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 OF THK 
 
 Theological'Semina r y , 
 
 PRINCETON, N. J. 
 
 C«'**^. Dwsion.ri ^.C)j.|r|j? .^ 
 
 ^lielU._ Sect ion..,. ItSS^. 
 
 Booh, - jNlo J^y^... 
 
 Vi^ ^ 
 
 
 
'.' '% 
 
THE 
 
 CREATION 
 
 FALL OF MAN. 
 
THE 
 
 SACRED AND PROFANE 
 
 HISTORY OF THE WORLD 
 
 CONNECTED, 
 
 FROM 
 
 THE CREATION OF THE WORLD 
 
 TO 
 
 THE DISSOLUTION OF THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE AT THE DEATH OF SARD^- 
 
 NAPALUS, AND TO THE DECLENSION OF THE KINGDOMS OF JUDAH 
 
 AND ISRAEL, UNDER THE REIGNS OF AHAZ AND PEKAH : 
 
 Including 
 THE DISSERTATION ON 
 
 THE CREATION AND FALL OF MAN. 
 
 . BY 
 
 SAMUEL SHUCKFORD, D.D. 
 
 CHAPLAIN IN ORDINARY TO HIS MAJESTY, GEORGE THE SECOND. 
 
 REVISED, CORRECTED, AND GREATLY IMPROVED, 
 
 BY 
 
 JAMES CREIGHTON, B.A. 
 
 IN FOUR VOLUMES, 
 
 VOL. IV. 
 
 THE FIFTH EDITION, 
 
 .^Hustratetr toiti^ a neto anlr correct ^ct of fHaps antr ^lang. atilr 
 
 an O^^tcnsibc Ifnlicif. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED FOR WILLIAM BAYNES, PATERNOSTER ROW. 
 MDCCCXIX. 
 
SHUCKFORD'S 
 
 SACRED AND PROFANE HISTORY 
 
 CONNECTED; 
 
 THE DISSERTATION ON 
 
 THE CREATION AND FALL OF MAN. 
 
 CHARLES WOOD, Printer, Poppin-s Court, Fleet Street, London. 
 
INTRO DUCWmo^y^^^ :; 
 
 THE ACCOUNT 
 
 OF THE 
 
 CREATION AND FALL OF MAN. 
 
 SECTION L 
 
 The Mosaic Account of the Creation is to he 
 literally u7iderstood. — Origin of Mytho- 
 logy, ^c. 
 
 THE ensuing Treatise is called a Supple- 
 ment to the Sacred and Profane History of 
 the World Connected ; because the subject 
 matter of it ought, and was intended, to 
 have been treated before ; but was deferred, 
 as I wished to see what others, who were 
 writing after me% would suggest upon a 
 
 " The writers of The Universal History soon after began 
 to publish their work; and, after their account of the crea- 
 tion, gave us, as I hoped they would, what they could collect 
 of the Fall of Man. See Preface to vol. i, p. xxxiv. 
 VOL. IV. h 
 
U INTKODUCTION. 
 
 subject so variously thought of by divers 
 able and valuable writers ; rather than too 
 hastily offer to the public, sentiments upon 
 it, of which I had a just diffidence, as many 
 of them seemed to be more peculiarly my 
 own. 
 
 A supposed impossibility of reconciling a 
 literal interpretation of Moses's account of 
 the Fall of Man, with any reasonable no- 
 tions of God, and with what must, in truth, 
 be his dispensations towards us^, is, I be- 
 lieve, what has introduced the notion of ex- 
 plaining some parts at least of his narration 
 into apologue and fable. The shadow of 
 allegory seems to give us some appearance 
 of knowing, what we do not plainly under- 
 stand ; and an unexamined hearsay of east- 
 ern sages, their mythology and literature, 
 amuses with a colour of being very learned, 
 whilst, perhaps, we really mistake the rise 
 and design of that very literature to which 
 we have recourse, by endeavouring to re- 
 solve into it the narration of Moses, which 
 most evidently sets before us particulars 
 absolutely incapable of admitting any alle- 
 gorical interpretation whatsoever. 
 
 ^ See Middleton's Allegorical and Literal Interpretation. 
 
INTRODUCTION. HI 
 
 That the great point of which Moses in- 
 forms us is of this sort, absolutely incom- 
 patible with allegory, is, I think, evident 
 beyond contradiction. I hope the ensuing 
 pages will clearly show, concerning every 
 part of what he has related upon the sub- 
 ject, that, taken literally as he has recorded 
 it, the whole very pertinently agrees with 
 the great design of all subsequent Scripture ; 
 and must show us, that, in all that hap- 
 pened to our first parents, nothing hefel 
 them, improper for their being ensamples 
 unto us^ ; and that the account we have 
 of them, so far from being mythic, or unin- 
 telligible, is most plainly written for our 
 admonition ; that we may indeed learn from 
 it, in what manner and measure, from the 
 beginning, it was, as it still is, the one thing 
 needful for man, truly and indeed to obey 
 God. All Scripture is given hy inspi- 
 ration of God ; and is projitahle for doc- 
 trine, for reproof for connection, for instruc- 
 tion in righteousness ; that the man of God 
 may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto 
 all good works^. If, in explaining Moses's 
 narration of the fall literally, we can show 
 
 * 1 Cor.x, II. ^ 2Tim. iii, I^, I7. - 
 
 h2 
 
IV INTRODUCTION. 
 
 it to bear evidently all these characters of 
 holy \vrit5 as 1 trust from what i' to follow 
 w^ill be seen, we show what must be of more 
 real weight for a literal interpretation, than 
 all that is otherwise suggested against it. 
 
 But, though what I have here intimated, 
 and have farther evinced in the ensuing 
 Treatise, will make it evident, that Moses 
 did not here write apologue and fables; 
 whether what I am going to suggest be cer- 
 tain fact or not, yet it may not be disagree- 
 able to the reader to remark, that the relat- 
 ing mythologically physical or moral truths, 
 concerning the origin and nature of things, 
 was not, perhaps, as modern writers too 
 hastily imagine, the customary practice in 
 the age of Moses ; but rather began after 
 his time. The poet's rule may be a very 
 good one, to judge even of the stile and 
 manner of authors, 
 
 .Etatis cuj usque notandi sunt tibi mores. 
 
 HOR. 
 
 And a few intimations may possibly show 
 us, that a due use of it may not be altoge- 
 ther ineffectual in the inquiry before us. 
 
 The wisdom of the east country, and the 
 eastern sages, were in high esteem in the 
 
INTRODUCTION. V 
 
 days of Solomon^ ; but it is observed at the 
 «ame time, that the wisdom of Egypt stood 
 in competition with it. There were then 
 western sages, as well as eastern ; and how 
 readily soever eastern sages flow from the 
 pen of modern writers, as far as I can find, 
 we must go to the western ones for the rise 
 of mythologic writting. Mythology began 
 in Egypt ; where it was new and recent in 
 the times of Sanchoniatho ; the vscoraroi h^o- 
 'kvoyoiv, the priests, w^ho at that time were 
 most modern, had then invented and 
 introduced W. Sanchoniatho flourished 
 about A. M. 2760^: Moses died a. m. 
 
 * 1 Kings \vy 30. 
 
 ^ When Sanchoniatho made his inquiries, we are told that 
 
 al asv vs'joroLroi rwv UpoXoyouy rcc ij^sv ysyovoru •ur^ccyfj.aTx i^ 
 
 7'ois KOtr^iKOis 'DioL^-ri^a.a-i cvyyzyBioiv 7JsXo(.(ray.£vQi fj^vrr^pia, y.a,- 
 Tsffjo-ixv, KOLi CToXyv a'jroig sKriyov rvcpov, u); jU.^ poL^iu:; nvx 
 cvvopay rx nar' aArfisixv yevo^eva. Euseb. Prcep. Evang. 
 lib i, c. 9, 
 
 ? Sanchoniatho flourished itpo ra;v Tpvoi-awv ycwu^v, xai 
 trvihy rois Mwcrscy^. Euseb. ibi.1. Troy was taken, accord- 
 ing to Usher, a. M. 2S20: according to the Arundle Mar- 
 ble, 2/96. Agreeably hereto, Sanchoniatho is said to have 
 conversed with Jerombaal, priest of the god Jevo, in or near 
 Phoenicia: the country of the Jews was often taken as part 
 of Phosnicia. The four letters of the word Jehovah may 
 easily be so pointed as to be pronounced Jehvoh, Gidconj^ 
 
VI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 2553^ : in the interval of these two hundred 
 and seventeen years, we have reason to sup- 
 pose the rise of mythology. 
 
 It is remarkable, that in this interval the 
 correction of the year was made in Egypt, 
 when Aseth was king there'. Aseth, or 
 Assis, was the sixth pastor king, the second 
 after Apophis, who perished at the exit of 
 
 who v/as called Jerubbaal, Judges vi, 32, was a prophet, a 
 ruler, a great deliverer of his people under the especTal 
 direction of this God, whose name was Jehovah, nin>. 
 Judges vi, vii, viii. With the heathens, and in the most 
 ancient times, the ruler was also priest unto his people ; see 
 Connect, vol. ii, b. vi, p. 65 ; so that they might naturally 
 deem Jerubbaal a priest of the God 'Uvoj, Jevoh, as they 
 pronounced it, from his having been appointed by Jehovah 
 to rule and govern his people. Mr. Dodwell indeed wrote 
 a treatise to prove that Sanchoniatho was not so ancient : 
 but I cannot apprehend that his endeavours are at all con- 
 clusive. Take Jerombaal to be Gideon^ to have ended his 
 war against Midian about a. m. 2760 (see Usher*s Annals), 
 about that time Sanchoniatho might have access to him. 
 
 *" See Connect, vol. iii, b. xii, p. 311. 
 
 * AiyvTrTiouv z'^occiXsvo'ev 'Act^^ — rou h ■Koa-^a (srfi) y-vj/ir* 
 
 /xovwv Tfpo fdte (j.srpsi^syos. Syncellus, p. 123. According 
 to Syncellus, Aseth lived about a. m. 2716. According to 
 Sir John Marsham, we must place him in 2665. But from 
 the years of the Egyptian kings, as I deduce them, his times 
 are from 2563 to 2605. 
 
INTRODUCTION. vii 
 
 the Israelites in the Red Sea, a. m. 2513 K 
 Assis began to reign at the end of fifty 
 years after the death of Apophis^, i, e, a. m. 
 2563 "\ The correction of the year was 
 not until after the beginning of his reign ; 
 in what time of it, we are not told; he 
 reigned forty years"; we may well place it 
 towards his death®, perhaps about a. m. 2600p, 
 which is about forty- seven years after the 
 death of Moses "i ; and twenty-two years 
 after the death of Joshua ^ 
 
 The fable, which is handed down to us, 
 with the account of their correction of the 
 year, very significantly points out that their 
 mythology took its rise from this incident. 
 They now found out, that there were j^ve 
 days in the year more than they had thought 
 
 ^ See Connect, vol. iii, b, xi, p. 246*, 25 1 . 
 
 * Ibid. p. 24G. 
 
 ^ The reign of Janais, the intermediate king between 
 Apophis and Assis or Aseth, brings us to begin the reign of 
 Assis at this year. 
 
 "■' Connect, vol. iii, b. xi, p. 246. 
 
 «* Ibid. vol. ii, b. viii, p. 284. 
 
 P Assis died 2603, vide quae sup. 
 
 ^ Moses died 25l)3. 
 
 ' Joshua died a. m, 257S; Connect, vol. iii, b. xii, 
 p. 441. 
 
Vlll INTRODUCTION. 
 
 of^; and they mythologized, that live gods 
 were now born, Osiris, Or us, Typho, Isis^ 
 and NephtheK They could not mean that 
 these personages now first began to be ; for 
 they had been, ages before, mighty and re- 
 nowned princes in their country ; but they 
 now first ascribed to them a rule and influ^ 
 ence over all sublunary thirigs, by supposing 
 each to be the governing power in some 
 star, thought to be animated by them. The 
 dog-star was reputed the orb of Isis"; to the 
 others were allotted, in like manner, their 
 respective spheres''; and the philosophy of 
 the Egyptians, at this time, seems to have 
 been exerted in such a lustration of their 
 vear, 
 
 Aratus. 
 as to assign ruling influences of the stars 
 
 ^ The Egyptian year was now first computed to be three 
 hundred and sixty-five days, being reckoned three hundred 
 and sixty only before. Syncellus ubi sup. Connect. Preface 
 to vol. i, p. viii. 
 
 * Connect, vol. ii, b. viii, p. 284. 
 
 " Upon the pillar of Isis was inscribed, 'Eyw upt^i >j tv fuj: 
 *Ar/ow Tiv Kvvi £7tit£X\8(roL. Diodor. Sic, lib. i. 
 
 '^ Connect, vol. ii, b. viii, p. 286. 
 
INTRODUCTION. ix 
 
 over the several parts of it ; and to suppose 
 their ruling stars were animated by those 
 who had been the early founders and sup- 
 porters of their cities and states. What 
 their former theories had been, shall be 
 mentioned presently. What I would here 
 hint is, that they now fell into a way of 
 thinking, which the Roman poet took up 
 afterwards, to make his court to Germanicus 
 Ceesar, 
 
 Cissaris arma canant alii, nos Caesarls aras, 
 Et quoscunque sacris addidit ille dies. 
 
 Ovid, Fast. lib. i. 
 
 They consecrated, and placed over their 
 times and seasons, the venerable personages 
 of their most ancient ancestors, who had 
 laid the early foundations of all the Egyptian 
 glory and prosperity : and they hoped, that 
 if they with proper rites worshipped gods so 
 auspicious, 
 
 felix totus ut annus eat, 
 
 Ovid, ubi sup. 
 
 that ages of all national happiness might be 
 renewed to them. 
 
 What had been the more ancient Egyp- 
 tian theology, the inquiries of Sanclioniatho 
 declare to us. He having examined their 
 ancient records, and set aside all the mytho- 
 
X INTRODUCTION. 
 
 logy that had been brought in, gave us their 
 true ancient dogmata^ ; and what he has 
 left us, evinces, that their doctrines were, 
 that the origin of things happened from 
 principles of nature effecting, without choice 
 or intelligence, what blindly by a mechanical 
 event of things arose from them^. He talks 
 indeed of a ro Tpiv^a, what we might think 
 to call a spirit ; tells us that it was in love 
 with its own principles^; but his spirit was 
 such an one, as a modern author exhibits to 
 us : a spirit, ^' which, clothed with one set 
 of material organs, is only capable of exert- 
 ing its intelligence in the performance of 
 attraction or repulsion ; and, when jarring 
 elements meet, breaks forth in thunder and 
 lightning, and earthquakes, or any other 
 mechanical operations; but may, when united 
 to a different set of organs of a more exqui- 
 site and delicate contexture, be capable of 
 exercising voluntary motion, may be enabled 
 
 '^ *0 Ss (TU/xCaXwy roi; ccifo rwv a^vTcuv tvpe^Eia-iv airoyipv^Qi^ 
 *A/x/xoUv£a)v ypct[j.iJ.a(n cvyyisiixEvois, d ^y} an ijv TTacri yyu)pi[j:ct, 
 tr^v iJ^a^YiO-iv dTtavToov avro$ tjcxtjctc" xat TsKos STti^eis rri 
 '/fpa.yfji.dfeioc, Tov xar' a/j%a^ /xu^ov, xai ras aXKr^yopicx,$ sxTtc- 
 Sivy Ttoir}cra.iL£yo$, a^r^vva-aro rijy Ttpo^sa-iv, Euseb. Praep, Evang. 
 lib. i, c. y. 
 
 ^ Id. ibid. c. 10. 
 
 * 'Upoar^yj ro itvtviLOL rojv ihvuv cupywv. Id, ibid. 
 
INTRODUCTION. Xl 
 
 to think and to reason, to operate in love 
 or hatred, and, when provoked by oppo- 
 sition, may be agitated with anger and re- 
 sentment, and break forth in cpiarrels, con- 
 tention, and war^" The Egyptian tq ttvsu/jux, 
 which generated all things, was an original, 
 like this author's spirit ; unto which, though 
 Sanchoniatho ascribes operating principles, 
 yet he expressly tells us, they were insen- 
 sate^, and sometimes caused jarring ele- 
 ments, and broke forth in lightning and 
 thunders''; and what is very wonderful, he 
 also supposed that these unintelligent ope- 
 rating powers produced some animal beings, 
 which being alive, but having no thought, 
 procreated other beings that had both life 
 and intelligence"^. These latter productions 
 must be surely conceived, like the spirit of 
 
 " Essay on Spirit, 24, 25. 
 
 ^* 'EyEvero cvyKooLong ij ttXohtj sy.sivy] fJcXr/^-/} IIGQOS" awrij 
 h dp^y) xtiCEi/Js OLiroi.yTujv' auto h 8k iyiviu(rx.£ ry)v avf^u KTi<nv. 
 If the reader consult the place, he will see, that Avto refers 
 to ro irvsvi^a preceding. Euseb. Prfsp. Evang. c. 10. in 
 principio. 
 
 * 'E';re<Jav Zizxpi^Tj, xat T8 iha rota Sisy^ujpKr^r} ha, ryjv rs 
 TfXiH irvpujo-iy, KOLi Tiayra, <rvvrjYrYicrs itaXiv iv depi rah rdig 
 h xa,i G-vvsppa^av, ^povrai re diesrsXea-^y^a-ay xai drpaifai. 
 Euseb. ibid. 
 
 ^ 'Hv h riva ^vua »h f;^3vr« aia-^fi^riv, g^ wv syivirii ^wx 
 ■/ii£px. Id. ibid. 
 
XU INTRODUCTION. 
 
 our modern writer above cited, to have 
 kindled into cogitation, by having bodies 
 unaccoantably formed to strike out this 
 flame, and without which they could have 
 made no collisions of a finer nature, than 
 what might cause the voice of thunder and 
 the flashes of lightning to be heard and seen 
 from them. Such were the ancient dog- 
 mata of Egypt ^, and it is not so great a 
 wonder they were so, considering the low 
 state of their rudiments of knowledge ; but 
 that any writer should think of offering sen- 
 timents of this sort in an age of philosophy, 
 so clear and intelligible, as all, who know 
 philosophy, are now versed in, is, I confess, 
 to me most amazing. 
 
 But this, as I have said, was, before the 
 age of Moses, the wisdom of Egypt. Athe- 
 istic ^ sine Deo^, supposing that the world 
 
 * Ta'j^' iCpB^r) £v TTi KOcriLoyovioL y&ypay.ix.svx Taaura. Eu- 
 scb. Praep. Evang. lib. i, c. 10. 
 
 f See Connect, vol. ii, b. ix. p. 353. It may be thougbt 
 surprising that it should, but philosophy seems to have 
 begun upon these blind principles in all countries. It ap- 
 pears to have been the old way of the first world, which 
 perished in the flood; see Job xxii, 15, 16, 1/. And in 
 later ages, after the deluge, the Greeks, copying after the 
 first rudiments of Egypt, long philosophized, without sup- 
 
INTRODUCTION. xlil 
 
 had been made and governed without a 
 God, by blind and unintelligent principles of 
 nature ; their worship and religion was ac- 
 cording to it. But Moses, though learned 
 in all the wisdom of the Egyptians^, was also 
 better instructed, and taught in opposition 
 to the Egyptian literature, that, in the he- 
 girming, God created the Heavens and the 
 Earth, and that without him ivas not any 
 thing made that was made"^ : and the God, 
 whom Moses had thus declared, had most 
 amazingly exalted his power against all the 
 gods and religion of Egypt, by bringing his 
 people, a nation, out of the midst of, and 
 from under their subjection to, the Egyp- 
 tians, by such signs and wonders, by such a 
 •mighty hand and stretched out arm ; by such 
 amazing miracles, and entire overthrow of 
 all the strength of Egypt, that if it were 
 asked of the days that were past, since the 
 day that God created man upon the Earthy 
 no such thing as this great thing had ever 
 
 posing that any iJitelllgence had made or governed the 
 world. Anaxagoras is said to have introduced this principle, 
 icpxrog T-n Jatj N»y iitss-ridzv. Laert. in Anaxag. 
 
 s Acts vii, 22. 
 
 ^ Gen. i, 1. See hereafter, ch. i. 
 
XIV INTRODUCTION. 
 
 been, nor any thing heard like it\ Egypt 
 was destroyed, greatly diminished and 
 brought low; its king and armies over- 
 whehned and lost in the Red Sea^; six 
 hundred thousand slaves, besides women 
 and children, had left this country, the 
 Egyptians not being able in the least to 
 oppose it ; where now, and what, were the 
 gods of Egypt ? Their elementary powers, 
 or sidereal influences? Was it not too plain 
 to be contradicted, that there was a Power, 
 who ruled in the Heavens, far mightier than 
 they, who disposed of them as he pleased, 
 and was able to do by himself whatsoever 
 he pleased to have done in the Earth ? 
 Should not the Egyptians, who remained, 
 turn and inquire, and seek after to serve 
 this God? Would not state policy, which 
 always has, and always will try to work its 
 way, notwitlistanding religion, have herein 
 prevented them, and offered it to their con- 
 sideration, whether, if they took this course, 
 the Israelites might not come mid take away 
 their place and nation? It seems to have 
 
 ' Deut. iv, 32— S'i. 
 
 ^ Exod. X, 7 ; xii, 29, 30 ; kiv. 
 
INTRODUCTION, XV 
 
 satisfied them better, to correct their year, 
 and reform their own system : and what 
 more likely reform of their religion might 
 they fall into, than now to consider, that 
 unquestionably they had been wrong in sup- 
 posing that elements governed the course of 
 nature, without a personal agent ruling in 
 them. But, conceiving that the Israelites 
 had their God, they reputed that every na- 
 tion had its own^; and looking back to their 
 most early progenitors, who had been the 
 glory of their times, and under whom had 
 been laid all the foundation of their public 
 and private happiness ; they supposed them, 
 after leaving the Earth, to have taken their 
 orbs, to govern and influence the things be- 
 low, in some element, star, or sphere above. 
 The Greeks thus reputed that Astrcea, after 
 long labouring on Earth to do good to mor- 
 tals, had at last left the world, to give her 
 light from the constellation called Virgo'^, 
 
 ^ See Micah iv, 5 ; 2 Kings xxiii, 33, 34, 3r>. 
 
 *Hp^< me ft eyvvxifj sfi (patvBrai dv^p'ja'jroio'i, 
 
 Aratus Phoen. ver. 131. 
 Thus the Egyptian heroes departed: ra; Ss v:.'%a; /.a/xTTf^v 
 ctr^a. Vide Plut. de Iside ct Osirid, 
 
XVI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 And we find it an ancient apophthegm of 
 the Egyptians, that their most ancient kings, 
 who had prosperously governed them, were 
 divine °; and accordingly they now canon- 
 ized these, and endeavoured to devote and 
 consign themselves to their protection. 
 
 That mythology came in, upon this alte- 
 ration of their theology, is obviously evi- 
 dent : for mingling the history of these men 
 when mortals, with what came to be ascribed 
 to them when gods, would naturally occa- 
 sion it. And of this sort we naturally find 
 the Mythoi told of them^ I will go no 
 farther at this time into this topic ; although 
 I might much enlarge upon it, by consider- 
 ing how mythology spread from Egypt into 
 Phoenicia; was indeed a little checked by the 
 inquiries of Sanchoniatho, but soon ob- 
 
 ^xcrikevovrat uiro Srs8' To yap dc^oy iv ixccr^ xa< Kparay 
 ^siov £5-iv. Plutarch, in Alexaud. 
 
 • The Egyptians having called their heroes by the names 
 of their sidereal and elementary deities, added to the history 
 of the life and actions of such heroes a mythological account 
 of their philosophical opinions concerning the gods, whose 
 ramea had also been given to such heroes^ 8cc. See Connecto 
 vol. ii, b, viiij p, 30' I. 
 
INTRODUCTION. XVU 
 
 talned again to be grafted upon his philoso- 
 phy p, infected even the Israehtes, when, in 
 their defection from their worship of the 
 true God, they took up the tabernacle of 
 Moloch^ and the star of the god Reinphan"^ ; 
 how it travelled into Greece, where new 
 fables were invented, and added to the more 
 ancient ones ; and these varied in different 
 ages% until they grew too gross for philo- 
 sophy to bear them, and occasioned those 
 
 auVijv [i. e, Ttpfi^ecTiv beforegoing] ditoycpv^fCfA, kcci s); ro p.u- 
 ^'johs a.Tr^TiOLTcc^YiO'cii. Euseb. Prsep. Evang. lib. i, c. 9. 
 
 ^ The Israelites' worship of the calf at Iloreb was an Imi- 
 tation of the sacra of the Egyptians ; for the Egyptians had 
 consecrated animals to their sidereal and elementary divini- 
 ties before the Israelites left them. But St. Stephen. Acts vii, 
 43, does not say that they worshipped Molocli and Remphan 
 in the wilderness ; but after the forty years in the wilderness 
 were over, at the expiration of which they came into Canaan, 
 they were again given up to worship these gods, who were 
 hero- gods of some of the countries round about them. 
 
 • The no-^o; of Taautus, the blind mechanical principle, 
 so called by the Egyptian naturalists, became the 'Epo; of 
 the mythologists ; not meaning, by that word, Ctipid, the 
 blind god of love; for this god of love is not named, or is, if 
 mentioned, called T^f.^o; in Homer, never 'Epos or 'Epxs ; 
 and Hesiod also names him 'l^fco^, and describes him as 
 VOL. Ill* ^ 
 
XVlll INTRODUCTION. 
 
 who speculated upon them to think many 
 of them were only tales of poets to please 
 
 belonging to Venus, and not as 'Epo;. For of Venus, or 
 Cytherea, he says, 
 
 Tri $* 'Epos uJiJ^aprr^ca xai *l^^pos atrT^Bfo %qlXo;. 
 Hesiod. Theog. v. 201. 
 
 Eros himself was not the blind and inconstant boy, unto 
 whon> later fables ascribed a precedency 
 
 Res solliciti plena timoris amor 
 
 Ovid. 
 
 over the fickle passion, which admits, as Terence tells us, 
 " neque consilium neque modum,'* &c; but Eros was in 
 the beginning from Chaos and Tellus, like Tio^og in Sancho- 
 niatho ; and is described, 
 
 — ^EpQ$t OS KOLkXiros sv d^ocvccroi<n ^soia-i, 
 Ava-ifj^t\y}S, Tfwi'ujy ts ^ewv, Tfocvrcuv t* dv^piuitvov 
 
 Hesiod. Theog. v. 120. 
 
