent let us now go on to the Trees I here understand those two Trees which stood in the middle of the Garden viz. the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledg of Good and Evil. The Tree of Life was they 'l tell you so called for that it would give Men a very long life But by what follows in the same Relation we find that all our Forefathers before the Flood did without the help of this Tree attain to a very great Age. Besides if the Longaevity or Immortality of Men had depended only upon one Tree or its Fruit what if Adam had not sinned how could his Posterity when they were diffused over the face of the whole Earth have been able to come and gather Fruit out of this Garden or from this Tree Or how could the product of one Tree have been enough for all Mankind As to the other Tree of the Knowledg of Good and Evil it does not so plainly appear what was its vertue or from whence it received that name It seems by I know not what juice or other vertue to have instilled into them a new sence of shame and modesty or as it is expressed of Nakedness as though before the Fall they had been wholly void of bashfulness in Venereal Pleasures yet now adays in things of that kind even the most innocent have some sense of shame I know not what St. Austin means when he says that in the first state and innocence of Mankind Women would have conceived and brought forth without violating their Claustrum Virginale the feed being immitted and the Off-spring coming forth through the Pores as do Virgins Monthly Purgations and that the whole Act of Generation would have been performed without any sting or transport just as one hand rubs another If these things were taken-exactly according to the Rules of Nature and Philosophy they would