 Eros, in the natural system called tto^o;, was the principle 
 that brought things into the harmony of order out of chaos or 
 confusion ; and the person, feigned by the fabulists to be this 
 deity, was some eminent personage, who had excelled in 
 ability to temper and moderate the minds of men : who had 
 governed himself, and greatly taught others to have peace in 
 themselves, and to live in peace and harmony with other 
 persons. And that love should follow after, wherever such a 
 person is acquainted with Venus, the goddess of all elegance 
 and beauty, is no unreasonable supposition 5 but whether this 
 mythos was more antique than Hesiod, I ani not certain. I 
 think we find nothing like it in Homer ; who supposes Venus 
 
INTRODUCTION. xix 
 
 and captivate the minds of the vulgar ; aU 
 though they saw in some a deeper and 
 hidden meaning, which they endeavoured 
 to explore and interpret, as their traditions 
 furnished tenets for the solution of them. 
 But having hinted that, in fact, the writings 
 of Egypt, in the age of Moses, were only 
 plain narrations, as they conceived things 
 to have been caused by operations of nature, 
 exerting themselves without any intelligent 
 being creating and directing them ; and 
 that Moses, contrary hereto, set forth as 
 plainly, that there was a God, who created 
 all things ; that, in opposition hereto, the 
 heathen nations, not acknowledging the 
 one God, and yet compelled to think, that 
 agencies without intelligence could not be 
 the powers that ruled the world, set up 
 many gods ; and those such gods, that fable 
 and mythology naturally arose from the in- 
 stitutioti of them; and consequently had 
 not their rise until the system of Moses was 
 
 to be the goddess, who subjected unto love both mortals and 
 immortals, 'ifj^ipos, whom Hesiod makes a person, is like 
 ^(Xorijf, in Homer, not a proper name, but generally, I 
 think always, a common noun. Homer's Iliad, ^, ver. lOJ, 
 &c. 
 
 c 2 
 
XX INTRODUCTION. 
 
 thus opposed, nor until after his days. Al- 
 though I cannot herein pretend to any cer- 
 tainty of demonstration ; yet, I think, I may 
 venture to say, that nothing, so probable as 
 what I have offered, can be collected from 
 any remains of anti(}uity, to contradict it. 
 
SECTION 11. 
 
 Drs, Burnet and Middleton's Objections 
 against the Literal Interpretation of the 
 Mosaic Account of the Creation, consi- 
 dered, Hoiv the History of Creation 
 might he easily handed down from Adam 
 to Moses. 
 
 The objections, to which I have repUed in 
 the ensuing treatise, are taken chiefly from 
 Dr. Burnet, sometime master of the Char- 
 ter-house, who appears to have given us the 
 substancce of what can be offered against 
 the literal interpretation. Other writers 
 only copy after him ; and Dr. Middleton, I 
 think, does not improve any point he took 
 from him. One, indeed, he states in a 
 manner something different from Dr. Bur- 
 net, which I will here consider as Dr. Mid- 
 dleton represents it. 
 
 Dr. Middleton suggests, that it is not 
 possible for any mortal, " to give an his to- 
 
XXll INTRODUCTION. 
 
 rical narration, to describe the particular 
 manner, order, and time, in which, or the 
 materials out of which, this world, and its 
 principal inhabitant, man, were formed : 
 that were any writer to pretend to it, we 
 should apply to him what was said by God 
 to Job, Where wast thou, when I laid the 
 foundations of the Earth? declare, if thou 
 hast understanding''. And we should think 
 the same of him, which Job confesseth of 
 himself; that he had uttered what he under- 
 stood not ; things too ivonderful for him^ 
 which he knew not^. We should conclude, 
 at once, that the whole, which the wisest 
 of men could w^rite upon the subject, must 
 be the mere effect of fancy and imagi- 
 nation/' — " From the nature of the story 
 itself, we should readily conclude, that no 
 writer whatsoever could be so sufficiently 
 informed, as to be able to give an historical 
 narration of it ; or could have authority 
 enough to make it pass for such w^ith 
 any judicious readers" Dr. Middleton 
 introduces the suggestion, not pretending 
 directly to say, that Moses could not pos- 
 
 * Job xxxviii, 4, ^ Chap, xlii, 3. 
 
 ^ See Middleton's Examinat. p. 1 28 ; Burnet's Archaeol 
 p. 28 1. 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXlll 
 
 sibly, supposing him an inspired writer, 
 give an authentic account of the facts 
 related by him ; but desiring to have the 
 reader vieigh and consider, what he would 
 reasonably think of such facts, so related, 
 if the relator was thought not to have a 
 warrant of a real revelation from God, 
 of the matters declared by him^. What 
 argument can be drawn from what he thus 
 offers, seems to me to be very obscure. 
 The apostle tells us, that through faith 
 2ve understand that the ivorlds were framed 
 hy the word of God*^; where he evidently 
 refers to the Mosaic history. That the 
 worlds were not eternal, but were made 
 by the power of God, may be demonstrated 
 from the reason and nature of things ; but 
 that God spake the wordy and they were 
 made ; commanded^ and they were created^ ; 
 that they were not made, without the word 
 spoken by him ; not made by the immediate 
 purpose of his will, but that he said, let 
 them he, and they were so^: as also that 
 
 « Let us take a review of the story, as if it had been told 
 us by Sanchoniatho. Middleton's Examinat. p. 1 28. 
 *♦ Heb. xi, 3. 
 
 * Psal. cxlviii, 5 ; see xxxiii, 6, 9. 
 ' Gen. 1,3,6, 11, 14, 20, 24, &c. 
 
XXIV INTRODUCTION. 
 
 things did not instantly, all at once, take 
 their being, as he might design them, but, 
 in six days, were in their several orders 
 framed and fashioned, day hy day ; such in 
 every day, as he was pleased to appoint, 
 when^ before, there luere none of than ; this 
 we may have no reason to believe^, but 
 
 ^ Nothing would give us so clear a view of the apostle's 
 reasoning in the eleventh chapter to the Hebrews, as the 
 carefully observing his distinction and definition of the word 
 faith: faith, he tells us, ver. 1, is the substance of things 
 hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. The word we 
 translate substance is uVorao"'^ ; how we came here to render 
 it substance is not easy to say: as derived from viro and 
 t5"fii^i» it may signify what the logicians define substance^ res 
 snhsistens et substans accidentihus ; but faith, an act of the 
 mind, is no such substance. There is a passage in the New 
 Testament, which may lead us to render this place more 
 pertinently. St. Paul tells us, 2 Cor. ix, ^, of the viros-ao-ig 
 of his boasting — where we render the word, the confidence. 
 The apostle, assuredly believed that his boasting was not 
 groundless : and this assured belief he called uVoracr;^. In 
 this we have a clear meaning; faith is this assurance, an 
 undoubting persuasion of the things hoped for. The apostle 
 adds, that it is the evidence^ £A£/;^o;, what proves to us 
 things not seen. We are apt to be very indistinct in our 
 notions of faith. In common speech we often take faith and 
 knowledge the one for the other ; the believing a thing upon 
 good testimony, and the knowing it, aie, in a general ac- 
 ceptation, reputed one and the same thing. But the Scrip- 
 tures show us a real difference between faith and knowledge ; 
 which are not the same attainments 3 for we are exhorted to 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXV 
 
 upon the authority of Moses's history. But 
 shall we now ask the question ? What if we 
 set aside all consideration of the authority 
 of Moses, and suppose what is written by 
 him, as if wTitteh by Sanehoniatho, or any 
 other ancient sage, who wrote uninspired, 
 what he apprehended to be true, agreeably 
 
 add the one to the other: add, says St. Peter, to your faith ^ 
 knowledge ; 2 Pet. i, 5, Faith is the helieving things not 
 seen, not known to ourselves, but declared to us, and believed 
 upon testimony, that they are true. We are capable of in- 
 formation, without the testimony of others, two ways ; by our 
 senses, and by our understanding. Things eternal strike our 
 senses, and we immediately know what impressions we re- 
 ceive of them ; and we have an ability of mind to see and 
 compare our thoughts of things, and to form a judgment 
 what to conclude of them. In this sense, divers things, 
 which, literally speaking, are invmhle, may, in the language 
 of St. Paul, be said to be clearly seen, being imde^^siood : 
 Rom. i, 20. We have a knowledge, an intuition of them in 
 our mind, from our clear reasonings upon them, without in- 
 formation from another : but faith is not of this sort ; faith 
 coineth by hearing, Rom. x, 1/ : it is the belief of what we 
 do not know, of ourselves, but are assured is known by some 
 other, and declared to us. Now if we would accurately dis- 
 tinguish between belief in general, and that faith which is our 
 religious concern ; in the one we believe things, which are 
 testified to be known by men to be true ; in the other we 
 believe things, that are well testitied to have been declared 
 from God. 
 
XXVI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 to his own sentiments of things ? 1 answer : 
 it will unquestionably follow, such sage not 
 being infallible, if there be many as possible 
 ways, in which the thing related by him, 
 might have been done, besides the particular 
 one he has adopted, we may have no reason 
 fo believe the particulars declared by him, 
 exclusive of all others. But I see no point 
 hence gained towards infidelity ; because the 
 authority of the inspired writer, not being 
 destroyed, but only, for argument sake, put 
 aside out of the question ; the foundation of 
 God remaineth still sure ; the authority of 
 the inspired writer, whenever we look back 
 to it, brings its force along with it, to assure 
 us, that what is declared by such Avriter 
 must be true, and ought to be believed by 
 us. Our disputant, therefore, seems to me 
 contriving rather how to beguile us, than 
 substantially to confute us. To be desired, 
 for argument sake, to lay aside the authority 
 of sacred writ, to examine how far the truth 
 of what is declared is such, that by reason 
 alone, without other authority, we may 
 prove it, is a specious proposal; but if, upon 
 such examination, we find of the matter in- 
 quired after, that, had it not been authen- 
 
INTRODUCTION. Xxvii 
 
 tically related to have been done in a partU 
 cular manner, many other ways might be 
 conceived, in which it might as reasonably 
 have been eflfected ; if we will not here 
 re-assume the authority of the relation 
 made to us, to give it its just weight to 
 determine our belief, we cannot be said to 
 be reasoned out of our faith ; for we incon- 
 siderately give it up, without any reason for 
 our so doing. 
 
 For man to tell how human life began 
 Isihard ; for who himself beginning knew ? 
 
 Milton's Par. Lost. b. viii. 
 
 For man to pretend farther to speak of his 
 own actual knowledge of things done and 
 past, before he had any being, is, in the 
 nature of the thing, impossible. But that 
 Adam, during the space of a life of above 
 nine hundred years ^\ should recollect all 
 that he had experienced from the time 
 when he had a knowledge of his being ; 
 should conceive that he had revelations 
 from the voice of God, of all that God 
 thought fit to make known unto men ; of 
 his creation of the Heavens and the Earth, 
 and of all the host and creatures of them ; 
 
 ^' Adam lived nine hundred and thirty years, Gen. v, r.. 
 
XXVm INTRODUCTION. 
 
 that Adam should frequently mculcate to 
 his children all he thus knew ; that authen- 
 tic narrations of these things should have 
 come down from before the flood to the 
 posterities that were afterwards ' ; and that 
 when Moses wrote his history, there should 
 have been no such obsolete remains, as we 
 now may be apt to think them ; are things 
 in themselves not at all improbable. 
 
 From Adam unto Abraham, considering 
 the then duration of man's life, is, compara- 
 tively speaking, no greater length for even 
 tradition, than from our father's grandfather 
 unto us. Abraham lived to a. m. 2183^, to 
 see Jacob, the father of Joseph, about 
 fifteen years old^ ; Jacob had, from his 
 youth up, been a diligent inquirer into, and 
 observer of the hopes™, and fear of his 
 fathers", and had, himself, many revelations 
 from God"". He came down unto Joseph, 
 
 ' There might have been among the faithful, before the 
 flood, more express revelations than have eome down to our 
 times. Jiisliop of London's Dissert. II. p. 237 ; see Jude, 
 ver. 14; see Conneet. vol. i, b. i, p. 33. 
 
 "^ Ibid. vol. ii, b. vi, p. 35. 
 
 ' Jacob was born a. m. 21()8 ; see Connect, vol. ii, b. vli, 
 
 p. 117. 
 
 m Ibid. " Gen. xxxi, 63, 
 
 ° See Gen. xxviii, xxxii, xxxv, &c. 
 
INTRODUCTION. Xxlx 
 
 and lived with him in Egypt seventeen years 
 before he died^". He Uved full of the hope 
 of the promises, and died in the belief of 
 them'', and left Joseph as fully embracing 
 them, and persuaded of them, and testifying 
 them unto his brethren, when he also died'. 
 Joseph lived to see his son Ephraim's chil- 
 dren of the third generation* ; Moses was 
 not lower than in the third generation from 
 Levi*; and the father of Moses must have 
 been well known personally to Joseph. Put 
 these things together, and we may reason- 
 ably admit all that had been believed from 
 the beginning in this family, might have 
 come down unto Moses so authentically tes- 
 tified, that all he wrote, from the creation to 
 his own times, might unquestionably be re- 
 ceived by his brethren and fathers as well 
 warranted to be true. And, agreeably 
 hereto, we find, that notwithstanding all the 
 opposition he had from his Israelites, enough 
 surely, during the whole forty years he had 
 the charge of them", to make it plain, that 
 
 P Gen. xlvii, 2S. 
 
 ^ He prophesied of them to his sons very largely; Gen. 
 xlviii, xlix, 29. 
 
 ' Gen. 1, 24. ' Ver. 23. 
 
 * 1 Chron. vi, 1—3. 
 
 '' See Connect, vol. iii, b. xil, p. 330. 
 
XXX INTRODUCTION. 
 
 they were not a people disposed implicitly 
 to believe him; but rather, wherever they 
 could find the least pretence for it, most 
 zealously asserting a liberty to gainsay and 
 contradict him ; notwithstanding, in all he 
 had related to them from the creation to his 
 becoming their leader, we have not one hint, 
 that they disbelieved it, even in any parti- 
 cular at all. 
 
SECTION ITI. 
 
 Of the Pro7mse of the Seed of the TFoinan ; 
 ivith a JRefatation of Dr. MidcUetons Ob- 
 servations against the Evangelical Account 
 of the Genealogy of our Blessed Loi^d, 
 
 But, if I should rest this matter here, and 
 suppose, that Moses's history of the Crea- 
 tion and Fall had no greater authority, than 
 what can be given from its being reason- 
 able to believe he mi2:ht write it merely 
 from the records of his fathers, I should 
 most egregiously trifle. Let the conduct 
 of Moses, what he said, what he wrote, and 
 what he did, be only considerately exa- 
 mined ; and it will appear beyond a possibi- 
 lity of contradiction, that God himself was, 
 in many things, his infallible director \ 
 And if God was his director in other 
 parts of his writings, what reason can we 
 have to think he was not so from the 
 beginning ? In the history of the Fall, 
 Moses writes so emphatically, that one 
 person should be descended from the wo- 
 man to be the capital subduer of the great 
 
 ^' See Connect, vol. iii, b. xii, p. 31 1, &c. 
 
XXXU INTROJD UCTION. 
 
 enemy of mankind ; he limited this person 
 to be of the seed of Abraham^, of Isaac % 
 and of the tribe of Judah^. Surely flesh 
 and hlood could not have assured him, 
 fifteen hundred years beforehand, that thus 
 it should be*^ ; yet the things which he thus 
 foretold were accomplished in a miraculous 
 manner, when the fulness of their tune was 
 come ; and thus the prediction, and the ful- 
 filling it, bear an undeniable testimony to 
 each other. Nothing but the immediate 
 power of God could have brought to pass 
 the things foretold, in the manner in which 
 they were accomplished ; so that the parti- 
 cular accomplishment of them could be 
 none other than the work of God. And as 
 no one could foresee what God would thus 
 do, but the spirit of God^ ; so no man be- 
 forehand could say of these things, that they 
 should so be, unless it had been revealed 
 from God. 
 
 Contrary to what the Scriptures inform 
 us, and Avhich I have had occasion to men- 
 tion, that our Saviour was a descendant 
 from David, Dr. Middleton would seem to 
 argue, that he was not really of the tribe of 
 
 ^' See Connect, vol, iii, b, xii ; see also Gen. xxii, IS. 
 "" Gen. xxi, 12. '^ Chap. xlix. 10. 
 
 ' Matth. xvi, 17. * 1 Cor. ii, 11, 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXxiil 
 
 Judah ; but rather of the tribe of Levi. I 
 need not go through a long detail of avIkli 
 he offers, the whole of which may be com- 
 prised in a few particulars. 1. He observes, 
 that Joseph, the husband of Mary the mo- 
 ther of Jesus, was only the reputed father 
 of our Saviour : he says our Saviour had 
 really no share or participation of his blood'. 
 And yet, 2. That the Evangelists, whenever 
 they deduce his pedigree, show that he was 
 the son of David, by a line up from Joseph 
 only^. That they never say, that Mary the 
 mother of Jesus, through whom alone his 
 real genealogy could come from David, was 
 descended of Davids 4. That their silence 
 herein seems to make it probable, that 
 Mary was not of such descent. 5. That 
 Mary is observed to be the cousin of Eliza- 
 beth^, and that Elizabeth being of the 
 daughters of Aaron', Mary, her cousin, v/as 
 most probably of the same tribe, namely, of 
 the tribe of Levi, and not of the tribe of 
 Judah '^. 
 
 The answer to this is, 1. The Evangellsis 
 are particularly careful to observe, that 
 
 2 Remarks on the Variations in the Evangelists, p. 29. 
 ^ Ibid. ' Ibid. p. 30. 
 
 ^ Luke i, o(;. ^ Vcr. f). 
 
 •" It needs not be remarked, that David was of the tribe of 
 Judah. 
 
 VOL. IV. d 
 
XXXIV INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Jesus was not descended from Joseph his re- 
 puted father"". 2. Then' deducing Joseph's 
 pedigree from David^ was merely to remove 
 the prejudices of the Jews ; for they at first 
 would look no farther than to consider Jesus 
 as the carpenter's son", and were scandalized 
 at the meanness of his birth p ; thought him 
 a fellow of so low an extraction, that there 
 was no saying whence he was'^ Contrary 
 to these, their prevailing sentiments, the 
 Evangelists, at the same time not concealing 
 or disguising the truth, that Jesus really was 
 of GoD*^ ; that Joseph was only his supposed 
 father ; nevertheless took care to show, that 
 were his genealogy, as they imagined, to be 
 reckoned by or through Joseph, even thus, 
 also, he would have been the son of David. 
 This would have been the case, either of the 
 two ways in which the Jews counted their 
 pedigrees ; in one of which they reckoned 
 the son to belong to the parent who begat 
 him ; in the other, where a man died with- 
 out issue% and his brother, or next of kin, 
 married the widow, and raised up seed to 
 the deceased, the seed raised up was count- 
 ed not to the real father, who begat him, but 
 
 " See Mattb. i, 18—25; Luke i^ 35 ; iii, 23. 
 
 « Matth. xiii, 55 . i^ Ibid. 
 
 •^ John ix, 2.0. ' Vide quae sup. 
 
 * Dewt. XXV, 5, 
 
INTRODUCTION* XXXV 
 
 to the deceased, who died without issued 
 This is allowed to have occasioned the dif- 
 ference hetMeeii St. Matthew's and St. 
 Luke's genealogies'*; hoth which considered, 
 were evidence to the Jews, that, although 
 they were obstinate and would reckon our 
 Saviour's descent through Joseph ; yet even 
 here, count which way they would, the ge- 
 nealogy vv^ould come up to David. But, 3. 
 Why was not the descent of Mary, of whom 
 alone our Saviour's genealogy could truly 
 come from David, as expressly said to be 
 from that patriarch, as Joseph's } I answer, 
 it was. St. Luke tells us, in recording the 
 angel's salutation of Mary, that the son to 
 be born of her should have the throne of his 
 father David ; so that he recognises David 
 to be the progenitor of Jesus. He immedi- 
 ately after allows, that this child was to be 
 born of Mary without her knowing man^ : 
 if, then, he had not before hinted of the 
 child thus to be born, that by his mother he 
 was a descendant of David, his narration 
 would evidently be a contradiction to itself. 
 But the Evangelist had sufficiently guarded 
 against this, in plainly telling us, before he 
 
 * Deut. XXV, G, " Matth. i ; Luke Hi. 
 
 ^ Luke i, 3i?, 35. 
 
 d 2 
 
XXXVl INTRODUCTION. 
 
 begins the salutation, that the angel Gaibriet 
 was sent to a virgin of the house of David^^ 
 The words, espoused to a maUy whose name 
 7vas Joseph, inserted between virgin — and 
 ofthehouseofDavid^, maybe a parenthe- 
 sis, indicating, that of the house of David 
 should not be attributed to Joseph. For, 
 as I have observed, the sense and argument 
 of the whole context must lead us to think 
 otherwise ; as, indeed, does the manner of 
 the expression likewise. For, as the genea- 
 logies of the Jews were deduced in the 
 male line, it is most reasonable to think, 
 that if the Evangelist had here intended 
 what he said to be understood of Joseph, 
 his expression would have been, as he else- 
 where says of him, of the house and lineage 
 of David"^ ; but women, though not said to 
 be of the lineage, being with propriety re- 
 corded to be of ther house of their fat het^s^^ 
 the expression concurs with the reason of 
 the narration, that the Evangelist herein 
 
 -' Luke i, 27. 
 
 « The words of the text are, xspoi map^tyov, y^six^yyissviUMr^v 
 dyah m 6yo[jt.cc 'luj(ry](p, s^ o;xa Aa/Sio. An obstinate critic 
 may fight this battle, but I apprehend that ^^ o'^xy ^0,^1$ be- 
 longs to T^OCpSiVOV. 
 
 "^ Luke ii, 4, 
 
 ^' Psal, xlv, 10 3 Gen. xxiv, 10. et in ah lor- 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXXVH 
 
 spake of Mary only. But, 4. Why was not 
 this point more frequently, more cleaily, 
 more largely, insisted upon ? I answer ; 
 because it was a point doubted by yone, but 
 allowed by all. It was, St. Paul tells us, 
 Tpo^-Kou, rnanifest, without controversy, Ihaf 
 our Lord sprang of the tribe of Judah'' ; 
 how sprang of that tribe .^ by his father Jo- 
 seph } This the apostles denied ; it must 
 then be thus undisputed by the descent of 
 Mary only. For, 5. As to what is said of 
 Elizabeth being cousin to Mary, and there- 
 fore, Elizabeth being of the trib^ of Levi'-, 
 that Mary was also of that tribe — -, this 
 way of arguing — for any one of letters to 
 make use of it. is most indefensible triflino-. 
 It can have weight only with a mere Eng- 
 lish reader, who possibly may be deceived 
 by the common acceptation of our English 
 word cousin. The word used by the Evan- 
 gelist is (ruyyivr^g'' ; St. Paul uses the same, 
 where he tells us of his great heaviness and 
 continvAxl sorrow of heart for his brethren^ his 
 kinsmen according to the fleshy his cr'jyyivcav 
 xaroL G-apxa^, Who they were, that stood in 
 this relation to him, he informs us very 
 
 ^ Heb. vii, M. ' Luke i, T,. 
 
 ' Ver. 36. 'EXia-a^sr r^ cvyycv^ cs. 
 ^ Rom. ix, 3. 
 
XXXVm INTRODUCTION. 
 
 clearly. They were not only those of the 
 tribe of Benjanim, his own tribe^ ; but they 
 wer^all the Israelites^, all to ivhom pertained 
 the adoption^ the glory ^ and the covenantsy 
 and the giving of the law; the promises, 
 unto which all their twelve tribes hoped io 
 cojneK It is most evident, then, that the re- 
 lation specified between Mary and Eliza- 
 beth, in the word cousin, or (rvyysvris, did not 
 at all mean, that they were both of the same 
 tribe; but that they were children of the 
 same people ; both of them Israelites, of 
 one and the same stock, namely, of the 
 stock of Abraham^. The reader may easily 
 perceive, that in this argument Dr. Middle- 
 ton descended below every notion we can 
 have of a man of learning, to invent an ex- 
 j9edient to puzzle (to such readers as might 
 not be able to consider the texts cited by 
 him, in their original language) the most 
 clear and allowed truths concerning our Sa- 
 viour, of which he must have known no real 
 argument could be formed to contradict 
 them. And to this he descended (what in- 
 duced him I will not take upon me to de- 
 termine) at a season of life, when he stood 
 upon the very threshold of immortality, 
 
 5 Rom.xi, I. ^ Rom. ix, 4. 
 
 ' Acts xxvi, 7. '' Chap, xlilj 26. 
 
SECTION IV. 
 
 The Necessity and Certainty of a Divine 
 Revelation ; and the Impossibility of dis- 
 covering the Things mentioned in the Sa- 
 cred Writings, by any Efforts of Human 
 Ileason. — Of the various Readings of the 
 Old and New Testaments ; and the Inte- 
 grity of Divi7ie Revelation, 
 
 The principles, which I have made the 
 foundation of the follov/ing treatise, are, 
 that human reason was not orioinallv a 
 sufficient guide for man, without some ex- 
 press revehition from God ; and that posi- . 
 tive precepts given by God, however we 
 may be apt to conclude of them, from their 
 not appearing intrinsically of real moment 
 to the rectitude of our lives, are not there- 
 fore unreasonable and vain. The professed 
 opposers of revelation must be hereifi una- 
 nimously against me ; and some valuable 
 writers, not apprehending a necessity, 
 though allowing the expediency of a reve- 
 lation, do not entirely think with me in 
 
xl IIsTRODUCgriON. 
 
 these particulars. The reader will find 
 their way of reasoning considered in the 
 following pages ^. All I would here oftbr is, 
 that if authority was of moment, I might 
 cite even Dr. Middleton for me in these 
 points ; for it is obvious, that he knew there 
 might be found '' the testimony of all ages ; 
 the experience of all the great reasoners of 
 the heathen world, that reason (human rea- 
 son alone) had not light enough to guide 
 mankind in a course of virtue and morality," 
 that there was " such an universal convic- 
 tion and experience," he says, '' of the in- 
 sufficiency of reason, as seemed to be the 
 voice of nature disclaiming it, as a guide, in 
 the case of religion ^" In like manner, 
 treating of positive precepts, he deduces an 
 argument from what may observed of God's 
 works ; that '^ the wise of all ages have, 
 from the excellency of God's works, col- 
 lected the excellency of his nature. Yet in 
 those works all still agree, that there are 
 some particulars, not only whose nature, but 
 whose use or reason of existence cannot be 
 discovered by the most curious searchers 
 
 * See chap, v, 
 
 *' Letter to Dr. Waterland, edit. ^^ p. <3, 50. 
 
INTRODUCTION. xH 
 
 into nature ; nay, sonic things, which, con- 
 sidered separately, appear even noxious to 
 the rest ; all which, though not understood, 
 are yet reasonably presumed to be good and 
 perfect in their several kinds, and subser- 
 vient to the general beauty and excellency 
 of the whole system "^Z' He proceeds : *' 'Tis 
 full as unreasonable to charge all positive 
 precepts, supposed to come from God, 
 whose use and relation to morality we 
 cannot comprehend, to fraud and impos- 
 ture; as, in the visible works of God, to 
 impute every thing we do not understand, 
 or even every thing that seems hurtful, to 
 the contrivance of some malicious power 
 opposite to the divine nature — . As, on 
 the one hand, we do not exclude from the 
 catalogue of God's works, all those parti- 
 culars, in which we cannot trace the marks 
 of divine wisdom : so, on the other, we 
 cannot exclude from the body of his laws, 
 those few injunctions, which seem not to 
 have impressed on them the legible charac- 
 ters of morality '^." 
 
 In examining the text of Moses, I have 
 
 "■ Letter to Dr. Waterland, edit. 8, p. CI. 
 " Ibid. p. 62, 
 
xlii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 proposed to the learned reader's disquisi- 
 tion, whether in the 19th and 20th verses of 
 the second chapter of Genesis, two words, 
 nepesh chqjahy have not been, by the mis- 
 take of transcribers, removed in the text 
 from one line into another^. The mistake 
 is so easy to be made, and the true and 
 clear meaning of the place rendered so in- 
 disputable, by allowing such a transposition, 
 that, I apprehend, what I have suggested, 
 may, perhaps, carry its own vindication. If 
 1 had the opportunity, of which a learned 
 author is making a very commendable use*, 
 to search such manuscript copies as we have 
 of the Hebrew Bible, I should very carefully 
 have examined whether any can be found, 
 which may justify my supposition. I could 
 name other texts, into which I would make 
 a like inquiry : I will mention two : one is 
 the latter part of the 24th verse of the 
 forty-ninth chapter of Genesis. The inquiry 
 should be, whether the words now printed 
 h'A^w^ p« nn tD-o^'o, are not in any manuscript 
 Avritten hmi'^ p« nn t=:u;n ? The supposed dif- 
 ference is in one letter only; whether the 
 
 ' See p. 34, 36. 
 
 ^ Sec Kennicotfs Slate of the printed Hebrew text of 
 the Old Testament. 
 
INTRODUCTION. xlili 
 
 iirst letter in the first word be a mem or a 
 beth ; a difference so small, that a reader, 
 not very attentive, may not see it ; the least 
 dash of the pen, added or omitted (the 
 letters are so similar), may make it the 
 one or the other*. The other text is, Psal. 
 cv, 28 ; He sent darkness and made it dark : 
 in our Bibles the translation of the latter 
 part of the verse is, and they rebelled not 
 against his tuord. The old version, stil! 
 used in our common prayer, is, a7id the?/ 
 were not obedient unto his word. The two 
 versions evidently contradict each other : 
 the original words are printed '\^y^ I'lo «::t> 
 It would, I think, be of no moment to con- 
 sider how the translators came thus to differ; 
 the reader may see it by consulting the 
 critics^: I do not find any good way pro- 
 posed for bringing them to an agreement. 
 Both the versions cannot be true ; and it is, 
 therefore, possible, that neither may. I 
 would hereupon inquire, whether what we 
 
 *• This alteration is not authorised by any of the MSS. 
 collated either by Kennicott, or De Rossi. Edit. 
 
 '■ The word is printed in the text v^i^, but tlic mar^nnal 
 reference tell us it should be ra"i. 
 
 ^ Vide Poli Synops. in loc. 
 
xHv INTRODUCTION. 
 
 make two words v-,d «b, and read loa mariCy 
 were not originally written in one word ^^^«^* 
 to be read lecemorUy the literal translation of 
 the verse to be thus ; He sent darkness ^ and 
 made it dark, and by his speaking his word^. 
 In this correction we do not alter a letter : 
 we only suppose what are now read in two 
 words to be really but one, and we vowel 
 the words to sound their syllables but very 
 little differently in the one case or the other'. 
 But the fact alluded to being, that God said 
 unto Moses, stretch out thine hand totvard 
 Heaven, that there may he darkjiess over the 
 land of Egypt— and Moses stretched forth 
 his hand toward Heaven, and there ivas a 
 thick darkness in alt the land of Egypt ^ : 
 and the intention of the Psalmist being to 
 ascribe these miracles most expressly to the 
 word of God : He spake, says he, a7id there 
 came divers sorts ofjlies, and lice in all their 
 coasts^ : again, He spake, and the locusts 
 came, Sfc. : both the manner of the Psalmist^ 
 and the clear meaning of the place, seem to 
 
 * Neither is tliis emendation authorised by any of the 
 collations, already referred to. Epit. 
 
 ' 11D mV. We read i'^d^V. We must punctuate the 
 words instead of iio wb i'iisnV. 
 
 ^ Exod. X, 21, 22. ^ Psal. cv, 31, 3i. 
 
INTRODUCTION. xlv 
 
 lead us to the reading for whicli I am in- 
 quiring. 
 
 I am sensible that some very pious 
 Enghsh readers may hastily take oflence 
 at every liberty of this sort ; and will be 
 ready to ask ; May not a pretender to learn- 
 ing, at this viitGy make what he will of our 
 Bible ? I answer, not at all ; and may give a 
 very plain view, as it were, of the whole of 
 this matter. Suppose our Eng^lish tongue 
 had been originally written like the Hebrew, 
 without inserting the vowels, which give us 
 the sound of the syllables. Ltet us consider 
 the following paragraph, he that taketh heed 
 to the commandment offereth a peace offer- 
 ing^. It may be seen, that if these w^ords 
 w^ere to be written w ithout vowels, the words 
 peace-offiiing might be thus characterized, 
 p c f frng\ Suppose, through some early 
 mistake of transcribing, all printed copies had 
 both divided erroneously these letters mto 
 words, and had not put the proper vowels 
 under their respective letters; suppose the 
 letters ''^•^ which make one w^ord, had the vow- 
 els, being ie e, put under them, as I have 
 marked them ; ie to be read between p and e, 
 
 *" Ecclus. XXXV, I. » 
 
xlvi INTIIOII0CTION 
 
 and e after c, a letLer final ; so as to read this- 
 word piece. Suppose the first f was taken to 
 be a word by itself, and o put under it, to 
 read it q/*; suppose '^-^, were vovvelled, as I 
 have underlined them ; i to be sounded after 
 r^ e to be the final letter, the word to be thus 
 read, fringe ; would any one rest satisfied to 
 read the sentence, he that taketh heed to the 
 commandment y offereth a piece of fringe ? 
 and should any one show, that of is, with 
 the following letters, but one word, and that 
 the letters might be so vowelled, as to read 
 pc f fr ng, a peace offering ; would not the 
 clear sense of the place vindicate this to be 
 the true reading, and evince that the other, 
 of what date soever, and how much soever 
 followed, must be an error? And would any 
 reasonable man be ready to think of him, 
 who should oifer so expressive an emenda- 
 tion, that it might be dangerous, lest he 
 should make the English tongue speak 
 whatever he had a mind to, and not its 
 certain and true meaning ? I do not intend 
 to insinuate that the case I have put exactly 
 resembles either of our translations of the 
 Psalmist, above cited : it certainly does not, 
 neither of our translations being in them- 
 selves absurd. And the Hebrew tongue is 
 
INTRODUCTION. xl 
 
 VII 
 
 not SO various in its number of words, so far 
 similar, that such instances can occur in it, 
 as may be in our English, if so written. 
 But, although in the Hebrew the vowels 
 put under the words in points, may be ne- 
 cessary to pronunciation, to teach or re- 
 mind us to give the word such syllables, 
 and each syllable sach sound, as the points 
 put under them direct ; yet, as such points 
 were not originally in the sacred pages"; so 
 neither are they necessary for any one who 
 tolerably understands the language to as- 
 certain the true meaning of a text. For, if 
 a word happen to be wrong punctuated, it 
 may mislead him; and, if it be not punctu- 
 ated at all, the letters of the word, and the 
 context, v/ill better direct him to see the 
 trae meaning: of the text, without any false 
 bias to divert him from it. 
 
 The talking of various readings, transpo- 
 sitions of words, additions in some copies of 
 the Scriptures, omissions in others, are, in- 
 deed, matters so managed by the artful, 
 who desire to perplex and deceive, as to 
 raise terrible appearances or apprehensions 
 in the minds of the well-meaning, but un- 
 
 •' See what the very learned Dean Pridcaiix has wrltuui 
 at laitTL' upon this ^^uhjeet, C<>nnect. part I, hook r. 
 
xl 
 
 Vm INTRODUCTiON. 
 
 wary and unlearned. And I know of no 
 writer, who has aimed at this point more 
 unfairly than the late Lord Bolingbroke ; 
 who roundly tells us, that ^^ the Scriptures 
 are come down to us broken and confused, 
 full of additions, interpolations, and trans- 
 positions, made, we neither know when nor 
 by whom ; and such, in short, as never ap- 
 peared on the face of any other book on 
 whose authority men have agreed to rely^" 
 In another place, he says the Scriptures are 
 '' extracts of histories, not histories ; ex- 
 tracts of genealogies, not genealogies ^ ;" and, 
 in a third place, that '' it would not be hard 
 to show, upon great inducements of probabi- 
 lity, that the law and the history were far 
 from being blended together, as they now 
 stand in the Pentateuch, even from the time 
 of Moses down to that of Esdras^^." It would 
 not be decent in me to say how palpably un- 
 true all these assertions are. The two last I 
 considered very largely, some time ago ; and 
 I hope, with the utmost freedom and impar- 
 tiality ^ And that the sacred books are far 
 
 • Of the Study of History, letter iil, p. 95, 96. 
 
 f Id. p. 102. 
 
 "1 Id. p. 100. 
 
 ' Pieface to Connect, vol. ii?. p. Xi, «^x\ 
 
INTRODUCTION. xl 
 
 IX 
 
 from having had a worse preservation than 
 other ancient writings, has heen unanswer- 
 ably shown by a more able hand, far sa as 
 concerns the New Testament'; and should 
 Dr. Kennicott proceed as he began, and col- 
 late the manuscripts and printed copies of the 
 Old Testament, we should see the event 
 come out in the one case, as it is known to 
 have done in the other*. Dr. Bcntley woaid 
 have told Lord Bolingbroke, upon what he 
 says of additions^ omissions, interpolations, 
 variations, &fc. in the Scriptures, '* that it 
 filled him with disdain to see such common 
 stuff brought in with an air of importance.'' 
 All his lordship offers has been before offered 
 even by the lowest creatures of the unbe- 
 lieving tribe ; even the assertion upon which 
 his lordship seems to plume himself, that 
 '^ the Scriptures would have been preserved 
 entirely in their genuine purity, had they 
 
 ' Phileleuth. Lipsiens. part i, p. \)1 — 114. 
 
 ■*^ Dr. Kennicott has completed his task; and a learned 
 foreigner, De Rossi, has greatly extended the inquiry ; and 
 the result is as creditable to the cause of divine revelation, as 
 Dr. Shuckford had conjectured. See Dr. Kennicott's He- 
 brew Bible, 'i vols. fol. Oxon. 17—, and the Varise Lectiones 
 Vet. Testamenti, by J. B. De Rossi, 4 vols. Ito, Parmnp, 
 1784— 8S. Edit. 
 
 VOL. IV. e 
 
1 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 been entirely dictated by the Holy Ghost^;'' 
 and they have been answered over and 
 over". 
 
 These are the khigs, that 7'eigned in the 
 land of JEdom, before there reigned any king 
 over the children of Israel"^. It is commonly 
 observed concerning this paragraph, that it 
 could not be written until after there had 
 been a king in Israel ; /. e, until after the 
 times of Saul, and consequently that it was 
 not written by Moses. Now suppose that 
 we can in no wise find out by whom it was 
 written ; admit that some private owner of 
 a manuscript Pentateuch wrote it in the 
 margin of his manuscript, as a remark of his 
 own ; that a copier of such manuscript care* 
 lessly wrote it into the text of his transcript ; 
 is there any thing material in this interpola- 
 tion? must not the learned see that the 
 scripture is perfect without it } and can the 
 unlearned see any detriment in having the 
 observation ? Of this sort are the interpola- 
 tions so formidably talked of. They are 
 very few in number, though said, at ran- 
 dom, to be so many. And whatever ap- 
 
 * Lord Bolingbroke's Letter, iii, p. <J5. 
 
 * See Phil. Lipsien. "* Gen. xxxvi, 31, 
 
INTRODUCTION. U 
 
 pieliensions may be raised in the minds of 
 the unlearned about them ; nothins; is more 
 easy to be shown, than that no point of 
 our rehgion is materially affected by them 
 at all. 
 
 ^' But there are omissions in some texts 
 of Scripture — /' They who say this sliould 
 produce their instances, deal openlv and 
 fairly with the world ; let us see of what 
 nature their objection is, that we may not 
 be amused and alarmed, where there is no 
 reason. I will therefore give an instance or 
 two, that even the unlearned reader may 
 judge of this particular. In the xiith chap- 
 ter of Exodus, ver. 40, we read. Now the 
 sojourn'mg of the children of Israel^ who 
 dwelt in Egypt (I would rather translate 
 the Hebrew words, which they so/owned^ 
 in the land of Egypt, ivas four hundred and 
 thirty years. It is plain, that the Israelites 
 were not four hundred and thirty years in 
 Egypt; for they came into Egypt a. m. 
 2298>, and their exit was a. m. 2513^; so 
 that their sojourning in Egypt was but two 
 hundred and fifteen years. But the Septua- 
 gint gives us this text as follows : Noiv the 
 
 y See Connect, vol. ii, b. vii, p. 185. 
 '■ Book ix, p. 'HI. 
 
 e 2 
 
Hi INTRODUCTION. 
 
 sojourning of the children of Israel^ which 
 they sojourned in the land of Eg}jj)t, and in 
 the land of Canaan, was four hundred and 
 thirty years'^: the words here added are, 
 and in the land of Canaan, Now Abraham 
 came into Canaan to sojourn there a. m. 
 2083^: if we count hence to the exit, we 
 find it exactly four hundred and thirty years. 
 What difficulty now can we have, even sup- 
 posing that no Hebrew manuscript, now 
 extant, has the words, which we render, 
 and in the land of JEgypt\' will not any 
 reasonable inquirer think, that these words 
 were in the text from which the Septuagint 
 translated, and that they really belong to 
 the Hebrew text, though the manuscript 
 copies we have may, by some carelessness of 
 copiers, have omitted them ? The observa- 
 tion of our learned critic is a very just one : 
 " If emendations are true, they must have 
 been once in some manuscripts, at least in 
 
 " 'H h KCCfOiKYicris rojv vloov 'Icpccrfk, YjV Kocriyyiyja-ay sv yrj 
 AiyuTrrcy xaj sv yri Xacyccocv, irvj s^rcoLpaKoa-io, rpiccKoyrcc. Vers. 
 Septuagint. 
 
 ^' Connect, vol. i, b. v, p. 252. 
 
 f I ought not to omit, that in the Samaritan Pentateuch 
 the Hebrew words are found, which we render and in the 
 land of E'^irpL 
 
INTRODUCTION. liji 
 
 the author's original. But it will not follow, 
 that because no manuscript now exhibits 
 them, none more ancient ever did'^." 
 
 No one can doubt but that Moses, in the 
 xxxiiid chapter of Deuteronomy, blessed the 
 twelve tribes, every tribe particularly, ac- 
 cording to his blessing ; and yet we are said to 
 have no one copy of the original text, no 
 one version in general, w4iich mentions the 
 tribe of Simeon at all ; the Alexandrian ma- 
 nuscript of the Septuagint, only inserting 
 the name Simeon in the 6th verse, writes 
 that verse, in that one word, differently 
 from all other copies *". Here then is an 
 omission which cannot be supplied from 
 any Hebrew manuscript : will it therefore 
 follow that there is no omission "^ No ver- 
 sion that we now have amends this omis- 
 sion, except one copy of one translation ^ 
 
 '• Phil. Lips. p. 1G6. 
 - The Hebrew text is, 
 
 "ifiDD vno ^n^i riD^ h^\ p^w^ ^n^ 
 The common Septuagint version is, Zr,r-jj 'Vatrv xcci ;xt^ 
 aarofiaysro; koci sfuo 'uroXvg sy apiQu^cu : The Alexandrian manu- 
 script is, Zrjruu 'Ps^TjV V.OH /o-ij aZ(7o5av«ra;- Kai Zv'j.Z'x-/ sf.-j 
 
 * Several copies of the Septuagint, besides the Alex- 
 andrian, have '^vixsouv. See them in Dr. Holmes's edition 
 of the Pentateuch, cum varlis lectionlbus, fol. Oxon. 171)8. 
 Edit, 
 
liv INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Will it follow, that originally all versions 
 had not the name of Simeon ? Is it not ap- 
 parently more reasonable to conclude, that 
 the Alexandrian manuscript was transcribed 
 from some copy of some more ancient ma- 
 nuscript which had the word Simeon ; that 
 the original manuscript of the Septuagint 
 translated from a Hebrew copy, which had 
 it likewise ; and that the word Simeon was 
 originally in the Hebrew text; however, 
 through some carelessness of transcribers, it 
 came to be dropped, and to occasion great 
 numbers of copies and versions to be with- 
 out it ? There is room in all cases of this 
 nature for reasonable consideration and in- 
 quiry : and I dare venture to affirm, that 
 there is no Scripture difficulty, of which a 
 serious inquirer, able to make a proper 
 search for it, may not find a proper solu- 
 tion. As for those, who have not literature 
 for this examination ; if they read the Scrip- 
 tures with a careful design to be made wise 
 unto salvation, they will soon know enough, 
 not to be led away blindly by persons, who 
 perhaps know little more than what may 
 just enable them to impose upon and de- 
 ceive others in points, of which, whether 
 they can say correctly, what is the right 
 
INTRODUCTION. Iv 
 
 or the wrong, may be of no material mo- 
 ment. 
 
 The learned have raised a difficulty 
 about a text in St. John's First Epistle, 
 whether in chap, v, verses 7 and 8, for 
 there are three that bear record (in Heaven, 
 the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost : 
 and these three are one. And there are three 
 that hear witness in Eartli), the Spirit, and 
 the water, and the blood, and these three 
 agree in one—-; whether the words written 
 in Italics, are in some manuscripts ; and in 
 what particular copies they are not } The 
 reader may see the whole of what can be 
 offered upon this point in Dr. Mills ^, and 
 will probably think there is nothing in the 
 whole, which will greatly affect him, when 
 he considers, that what is here said of the 
 Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, that 
 they are one, is a doctrine to be deduced 
 from various other texts of Scripture. And, 
 if I may be permitted, I would inquire, whe- 
 
 Vide Millii Testam. Nov. ad fin. Epist. primae SanctI 
 Johannis. — Several writers, since Dr. Mills, have published 
 for and against the authority of the above verse. The verse 
 is in no authentic MS. but the Codex Montfortii, in Trinity 
 College, Dublin : but the doctrine itself is in almost every 
 page of the Old and New Testaments. Edit. 
 
Ivi INTRODUCTION. 
 
 ther it may not perhaps be shown to be not 
 a jot or tittle more, than what even Moses 
 had declared fifteen hundred years before 
 the writing any books of the New Testa- 
 ment were at all thought of. 
 
 The 39th verse of the thirty-second chap- 
 ter of Deuteronomy has, in our English 
 version of it, these words, /, even I am He^ 
 and there is no God with me, I would here 
 observe, 1. That the Hebrew text is, Ani 
 AniH.ua y ve em JElohim nimmadi^: 2. There 
 is no word in the text answering to the Eng- 
 lish word even, nor is there any verb ex- 
 pressed in the text, no word for am, nor for 
 is, 3. That Ani Ani is not the usual way 
 of expressing / even /in Hebrew. It should 
 rather have been ^m hinneni, \f Ievenl\vd>d, 
 been intended. I even I do bring a flood, 
 is not Ani Ani, but Ani hinneni^. For 
 these reasons, ought we not to translate the 
 words of Moses literally,^ Ani Ani Hua 
 
 s The Hebrew words are, 
 
 "•noi) t3^nb« pwi \^^'n ^i« •'i« 
 
 *' See Gen. vi, 17. Behold I evoi I do bring a 
 Jlood — is, . 
 
 and it is by some thought that ^jjn here should be writteu 
 njri without the siiffh' pronoun, as in Exod. xxxi. 6*. 
 
INTRODUCTION. Ivii 
 
 ve ein Elohim nim7nadi\ /, /, i/e, hut not 
 Gods ivith me. The verb substantive, here 
 understood, speaks itself to be, there are : 
 I and /, and He, are three personal pro- 
 nouns : and the whole sentence is verbally 
 rendered, there are /, a7id /, and He^\ hut 
 not Gods with me. It was a doctrine before 
 taught by Moses, that there were more per- 
 sons than one called Jehovah^ God, ivhom 
 no man hath seen at any time, nor can see ; 
 and the Lord tvho had appeared unto Abi'a- 
 ham^. And yet he strictly charges Israel to 
 hear, i, e, to observe it to be their /azM, that 
 Jehovah, their Elohim, was one Jehovah''\ 
 May we not suppose him in the text be- 
 fore us, declaring in the terms of the same 
 
 » ' -'ii^)) a^nbi^ v^^ b^in ^^t* ^:b^ 
 
 niecum Dii at non lUe Ego Ego 
 A like expression, I think, is found in Isaiah xliii, 25. 
 
 Ti?ti^2 nno «in ^dj« o:h 
 and in a like signification. It was God, who is miochiy 
 anochijhua; or ani, am, Awa, that blotted out the trans- 
 gressions of his people. 
 
 ^ The comma in English supplies the copulative, which 
 cannot but be understood in the Hebrew, though not in- 
 serted. 
 
 ^ See Connect, vol. il, b. ix, p. 373. 
 
 '"" See Deut. vi, 4; Connect, vol. ii, b. ix, p. 37S. The 
 Hebrew words in Deut. vi, U are, in^ mn> •):\ni?^ r^yn^ 
 
Iviii H^TllODUCriON. 
 
 faith, that the three persons he here speaks 
 of were not Elohim, Gods in the plural 
 number'' ; for to use the words of Scripture, 
 they were 07ie Jehovah, 
 
 If what I have thus offered may be ad- 
 mitted, it must surely be a vain labour for 
 any to endeavour to strike the words which 
 they desire to contest out of the New Tes- 
 tament ; unless they could really put the 
 doctrine intended in them out of the Old. 
 But such is the harmony of Scripture, that 
 nothing in it is really i^/ap e7nXv(rsaj^°, of a 
 2yrivat€ inteiyretatioji, so peculiarly differing 
 from all other Scriptures, as not to have 
 such a coincidence with them, as may war- 
 rant it to be true. Rather, oftemtimes, what 
 the prophets of a later age have said, when 
 considered, discovers its having such a foun- 
 dation in what had been said before, though 
 the speakers had evidently no intention of 
 speaking one from the other ; that herein 
 appears some signature that what is said is 
 of God P. 
 
 " The word CD^nbw is often used as a noun plural in 
 
 Scripture; see tD'-rrbi^ librr. 2 Sam. vil, 22; see Deut. 
 vi^ 13, &c. 
 
 • 2 Pet. i, 20. P Ibid. 
 
INTRODUCTION. Hx 
 
 There remain to be considered some other 
 variations of copies of the sacred books from 
 one another. Tlie books of the New Testa- 
 ment have, it seems, been collated with so 
 scrupulous an exactness, that we have it 
 marked as a various reading, if there be in 
 different copies, or versions from copies, or 
 in citations of texts by subsequent writers 
 for near five hundred years, the least differ- 
 ence of writing, the smallest particle or arti- 
 cle of speech ; or if the order and collocation 
 of words minutely differ, though the mean- 
 ing is exactly, and most clearly the same ; 
 and w^ith all this indefatigable preciseness, 
 the variations in the New Testament onlv 
 are said to be thirty thousand'!. But let us 
 consider : can we think of any book, if it 
 had been published so many years, and 
 there were so many different copies of it, 
 translations into different tongues, citations 
 made from it in divers languages, and all 
 these were to be ransacked, and it were re- 
 marked as a different reading, wherever the 
 word and was written in three letters, or in 
 the character &, this was written t, that ;, 
 
 T Sec Philcleuth Lips. 
 
Ix INTRODUCTION. 
 
 therefore Ij,^, , &c. with many other such" 
 minutenesses ; might not abundance of vari- 
 ations beyond number be amassed in this 
 manner ? Our learned critic assures us, 
 upon his own knowledge, that there is 
 hardly a classic author, which, if thus exa- 
 mined, would not afford more various read- 
 ings than the Scriptures'. I may perhaps 
 be allowed to say very safely, that of the 
 thirty thousand variations in the New Tes- 
 tament, not near one in a thousand are in 
 themselves worthy to be in the least re- 
 garded ; though the learned and laborious 
 do well to collect them, that those who know 
 how to use them may have full materials to 
 show, that all the fancies and surmises, of 
 which the opposers of religion are ever preg- 
 nant in their imagination, are rash, ground- 
 less, frivolous, and vain. And, respecting 
 the few that are of any moment in either the 
 Old Testament or the New ; so far as my 
 little inquiry has been able to proceed, I 
 never could see one, but such an account 
 
 ^ We might gather many of this kind of variations from 
 books printed in tlie old black letter, wherein are numbers of 
 abbreviations different from any now in use. 
 
 ' Phil. Lips. p. 1K;, 97. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 1x1 
 
 may be g-iven of it as will show that it 
 neither deprives me of the instruction of 
 any page of the sacred writings, nor de- 
 stroys any article of the faith, nor alters or 
 makes void any one duty of our religion. 
 And I may safely affirm to those who of 
 themselves cannot find out these particulars, 
 or, if pointed out, are not able readily to 
 judge of them ; that although I would not 
 prevent any from endeavouring to add know- 
 ledge to their faith, in whatever points they 
 are able ; being fully satisfied, that no free- 
 dom of inquiry, justly conducted, can be of 
 disservice to the truth, provided we do not 
 give ourselves up to b^ carried to and fro, 
 with every wind of what seems new to us, 
 beyond what we understand : I say, even 
 the lowest of our people, who can only read, 
 mark, learn, and digest our Scriptures as our 
 English version offers them to us, to gather 
 from them that doctrine, reproof, correction, 
 and instruction in righteousness, >vhich they 
 plainly afford us, will find, that they can 
 w^ant nothing more to make them wise unto 
 salvation : and consequently, how obvious 
 to them will be the answer long ago re- 
 turned to such a surmise, as is oflered by 
 
Ixii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Lord Bolingbroke ? That *' if the Scrip- 
 tures were entirely the word of Gob, all 
 of them absolutely given by inspiration, 
 they would have been as absolutely pre- 
 served from all variations of copies, and 
 mistakes of transcribers." 
 
 The answer is : Whaf a scheme would 
 these men make ? What worthy rules would 
 they prescribe to providence ? That in mil- 
 lions of copies transcribed in so many ages 
 and nations, all the scribes or notaries, 
 many of whom, perhaps, made it their 
 trade and livelihood to transcribe, should, 
 whenever they wrote out Scripture, be in- 
 faUible and impeccable ; that their pens 
 should spontaneously write true, or be su- 
 pernaturally guided, though the scribes were 
 nodding and dreaming. Now, to what pur- 
 pose should we require this miracle ; to keep 
 clear and indubious the articles of our 
 faith, or the necessary rules for our moral 
 lives ? No : in all these we are safe, not- 
 withstanding any imperfections of copies ; 
 but merely to silence every doubt and 
 whim, which no man truly religious, drawn 
 by the cords of a man, by rational, in- 
 genuous, and moral motives, will have, but 
 
INTUODUCTION. Ixiil 
 
 may be captiously taken up by the impiety 
 and folly of such as will be pleased with any 
 thing, which only seems to be an objection 
 against the Scriptures*. 
 
 Upon the whole, variations of Evange- 
 lists in their accounts of the same facts, the 
 conduct of this or that particular apostle, 
 and likewise some little difference in copies 
 of the Scriptures, are topics, which design- 
 ing men, with very little examination and 
 knowledge of what they confidently affirm, 
 are extremely apt to take up ; one saying 
 just what another had said before him, only 
 perhaps with a little more freedom and false 
 assurance; not considering how fully all 
 they say, or can say upon these topics, has 
 been answered over and over. To writers 
 thus determined, of saying the same things 
 there is no end. All we can do, is to re- 
 mind the candid and sincere, that the points 
 so industriously propagated, have been fully, 
 freely, and impartially considered by the 
 ablest writers, not only of that profession, 
 which it is become a fashion, with some, 
 most unmercifully to speak against ; bul by 
 
 * See Phil. Fvips. p. 112, 113. 
 
Ixiv Introduction. 
 
 gentlemen also of inquiry and impartiality ; 
 of ability and character, which no approba- 
 tion of mine can add to. And, both from 
 what they have particularly written'', and 
 from what others have more in general con- 
 sidered upon these subjects; it may be suf- 
 ficiently known, even by the plainest reader, 
 that the providence of God has permitted 
 the Scriptures to have the lot of all other 
 writings which have passed through the 
 hands of men. Even the writers of these 
 books have sometimes been permitted to 
 differ, both in Conduct and in matters related 
 by them, so as to make it evident, that 
 there has been no confederacy of men to 
 make the Scriptures what they are. But 
 there is in the sacred pages, in the New 
 Testament, a morality so perfect, that it 
 cannot be conceived, humanly speaking, 
 that the first preachers of the gospel, men 
 of such low parts and education as they 
 
 ^ No reader^ that would judge of these subjects, should 
 omit to consider and examine carefully Mr. West's Obser- 
 vations oil the Resurrection of Christ : and another treatise 
 entitled, Observations on the Conversion and Apostleship of 
 St. Paul.— To which should be added, the Bishop of Landaff's 
 Apology for the Bible ; and above all, Paley's Evidences of 
 the Christian Reliirion. Edit. 
 
INTRODUCTION. Ixv 
 
 were, could in all points, without any one 
 error*, have thus taught the way of God in 
 perfect truth. There is a forgiveness of sin, 
 exactly what is necessary for man^ ; and 
 
 " It would have weight whh any serious examiner to con- 
 sider, that although the wise heathens endeavoured, by the 
 light of reason, to trace out the lines of moral duty, and 
 many excellent rules were given by many of them, and per- 
 haps a careful collector might form a good system from them 
 all ; yet, as they were but men, so every one of them had 
 their mistakes. But herein there is a difference ; there are 
 no defects, no one error in the morality of the gospel. The 
 first publishers of it were mean, illiterate, unlearned men ; 
 and yet they gave us moral precepts, all pure, all unmixed : 
 no conceits, or false rules; nothing tending to the by-ends 
 of any man, or any party ; no tang of fancy or superstition ; 
 no footsteps of pride or vanity ; no touch of ostentation and 
 ambition ; but all sincere. Nothing too much, nothing 
 wanting; but the whole is so perfect and complete, and 
 tends so absolutely to the good of mankind, that all would be 
 happy, even in this world, if all would sincerely believe and 
 practise it. 
 
 y The Scriptures conclude every man to be under sin, 
 Gal. iii, 22, affirming that there is no 7na?i that siimeth noty 
 1 Kings vii, 46. And not only the Scriptures testify that 
 we every one know this ourselves, that if we say we have 
 no sin, ive deceive ourselves^ and the truth is not in us, 
 1 John i, S, but the very heathens allow it. " Quisque 
 innocenlem se dieit, respiciens testem non conscientiam," 
 says Seneca, de Ira, lib. i. The question then will occur, 
 hotv can man he justified with God ? Job xxv, 4. A 
 forgiveness of sin must be necessary, without which no soul 
 can be saved. 
 
 VOL. JV. /* 
 
Ixvi INTRODUCTION. 
 
 yet determinately indulging no one human 
 corruption whatsoever^. There is an atone- 
 ment for sin, such as no invention of map 
 would have proposed^; and yet so foretold, 
 
 '^ The point I would here offer to the reader's considera- 
 tion is, whether, if the pardon of sin offered in the gospel 
 had been the contrivance of men, it would not, like what 
 human contrivance is for inventing, have offered indulgences 
 for particular failings ; and whether, therefore, on the con- 
 trary, considered truly as it is, a doctrine which favours no 
 one foible of human nature, admits no thought of our conti- 
 tinuing in any one sin^ that grace may abound, Rom. vi, 1, 
 as there can be no deceit where there is no error proposed to 
 us ; a pardon of sin^ thus circumstanced, does not approve 
 itself to be not only grace but truth, John i, 17. 
 
 * The sentiments, which the inquisitive heathens had upon 
 this subject, were as follow. They agreed that philosophy 
 was useful to correct what might be wrong in us. " Est 
 profecto animi disciplina philosophia:" Cic. Tusc. Disput. 
 lib. iii^ c. 3. They did not see how they could purge or 
 cleanse the conscience from sins which had been committed. 
 All the known rites of ablution they knew to be unphiloso- 
 phical: ^'' Animi labes nee diuturnitate evanescere nee am- 
 nibus uUis elui potest:" Cic. de Leg. lib. ii, c. 10. They 
 did not think that repentance could make them whole. 
 *• Quern posnitet peccasse pene est innocens," is, I think, 
 said by the same writer, who does not wholly acquit upon 
 repentance. They had notions that there might be purga- 
 tions of sin in another world. Thus Virgil speaks of soul? 
 departed, 
 
 ^ " exercentur poenis, veterumque malorum 
 
 Supplicia expendunt: aliae panduntur inanes 
 
iNTROt)ucfio>f. Ixvii 
 
 and prefigured from the beginning, througli- 
 out all ages, that we must think it hath 
 been appointed by God. In the Old Tes- 
 
 Suspensae ad ventos : aliis sub gurglte va^to 
 Infectum eluitur scelus, aut exuritur ignl: 
 
 Quisque suos patimur manes " 
 
 ^NEiD, lib. vi. 
 
 The construction in the last verse is, I think, clear and easy 5 
 though both our commentators and dictionaries seem 
 to make it difficult. Manes signifies our spirits de- 
 parted out of tliis life, h is the accusative case, signifying 
 the part of us affected ; like doleo caput, I have pai7i in 
 mj/ head ; patimur manes is, ive suffer in our souls de- 
 parted. But others philosophized, that when this life was 
 over, they, who lived well, should go into some star, such as 
 they had made themselves meet to live in. " Qui bene et 
 honeste curriculum vivendi a natura datum confecerit, ad 
 illud astrum, cul aptus fuerit revertetur:" Cic. Lib. de 
 Universo. Which state was not supposed to be absolutely 
 final; for spirits in a future life, they believed, might have a 
 progress to perfection, and go from a higher state to higher, 
 until they arrived at their supreme good. Vide Platon. in 
 Phaedon. in Lib. de Legib. &c. ; and some allowed the body 
 a participation herein with the soul. Msra^oAijv, ro<^ tt 
 
 raCoXijv Aaju,Cav8cr<y sk h ^aiLLOvwv oXiyon i^sy in XP^^'f 
 TToAXcu 81 apsTYiS KOL^apo-^eia-ai 'ria.yra.Tia.di ^sori^ro^ p,frfcr;^oy. 
 Plut. Orac. Defect. How different from all these schemes 
 is what the gospel proposes concerning Christ Jesus ! that 
 this man offered one sacrifice for sbis for ever, and 
 through the offering of his body once for all, ivill perfect 
 for ever those tcho come unto God through him : Heb. x, 
 
 /2 
 
Ixviii INTKOJOUCTION. 
 
 tament, there is the very same morahty, 
 though not so fully explained, and enforced 
 to perfection ; in which He who came not to 
 destroy the law and the prophets, but to 
 fulfil them, taught with authority, how what 
 they read in the law was to be understood, 
 to direct both the thoughts of their heart 
 and the actions of their life. There is in it 
 a series of legal institutions, such as we have 
 good reason to think no legislator, from 
 human wisdom, would have thought of or 
 
 11, 12, 14. Whence now could the first preachers of the 
 gospel have these things; no wisdom then in the world 
 would have suggested any such doctrine to them. Tliat 
 the prophecies indeed, obscurely, like a light shining in a 
 dark place, foretold them, is true; that their Master, 
 beginning from 3Ioses and all the prophets, had ex- 
 pounded unto them in all the Scriptures, the things con- 
 cerning himself, is acknowledged; but as this exposition 
 was entirely different from all that the rabbies of the Jews 
 had delivered, and all their doctors, learned in their law and 
 Scriptures, contended for; that these things, thus hidden 
 from the wise and prudent, should at once be brought to 
 light by babes, be preached uniformly and consistently by a 
 set of men, who had no human learning ; and the truth of 
 them be attested, by the author of them visibly raising him- 
 self from the dead, and going up into Heaven, and by the 
 preachers of his doctrine being approved of God, in the 
 many miracles wrought by them at the time of their preach- 
 ing this gospel ; these things must put it out of all doubt, that 
 this doctrine was not of man, but of God. 
 
INTRODUCTION. Ixix 
 
 contrived^ ; yet in many points so plain a 
 schoolmaster to bring those to whom they 
 were given unto Christ'' ; so clearly referring 
 to things that were to come, and be re* 
 vealed, as plainly to indicate, that there was 
 more than human foresight and design in 
 them. 
 
 In a word, in both Testaments there are 
 such prophecies of things which were to be, 
 and of some which are yet to come ; such a 
 fulfilling of all that is completed, and thence 
 so reasonable an assurance that there shall 
 be a performance of what remains to be 
 fulfilled in its season ; as must give every 
 considerate reader, whether learned or un- 
 learned, a steady beUef, better grounded 
 than to be shaken by disputes concerning 
 the canon of Scripture; when it was settled; 
 by whom these or those books were particu- 
 larly written ; or what errata have crept into 
 some copies in some texts. In all these, 
 and many other disquisitions of a like na- 
 
 *> See Connect, vol. iii, b. xii, p. 311 ; not to remark both 
 of sacrifices of the living creatures, see vol. i, b. i, p. 85; and 
 also of circumcision ; that it is impossible to give any proba- 
 ble or reasonable grounds of their first institution, other than 
 that they were appointed by God. 
 
 ' Gal, iii, 21. 
 
Ixx INTRODUCTION. 
 
 ture, which might be started, we may find 
 that the Scriptures, in being committed 
 unto men, have been a treasure so put into 
 earthen vessels, as to furnish full evidence, 
 that the excellency of them is not of man^» 
 And although the miracles done, to bear 
 testimony to their contents, were done in 
 an age long since past, so that we may 
 carelessly overlook them ; nevertheless, we 
 shall be forced to allow, that the books of 
 Scripture are such as could not have come 
 merely from man, but must be from God. 
 
 ^ See 2 Cor. iv, 7. 
 
SECTION V. 
 
 The Origin and Nature of Language^ §-c. 
 
 The origin and progress of language is 
 a subject which has been treated by many 
 writers. The learned seem mostly inclined 
 to think, that God put into the minds of 
 our first parents all such words, and a know- 
 ledge of their meaning, as might be neces- 
 sary for their conversation with each other. 
 They represent, that the allowing them to 
 be made sociable creatures, implies necessa- 
 rily, that they were in actual possession of 
 all words instantly to communicate a variety 
 of sentiments. But I confess I do not see 
 this consequence to be a necessary one. 
 They began life, I apprehend, without any 
 stock of actual knowledge : they acquired 
 it gradually, and by hke advances came to 
 think of, and form words, to signify what 
 they wanted to name, and converse upon. 
 The allowing them to be able to do this, as 
 early, and as variously as they wanted it. 
 
Ixxii INTRODUCTIOK. 
 
 and to iioprove it, as fast as their know- 
 ledge increased; answers every social de- 
 mand we can suppose, as fully, and more 
 naturally, than to imagine them full of in- 
 nate words before they had acquired the 
 sentiments, or observation of the things, 
 which were to be intended by such words. 
 But as I have at different times treated this 
 subject, I do not see it needful now to add 
 any thing to clear it\ As to the opinion 
 of some writers, that our first parents' minds 
 were filled with original words, which ex- 
 pressed (what they could not otherwise 
 know) the very nature of things, so as to 
 enable them to speak, and thence to think 
 philosophically of them ; and that the He- 
 brew was originally a language of this sort 
 —it is romantic and irrational. That there 
 are words of a sound corresponding to what 
 the ear hears, when the object denoted by 
 them is presented to us, is unquestionable ; 
 and the proper use of words of this sort is 
 thought an elegance in many writers. It is 
 remarked, that Virgil has thrown the sound 
 of the thing he writes of, sometimes over a 
 whole line ; thus, in the following verse, he 
 
 "" Connect, vol. i, b. ii, p. 95', vol. ii, b. ix : sec the fol- 
 lowing treatise, chap, iii, p. 38. 
 
INTRODUCTION. Ixxill 
 
 is observed to sound, as it were, the trum- 
 pet he speaks of, 
 
 Mre ciere viros martemque accendere caritu. 
 
 ViRG. iEn. lib. vi. 
 
 And, in another place, to express the very 
 beat of the horses' feet on the ground where 
 he supposes them to move, 
 
 Quadrupedante putrem sonitu quatit ungula campum. 
 
 Id. iEn. lib. viii. 
 
 Homer's — Troy^if (^"koia-^oio ^aXac-o-^^ sounds to 
 the ear both the hollow roar of the rising 
 wave, and the crash of its waters breaking 
 upon the shore. Single words may some- 
 times affect the ear in like manner. The 
 Hebrew word rnn (ruach), which signifies 
 WTOd, may seem to sound the rushing noise 
 made by that element ; and many like in- 
 stances might be collected from divers lan- 
 guages ; but will any one say, that the phi- 
 losophical nature of the things thus de- 
 scribed is in any wise indicated, by any 
 word, part, or the whole of any such de- 
 scription ? Words are but sounds ; and it is 
 easy to conceive, how, by arbitrary agree- 
 ment, different sounds may come to denote 
 such things as are intended to be meant by 
 them ; but to say that any particular sound 
 has a necessary connection or relation to 
 
Jxxiv INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the essence or nature of one particular 
 thing more than another is a confusion we 
 could not fall into, if we did not overlook 
 some particular in the train of thinking, 
 which leads us into it. Allowing that the 
 word create denotes the producing things 
 out of nothing; Creator may signify Him 
 who made all things, and is God. But the 
 word can have no such reference from any 
 thing in the nature of it; except merely 
 from its being first established, that to create 
 shall be the sound to signify this act of 
 making things to exist. From such known 
 designation, ^'^^ bara, in Hebrew ; creavit 
 m Latin ; any other word in any other lan- 
 guage appointed to denote the exercise of 
 this act of power, shall equally have this 
 signification ; and, without such appoint- 
 ment, no one sound can have it, in the na- 
 ture of things, more than another. The 
 manner in which Adam and Eve were 
 brought into the world, duly considered, 
 will lead us to suitable thoughts concerning 
 the rise and improvement of their language. 
 If it could be conceived that they instantly 
 talked copiously about all things, before 
 time and experience had taught them to 
 know them ; there would be reason to think 
 
INTRODUCTION. Ixxy 
 
 that they had words for such conversation 
 not of their own inventing. But Moses 
 hints nothing of this nature ; nay, the very 
 contrary appears most plainly throughout 
 his narration. Accordingly, many expres- 
 sions occur in his Hebrew (of which, I ap- 
 prehend, the following words, the Lord is a 
 man of ivar^ may be one instance^), which 
 hint, that, in the most early times, the ex- 
 pressions used had their rise, not from any 
 innate sentiments of the nature of things, 
 nor from innate words concerning them, 
 farther than what men had felt, seen, or 
 heard, and agreeably thereto conceived and 
 understood of them. With respect to such 
 words as God was pleased to speak to our 
 first parents in the beginning of their lives ; 
 
 ^ nion^fo W'^'A r^r\\ Exod. xv, 3. I may say of this expres- 
 sion, as also of another, which occurs later, wherein God is 
 represented like a mighty man that shouteth hy reason of 
 wi7ie, Psal. Ixxviii, 6b, that neither of them can be supposed 
 :o express any thing of the nature of the power of God. 
 Rather, human imagination, struck with the terror of a man 
 of war coming forth armed to battle; or of the terrible fury 
 of a giant, awakened, and refreshed with wine, furnished the 
 ideas which occasioned these expressions. Other words, very 
 different, would have been used, had a natural description oi 
 ihe tremendous power of God, terrible in majesty, infinitely 
 beyond what these words convey to us, been at all intended. 
 
IxXvi INTRODUCTION. 
 
 I have considered what, I think, must be 
 admitted concerning them''. That names, 
 formed from words agreed to signify quah- 
 ties of things, may denote the nature of the 
 things so named, so far as to inform us, that 
 they are reputed to have the qualities ex- 
 pressed by the words which are given as 
 names to them, may reasonably be allowed '^. 
 If I know, that Nabal in Hebrew signifies to 
 be of no value or moment ; I may possibly 
 conclude, that a man called by that name is 
 one of that character^: but had any other 
 word than Nabal been the verb to signify 
 the having this character, the sound Nabal 
 might have conveyed a very different idea to 
 me. It is the same respecting all other cir- 
 cumstances of things, which their names 
 can hint to us. If terra be the allowed word 
 to signify earthy the saying that a person is 
 terrestris, may denote that he is earthy ; but 
 had the first agreed idea annexed to terra y 
 been what we call heaven ^ it is evident that 
 nothing in nature would have prevented ter- 
 restris from having a signification opposite 
 to what is now understood by it. What a 
 
 *^ See hereafter, chap, ii, p. 16. 
 
 ^ See Connect, vol. ii, b. ix. p. 37^. 
 
 •^ 1 Sam. XXV, 25} Connect, ibid. 
 
INTRODUCTION. Ixxvii 
 
 learned writer very clearly thought upon this 
 subject, he has expressed as intelligibly. 
 ^^ There is/' he says, " between sounds and 
 things no relation*: words signify things, 
 from no other than the arbitrary agreement 
 of men : it is evident that language is not 
 natural, but instituted:" — " that the human 
 organs being admirably fitted for the forma- 
 tion of articulate sounds ; these, with the 
 help of reason, might in time lead men to 
 the use of language — ; I own it is ima- 
 ginable that they might^/' The judicious 
 author, I think, after all this, would not 
 have imagined, that, without an inspiration 
 of language from God, mankind might have 
 lived a series of generations without having 
 a sufficient use of it, if he had happened to 
 consider the steps and gradual progress in 
 which Moses represents our first parents 
 coming into their knowledge of themselves 
 and the world ^. 
 
 The reader will find in the following 
 sheets, that I have had great assistance 
 from Mr. Pope's very excellent Essay upon 
 Man. The poet himself confesses, that he 
 
 ^ See Revelation examined with Candour, vol. i. p. 3t;, 
 s Ibid. p. 37. " Ibid. p. 51— Gl. 
 
Ixxviil INTRODUCTlONc 
 
 could not have expressed his thoughts with 
 that force and conciseness in prose, as he 
 could in verse'. With respect to myself, I 
 am sure, that I should have deprived the 
 reader of a pleasure, and the subject of an 
 advantage, had I used only my own lan- 
 guage: what 
 
 I oft had thought 
 
 would have come far short of being 
 
 so tvell expressed ; 
 
 1 wish I could have had the like assistance 
 of this powerful pen for some other senti- 
 ments, which I have endeavoured to defend ; 
 but in these I have ventured to desert the 
 poet, thinking that he has some lines, which 
 require correction. Speaking of the primae- 
 val state of mankind, he seems to represent 
 that their only guidance had been the light 
 of nature. He says. 
 
 The state of nature was the reign of 000*". 
 
 He in nowise supposes that man, in his first 
 estate, began his being under the especial 
 direction of a revelation ; but, rather, that 
 
 To copy instinct then was reason's part'. 
 
 ' See what the author says in the design of the poem, 
 *" Pope's Essay on Man, Ep. iii, ver. 1 17. 
 ' Ibid. ver. 171. 
 
INTRODUCTION. Ixxix 
 
 And he sends our early progenitors to learn 
 arts and sciences from the animal world, 
 sooner than we can think the animal world 
 could be so considered as to afford them 
 this knowledge"". In like manner, he ap- 
 pears to think, that sacrifices of the living 
 
 '" Solomon, indeed, bids his sluggard go to the aiity con- 
 sUler her ways, and be luise, Prov. vi, 6. And it is natural 
 to think, that Solomon, who had searched deep into nature 
 (see 1 Kings iv, 38,) should offer this instruction. ]5ut to 
 think that mankind had not sought out many inventions ; 
 but were without work, device, and contrivance of their own, 
 until they had observed the instinct of the creatures, is ex- 
 tremely improbable. That he, who *^ primus per artem 
 movit agros" (Virgil ;) " learned of the mole to plough" 
 (Pope's Essay, ver. 178); or that Cain formed the plan or 
 building of his city, Enoch (Gen. iv, 17), from any observa- 
 tions of the bee, her little cells, lodgments, and structures, is 
 a wild imagination: and, I dare say, had Solomon had no 
 ships to send to Ophir, until men had learned 
 
 of the little Nautilus to sail. 
 Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale, 
 
 Pope's Essay, ver. I7y- 
 
 he would have brought no gold to Jerusalem. Men had 
 invented a great many arts of their own, before they could 
 observe what, in anywise, corresponded with them in the 
 creatures : though we may, perhaps, well allow, that when 
 they thus came to look from themselves to the creatures, 
 reflections might arise to teach them to correct art by nature, 
 and to add to their own inventions a regularity and improve- 
 ment which otherwise they might not have thought of. 
 
IXXX INTRODUCTION. 
 
 creatures were not offered in the lirst times. 
 He represents, that "the shrine" was now 
 " with gore unstained"/' that " unbloody 
 stood the harmless priests" He has these 
 and some other sentiments in the third epis- 
 tle, which, to me, do not seem entirely to 
 accord with other parts of his poem. If I 
 might guess from one maxim hinted, 
 
 — go, and thus o*er all the creatures sway, 
 Thus let the wiser make the rest obeyP; 
 
 he seems to suppose, that a superior under- 
 standing gives a right of dominion ; a 
 thought diffused so largely in the imagina- 
 tion'* of his admired statesman, whom he 
 styles 
 
 His friend, his genius 
 
 Master of the poet, and the song, 
 
 PoPE*s Essay, Ep. iv, ver. 36*3. 
 
 that I should think, much of what we find 
 from about the 147th line of the third epistle, 
 
 « Pope's Essay, ver. 157. « Ver. 158. 
 
 p Ver. 195, 196*. 
 
 ** Lord Bolingbroke hints to us, that " the author of nature 
 has mingled among the societies of men, a few, and but a 
 few of those, on whom he is graciously pleased to bestow a 
 larger proportion of the ethereal spirit, than is given in the 
 ordinary course of his providence to the sons of men. These 
 are they, who engross almost the whole reason of the species; 
 who are boni to instruct, to guide, and to preserve; who are 
 
INTRODUCTION. Ixxxl 
 
 to tlie 216tli5 was written upon anecdotes 
 given to the poet, and in respect to him, who 
 
 designed to be the tutors and the guardians of human kind." 
 See Letter on the Spirit of Patriotism, p. 10. I am at a loss 
 what to say of this random sentiment. It seems to me to 
 want more explication, and the application of it to be 
 guarded and regulated, beyond what one would expect of 
 any thing said by a wise man. If the ethereal genii of the 
 age happen in any country not to have either the reins of 
 government, nor the chair, seat, or bench, to guide, direct, 
 and give law to mankind ; and, surely, many of them often 
 have not ; and I can apprehend it sometimes for the good of 
 the world that they have not; there is a far more useful 
 principle to be thought of, than that these wise should try 
 to make the rest obey; namely, that every one should study 
 to be quiet, and mind his own business, in the duties of that 
 station in life which happens to belong to him. It must 
 undoubtedly be a great blessing to the world, when those, 
 who have the power over others, are the truly wise ; but the 
 happiness of mankind can never have any permanency, unless 
 those, who cannot attain what they happen to think their 
 genius most fit for, know how to govern themselves wisely, 
 and be patterns to others to teach them the same tiling. 
 These ethereal gentlemen, acting otherwise, have often oc- 
 casioned great convulsions in the world: and many times, 
 when they get that power for which they strive, and make 
 the rest obey, they are neither the public blessing they 
 think, nor perhaps do they perform any great and real good 
 even to themselves. Our author's sentiment seems no better, 
 than a not well digested refinement of a notion found amongst 
 the heathen disputants; viz. that mankind are born, some 
 with endowments to rule and govern, others with capacities 
 fit for servitude only: that where the rulers of states find 
 VOL. IV. ^ 
 
Ixxxii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 gave them, well ornamented ; but they have 
 not that firmness and stability, which can be 
 given to nothing but what is true. It would 
 be going absolutely from the subject, in 
 which I am engaged, to examine all Mr. 
 Pope's positions, which might be here stated. 
 One of them, indeed, I am more particularly 
 concerned in, namely, the Origin of Sacri- 
 fices. I have supposed that sacrifices of the 
 living creatures had been appointed from the 
 time of our first parents' transgression ; and 
 what I have ofl'ered upon this topic has been 
 replied to at large. I hope I shall not mis- 
 spend a few pages, if I endeavour to clear 
 this matter. 
 
 such, as, though born for servitude, will not submit to it ; a 
 war upon these is but a lawful hunting, to take men, as we 
 do, by a like exercise, the beasts of the field, to sort and 
 reduce them to their proper application. Nimrod was per- 
 haps a mighty hunter of this sort, and hereby raised himself 
 to a kingdom, Gen. x, J). But how far any thing of this 
 nature can be useful or right, I shall submit to farther consi- 
 deration. 
 
SECTION VI. 
 
 The Origin and Use of Sacrifices, — The Na- 
 ture and Design of that Sacrifice offered 
 hy Abel, — Apology for the Mistakes into 
 which the Author may have fallen in this 
 TVorky or in his Connection, 
 
 It is argued, that sacrifices of the living 
 creatures were not made in the most early 
 ages: that they did not commence until after 
 mankind had eaten flesh : that we need not 
 imagine they had their rise from a positive 
 command of God ; for, from the weakness 
 in human nature, we may suppose, that 
 mankind might invent this service, without 
 any command enjoining the use of it. All 
 these points have been treated by a very in- 
 genious writer^; an answer to whom will, I 
 hope, be a sufliicient reply to all that can be 
 objected upon this topic. And my answer 
 hereto is, that Abel, unquestionably, offered 
 
 ' See Philemon to Hydaspes, letter v. 
 
 S 
 
Ixxxiv INTRODUCTION. 
 
 a sacrifice of an animal or living creature : 
 that he did it in obedience to a command of 
 God ; and, consequently, that the origin 
 of this institution was not of human con- 
 trivance. 
 
 I. Abel, I say, offered a sacrifice of a 
 living creature: Abely Moses tells us, brought 
 of the Jirstlings of his flock, and of the fat 
 thereof^. This offering was made before the 
 130th year of the world % and is indeed the 
 first sacrifice which the Scripture mentions. 
 That Abel's was a sacrifice of a living crea- 
 ture, may, I think, be proved, both from 
 Moses's express account of it, and from what 
 is said upon it by the author of the Epistle 
 to the Hebrews. 
 
 Moses's account begins with the offering 
 of Cain : Cain hrought of the fruit of the 
 ground an offering unto the Lord"^. It is 
 plain, that nothing animate was mtcnded 
 in Cain's oblation : it was an offering of 
 corn or herbs, the produce of the ground, 
 and of nothing more. And it will be ob- 
 served, that it is accordingly called min- 
 
 ^ Gen. iv, 4. 
 
 "" Adam was but one hundred and thirty when Seth was 
 born, after Abel was killed, Gen. v, 3. 
 '' Gen. iv, 3. 
 
INTRODUCTION. IxxxV 
 
 ehah^; the word often used for a meat- 
 offering or oblation of things inanimate, 
 in distinction to the sacrifice of a Hving 
 creature ^ But Abel brought of the first- 
 lings of his flock ^ mid the fat thereof: the 
 words which follow are to be observed : and 
 the Lord had respect unto Abel, and to his 
 offering^; the text says, ve eel minchatho^ : 
 so that the word minchah is here also used, 
 to speak of Abel's offering, as it was of 
 Cain's. Wherein then did they differ.^ or 
 why should we think that Abel's offering 
 was a sacrifice of a living creature, when it 
 it is thus hinted to be a minchah ? The 
 learned are herein very diligent to exert 
 themselves. Grotius observes, that the 
 word we render the fat thereof \ may sig- 
 nify the milk thereof and thinks, that Abel 
 did not sacrifice a lamb ; but, perhaps, only 
 some wool and cream, of the lactage, and 
 growth of the firstliiigs of his flock^, I 
 
 ^ See Levit. ii, 1, 4, 5, 15; vii, 9, lOj xiv, 10; xxx, 16: 
 Numb. XV, S—'b* ; xxviii, 5, et sexcent. al. in loc. 
 
 s Gen. iv, 4. 
 
 " The Hebrew words are inniD-^«i. 
 
 ' iVnnot. in loc. 
 
 •^ Grotius observes, that these had been thought very an- 
 cient sacrifices bv the heathen writers. Ibid, 
 
IxXXvi INTRODUCTION. 
 
 answer, learned men will seem to say some- 
 thing for any singularity they have a mind 
 to support ; and Grotius is remarkable in 
 this particular. But it is observable, that 
 he lays the stress of what he would argue, 
 upon explaining a word not material to the 
 argument ; but says nothing upon some 
 other words, on which the true meaning of 
 the place most absolutely turns. The word, 
 which we translate fat^ may signify milk^ 
 or must be rendered fat^ as the sense and 
 context, when it is used, require ; but the 
 words here to be principally considered are, 
 of the firstlings of his flock^, The firstling 
 or firstlings of beasts, of cattle, of the herd, 
 or of the fiock, are expressions very common 
 in Moses""; and the question is, whether, 
 wherever he speaks of an offering of first- 
 lings, he means any thing but an offering of 
 the living creatures so called .^ Whether, in 
 Moses's language, had Abel ojfTered only 
 ivool, and inilk or cream, the expression 
 must not have been, he brought of the wool, 
 milk, or cream, of the firstlings of his flock 
 an offering to the Lord? And, whether, sup' 
 
 ' iDNif nii::no. Gen. iv, i, 
 
 "" Lev. xxvii, 26; Numb, xviii, 15; Dcut. xv, 19; 
 Numb, iiij 4\ ; Deut. xii, 6; xiv, 23, &c. 
 
INTRODUCTION, IxxxvU 
 
 posing the word which we render fat^ may 
 signify milk^ the words of Moses here used, 
 he hrou^ht of the firstlings of his Jiocky and 
 the milk thereof, would not have denoted, 
 that he brought both the Hving creatures, 
 and their milk too ? But a farther question 
 is, whether firstlings were ever reckoned, 
 except by the males only"? If they were 
 reckoned thus only, our learned annotators 
 mistake most ridiculously. Abel, I appre^ 
 hend, brought of his young rcnns unto the 
 Lord ; and the lactuge of his rams : our 
 learned disputants would be as well fed as 
 they would teach us, if they had nothing 
 else to eat, till they gave up this absurdity. 
 In a word, Moses's expression can in nowise 
 signify any thing else, but that Abel brought 
 a living animal of his flock an offering unto 
 the Lord. For, 
 
 With respect to Abel's offering being 
 called a rn^nchah, it is easy to be accounted 
 for. The word minchuh is, indeed, often 
 used sacrific^lly to denote an inanimate of- 
 fering, in opposition to the sacrifice of a 
 living creatare ; but it has likewise a more 
 general acceptation. It is the word used of 
 
 " See Exod. xiii, 12. 
 
Ixxxviii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Jacob's present to his brother Esau"; and, 
 again, for the jn^eseiit sent out of Canaan to 
 Joseph^. It is well translated, when used 
 in this sense, by the Greek word Aw^ov, a 
 gift: the apostle thus renders it'*: in this 
 general sense it is, and may be used of all 
 sacrifices both animate and ina7iimate ; for 
 every sacriiice is, in this sense, a minchahy 
 AcopQv^ a gifty or present unto the Lord ; 
 though every minchah, or gift, is not a sacri- 
 fice of a living creature ^^. 
 
 o Gen. xxxii, 13, V,K p Chap, xliii, 11. 
 
 *i Heb. xi, 4, sVi roi? ^ojpois dvrs. 
 
 * The truth is, Abel made two offerings to the Lord, at 
 the same time. One was the minchah, or thanksgiving 
 offering, by which he acknowledged God as the Creator and 
 Preserver. The other was an animal for a sin offering, by 
 which he acknowledged his sinful state, the need he had of 
 an expiatory victim, and his faith in the coming Redeemer. 
 Hence the apostle says, ^bel^ by faith, offered a more 
 excellent sacrifice than Cain : — and God testified of his 
 ^ifts, fois Scvpoir i. e. both the minchah and sin offering. 
 Cain, not having faith in the coming Saviour, acted simply 
 as a Deist, and offered only the minchah, or thank offering, 
 to God, without either a consciousness of sin, or faith in 
 the promised atonement; therefore his offering was not ac- 
 cepted. Dr. Kennicott has handled this subject in a mas- 
 terly manner^ in a work, inthled. Two Dissertations, 1. On 
 the Tree of Life ; 2. On the Oblations of Cain and Abel, 
 8vo. Oxon. 1747? to which I beg leave to refer the reader. 
 Edit. 
 
INTRODUCTION. Ixxxix 
 
 Having thus far shown, that Moses must 
 be understood as expressing Abel's offering 
 to be of a living creature ; I come now to 
 consider, that the apostle plainly tells us, 
 that this was his meaning. The writer of 
 the Epistle to the Hebrews tells us, that 
 Abel's offering was ^^ua-ia., i. c\ the oblation 
 of a creature slain ^ I laid great stress upon 
 the inspired writer's using this term^ I am 
 answered, that it is notorious, that the word 
 ^y(7/a is several times used in Scripture for an 
 inanitnate oblation. And the ingenious wri- 
 ter, above mentioned, cities, for his assertion, 
 Lev. ii, 1'. Undoubtedly he might have 
 cited many other passages. His mistake 
 is, in citing the Septuagint translation for 
 
 ^ ^ua-iav 'AfgA TfpoarrjVByKs, Heb. xi, 4 ; I might, I think, 
 here observe, that the apostle elsewhere expressly calls Abel's 
 oifering an offering of Mood. Alluding to the blood of 
 Christ, by whose death we have the forgiveness of sins, he 
 
 says, ^e are come to the blood of sprinkling, which 
 
 speaketh better things than that of Abel, Heb. xii, 24 ; 
 
 that of Abel; he does not mean Abel's blood, or the 
 
 blood shed by the death of Abel ; for Abel's death was no 
 sacrifice for sin; but the blood which Abel offered in his 
 ^vcia, or sacrifice, though accepted by God, as he had com- 
 manded it, was but a shadow in comparison of the sacrlfic*^ 
 of Christ. 
 
 * See Connect, vol. i, b. ii, p. 73. 
 
 * PhiL to Hydasp. Letter v, p. 32, 
 
XC INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Scripture ; not considering that these trans- 
 lators, not being infalhble, might err in 
 their translation. The translators of the 
 Septuagint were extremely careless in their 
 use of this word. They render the third 
 verse of the fourth chapter of Genesis, 
 
 y^Vzyxsv Ka/v avro rcov xapTcou rr^s yy]g ^{jcriav ray 
 
 Kupup, Here they call Cain's offering, which 
 is described and allowed to be of the fruits 
 of the ground only, ^ua-icLv, a sacrifice or 
 inactation. But then it is to be remarked, 
 that the apostle herein particuLidy corrects 
 them, removes the word B^yo-xai/, misapplied 
 by them, and uses it of AbeFs sacrifice only, 
 and not of Cain's offering". The inspired 
 
 " I would take away all possible ambiguity, that can be 
 supposed in the apostle's expression ; and would^ therefore, 
 observe, that should any one imagine that the apostle's words 
 are elliptical, that the words may be taken, by faith Abel 
 offered a more excellent sacrifice than Cain's, i. e. sacri- 
 fice : that the word ^v(rtcx,v may as well be understood at the 
 end of the period, as inserted in the beginning. I answer, it 
 is impossible so to construe the apostle, his words being, 
 mirsi OTAsidva ^va-iav 'ACeA irocpcc Kociv 'crpoo-rjvsyxs. Were 
 this the meaning, it should be irocpa. rs Konv but we say, a 
 more excellent sacrifice ; where do we find r/.rjc a to signify 
 mo7'e excellent ? Things that are more excellent, 
 are cUled ra oicx,(pepovroc, Rom. ii, 18 ; Phil, i, 10. A more 
 excellent way is, >ta^' virsp^oXfiv hhv, 1 Cor. xii, 31. A 
 more excellent name is, ha^ipoawrapov oVo/xa, Heb. i, 4 j and 
 
INTRODUCTION. XCl 
 
 writers of the New Testament are known 
 generally to cite the Old Testament, accord- 
 ing to the Septuagint version ; and where 
 they do so, it is evident they did not 
 think the expression importantly faulty. 
 But when, in any particular passage, an 
 apostle thus remarkably varies and corrects 
 the diction of the Septuagint, ought we nor 
 to think he observed an impropriety, and 
 desio'ned to amend it .^ Sua-ia is in manv 
 places ot the Septuagint version used to 
 signify inanimate offerings ; but the Sep- 
 
 a more excellent ministry is, Six(po§ujr£poc; XzimpyioLg, Heb. 
 viii, 6. But 'dtXsiifjv signifies more, amplior, says Stepliens, 
 Concord. Grseco-Lat. Nov. Testam. And to its here having 
 this signification agrees what follows : Abel brought ^uciav 
 TtXsiova, TtcapoL Kaiv. The preposition ttoLpoL is used in the 
 New Testament to signify jor^^er, besides, more them, over 
 and above. Thus St. Paul, guarding the Galatians against 
 receiving the observances of the Jewish law, superadded to 
 the Christian religion, niost solemnly warns them, not to re- 
 ceive any thing that should be preached to them, irccp' 9 
 EvriyysKia'ai^sSix, or 'Tap* 6 irapakci^srs, Gal. i, 8, 9. They 
 were to receive no doctrines, as gospel, more than, over and 
 above, what St. Paul had preached to them. And thus 
 Abel's ^vo-ioiv was irXsiovci irapoL Ka/y. Cain had offered only 
 inanimate gifts : Abel had offered these also; for these often 
 accompanied the burnt offering : but Abel's ^va-^a, was some- 
 thing over and besides these, it was the mactation of an 
 animal. And in the not having this added, Cain came short 
 of what ought to have; been done by him. 
 
XCU INTRODUCTION. 
 
 tuagint were not inspired ^vriters, and there- 
 fore ought to stand corrected by those 
 who were. The word ^y<r/a occurs frequently 
 in the New Testament. But although, 
 after the legal sacrifices of the Old Testa- 
 ment were done away, the sacred writers of 
 the New adopted the word ^va-ia, using it 
 in a spiritual sense, to express the making 
 our bodies a living sacrifice'''^: to represent 
 our charity as being a sacrifice acceptable 
 unto God'' ; to exhort to offer the sacrifice of 
 praisey, ^c. I say, although, after animal 
 sacrifices had ceased, the one real sacrifice 
 being offered, which alone could take away 
 sin*, inspired writers did use the word '^ucria 
 in a spiritual sense, to signify our giving 
 ourselves up to perform many of the com- 
 manded duties of the Christian religion, sa- 
 crificing ourselves in them truly to serve 
 God in spirit and in truth; yet, I think, 
 they did not use the term ^urna of any sacri- 
 fices of the Old Testament, but of such only, 
 wherein there was the shedding of blood ^; 
 
 "^ Rom. xii, 1. "^ Phil, iv, IS. 
 
 ^ Heb. xiii, 15. ^ See Heb. x. 
 
 • See Matth. ix, 13; xii, 7; I-fuke ii, 24; xiii, 1; Acts 
 vii, 41, 42; 1 Cor. x, 18; Heb. v, 1; vii, 27; viii, 3; 
 ix, f), &c, I know but one place in the New Testament, 
 
INTRODUCTION. XcHl 
 
 preserving it an allowed truth of all revealed 
 religion from the beginning of the world, 
 that without shedding of blood there had 
 been no declared remission of sin, 
 
 II. The second point I am to consider 
 is, that Abel's offering his sacrifice was in 
 obedience to some divine command, some 
 explicit injunction given by God. And, I 
 confess, that to me a most unanswerable 
 argument that it was so, is Abel's being said 
 by the apostle, to have made his offering hij 
 faithy Heb. xi. I have already argued, that 
 the faith ^ concerning which the apostle wrote 
 this chapter, supposes in all the instances he 
 gives some express declaration or direction 
 
 . where ^mviol may seem to be used of an inanimate offering 
 of the law ; where our Saviour says eve'iy sacrifice {iroLc-y. 
 ^vo-ict, are the words of the Evangelist), shall he salted with 
 salt, Markix, 49. The law here referred to, is Levit, ii, l.S, 
 which may be thought to be the law of the meat offering. 
 But J would observe, that the text in Leviticus first provides, 
 that the meat offering, which was indeed inanimate, should 
 be salted. But having ordered this, it adds farther, with all 
 thy offerings thou shall offer salt. The word for thine 
 offerings is lii'^p, a word used of a sacrifice of an animal. 
 Numb, xxviii, 2, as HDnnn ]'T\p, Levit. i, 2. So that the 
 text provides, first, that all offerings inanimate shall be salted; 
 and then farther, that salt shall be also used in all sacrifices ; 
 and the word ^uoncc is used by St. Mark, referring to the law 
 given in the latter part of the verse. 
 
XCIV INTRODUCTION. 
 
 from God, the believing and paying obedi- 
 ence to which is the faith set forth and re- 
 commended to us^ I have shown that this 
 was the fact in the case of Rahab, when she 
 entertained the spies at Jericho ^ My inge- 
 nious adversary thinks otherwise '^; but with 
 how httle reason, I must entirely submit to 
 the reader's impartial consideration. He 
 would argue about Enoch, as he reasons 
 about Rahab^ He supposes that Enoch 
 obtained his translation to Heaven, not upon 
 account of his receiving and believing any 
 particular declaration by an express revela- 
 tion from God, but upon account of the ge- 
 neral tenor and conduct of his life ; that he 
 was a man of eminent virtue, faithfully at- 
 tached to perfect holiness in the fear of 
 God, assuring himself, that he should have 
 a reward for thus doing. I answer, had the 
 hopes of Enoch been only the general and 
 rational expectations arising from a moral 
 life ; he had not been herein in any wise 
 above others eminent i^x faith ^ which is not 
 an act of mind paying regard to arguments 
 
 ^ Connect, vol. i, b. ii, p. 77^ 
 
 "" Id. vol. iii, b. xii, p. 355. 
 
 *^ See Phil, to Hydasp. fxtter v, p. 39. 
 
 ^ Id. ibid. 
 
INTRODUCTION. XCV 
 
 arising from considering what may appear 
 intrinsically, without external testimony, to 
 be in reason true ; but faith cometh by hear- 
 ing^ ; faith is the believing something that is 
 testified or declared to us". Accordingly, 
 the author of EcclesiasticuSy who observes, 
 concerning Enoch, that he pleased God and 
 was translated^ does not ascribe his being 
 translated to his being more and above 
 others a man of a righteous or moral life ; 
 but tells us he was made an example of re- 
 pentance unto all generations^. We should 
 perfectly understand what is here suggested, 
 if we may say a special revelation was made 
 to Enoch, that men should have life for ever 
 in another world, if they sought it believing^ 
 through his name, by repentance, to receive 
 remission of sinsK If Enoch embraced and 
 testified unto others this faith, and it pleased 
 God to confirm unto the world, that what he 
 had declared by Enoch, was true; by grant- 
 ing to Enoch not to die and fall like other 
 men, but, without tasting death, to be re- 
 ceived to the life to come which was pub- 
 lished, and by him bejieved, and declareil 
 
 ^ Rom. X, 17. ^ Vide quae sup. 
 
 »' Ecclus. xllv, u;. ' See Acts x, 43. 
 
XCVl INTRODUCTION. 
 
 according to the word of God, made known 
 to him ; herein we show that Enoch has 
 been literally, according to the words of the 
 author of Ecclesiasticus, set forth an eocample 
 of repentance unto all generations : and as 
 clearly according to the full meaning of the 
 apostle's expression, hy faith, believing and 
 doing according to what had been especially 
 revealed to him, was translated that he should 
 not see death^. 
 
 There is no point upon which many able 
 and very learned writers appear more fondly 
 mistaken than in not truly stating the 
 doctrine of faith, according to the Scrip- 
 tures. It is a favourite notion with them to 
 divide the states in which mankind have 
 been, into that of natural religion, and that 
 of the gospel. They call the state of c^^ea- 
 Hon, or natural religion, the dispensation of 
 the Father : the state of the gospel, the dis- 
 pensation of the Son of God ; and they 
 argue, that the former, natural religion, is a 
 necessary preparation for the latter ^ But 
 herein they certainly introduce a language 
 
 "" Heb. xi, 5. 
 
 * The reader may see this way of thinking fully stated by 
 the late Dr. Samuel Clarke, Sermon i. 
 
INTRODUCTION. XCvii 
 
 very different from the Scriptures. To cone 
 unto God, to seek God, to ivalk luith God ; 
 all these, and other like expressions, in their 
 Scripture meaning, signify, to accede to that 
 law which is froin God's mouth, to lay up 
 his ivords in our hearts ; to live accordino- to 
 what God has revealed and commanded'"; 
 i\\e fearing Gon, and ivorking righteousness 
 according to what is called natural light, is 
 not what is in Scriptvu'e designed by those 
 expressions. In like manner, the dispensa- 
 tion of tlie Fattier y in contradistinction to the 
 dispensation of the Son, must be the revela- 
 tion of the Old Testament, as distinguished 
 from the revelation in the New. Our blessed 
 Saviour's exhortation to his disciples was, 
 that, as they had believed in God, so also 
 thev w^ould believe in him". And the en- 
 forcing this particular duty is the great in- 
 tent of the whole Epistle to the Hebrews. 
 God, at sundry times, and in divers manners^ 
 liad spoken to their fathers'". Here now is 
 the dispensation of the Father, which the 
 Scriptures recognize ; from whence the apos- 
 tle endeavours to lead them to the dispensa- 
 
 "^ See Job v, S; Psal. cv, 4, r> ; Isa. Ivili, 2; vili, 19, 20; 
 Deut. viii, 6; 2 Kings xxiii, 3, &c.; Job xxii, 22. 
 « John xiv, I. "^ Hcb. i, 1. 
 
 VOL. IV. h 
 
XCVUl INTRODUCTION. 
 
 tion of the Son ; to what, in these last days^ 
 God hath spoken to us by his So7i^\ that they 
 should ta/ce the more earnest heed to the 
 thiiigs which we have heard^ not to neglect 
 the great salvation which began to be spoken 
 by the Loud himself, and was confirmed unto 
 us by them that heard him ; God also bear- 
 ing them ivitnessy both luith signs and ivon- 
 de7's, and ivith divers iniracles and gifts of 
 the Holy Ghost ^K He observed to them, 
 that, in obeying Moses, they had not refused 
 one, who spake to them on earth. He ex- 
 horts them now, agreeably hereto, not to re^ 
 fuse him who spake to them f^om Heaven"^. 
 In a word, the whole design of this epistle is 
 to set forth to the Hebrews, that faith had 
 always come by hearing ; that the founda- 
 tion of all revealed religion had in all ages 
 been, the receiving and believing the word 
 of God ; and the intent of the eleventh 
 chapter is to set before us a cloud of wit- 
 nesses or examples of this fact. Now, to 
 suppose that any one instance, given by the 
 apostle in this chapter, was intended to hint 
 any oth^r faith, than the belief of some ex- 
 plicit revelation, is to suppose that the 
 
 r Hcb. i, 2. *» Chap, ii, 1—3. 
 
 ' Chap, xli, 25. 
 
INTRODUCTION. XCIX 
 
 apostle has deviated from his argument to 
 something entirely foreign, if not opposite 
 to it. 
 
 But it will be here asked ; What proof, 
 or shadow of proof, can we bring of Enoch's 
 having had any express revelation from 
 God ? I answer, 1. We are informed that 
 Enoch prophesied of the judgment to come, 
 that the Lord luould come with thousands of 
 his saints^ ^'c\ 2. Moses informs us, that 
 in Enoch's days 77ien began to call upon the 
 name of the Lord^ Upon which words I 
 would observe, 1. That the expression in 
 this place means, that at this time began the 
 distinction of mankind's being called, some 
 the S071S of God, otliers the sons of men"". 
 2. I have indeed observed, that the words, 
 kara beshem Jehovah^ was an expression 
 used concerning Abraham and his descend- 
 ants, and signified that they invoked God, 
 in the name of the Lord who had appeared 
 to Abraham'"'. But I do not think that tins 
 
 ' See Jude 14, 15. ' Gen. iv, 26. 
 
 " See Connect, vol. i, b. i, p. 11. 
 
 ^ Ibid. b. V, p. 26*S. I have been told that I must he. 
 thought to err in giving this particular interpretation of tlic 
 words kara beshem. It is said, that the xviiith chapter of 
 the first book of King^, ver. 2r>, shows, tli.it the expression 
 
 h 2 
 
C INTRODUCTION. 
 
 e:jcpression had been thus used before the 
 days of Abraham\ 3. A very learned and 
 judicious writer observes, and gives in- 
 stances, that the word hoclial^, which Ave 
 (ranshite began, may signify had hope' ; and 
 
 signifies to call on the name. The priests of Baal, we are there 
 told (i:ii? briin ^'O^^ br^n-cii^l '^'^P''i)> called ujmn the name 
 of Baal, saying, O Baal! hear us. Are we not here told 
 plainly, that tlieir saying, O Baal! hear lis, was their call- 
 ing upon the name of Baal ? Why then must kareau he- 
 skcm Baal be any thing more than they called iipon the 
 name of Baal ? I answer ; we are here easily misled by 
 our rendering leamor, saying; had the participle been 
 here used (aomarim) dicentes, there would have been a 
 greater plea for what is objected to me. But the infinitive 
 mood, with le prefixed, though it may be often rendered by 
 the gerund in do, in Latin (leamor) dicendo, is also many 
 times to be rendered by the gerund in dum (leamor), ad di- 
 cendum, see Noldius in Partic. and may signify to the say- 
 ing: when thus used, it implies a proceeding from what wa? 
 said before, to something farther. We often pray unto God 
 in the name of our Saviour ; but we often proceed farther, 
 and say, O Christ ! hear us. In this manner, the priests of 
 Baal invoked in the name of Baal, to the saying, i. e. and 
 proceeded even to pray^ O Baal ! hear us. Kara shem, 
 or kara a^l shem, may signify to vivocate, or call upon the 
 name ; but kara be shem cannot admit this signification ; 
 see Connect, ubi sup. 
 
 ^ Connect, vol. ii, !). vii, p. 131. 
 
 ^ See Rutherforth's Essay on Virtue, p. 297. 
 
 '' The Hebrew verb ^n^ is spcravit : desiderio expec- 
 tavit, &c. 
 
INTRODUCTION. CI 
 
 he remarks^ that the Septuagint so under- 
 stood and translated it. srog rfKirtcTzv sttixu- 
 7^6i<r$nn TO ovofnoi ;<.u^ih ts (dss. To Enoch, then, 
 hope was given in his heing called by the 
 name of the Lord his God. 1 can see no 
 reason to reject what this al)le writer offers 
 upon the text. And we may consider upon 
 it, that the hope was undoubtedly great 
 unto whom it Avas given to be called by this 
 name. Why ought we not to reason con- 
 cerning them, as we may of ourselves ? He- 
 hold, what 7na7mer of love was herein he- 
 stowed upon them, that they should he called 
 the sons of God^? They were 7ioiv the so7is 
 of God. Undoubtedly it did not appear what 
 they shall he ; but, as Enoch prophesied unto 
 them, that the Lord coyneth, imth te7i thou- 
 sa7ids of his samts, to execute judgment ; it 
 must be, that all who had this hope of their 
 calling, and held fast the profession of it, 
 knew, that when he shall appear, they sliall 
 he like him, for they shall see him as he is^, 
 When He^ who is their life^ shall appear, 
 they also shall appear ivith him in glory "", We 
 may surely hence well understand what was 
 the particular revelation made to Enoch; 
 
 ■' See 1 John iii, 1 . " Ver. 2. 
 
 ' See Coloss. iii. 
 
Cll INTRODUCTION. 
 
 namely, a revelation of the hope of another 
 world ; and the supposing him translated 
 for receiving and embracing this faith y and 
 faithfully preaching it to others ; himself 
 living an example of repentance according to 
 the tenor of it, is no more than supposing 
 that God testified in him to the world, that 
 what he had published by him was truth. 
 Enoch was translated a. m. 987, which 
 is fifty-seven years after Adam's death '^. 
 Enoch was born a. m. 622% above three 
 hundred years before the death of Adam, 
 if we may suppose, that Enoch had received 
 and preached the revelation of this hope^ 
 about the middle of his life time, we have 
 the grounds for what the reader will find I 
 have offered ; namely, that some time before 
 Adam died, God had given the hopes of 
 another world ^. 
 
 III. I have to consider, that sacrifices of 
 the living creatures were not originally the 
 invention of men. The writers, .who would 
 argue they were such, carry us back to 
 the times of Orpheus, or of some other sage 
 and wise personages about his age, who re- 
 
 '' See the table of the lives and deaths of the antediluviau 
 patriarchs, Connect, vol. i, b. i, p. 44, 45. 
 
 'Ibid, ^ Sec hereafter, p. 248. 
 
INTRODUCTION. Clll 
 
 formed and civilized the barbarous clans of 
 savage and uncultivated people, who over- 
 ran the parts adjacent to them. They en- 
 deavour to show us, that the first step they 
 took to humanize the minds of those with 
 whom they conversed, was to endeavour to 
 dissatisfy them with the thoughts of eating 
 the living creatures, and to persuade them, 
 that taking away the hfe of any thing, must 
 be a violence which could not make the so 
 doing an acceptable sacrifice to God. This, 
 the poet tells us, was the endeavour of Or- 
 pheus in particular, 
 
 Sylvestres homines sacer interpresque Deorum 
 Csedibus et foedo victu deterruit Orpheus, 
 Dictus ob hoc lenire tigres rapidosque leones. 
 
 HOR. 
 
 Orpheus is supposed to have lived about 
 the Argonautic times, later than a. m. 2/00: 
 but what if he, and all the reformers, such 
 as he was, had lived much earlier.'^ What 
 if, not really knowing the history of the 
 beginning of mankind, they had thought it 
 a reasonable doctrine, very proper to re- 
 press and subdue the outrage and violence 
 they saw the Earth full of; when men not 
 only destroyed the beasts of the field, but 
 
CIV INTRODUCTION. 
 
 made as free with the lives of one another? 
 What, I say, if they deemed it a doctrine 
 which might be effectual, in putting an end 
 to these violences, to teach that the gods 
 could not be pleased with blood ; that the 
 first sacrifices of mankind were of the fruits 
 of the Earth ; or mixtures of oil, milk, and 
 honey ; of odoriferous spices, herbs, and 
 gums ; of the leaves of trees, of nuts, 
 acorns, and berries : of every thing, which 
 men could offer innocuous, neither doing 
 violence to any thing to which God had 
 given the breath of life, nor to one another ? 
 Will it, because these doctrines have in 
 them what is agreeable to the humanity of 
 our nature, and might be thought reason- 
 able to these men, who first taught these 
 tenets; will it, I say, hence follow, that 
 what a well-warranted history relates as 
 having been fact near three thousand years 
 before, was mere fiction and fable, because 
 it does not accord with what was taught in 
 these so much later times ? 
 
 If the natural tenderness and regret of 
 human nature against all appearance of 
 barbarity were made use of to show, how 
 great a consternation it must have been to 
 
INTRODUCTION. CV 
 
 the first men, at a time when the creatures 
 were not then- food^; and it could not but 
 be more natural for them to say, of every 
 thing living, 
 
 vitaque magis quam morte juvatis, 
 
 Ovid. 
 
 when to see it living must have been more 
 
 agreeable, as well as more usefuP', than to 
 
 put it to death ; what less than a command 
 
 from God, whenever they committed a sin, 
 
 ^ The writers, who would argue that sacrifices of the living 
 creatures had commenced from human institution, would 
 have it, that the eating flesh was before the flood; that the 
 command to Noah, was to regulate, not to give the first 
 liberty to eat flesh: see Philemon to Hydaspes, p. 65, 
 letter v. But what a mere pretence, without shadow of 
 foundation, this is, let any one consider, who will examine 
 what Lamech said at the birth of Noah, Gen. v, 29. If 
 they had eaten flesh as freely before the flood, as after 
 Noah had obtained a grant of it, what comfort did they 
 want, or could expect, concerning their work and toil of 
 their hands, because of the ground which the Lord had 
 cursed f 
 
 ^ The heathen poets conceived, that some creatures 
 might be sacrificed upon account of their destroying the 
 fruits of the Earth, of the vines or trees, or otherwise having 
 been prejudicial to men: see Ovid, Fastor. lib. i; Meta- 
 morph. lib. xv. But nothing of this sort can be imagined 
 to have been Abel's reason for off'ering of the firstlings of his 
 flock. 
 
tVl INTRODUCTION, 
 
 that the sin might not remain, and lie at 
 their door', could have induced them to 
 bring an innocent, and to them innocuous 
 animal, to offer its blood upon account of 
 their own transgression ? Time and custom 
 may reconcile us to almost any thing ; but 
 it is difficult to avoid the reflection, that 
 when mankind came first to this service, it 
 would truly rend their hearts^ to see, as it 
 were, death, unto which they knew them- 
 selves must one day come : to have dis- 
 played before their eyes its pangs and ago- 
 nies inflicted by themselves on a creature 
 which had no demerit ; merely because they 
 had themselves committed some offence 
 against their God: — such a service must 
 cause them both to think upon the victim 
 and upon themselves. As to the suffering 
 animal ; how could they avoid asking, what 
 has this sheep done ? 
 
 Quid raeruistis oves, placitlum pecus — 
 
 Ovid, 
 
 Upon themselves they must look with con- 
 fusion of face, that what flesh and blood 
 would naturally shrink back at, was without 
 
 ' See Gen, iv, 7- 
 
TNTROBUCTION. CVU 
 
 mercy to be performed, merely upon ac- 
 count of their misdoings. One would think, 
 that whilst their minds were tender (and 
 they ought carefully to have kept them so), 
 nothing could have been enjoined, which 
 could have been a more affecting rebuke of 
 sin, to raise in them hearty desires, if pos- 
 sible, to sin no more, rather than to come 
 often to repeat a service, in its nature so 
 disagreeable; and to perform, deliberately, 
 the rites of it. One would think, that not 
 only Cain, but all mankind, would have 
 been glad to have avoided it ; if the offering 
 of the fruits of the ground might have been 
 accepted in its stead. 
 
 In fact, it appears, that sacrifices had been 
 offered thousands of years before any thing, 
 which can be cited concerning them from 
 heathen writers, was wv ten. And, in truth, 
 nothing can be cited from thence to show 
 us the reason of them, or their origin. Sa- 
 crifices of the living creatures, as in the case 
 of Abel, were made ages before mankind 
 had any thought of eating flesh; and, con- 
 sequently, none of the weak reasons into 
 which our ingenious writer supposes man- 
 kind might fall, to induce them to offer to 
 the gods in their injudicious way of thinking. 
 
CVlll INTRODUCTION. 
 
 part of what they experienced to be suste- 
 nance to themselves, could have any place 
 in their mind at all. From what is argued 
 in the New Testament, the first sacrifices in 
 the world came of faith, and were made in 
 obedience to some divine command. It 
 may be apprehended, that they were an in- 
 stitution so dehortatory against sin, that 
 even upon this account they would appear 
 a command worthy of God, to creatures 
 who needed to be strongly warned against it. 
 Besides, they bear such a reference to what 
 was afterwards in reality to take away sin, 
 and they might so instructively prepare the 
 w orld to receive the revelation concerning it, 
 when it should be more fully published, and 
 to lead men to it ; that what is said, for 
 supposing it a human institution, is frivolous 
 and without foundation. Therefore I may, 
 I think, without farther controversy, refer 
 the reader to the reason which I have given 
 of this institution ; vi%. that God having de- 
 termined what should, in the fuhiess of timey 
 be the propitiation for the sins of the world ; 
 namely, Christ , who, through his own bloody 
 ohtained eternal redemption for us ; thought 
 fit, from the time when man became guilty 
 of sin, to appoint creatures to be offered, tQ 
 
INTRODUCTION. CIX 
 
 represent the true offering, which was after- 
 wards to be made for the sins of all men^ 
 
 ^ See Connect, vol. I, b. il, p. 75. My ingenious adver- 
 sary, see Philemon to Hydaspes, Letter v, p. 31^ thinks it 
 not reasonable to suppose that Abel offered sacrifice for any 
 sin of Adam ; and would argue from St. Paul's having said, 
 that sm is not imputed wit/wut a kau, Rom. v, 13, that 
 there was no law given in Abel's time, declaring death to be 
 the punishment of any sin, but of the first transgression; 
 and, consequently, that there could be no reason that Abel 
 should offer a sacrifice for any sin of his own. A little ob- 
 servation may both explain St. Paul's meaning, and clear the 
 confusion raised by my antagonist. The apostle thus argues : 
 ^s by one man sin entered into the world, and death hy 
 sin; AND so (I should render it even so) death passed 
 upon all men, for that all men have simied : for until the 
 law, sin was in the ivorld. The point to be observed is, 
 that the Scriptures conclude all men under sin, Gal. iii, 21, 
 and affirm, that there is no man on Earth that sinneth rtot^ 
 1 Kings viii, 46". This, therefore, being an allowed truth, 
 that sin was in the world until the law ; that from Adam 
 unto Moses, not Adam and Eve only, but every individual 
 of their descendants had actual sins of their own, the apostle 
 reasons, that there can be no injustice pretended that iv ny 
 'A^a^ Ttocvrsg d-uJo^vrja-Ksa-iv, that i?i Adam all die, 1 Cor. 
 XV, 22, s<p iv 'uiavrsg -^y.occroi'- Rom. v, 12: not in ivhom all 
 sinned, as our marginal reference would correct our version ; 
 for, had this been intended, it would have been fV cJ like 
 £V roy 'ASocu. Ttavrsg d,'njQ^vf](rK'6(nv' i;p' w is eo quod, i7i that, 
 or because. As by 07ie man, says the apostle, sin entered 
 
 into the world, and death by sin, kcci s-toj; even so, in 
 
 like manner : i.e. as deservedly, death hath ^jassed upon all 
 men. The foundation of which reasoning is plain : for death 
 
C^ liSTTRODtJCTlON. 
 
 I have here endeavoured very largely a 
 reply to what has been objected to me upon 
 this subject, as I thought it required a full 
 
 being the wages of sin, and all men having done the works 
 of our first parents, having actually sinned as well as they, 
 we not only receive in dying, but by our sins deserve the 
 same wages. Having thus stated this point, the apostle 
 proceeds to consider an objection. But sm^ says he^ is not 
 imputed, ivhere there is no Imv : nevertheless, death 
 reigned frotn Adam to Moaes, even over them that had 
 not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression : 
 Rom. V, 13, 14. The apostle's argument is so clear, I won- 
 der it can be mistaken. He allows, that sin is not imputed 
 where there is no law : which, indeed, is exactly what he 
 elsewhere says, ivhere no law is, there is no transgression : 
 Rom. iv, 15. For, as St. John observes, si7i is the trans^ 
 gression of a law: 1 John iii, 4. Nevertheless, says he^ 
 notwithstanding all that may thus be reasoned, and although 
 none like our parents have eaten of the forbidden tree ; yet 
 death hath reigned from Adam down to Moses : all have re- 
 ceived the wages of sin, and therefore, in fact, all have 
 sinned : and, consequently, as there would have been no sin^ 
 had there been no law; there certainly lias been a law, which 
 all men, every one, has in many instances failed of living up 
 to; and, in these failures^ every man living, or that has 
 lived, has had actual sin. Thus the apostle's argument con- 
 cludes directly contrary to my ingenious correspondent. 
 Abel had sin as well as all other men ; but he would have 
 had no sin, if he had not lived under some law ; therefore he 
 lived under the law of some revelation, which appointed 
 sacrifice for sin. And upon sinning, that his sin might not 
 remain and lie at his door, believing and obeying what Goi> 
 
INI^RODUCTION. CXI 
 
 consideration. I would as freely defend or 
 retract any thing I have written, which 
 other writers have thought wrong, if I ap- 
 prehended it ahke material. But where I 
 think myself only misrepresented, or a con- 
 troversy to be rather sought for, than to be 
 of any service to truth, I wish to enjoy si- 
 lence and quiet, rather than trouble the 
 
 had commanded^ he offered his sacrifice, and therein, hy 
 faith, obtained forgiveness of sin. 
 
 If it were not foreign to the point before us to proceed to 
 
 the context, we might refute by it a cahimnyof LordBoling- 
 
 broke against Eve; who says, she damned her children before 
 
 she bare them: Study of History, Letter iii, p. 109. His 
 
 Lordship in nowise understood, how, not as the offence in 
 
 Adam, so also is the free gift in Christ: Rom. v, 15. In 
 
 Adam, indeed, all died; and so in Christ shall all he 
 
 made alive : 1 Cor. xv, 22. But we shall not only be 
 
 made alive; this might be given us, and we might live unto 
 
 condemnation for our own sins. But the free gift ahoundeth 
 
 in the forgiveness of many offences unto justification of 
 
 life : Rom. v, 16 — 18, &,c.; and thus Eve damned none of 
 
 her children ; for there was no necessity, that any should thus 
 
 terribly perish. All were to live again ; and to as many 
 
 as would truly strive to obtain it, poiver was given to become 
 
 the sons of God, to live unto honour, to glory, and eternal 
 
 happiness. But this is not the only instance of this unhappy 
 
 writer's most unwarrantable rasliness. How dogmatically he 
 
 can abuse even the Scriptures, not really knowing them, 
 
 must be very evident to any one who will read Mr. Her- 
 
 vey's most excellent remarks on Lord Bolingbroke's Letters : 
 
 a treatise worth every one's attentive consideration. 
 
CXU INTRODUCTION. 
 
 world with an altercation, which can be of 
 no use. In some small points, the reader 
 may observe, that I have varied from my- 
 self. When I began my Connection, I too 
 hastily concluded, that God appeared to 
 Cain''\ I thought this a mistake, when I 
 wrote my second volume"; and, in the en- 
 suing treatise, have followed what I appre- 
 hended, upon second examination, to be 
 true"*. Yet I let my error stand in later edi- 
 tions of my first volume, as I at first printed 
 it ; and shall do the same thing, where I 
 diflfer in this treatise from what I formerly 
 conceived to be the situation of the garden 
 of Eden P. I would not, by having written, 
 be prevented from growing wiser ; but hope, 
 that the alterations of what I have written 
 may not be necessarily very many. How- 
 ever, if I should live and have health to 
 finish my Connection, they may be collected 
 and referred to in a page by themselves; 
 and the whole of what is printed continuing 
 as it is, I may show, that I am at least just 
 
 '" Connect, vol. i, b. i, p. 2. 
 ''■ See vol. ii, b. ix, p. 395. 
 * See bereafter, cbap. ii, p. 15, &c. 
 p Connect, vol. i, b. i, p. f>7; sec hereafter, cbap. viii, 
 p. llf). 
 
INTRODUCTION. CXIU 
 
 to the world, in not printing new editions of 
 any works of mine, which may depreciate 
 any former ones. 
 
 The chief point inquired into in the en- 
 suing treatise is, indeed, the direct opposite 
 to what I see stated hy the author whom I 
 have often cited. " If we consider," says 
 he, " the order of the sciences in their rise 
 and progress, the first place belongs to na- 
 tural philosophy, the mother of them all, 
 or the trunk, the tree of knowledge, out 
 of which, and in proportion to which, 
 like so many branches, they all grow "J." 
 The Scriptures, I think, teach otherwise : 
 the first information which man had, 
 came from hearing the word of God"" ; 
 and the first error, which came into the 
 world, arose from our first parents' opposing 
 their first philosophy to it^ Their thought 
 was indeed low and mean, not deserving to 
 be called philosophy ; but it was the sup- 
 posed science of the day, and they ventured 
 to be led by it, contrary to what God had 
 
 *^ Lord BoUngbroke's Letters to Sir William Wyndham, 
 and to Mr. Pope, p. 466. 
 
 ^ Gen. ii, 15, 16; see the ensuing treatise, chapters iv, 
 and V. 
 
 * Ibid. chap. ix. p. 153: see chap, v, and vii. 
 VOL. IV. 1> 
 
CXIV INTRODUCTION. 
 
 commanded. If we proceed, the Scriptures 
 show us, wherein the word of God was to 
 be to man the ground of truth ; and how 
 human science, falsely so called, opposed to 
 it, has been, and may still be, the root of all 
 error. The rightly determining how far we 
 ought to begin under the guidance of faith ; 
 and wherein, and how, we may proceed to 
 add knowledge to it ; to prove and examine 
 whether we be in the truth, in contradis- 
 tinction to what some contend, that we 
 must begin in knowledge, and hereby be- 
 come perfect, is the one question, which, 
 rightly stated and examined, will, according 
 to what we determine concerning it, incline 
 us either to deism, or to embrace and see 
 the reason of the revelation set before us in 
 the Scriptures. Concerning these, with re- 
 gard to myself, I will venture to say, that I 
 have studied them, not, as Lord Boling- 
 broke imputes to us, in order (i, e, right or 
 wrong determined) to believe : but the more 
 impartially I examine, 1 find more and more 
 reason to believe them to be true. Accord- 
 ingly, although I am a clergyman, I am ve- 
 rily persuaded, that I believe and profess in 
 matters of religion nothing, but what, if I 
 were a layman, I should believe and profess 
 
INTRODUCTION. CXV 
 
 the same. His lordship says of the clergy, 
 m his round and large manner of affirming, 
 that " in natural religion the clergy are un- 
 necessary ; in revealed, they are dangerous 
 guides ^" How far any will be guided by 
 me, I hope I shall always know myself so 
 well, as to leave that to their own choice. 
 As to the inutility of my inquiries, and also 
 the impartiality of them ; here I confess 
 that I wish, as I thiixk what I wish, may 
 be a good, not absolutely terminating upon 
 myself; that the reader will consider with 
 as unbiassed a freedom as I have written, 
 how far he may exempt me from his lord- 
 ship's most absolute sentence of repro- 
 bation. 
 
 * Lord Bolingbrokc, ubi sup. p. 531. 
 
 Canterbury, 
 June 2, 1753. 
 

 THE -,**.:s%(;;i/*r 
 
 CREATION AND FALL OF MAN. 
 
 THAT maiikind have not been in this world, 
 nor this world itself been from eternity, may be 
 proved by many arguments from the nature, and 
 from what is, and has in fact been, the known 
 state of the world in the different ages thereoF. 
 But in what particular manner men at first be- 
 gan to exist ; where, and how they lived ; are 
 points, of which we can have no farther cer- 
 tainty, than we have some authentic testimony 
 declaring them unto us. 
 
 The heathen writers have given us their con- 
 jectures upon these subjects, but they are only 
 conjectures'. Some part of what they offer, in- 
 
 ' See Archbishop Tillotson, serm. i ; Wilkins's Nat. Rel. 
 b. i, c. 5. 
 
 'Di odor. Sic. lib. i, p. 5. 
 
 VOL. IV. B 
 
2 THE CREATION AND 
 
 deed, might be admitted as probable, if we were 
 not better informed, that in the beginning things 
 were not done as they supposed. But in having 
 the writings of Moses, we have a real history of 
 these matters ; and, as I have elsewhere^ made 
 some observations upon his account of the crea- 
 tion of the Heavens and the Earth, I would 
 herein examine, what he relates concerning the 
 creation of mankind; the manner and circum- 
 stances in which our first parents began their 
 being, and the incidents which befel them ; hoping 
 to show, that Moses's account may reasonably be 
 believed to set before us what were real matters 
 of fact ; and that no part of what is related by 
 him ought to be taken to be apologue and fable, 
 as some writers are fond of representing'^. 
 
 ' Connect. Sac. et Prof. Hist, pref. to vol. i. 
 
 ^ It is observable, that some years ago the most forward 
 writers expressed doubt and reserve in treating this subject : 
 Qusedam esse parabolica in hac narratione neque penitus ad 
 litteram exige-nda omnes fere agnoscunt: nonnulli etiam totum 
 sermonem esse volunt vito'tuTtLua-i'^ artificiosam ad explicandas 
 res veras, said Dr. Burnet, Archseolog. p. 283. But we find 
 writers, who have added no argument beyond what Dr. Burnet 
 had before oftered, now more absolutely asserting, that the 
 matter of Moses's account is inconsistent with the character of 
 
FALL OF MAN. 3 
 
 That tlie subject I am attempting has many 
 difficulties, I am ready to confess, and not wilHng 
 to be too positive I can remove them all : but as 
 I apprehend the substance of what I have to 
 offer will be seen to carry an evident design to 
 give a reason for, and thereby to establish, the 
 principles of revealed religion; I persuade myself 
 I shall find all that candour, which I have long 
 ago experienced the world not unwilling to bestow 
 upon a well-intended endeavour, conducted, as I 
 trust this shall be, without ill-nature or ill -man- 
 ners to other writers, however I may happen to 
 differ from them. 
 
 an historical narration, and must, they say, convince all, who 
 consider it without prejudice, that it is wholly fabulous or alle- 
 gorical. See Middleton's Exam. p. 135. 
 
 B 2 
 
CHAR I. 
 
 The first and second cJiapters of Genesis reconciled 
 and adjusted to each other, 
 
 THE first and second chapters of Genesis give u& 
 the whole of what Moses relates concerning the 
 creation of mankind. Now, we shall see that they 
 accord perfectly with each other; if we consider 
 the first chapter as giving only a short and general 
 account of this great transaction ; and the second 
 to he a resumption of the subject, in order to re- 
 late some particulars belonging to it, which in the 
 conciseness of the first relation were passed over 
 unmentioned. 
 
 In the first chapter, Moses, having recorded the 
 several transactions of the five preceding days, be- 
 gins the sixth day with God's creating the cattle, 
 and living creatures of the Earth ^, and then adds 
 his determination to make man : God said, let us 
 make man in our image, after our lihenesSy and let 
 them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and 
 over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, 
 and over all the Earth, and over every a^eeping 
 thing that creepeth upon the Earth"", After this, 
 Moses tells us, that God effected his purpose : sa 
 
 ' Gen. i, 24, 25. • Ver. 2d. 
 
b THE CREATION AND CHAP. I. 
 
 God created man in his own image, in the image of 
 God created he him^: unto which he adds, male 
 and female created he them'^. The Hebrew words 
 areas I have below transcribed them^: and they 
 might be translated as I have underHned them: 
 the male and the female, he created them ; i. e. he 
 created them both ; not the male only, but the 
 female also. The words of Moses are very plain : 
 he tells us, that God on the sixth day created the 
 woman as well as the man. He does not say, that 
 God created both at the same instant, nor in the 
 same manner; for this he distinctly considers in 
 the next chapter. But he here hints to us, that 
 God made both the male and the female within 
 the time of this sixth day : and Moses's expression 
 gives no ground for the conceits concerning Adam 
 before Eve was taken out of him, in which some 
 writers have egregiously trifled^. 
 
 3 Gen. i, 27. < Ibid. 
 
 eos creavit et fceminam marem. 
 
 * Some fanciful writers have represented, that the man was 
 at first created of two bodies, a male and a female; and that 
 God of these made two persons, by dividing or separating the 
 one body from the other. It is generally said, that this was a 
 fiction of the rabbins ; but I should apprehend it to be of a 
 more early origin. Plato's fable of the Androgynes (see Plat, 
 in Conviv. vol. iii, p. 189, edit. Serrani) shows us what sort of 
 traditions he met with in searching through the then ancient 
 literature; and I should think it no unreasonable supposition, 
 that a fiction of this kind might have its first rise in those early 
 times, when the Egyptians and Phoenicians began or made 
 proficiency in disguising, with their fables and mythology, the 
 
CHAP. I. FALL OF MAN. 7 
 
 After both the man and the woman were created, 
 God blessed them, and said unto them, he fruitful, 
 and multiply, and replenish the Earth, and subdue 
 it : and have dominion over the Jish of the sea, and 
 over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing 
 that moveth upon the earth : and God said, he- 
 hold, I have given you every herb hearing seed, 
 which is upon the face of all the earth, and every 
 tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed, to 
 you it shall he for meat : and to every heast of the 
 earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every 
 thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there 
 is life, 1 have given every green herb formeaV: 
 and now the evening and the Tnorning ivere the 
 sixth day^. The sixth day was now completed, 
 and the seventh day began, on which God, having 
 finished the creation, rested from all the work 
 which he had made. And God blessed the seventh 
 day, and sanctified it, because that in it he had rested 
 
 plain narrations they found of the origin of things. See 
 Euseb. Praep. Evang. lib. i, c. 10; Connect, of Sac. and Prof. 
 Hist. vol. ii, b. viii. 
 
 7 Gen. i, 2B, 29, 30. 
 
 * Ver. 31. This was the ancient way of computing the na- 
 tural day : it began from the morning, proceeded to the even- 
 ing, and continued until the next morning; finished the pre- 
 ceding, and began the ensuing day. Thus the evening and 
 the morning were the day. Gen. \, 5, 8, 13, 19. 23, 31. And 
 in this way of computing, the Jews continued to their latest 
 times. For thus we are told of the end of the Sabbath, Matt. 
 XXV iii, 1. The Sabbath was ending, as it began to dav/n to- 
 wards the first day of the week : the end of the night which " 
 ffad closed the Sabbath was the end of the computed day. 
 The day following began with the morning sun. 
 
8 THE CREATION AND CHAP. I. 
 
 fr^om all his work, which he had created and made'' : 
 these are the generations of the Heavens, and of 
 the Earth, when they ivere created^ 
 
 Moses here ends his summary, or general ac- 
 count, of the creation ; and here, I think, they 
 who divided our Bible into chapters and verses 
 should have ended the first chapter of Genesis ; 
 and the second chapter shouUl have begun with 
 these words : In the day that the Lord made the 
 Earth and the Heavens, ^c. 
 
 The second chapter of Genesis being, as I have 
 hinted, a resumption of the argument treated in 
 the first, in order to set forth more explicitly some 
 particulars, which the first chapter had only men- 
 tioned in general, begins thus : In the day that, 
 i. e. when''^ the Lord made the Earth and the 
 Heavens, and every plant of the field, before it was 
 in the Earth, and every herb of the field before it 
 grew, for the Lord God had not caused it^ to 
 rain ufon the Earth ; and there ivas not a man to 
 till the ground; nor'' did a mist go up from the 
 
 » Gen. ii, 2, 3. ' Ver. 4. 
 
 * Eo die, i. e. quando — Dies terapus in genere passim di- 
 cilur. Cleric, in loc. 
 
 3 We begin this sentence with the particle for: the Hebrew 
 text having the particle ""^ [ci], we put in/or to answer it: but 
 Ci should be here rendered nempe, quide?n, indeed, not for : the 
 sentence not being, for the Lord God had not caused it to 
 rain — ', but rath«r, the Lord God had indeed not caused it to 
 rain — . 
 
 ^ We render this paragraph, but there went up a mist from the 
 Earth, in the affirmative; whereas the sense of the place shows 
 us, that Moses intended to asserts that God made all things 
 
CHAP. I. FALL OF MAN. 9 
 
 Earth and water the whole face of the ground : 
 hut the Lord God formed man of the dust of the 
 ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath 
 of life, and man became a living souL And the 
 Lord God had^ planted a garden eastward in 
 Eden, and there he put the man whom he had 
 formed. 
 
 In this manner Moses proceeds to reconsider 
 the creation of man ; first observing, that of itself, 
 or by any powers of its own, the Earth had pro- 
 
 before any natural powers were in activity to be tlie cause of 
 iheir production : the Hebrew particle 1 [ve] is here used, 
 and joins similar, i. c. negative sentences; there was no man to 
 till the ground, nor mist went up from the Earth. The Arabic 
 version has observed the true meaning of the place, rendering- 
 it, nee exhalatio ascendebat, &c. 
 
 s We say planted, in the perfect tense; but the Hebiew 
 perfect tense is often used in the sense of a preterpluperfect, to 
 speak of things done in a time past. This the Syriac version 
 seems rightly to observe in a passage like this in the 19th 
 verse of this chapter. We say, the Lord God formed ouj; of 
 the ground every beast — , as if God then made them, whereas 
 the beasts were made some time before : the Syriac version is 
 rendered, and the Lord God had formed — . And thus we 
 should render the place before us: and the Lord God liad 
 planted a garden — for the garden was undoubtedly planted on 
 the third day of the creation, when God caused all the plants 
 and trees to spring out of the Earth, Gen. i, 11, 12, 13. Vide 
 Diodor. Sic. Hist. lib. i, p. 5. The Greeks had sentiments of 
 this kind from Egypt : for thus Euripides, 
 
 'Cic ovpavos Te yaioL r" T)y ju-op^Tj fji,iix* 
 
 Ta Hv^pa, litr^va, ^rjpci^, Ob$ ^ aAaij rpsfp, 
 
 Ttvo; rs bvt)TLcy , 
 
 Li Menalippe, v. It. 
 
10 THE CREATION AND CHAP. I. 
 
 diiced nothing. It was an ancient opinion, and 
 very early in Egypt, where Moses had his hirth 
 and education, that the Earth originally, of itself, 
 brought forth its fruits, plants, trees, and all kinds 
 of living creatures, and men^ Some liave thought, 
 that the natural fertility of the ground for these 
 purposes was put in action, cither by the rain 
 which fell from Heaven, or by some moisture 
 exhaled from the Earth, fertilized by the Sun, and 
 falling down in a mist, spread abroad over the face 
 of the ground^ But Moses, contrary to all the 
 imaginations of this philosophy, affirms, that by 
 the word of God only ail things were made ; that 
 
 ^ The Roman poet seems to have been in doubt between two 
 opinions in this matter; rather inclining to introduce an opifex 
 rerum into all the produce of the whole creation; but not ab- 
 solutely determining against the opinion of all things arising 
 from their natural seeds in the Earth, as soon as the Earth was 
 aptly disposed to give rise to them. 
 
 " Vix ita limitibus discreverat omnia certis. 
 Cum quae pressa diu massa latuere sub ipsa 
 Sidera coeperunt toto elFervescere ccelo : 
 Neu regio foret ulla suis animalibus orba, 
 Astra tcnent cocleste solum, formseque deorum, 
 Cesserunt nitidis habitandne piscibus undas ; 
 Terra feras cepit, volucres agitabilis aer : 
 Natus homo est, sive hunc divino semine fecit 
 Ille opifex rerura^ mundi melioris origo; 
 Sive recens tellus seductaque nuper ab alto 
 ^there cognati retinebat semina cceli." 
 
 Ovid, Metamorph. 
 
 ' Thus perhaps they thought, who would have sung with 
 Pindar, ''Ap/rov y^h vSc/jp- Olymp. Ode i; or thought with 
 Thalcs, aquam esse initium rerum. Cicero Lib. de Nat. Deor. i, 
 c. 10. 
 
CHAP. I. FALL OF MAN. 11 
 
 there was not a plants which God did not create 
 before it was in the earth ; nor an herb, which 
 he had not made before it grew ; and that God 
 had made them all, before either rain or dew had 
 watered the earth ; or the earth had had any 
 tillage from the hand of man ; for that all the 
 produce of the world had its beginning before 
 there was any man to till the ground : but that 
 other things being thus set in order, God last of 
 all made man. He had, as I have observed, 
 before told us, that God made man ; and that 
 he made two persons, the male and the female^. 
 He now proceeds more distinctly to relate, of 
 what materials God made them both ; when, and 
 how they were created ; where he placed them, 
 and what command and directions he gave them, 
 as soon as he gave them being. 
 
 And, 1. God made the man of the dust of the 
 ground, breathed into him the breath of life, and 
 caused him to become a living souP, 2. He put 
 him into the garden, which he had planted, to 
 dress it and keep it : and having therein caused to 
 grow everi/ free either pleasant to the sight, or 
 good for food; the tree of Ife also, and the tree 
 of hioioledge of good and evil^ ; the Lord God 
 comma7ided the man, saying, of every tree of the 
 garden thou may est freely eat : but of the tree of 
 
 * Gen. i, 27. » Gen. ii, 7. 
 
 * Gen. ii, 9. 
 
12 THE CREATION AND CHAP. I. 
 
 the knowledge of good and evil, thou shall not eat 
 of it ; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou 
 shalt surely die^, 3. Having given the man this 
 injunction^ the Lord God said, it is not good that 
 the man should be alone, I will make Mm a help 
 meet for him^. But, 4. Before God proceeded to 
 make this meet help for man, the heasts of the 
 field being before formed*, and every fowl of the 
 air, God brought Adam to a trial how he might 
 name them^. And after this, 6. God caused a 
 deep sleep to foil upon Adam, and he slept. And 
 he took one of his ribs, and closed up the fiesh in- 
 stead thereof. And the rib, which the Lord God 
 had taken foom man, made he a ivoman, and 
 brought her unto the man. And Adam said, this 
 is now bone of my bones, aiid flesh of my flesh, she 
 shall be called woman, because she was taken out 
 of the man^. These are the particulars relating to 
 the creation of mankind, which Moses distinctly 
 mentions in this second chapter. And if we 
 would place them in order as they were done, 
 together with what is hinted in the first chapter, 
 we might insert them between the 27th and 28th 
 verses of the first chapter. God created man in 
 his own image : in the image of God created he 
 
 « Gen. ii, 16, 17. » Ver. 18. 
 
 * Wc render the place, God fonmd; but, as I have before 
 observed, the Syriac version is rightly translated, God had 
 formed; for the creatures were made before man. 
 
 5 Gen. ii, 19, 20. <"' Ver. 23.. 
 
CHAP. I. FALL OF MA>f. 13 
 
 him, and the male and the female, he created both 
 qfthem'^. The male he formed of the dust of the 
 ground^ ; placed him in the garden, commanded 
 him his duty there ^; declared that he did not in- 
 tend him to be alone ^ ; called him to try to name 
 the creatures of the world ^ ; then caused him to 
 fall into a deep sleep, and out of the man made 
 the woman to take her beginning^. The male and 
 the female being now both created^ God gave 
 them both the general blessing, and said unto 
 them all that Moses farther adds in the 28th, 
 29th, and 30th verses of the first chapter ; in all 
 which the two chapters entirely agree, and the 
 second is no mor^ than a supplement to the 
 former. For I think it needless to remark, 
 that there is no manner of contradiction be- 
 tween the first chapter's giving them leave to 
 eat of evert/ tree upon the face of all the 
 €arth\ when the second shows plainly, that of 
 one tree in the garden they were not to eat^ It is 
 only to be observed, that the forbidden tree was 
 one tree only, and that growing in the garden ; 
 there was no forbidden tree out of the garden all 
 over the world. The restraint, as to one tree, was 
 enjoined to be observed by them within their gar- 
 den ; but wherever they went out of their gardea 
 
 ' Gen. i, 27. * Gen. ii, 7. 
 
 » Gen ii, 11, 17. » Ver. 18. 
 
 * Ver. 19, 20. ^ Ver. 21,22. 
 
 * Gen. i, 29. * Gen. ii, 17. 
 
14 THE CREATION AND FALL OF MAN. CHAP. I. 
 
 into the earth to replenish and subdue it, all was 
 common. They had no care to inquire, whether 
 a like tree Avith that prohibited in the garden, grew 
 anywhere else in the world; for all that grew 
 without the garden, every tree, and every herb 
 upon the face of the earth, was indiscriminately 
 given them for meat. 
 
CHAP. II. 
 
 Considerations concerning some particulars related 
 by Moses as belonging to AdarrCsjirst day. 
 
 No sooner was Adam created, than Moses tells us 
 he heard the voice of God^ ; and that, I think, 
 upon two dilFerent points. First ; he was audibly 
 commanded, that he should not eat of the for- 
 bidden tree". Secondly; he was told, that he 
 should not live alone ; for that God would make 
 for him a help, that should be his likeness^ 
 Without doubt he sufficiently understood what 
 was thus spoken to him ; otherwise the voice of 
 God had spoken to him in vain. But it will be 
 here asked, how should Adam, having never 
 before heard words, instantly know the meaning 
 
 » Gen. ii, 17. " Ibid. 
 
 3 Ver. 18. I apprehend the word which our version ren- 
 ders a help meet for him, might be translated, a help, that shall 
 be his likeness. The Plebrew words are yil^'j ^])) [nezer 
 cenegeddo] : the interlinear Latin renders them, auxilium 
 quasi coram eO; a help, as it were before him, i. e. in his sight or 
 presence, to stand ready to receive his instructions) to aid and 
 execute them. But I do not find the word neged ever thus 
 used. To stand before, or in the presence of one ready for 
 his aid or service, is, I think, always otherwise expressed in 
 Scripture: See Deut. x, 8 ; 1 Sara, xvi, 22, &c. Some of the 
 versions intimate the meaning of this passage fo be, that God 
 would make for Adam a help like himself: adjutorium simile 
 sibi, says the vulgar Latin. BotjGov y-ccr" avrov, says the Sep- 
 
l6 THE CREATION AND CHAP. lU 
 
 of what the voice of God thus spake to him t 
 May we not fully answer this question by an- 
 other ? how did the apostles, and such of the early 
 disciples of Christ as God so enabled*, instantly 
 know the meaning of words, in tongues or lan- 
 guages which they had never before heard or un- 
 derstood ? The spirit of God in both cases raised 
 in the mind the ideas intended, as far as God was 
 pleased to have them perceived ; which the words 
 spoken would have raised, had a knowledge of 
 such words in a natural way been attained. God, 
 who planted the ear, hath given us to hear ; and 
 so made us, that whatever sound strikes that 
 organ, shall move the mind of him who hears it. 
 But in themselves words are mere sounds ; when 
 they strike the ear, the understanding instantly 
 and naturally judges, whether they are soft or 
 loud, harsh or agreeable ; ?. e. how the ear is 
 affected by them. But to give words a meaning; 
 to make them carry, not only the voice of the 
 speaker to the hearers ear, but the intention of the 
 speaker's mind to the hearer's heart ; this comes 
 not naturally from mere hearing, but from having 
 learned what intention is to be given to such 
 
 tuagint. The Syriac is, adjutorem similem ipsi. Onkelos, 
 adjutorium quasi eum. And why may we not, instead of 
 taking the word neged to be a preposition, and to signify 
 coram, before, or in the presence of, suppose, it ic be a noun 
 substantive from the word naga<l, indicavit, and translate 
 ceneggedo, quasi indicium ejus ? I would say in English, 
 in irt'licating, or, as it were, a speaking likeness of him. 
 * J Corinth, x'.i, 10—30. 
 
CHAP. II. FALL OF MAN. 1/ 
 
 words as are spoken. Should a man hear it said 
 to him^ bring the bread, it is evident, that if the 
 words had never before been heard by him, they 
 would be to him sounds of no determinate mean- 
 ing. But let the word bread be repeated to him, 
 and the loaf showed him, until he perceives, that 
 whenever he hears the word bread, the loaf is in- 
 tended by it ; let him farther, upon hearing the 
 word bring, see the action intended by this word 
 done, until he apprehends it, and from that time 
 the words, whenever he hears them, will speak 
 their design. But should we now say, that there- 
 fore some process of this sort must have been 
 necessary for our first parents* understanding what 
 (jrOD, in the beginning of their being, was pleased 
 to cause in words to be heard by them ; we err 
 most inconsiderately, neither attending to the 
 Scriptures, nor to the power of God. The Scrip- 
 tures show us, in the instance of the apostles and 
 early disciples above mentioned, that GoD has in 
 fact, long since the days of Adam, made men in- 
 stantly understand words never before heard or 
 learned by them. And he can undoubtedly, from 
 any sound heard, teach the heart of man what 
 knowledge he pleases, instantly causing, froni" any 
 words spoken, such sentiments to arise in the 
 mind, as he thinks fit to cause by them. This 
 matter, I apprehend, is so plain, that it is unne- 
 cessary to be argqed in general ; though it may 
 mot be improper, before I leave this topic, to con- 
 sider a little farther, what extent or compass of 
 
 VOL. IV. c 
 
18 THE CREATION AND CHAP. 11. 
 
 idea« we may reasonably suppose oar first parents 
 had of the things spoken to them from the words 
 of God, which they heard in this their first day. 
 
 An ingenious writer has queried upon this sub- 
 ject : How could Eve^ upon hearing that death 
 was threatened to the eating of the forbidden tree, 
 have any notion of what «ould be meant by dying \ 
 having neither seen nor felt any thing like it ? 
 Our author seems to think, that our first parents 
 could have no ideas of death at all, if they had 
 not such sentiments as time and experience eoabled 
 them to form, and which they had gradually more 
 and more enlarged. Whereas nothing can be 
 more obvious, than that if upon hearing what Gol> 
 threatened, namely, that they should die, God 
 caused them to apprehend that they should cease 
 to be, though they could in nowise conceive the 
 manner how ; a general notion of this sort might 
 have been suflScient for them. Their first idea of 
 dying was^ undoubtedly, not the image which they 
 afterwards came to have of it, when they slew 
 their first sacrifice. And their idea of death be- 
 came afterwards farther augmented with new ter- 
 rors, when the murder of their son Abel, by Cain, 
 showed them more yjlainly how it would affect 
 tliem in their own persons. Many incidents, also, 
 probably occasioned their additional observations 
 
 5 Quo die comedetis moriemini — Mori ! Quid hoc rei est 
 inquit ignara virgo, quae nihil unquam mortuura viderat, ne 
 fiorem quidem, neque mortis imaginem, somnum, vel noctem, 
 oculis vel anirao adhuc senserat. Burnet, Archaeol. p. 291. 
 
CHAP. ir. FALL OF MAN. I9 
 
 and reflections concerning it ; althougli as we 
 cannot, so neither could they, have their idea of 
 death full and complete, until they had gone 
 through their own dissolution. But, as in this 
 one instance, so in all others, the sentiments which 
 God was pleased to raise in the minds of our 
 first parents of the things he spake to them, were 
 no more than as it were their first and unim- 
 proved notions of those things ; God did not cause 
 them to think of them in that extent and variety 
 of conception, which they came afterwards to have, 
 as their thoughts enlarged hy a farther acquaint- 
 ance with the things spoken of, and with other 
 things from which they distinguished, or with 
 which they compared them. In and from the 
 words, which God was pleased to speak to them^ 
 he gave them some plain and obvious sentiments, 
 which were the first beginnings of the thoughts 
 of their lives ; conceptions which grew gradually, 
 and produced others more enlarged and diver- 
 sified, as they grew more and more acquainted 
 with themselves and the things of the world. 
 
 It may here be considered, w^hether God was 
 pleased to give Adam and Eve to understand all 
 the words of some one language, so that they im- 
 mediately conceived whatever was said to them in 
 that particular tongue. Many have supposed, 
 that God endowed them with both speaking and 
 understanding some innate language ; but I con- 
 fess J cannot see sufficient reasons for this senti- 
 
 c 2 
 
20 THE CREATION AND CHAP. Ih 
 
 nieiit, as I have suggested in another placed The 
 author of Ecclesiasticus, indeed, tells us of our 
 first parents, that t/iei/ received the use of the Jive 
 operations of the Lord : a7id in the sixth place he 
 imparted to them snider standing, and in the seventh 
 speech, an interpreter of the cogitations thereof^. 
 But we shall hastily go heyond the true sentiment 
 of this considerate writer, if we conclude from it, 
 that God instantly gave Adam every word he was 
 to introduce into his language, or gave him in- 
 stantly to understand every word of that language 
 in which God spake, by whomsoever any word of 
 it might have been spoken to him. The author 
 of Ecclesiasticus does indeed declare, that the 
 speech of man is the gift of God ; but in like 
 manner he represents, that the perception of maa 
 by his five senses, and the judgment of man by his 
 understanding, is so too^; not meaning, that in 
 giving man speech, God actually gave him every 
 word he was to utter, any more than that, in giving 
 him the Jive operations of his senses, or in giving 
 him understanding, God planted innate in him 
 every idea which his senses were to raise ; or 
 actually formed in his mind every sentiment of 
 his judgment and understanding, respecting those 
 things which he perceived. Rather, in all these 
 cases, God gave only a capacity or ability ; in 
 the one, he made man capable of sensations of 
 
 ^ See Connect, vol. i, b. ii. 
 
 ' Ecclesiasticus xvii, 5. * Ibid. 
 
CHAP. II. FALL OF MAN. 21 
 
 things without him ; in the other, ahic to form a 
 judgment of the things perceived, and in language 
 capable of uttering sound'^, and of judging from 
 what he had heard from the voice of God, how he 
 might make his own sounds significant to himself, 
 and in lime to others, to intend what he might fix 
 and design by each sound to point out and deno- 
 minate In this manner Adam and Eve might 
 form for themselves all the words of their lan- 
 guage, beside those few which had actually been 
 spoken to them by the voice of God. Their im- 
 mediately understanding these was imquestion- 
 ably from him who spake to them®; but because 
 they were instantly enabled, by the power of God, 
 who could affect their minds as he j)leased, to un- 
 derstand each word that proceededy/om tlie mouth 
 ivf God (for otherwise they could not have been 
 instructed by God*s speaking to them) ; it does 
 not, therefore, follow, that they should as readily 
 understand all the words of some one whole tongue. 
 Some writers, indeed, represent Adam as abound- 
 ing in great fluency of speech, pouring forth the 
 fulness of his heart in most eloquent soliloquies, 
 as soon as he perceived he was in being'; but a 
 considerate inquirer will think this very unna- 
 tural. Adam, though created a man, not in the 
 imbecility of infancy and childhood, cannot be 
 supposed to have had a mind stored with ideas 
 (and without these, what could be his thoughts ?) 
 
 '■^ Vide quae sup. 
 
 * See Milton's Paradise Lost, b. viii, ver. 273. 
 
22 THE CREATION AND CHAP. U. 
 
 before he attained them by sensations from with- 
 out, or reflections upon his perceptions within : 
 and shall we think, that he had words upon his 
 tono^ue sooner or faster than he acquired senti- 
 ments ? Moses introduces Adam into the world 
 in a manner far more natural : whatever Adam 
 heard and understood from the voice of God, 
 Moses does not hint, that he attempted to speak a 
 word, until God called him to try to name the 
 creatures^; so that here we find the first attempt 
 Adam made to speak. We perceive likewise the 
 manner and the process of it ; for God, we are 
 told, brought the beasts of the field, and the fowls 
 of the air% unto Adam, to see ivhat he would call 
 them : and whatsoever Adam called evert/ living 
 creature^ that was the name thereof'^. After Adam 
 had been called to this trial, we find him able also 
 to give a name to the woman \ But before this 
 trial we read nothing that can induce us to think 
 that he attempted to speak at all ; rather, an 
 attention to what was said to him by the voice 
 of God entirely engrossed him. God brought to 
 Adam the creatures, to see what he would call 
 them : i. e. to put Adam upon considering how 
 to name them. But how superfluous a thing 
 would this have been, if Adam had had an in- 
 nate word for every creature that was to be named 
 
 ** Gen. ii, see to ver. 19. 
 
 ^ The fact here Telated will be more distthctly considered 
 chap. iii. 
 * Gen ii, 19. ^ Ver. 23. 
 
CHAP. n. FALL OF MAN. 23 
 
 by bim ? Whenever he saw a thing, the innate 
 name for it wonld have readily offered itself 
 without trial ; be must have had that name for 
 it, and he could have had no other. But the text 
 plainly supposes that Adam, in naming the crea- 
 tures, had been more at liberty ; whatsoever Adam 
 named every living creature, that was the 7iame 
 thereof. He might have called them by other 
 names than he did ; he might have fixed this or 
 that sound, just as he inclined to call this or that 
 creature, and therefore had no innate names for 
 any ; but, having determined with himself what 
 sound to use for the name of one, and what for 
 another, God Almighty herein not interposing, 
 he was left to himself, and so fixed what he deter- 
 mined for the name of each. But, 
 
 I must confess, that an incident which follows 
 may require our examination before we dismiss 
 this point. If we consider how Eve was affected 
 when the serpent spake to her^, we see no reason 
 to think she had any difficulty in understanding 
 any part of what was said to her. She as readily 
 took the meaning of what the serpent ex- 
 pressed to her, as either she or Adam had before 
 apprehended what had been spoken to them by the 
 voice of God. God doth know, said the serpent^ 
 that in the day that ye eat thereof, then your eyes 
 shall he opened, and ye shall he as gods, knowing 
 good and evil\ God had said nothing to them 
 
 ^ Gen. iii. "' Ver. 5. 
 
24 THE CREATION AND CKAF. II. 
 
 concerning their eyes being opened, nor their be- 
 ing as gods ; and therefore, if they had no farther 
 knowledge of the meaning of words, than of those 
 only which the voice of God had spoken to them, 
 here seem to have been sounds never before heard 
 by them, and how could these be so readily received 
 and apjH'ehended ? We can in nowise suppose 
 that the serpent had God's power to make his words 
 instantly as intelligible to Eve as he pleased. 
 
 And it will increase the difficulty, if we should 
 consider the words here spoken as bearing not a 
 plain but a metaphorical meaning. Their eyes 
 were to be opened ; i. e. say spme, their under- 
 standings were to be enlarged ; op€?i thou mine 
 eyes, said the Psalmist, and I shall see ivondroii.s 
 things from thy law^. The Psalmist here prays for 
 what he elsewhere expresses in words without the 
 figure, that God, through his commandments, 
 would make him wiser, would give him more un- 
 derstanding than he should have liMd without 
 them^. And it may seem that, according to 
 Moses, the event of their eyes being opened was, 
 they knew they were nahed^ ; they had knowledge 
 of themselves, different from what they had before; 
 so that Mc may perhaps think, that Moses here 
 used the eye of the body metaphorically for the 
 sense of the understanding, intending by the open- 
 ing of the one the increase of the judgment of the 
 other. Now, if this was the meaning of the word^^ 
 
 * Psalm cxix, 18. .9 Ver. 98, 90. 
 
 ' Gen. iii, 7. 
 
CHAP. II. FALL OF MAN. 25 
 
 of the serpent to Eve, and if Eve thus understood 
 them, we cannot conceive that she had been at 
 this time a mere novice in language, just beginning 
 to form first notions of a few original and plain 
 words. We mu>t rather think her an adept in the 
 tongue whicii the serpent used, that she had a 
 ready conception of all the elegance of its diction ; 
 could give its metaphors and figurative expression 
 their true meaning; could receive and feel their 
 full and real import. But to all this I answer: 
 
 1. There was no metaphor intended by Moses 
 in the words in which he has expressed what the 
 serpent said to Eve. The diction of the Psalmist 
 is indeed figurative, ope?i thou mine ei/es, and I 
 shall see icon droits things from thy law^ ; but the 
 word used for open is not the same with that of 
 Moses : i>i? ^:! [gal nainai] says the Psalmist : the 
 word here used is a termination of the verb galah : 
 but Moses expresses the serpent's words to Eve, 
 your eyes shall be opened, 0^:^^^ inpa: [niphkechu 
 neineicem^] : Moses's word for shall be opened is a 
 termination of the verb pahach. The Hebrew 
 language has both these verbs, and we render 
 both by the word open ; but the one only, namely 
 galah, speaks in the metaphorical sense; means by 
 opening the eye instructing the understanding, 
 either by our forming a better judgment of things, 
 or when God by vision, or ia any other manner, 
 
 ^ Psalm cxix, ubi sap. - Gen. ill, 5. 
 
26 THE CREATION AND CHAP. II, 
 
 was pleased to give an extraordinary revelation*. 
 Pakach nain signifies no more than to see, what is 
 the ohject of the natural eye^; and to this mean- 
 ing it is confined so strictly, that although pakach 
 nain is sometimes said of God, when he is spoken 
 of after the manner of men ; yet it is used only 
 where God is said to look upon such outward ac- 
 tions as can come under the observation of the 
 eye® ; wherever God is said to regard what can 
 be matter of the attention of the mind only, the 
 expression pakach nam is, I think, not used. 
 
 Pakach nain, therefore, carries the intention no 
 farther than to the outward sight ; signifies no 
 more than to open the eye of the body ; I might 
 say, it has such a propriety to express this, and this 
 only, that as ^acere in Latin maybe put, as it were, 
 idiomatically for to sacrijice, 
 
 Cum faciam vitula.' 
 
 VlR<^. 
 
 SO a participle of the verb pakach, without tiain 
 (the word for ei/e) after it, may be used in the 
 Hebrew language for one who has his eye-sight, 
 in opposition to the being blind ^ ; so that we use 
 Hebrew words, not in their Hebrew or true mean- 
 ing, if we take Moses, by the words he has used, 
 
 * See Numb, xxiv, 4. 
 
 5 Gen. xxi, 9 ; 2 Kings iv, 3b ; vi, 17, 20; Frov. xx, 13. 
 ^' See 2 Kings xix, 16 ; Isa. xxxvii, 17 , Dan. ix, 18, &c. 
 " Exod. iv, 11 ; xxiii, 8. 
 
CHAP. 11. FALL OF MAN. 27 
 
 to intend that the serpent had herein said any 
 thing referring farther than to their natural eye. 
 
 BQt«, 
 
 2. Let us observe, that in what the serpent said 
 to Eve, he was for the greater part confined to use 
 the very words, and none other, than what both 
 Eve and Adam had heard and understood from 
 the voice of God ; and therefore all these she 
 readily understood as she had before heard 
 and understood them. Accordingly, there could 
 be nothing in the serpent's first address to Eve, 
 Vea, hath God said, ye shall not eat of every 
 tree of the gardeii^ 9 but what she must have rea- 
 dily understood from God's having said, Of every 
 tree of the garden ye may freely eat^ ; only we 
 may remark, though Moses has in divers places 
 historically called God, Elohim^, yet that God 
 not having as yet so named himself to her and 
 
 ^ It may perhaps be here questioned, whether the words in 
 this place used by Moses were the very words spoken by 
 the serpent? Indeed I apprehend they were not, as I do not 
 conceive that Moses's Hebrew was the original unimproved 
 language of the world. See Connect, vol. i, b. ii. But as we 
 have all reason, whether we conceive Moses to have written 
 by an immediate inspiration ; or whether, under a divine 
 direction, he wrote from ancient memoirs of his forefathers, 
 which were recorded in an older and perhaps then obsolete 
 diction; we may and ought to allow, that he expressed in the 
 language of his own times, with a strict propriety, what the 
 serpent had spoken in words of the same meaning, though 
 probably of a more antique form, construction, and pro- 
 nunciation. 
 
 ^ Gen. iii, 1. , « Chap, ii, 16, 
 
 * See Gen. i, and ii. 
 
28 THE CREATION AKD CHAP. II, 
 
 Adam, the word Elokiin, God, might not have 
 been heard by Eve before the serpent spake it to 
 her. But, if this was in fact trae, as there was lio 
 other person but one, who had spoken before this 
 to her or Adam, there coukl be no confusion in 
 Lcr hearing the serpent call him Elohim, God ; 
 she must readily understand whom he intended 
 by that name. To go on : The serpent's next 
 words, Ve shall not surely die^, must instantly, 
 when spoken, be sufficiently understood, from her 
 having understood what God had said before, 1 e 
 shall surelij cUe^ ; as any one that understands a pro- 
 position affirmed, must understand the denial of that 
 same projjosition. The serpent ])roceeded, Jvr 
 God doth hiow, that in the day that ye eat they^eqf] 
 then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as 
 gods [ce Elohim~] — as God, knowing good and 
 evil. Here I would observe, that in the day that 
 ye eat thereof, had been before said to them from 
 the mouth of God^, and that God had called the 
 tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil^ ; 
 and therefore from what God had in these words 
 said to them, all the sentiment she had of know- 
 ing, and of knowing good and evil, may be con- 
 ceived to arise upon the serpent speaking to her 
 in these like terms. The serpent told her they 
 should be as gods ; we render it in the plural 
 number, but not rigbtly ; for it is not reasonable 
 to imagine the serpent intimated to her lierttiu^ 
 
 ^ Gen. iii, 4-. "• Chap, ii, 17. 
 
 & Ibid, * Ibid. 
 
CHAP. II. FALL OF MAN. 29 
 
 that there were spiritual beings, many in number 
 in the invisible world ; this did not as yet enter 
 her imagination. She and Adam had heard only 
 one who spake to them ; the serpent had told Eve 
 that this person was Elohhri^ ; he here tells her, 
 that if they eat of the tree, they should increase in 
 knowledge of good and evil, be ce Elohlm, like 
 him : and herein, as far as they had any notions of 
 what knowledge was, nothing unintelligible was 
 proposed to her. 
 
 There remains still to be considered, what 
 she expected from what seemed to be promised in 
 the words, 7/our eyes shall be opened. But I may 
 fully answer this in three or four observations. 
 
 1. I have already said, that these words have no 
 reference to the improvement of the knowledge 
 of the mind. What the tempter offered concerning 
 that came afterwards under the words Ye shall be 
 as God, knowing good and evil. The words con- 
 cerning their eyes being opened aie such, that, ac- 
 cording to the Hebrew idiom, they speak no more 
 than some enlargement of their outward sight. 
 
 2. I would remark, that it cannot be necessarv to 
 «ay, that Eve had an adequate and full notion of 
 the true meaning of these words. The writers, 
 that would puzzle and perplex this matter, con- 
 tend, that the fall happened immediately after the 
 creation ; but we can in nowise find any one 
 reason for such an assertion. Rather, I apprehend, 
 
 7 Gen. iii, I. 
 
30 THE CRf:ATION AND CHAP. II. 
 
 we shall see what may induce us to think that 
 several days intervened between the Sabbath after* 
 the day of Adam and Eve's creation, and the day 
 on which the serpent tempted Eve. On the night 
 of each of these days, Adam and Eve, in the 
 course of nature, had known what sleep was, 
 and how it differed from the being awake, 
 and therefrom what it was to shut the eye, and 
 what it was to open it ; and probably had 
 made themselves, before the serpent spake to Eve. 
 a name for the one, and a name for the other. 
 Therefore, though the serpent here used words, 
 which they had not heard from the mouth of God. 
 yet he might not herein use words which they had 
 not agreed to make, and had daily spoken to and 
 heard from themselves, and consequently were 
 words that were not without meaning. I do not 
 say that Adam or Eve, at hearing these words, 
 conceived exactly the event which afterwards came 
 to pass ; for it is easy to observe, that we may be 
 said to know the general meaning of words, 
 sufficiently to give us expectations from them, and 
 yet not be able determinately to see their full ex- 
 tent and import. Every one, that has a common 
 understanding of the Greek tongue, would, upon 
 
 ^ See hereafter. S3'acellus cites the Ae'itr^ Tsvecslcs to say, 
 that Adam was guilty of the transgression in his seventh year, 
 and expelled Paradise in his eighth. Syncelli Chronogr. p. 8. 
 What the Minutes of Genesis here cited were, I cannot say, nor 
 by whom made; their authority can avail only to hint, thai 
 there have been ancient writers who did not think the fall had 
 been so instantaneous as others have since imagined. 
 
CHAP. H. FALL OF MAN. 31 
 
 reading the philosopher, xaSapi^o) >}/u;^^^ "Koyixijg 
 slori a\ ixaByjuoiTiHa) sTi^YjfxaV, apprehend that these 
 studies may greatly improve us, as the English reader 
 may, from no better translation of the words than, 
 the mathematics are purgations of the reasonable 
 jnind :■ but the particular improvement to be ob- 
 tained from them would not hence be known to 
 any, who had not experienced the habit, which 
 may be acquired from these studies, of pursuing a 
 long train of ideas variously intermingled, so as to 
 see through all the steps which truly lead to the 
 most distant conchisions. Whether Eve, well 
 knowing from many days' experience, wherein the 
 opening the eye differed from shutting it, thought, 
 that after eating the fruit she should never more 
 slumber nor sleep ; or whether she conceived such 
 an addition to their sight, as that they might 
 thenceforth be able to see Him, whom thitherto 
 they had heard only, without his being visible to 
 them \ I cannot say ; but we may conceive, that she 
 had formed to herself great expectations, without 
 reaching the full meaning of the words, much 
 less apprehending what proved in reality to be 
 the event. Upon the whole : when God was 
 pleased to speak to Adam and Eve, as they had 
 not before heard words, we cannot conceive, that 
 they could have understood what the voice 
 of God spake, unless God had caused them to 
 
 * Hlerocles in aurea Carmina Pythag. 
 
 ^ No divine appearance is recorded to have been seen before 
 the days of Abraliam. See Connect, b. ix. 
 
32 THE CREATION AND FALL OF MAN. CHAP. If- 
 
 understand the words spoken. Bat allowing that 
 God enabled them to perceive what he thought fit 
 to say, and duly attending to what Mo^es relates 
 farther J we may conchide, that nothing more was 
 said to them, or that they hurried into the world, 
 or the things of the world broke in upon them, 
 faster, or in a greater variety, than they could form 
 to themselves words, to talk of, and to know dis- 
 tinctly, as far as their knowledge did, or it was ne- 
 cessary it should then reach, the things they had to 
 hear or to speak, to be concerned in, or affected 
 with in their lives. Therefore no more being ne- 
 cessary for them, than that God should cause them 
 so to understand what he thought fit to speak 
 to them ; we justly conclude, that, respecting 
 making other words, and settling the meaning and 
 intention of them, he left our first parents to do 
 what he had given them full powers and opportu- 
 nity to do in a natural way for themselves, unto 
 which God was pleased to lead Adam, as far as he 
 herein wanted guidance and direction, in the manner 
 which shall be set forth in the ensuing chapter. 
 
CHAP. Ill 
 
 A Consideration of the particular Manner in winch 
 God was pleased to lead Adam to name the living 
 Creatures of the World. 
 
 The fact, concerning which I am to inquire in 
 this chapter, is thus related by Moses: Out of the 
 ground the Lord God formed every beast of the 
 field; and every fowl of the air, and brought them 
 unto Adam, to see what he would call them ; and 
 whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that 
 was the name thereof: and Adam gave names to all 
 cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast 
 of the feld\ To form a right jndgment of what 
 is here said to be done, we mu$t not too hastily 
 rest satisfied with our Engh'sh version of Moses's 
 words ; but inquire more strictly into his text, and 
 examine how he relates this matter. 
 The words of Moses are, 
 
 Vejitzer Jehovah Elohiin min ha Adamah col chajath hassedah, 
 
 ■veaeth Col Noph hashemaim, vejabea si ha Adam 
 
 iireoth mah jikrah lo : Ve col asher jikra lo ha Adam (nepesh chajah) 
 
 ' Gen. ii, 19, 20. 
 VOL. IV. D 
 
34 THE CREATION AND CHAP. III. 
 
 hua Sheroo t vejikra ha Adam Shemoth lecol habeshema 
 vo lenoph has Sherosiim ve lecol chajath hassedah?. 
 
 The passage, verbally translated, is as follows : 
 
 j4nd the LoRDGoDjbi^med out of the ground every 
 beast of the field, and every fowl of the heavens, 
 and ht brought unto Adam to see what he would call 
 IT. And ivhatsoever Adam called it {the living area- 
 ture)y that ivas the name of it. And Adam gave 
 names to every living creature, and to the fowls of 
 the heavens, and to every beast of the field. 
 
 It is observable, that the first period of this pas- 
 sage, namely, and the Lord God formed out of 
 the ground every beast of the field, and every fowl 
 of the heaven, was not intended to hint, that God, 
 at this juncture, created any living creatures anew. 
 The words should rather have been rendered agree- 
 ably to the translation of the Syriac version % the 
 Lord God had formed — ; for they are not a rela- 
 
 * The Hebrew words are, and may be written and inter- 
 lined as follows: — 
 
 agri animal omne humo ex Deus Dominus et formavit 
 
 Adamum ad et adduxit coelorum volatile omne ac etiam 
 
 vivens animal ipse Adam illi nomen dedit quod et omne daret illi nomen quid ad videndum 
 
 'rm'n'yn h^h mnu^ m^n ^li^^i : ^r:>m him 
 bestiae amni nomina ipse Adam et edixit nomen ejus hoc 
 
 agri animali et omni coelorum et volatili 
 ' Compegerat autem Bominus Deus de humo omnem bes- 
 tiam. Vide Walt. Polyglott. Syr. Vers, in loc. 
 
CHAP. III. FALL OF MAN. 35 
 
 tion that Gob had now made them, but a recog- 
 nition of what had been before related, that he had 
 been the Creator both of the birds and cattle*; none 
 of which were made at this time; for the one were 
 created a day sooner than Adam^, the other on the 
 same day, but earlier and before hini^ 
 
 In like manner, the words which begin the 20th 
 verse, and Adarn gave names to all cattle, and to 
 the foivl of the air, and to every beast of the Jleld, 
 do not mean, that Adam now, at thi* one time, 
 gave names to all living creatures ; but are rather 
 a remark, that the names of the creatures were 
 given by Adam, and by no other. He himself {Jia 
 Adam), says the text, named them ; not now, all 
 at once, which undoubtedly would have been too 
 much for him ; but he named them gradually, 
 some at one time and some at another, in the pro- 
 cess of his life, as incidents happened to give 
 occasion for his so doing. 
 
 That the fact really was not that Adam now 
 named all the creatures is evident, from the very 
 express words of Moses, which relate the particular 
 we are examining. The words of Moses are. And 
 ike Lord God brought unto Adam, to see ivhat he 
 would call it"; and whatsoever Adam called it, the 
 living creature^ that was the name of ix^ 71}e 
 
 4 See Gen. i. 
 
 •'- G^n, \, 20. * Ver. 24, 25. 
 
 ' Lireoth mah jihra lo. Gen. ii, IP. 
 
 * rV col asher jikra lo ha Adam uephesh chajath hua shtmo. 
 Ibid. 
 
 " Hua shrr/io. Ibid. The .Samaritan text is rendered more 
 
 D 2 
 
-3b* THE CREATION AND CHAP. IIT. 
 
 question here is, what did God bring nnto the 
 man? Oiir English version, following other trans- 
 lations, says them; i. e. every beast of the field, 
 and every fowl of the air, for these are the words 
 to which them must refer. But we should observe, 
 that the word ihem is not in the Hebrew text : 
 according to Moses, the name given by Adam 
 was 1^ (lo), i.e, to H; the pronoun being of the 
 singular number, not ])lnral; which the next sen- 
 tence expresses more fully; for the words are not 
 as we render the text, and whatsoever Adam called 
 every living creature. There is no word in the 
 text for every : the Hebrew words say, ivhatsoever 
 Adam called it, the living creature, that was th^ 
 name o/, not them, but the text says that was the 
 name of it. 
 
 Thus the fact before us appears to be, that God 
 brought unto Adam, not all the living creatures, 
 for the text says no such thing. God indeed made 
 all the creatures^, and Moses here recognizes this 
 truth ; but God brought unto Adam some one 
 creature only, a nepesh chajah in the singular num- 
 
 strictly to the Hebrew words in the Latin translation of it in 
 onr Polyglot Bible, thus: " Adduxitque ad Adam, ut vidcrct, 
 quomodo vocaret illud : et omne quod vocaret illud Adam 
 animae viventis hoc est nomen ejus." 
 
 ' Gen. i. 
 
 ' See the text of Gen. ii, 19. I should have some difficulty 
 to say, why nepesh chajah is not lenepcsh chajah, in the dative 
 case; as I think, jiepe-sA standing after and referring to lo, the 
 construction should require. But I would ofter to the consi- 
 deration of the learned, whether, if in the ancient manuscript 
 this text was written in lines ending with the words which. 1 
 
tHAP. III. FALL OF MAN. 37 
 
 ber^ to see what he would call it, Adam hereupon 
 gave it a name; and what he thus called it, that was 
 the name of it. God was pleased herein to bring 
 Adanj to a trial, to show him how he might use 
 sounds of his own to he the names of thing's: he called 
 him to give u name to one creature, and hereby 
 put bim upon seeing how words might be made for 
 this purpose : Adam understood the instruction, 
 and practised accordingly. For so Moses tells us : 
 Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the foivl of 
 the air, and to every beast of the fleld^. The 
 names of the creatures were not given by any ex- 
 press words from the voice of God ; but were of 
 Adam's own making, as he proceeded to use sounds 
 of his own to be the names of things as himself 
 designed them. God, as I said, brought Adam to 
 name one creature : Adam had the sense and un- 
 derstanding to see hereby, how he might make 
 words, and make use of them. Accordingly, in 
 the progress of his life, as the creatures of the 
 
 hav€ made the final words of the several lines, as I have before 
 transcribed tliem, neptsh chajah might not be so .-ituuted at the 
 end of a line, as that a cojjyist might mistiike, and put it to 
 the end of the third line, when it really should be at the 
 end of the second. If this may be snpposed, the words of 
 Moses are exceeding clear, being exactly as follows: 
 
 And the Lord God had formed of the ground every beast of the lield, 
 r»Dd every fowl of the heavens, and brought unto Adam a living creature, 
 to see what name he would give to it. And whaUoever name Adam 
 that was the name of it, &c. [gave itj 
 
 3 Gen. ii, 20. 
 
38 THE CREATION AND CHAP. III. 
 
 world came under his observation, be used this 
 ability, and gave names to them all. 
 
 Now, if this was the fi\ct, it must, 1 think, be al- 
 lowed, that Adam had, as I have already observed, 
 no formed, fixed, and innate language. If he had 
 such a language, it must surely have been most 
 superfluous to bring him to this trial, to set any 
 creature before him to see what he would call it. 
 An innate language, whenever and wherever he 
 had seen any creature or thing in the world, would 
 Lave instantly given him its innate name. No 
 trial could have been wanted to lead him to it, for 
 this liame would, as it were, have offered itself; 
 aad I cannot see how he should have thought of 
 any other. But Moses seems in no wise to repre- 
 sent Adam under these limitations ; a creature was 
 brought to him to see what he would call it ; and 
 there is not the least hint, that he was so much as 
 directed what to call it ; for {ha Adam) Adam him- 
 self named all the creatures^. We have no reason 
 to think, that God dictated the name of any ; and 
 the expressions of Moses hint, that Adam had all 
 possible liberty to name them as his own imagina- 
 tion should lead him. It seems, that nothing had 
 been herein fixed or determined for him ; but he 
 called every thing by what name he pleased, and 
 whatsoever name he fixed and determined for any 
 creature, that was the name thereof. 
 
 < Gen. ii, 20. 
 
CHAP. III. FALL OF MAN. 3^ 
 
 Our Bibles close the 20th verse of the second 
 chapter of Genesis with these words ; hut for Adam 
 there was not found a help meet for him. The 
 adding these words to the end of this 20th verse 
 may seem to represent, that in the transaction 
 ending with this observation there had been, un- 
 doubtedly, a survey taken of all the creatures in 
 the world, to have it seen that none of them were 
 fit to be Adam's associate, and consequently that 
 all the creatures had been convened for Adam to 
 name them. I believe our translators had this sen- 
 timent, and they, who divided the Bible into verses, 
 were probably of the same opinion. This thought 
 may easily take the unwary, though I am surprised 
 that the difficulty of conceiving how it could be 
 has not occasioned a more strict examination. 
 However, as I have shown that Moses's text says 
 no such thing, I may as clearly prove, that in the 
 words of Moses, which we improperly add to the 
 20th verse, no such insinuation was really intended. 
 
 For, 1 . These words, hut for Adam there was 
 not found a help meet for him, ought not to have 
 been made a part of the 20th verse, because they 
 are the beginning of the relation of a new trans- 
 action, and having no reference to any thing going 
 before, they should have begun a new period, ab- 
 solutely independent of, and detached from the 
 former. Agreeably hereto we may observe, 2. That 
 the particle i (ve), which we here translate hut, 
 ought to be in this place rendered and. It is often 
 
40 THE CREATION XnD CHAP. III. 
 
 SO rendered in the first and in this second chapter 
 of Genesis: it is not here a discretive particle, dis- 
 joining and distinguishing two parts of one ])eriod; 
 but the particle often used by Moses when, having 
 finished his narration of one fact, he passes on 
 from that to quite another^. 3. If we suppose, that 
 the words above cited belong to the 20th verse, we 
 shall find it difficult to make out their granVihatical 
 construction ; it will be difficult to ascertain a 
 nominative cafe to the verb ^ow«6^,; for the word, 
 which we translate was found, is not j)assive, as we 
 render it. The words are ^vd «b (loa ni'itza), he 
 did notjirtd, in the active voice; and the nominative 
 case to this verb follows after the next verb in the 
 next verse, and is Jehovah Elohlin, the Lord God^ 
 This is a construction very clear and frequent in 
 many languages, and in the Hebrew tongue amongst 
 others; and our translators ought to have been 
 carefully attentive to it. 4. I would farther ob- 
 serve, that the Hebrew verb matza does not always 
 signify to find a thing after having looked for it ; 
 but, when used with a noun to which ^ is prefixed, 
 it makes an idiom of the Hebrew tongue, to which 
 we have something similar in a particular use of 
 
 * Gen. i, 6, 9, 14, 20, &c.; ii. 7, 15, 18, 20, 21. 
 
 * The words are. Gen. ii, 20, 
 
 »t c^dere fecit judicium ejus adjutorium non invenerat et homini 
 Adamuin in soporem Deus Jehovah 
 
CHAP. III. FALL OF MAN. 41 
 
 our word find in English. Bnxtorf remarks'^, that 
 the verb mafza, with a dative case by the prefix /e, 
 signifies to suffice ; I should rather say, sufficiently 
 to supply: thus Numbers xi, 22, Shall the fiocks 
 and the herds be .slain for them ? CDnb t^y-Di (ve 
 matza lehem), and ivlU it suffice them? i.e. will 
 it sufficiently snp[)ly them. Thus again, Jud^-es 
 xxi, 14, And Benjamin came again at that time, 
 and they gave them wives, which they had saved 
 alive of the women of Jahesh Gilead: but the He- 
 brew words are p tonh iN^if^-i^'bi (ve loa matzaeu le- 
 hem ken), and yet so they sufficed them not, they 
 did not sufficiently supply them so. I would, more 
 closely to the Hebrew, translate both these places 
 by our English word find. Shall the flocks and 
 the herds be slain for them } I should say, will it 
 find them r In the passage in the Book of Num- 
 bers, lliey gave them wives, ivhich they had saved 
 alive of the women of Jahesh Gilead, but (I should 
 render the place) they did not find them so. The 
 expression, to find a. person, is still used in some 
 parts of England, to signify to supply that person 
 with such things as "vve undertake to procure for 
 him ; and in this sense I take the word matza to 
 be here used by Moses. God had promised to find 
 Adam whh a person, or helper, that should be his 
 likeness: Moses, now going to relate in what man- 
 ner God made this person, introduces his narration 
 
 ' Eustorf, in voce Wif*?. 
 
42 THE CREATION AND FALL OF MAN. CHAP. lU* 
 
 fery properly with observing, that God had not yet* 
 found or supplied Adam with this companion: and 
 having suggested this observation, he proceeds to 
 relate in what manner God now supplied him. 
 Jjid the Lord God had not supplied or found the 
 man tvith the help meet for him : but caused a deep 
 sleep to fall upon hi?n, ^c.^ 
 
 * Gen. ii, '20. - Ver. 21. 
 
CHAP. IV. 
 
 Concerfiing the Formation of Eve, and the farther 
 Transactions of Adamsjirst Day ; together with 
 some Observations upon the whole. 
 
 The account given by Moses, of the formation of 
 Eve, is in words as follow : ^nd the Lord God 
 caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he 
 slept : a7id he took one of his ribs, and closed, tip 
 the Jlesh instead thereof: and the rib, which th<; 
 Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, 
 and brought her unto the man, God caused a deep 
 sleep to fall upon Adam : the Hebrew word for a 
 deep sleep is noinn [tardemahj : it is a word used 
 in divers places in the Old Testament : in some it 
 signifies no more than what we in English call a 
 sound sleep; a sleep from which we awake, not 
 having dreamed, or been sensible of any thing that 
 has passed during the time of it. It is thus used 
 in the Book of Proverbs ; slothfulness casteth into 
 a deep sleep^ : and more emphatically in the first 
 Book of Samuel, where David and Abishai went 
 by night into Saul's camp, and took away the 
 spear and cni^e of water from his bolster^ without 
 
 * Prov, xix, 15. 
 
44 THE CREATION AND CHAP. TV. 
 
 awaking him or any of the soldiery, that lay asleep 
 round ahout him^; for, says the text, tardemah 
 Jehovah^ a deep sleep of or from the Lord was 
 fallen upon them ; hereby meaning, that they were 
 in a most exceeding sound sleep ; so sound, that 
 we might, using the Hebrew idiom ^ speak as if 
 God himself had been the cause of it. But al- 
 though this is the general signification of the word 
 tardemah; yet it is farther used sometimes to 
 denote that kind of sleep in which God, in the 
 
 « 1 Sam. xxvi, 12. 
 
 3 It is a solemn, but not unusual expression in the Hebrew 
 tongue, to say of a thing beyond measure great, that it is of 
 the Lord; noi always njeaning ht reby, that God himself is 
 the immediate cause of it, but signifying it to be su^.h, that 
 naturally no account is easy to be given of it. So great was 
 the hardness of Pharaoh's heart, that God is thus said to have 
 hardened it, though Pharaoh really hardened his own heart. 
 Exod. vii, 13, 22; viii, 15, 19, 32; ix, 7, .S4. See Connect, 
 b. ix. Thus it is said, that it was ** of the Lord to harden 
 the hearts of the Canaanites," that they should " come out 
 against the Israelites in battle." Joshua ix, 19. Not that we 
 are to say, that God actually prevented the Canaanites from 
 securing themselves from ruin. See Connect, b. xii. It was 
 the obstinacy of their own hearts that brought them to de- 
 struction; which obstinacy being so great, as that we in 
 English would call it a iaial ohsunacy, the Mehrew expres- 
 sion for it was, an obstinacy from the Lord; not meaning 
 hereby, that when any man was tempted, he should say he was 
 *' tempted of God, for God cannot be tempted with evil, 
 neither tempteih he any man/' James i, 13. Their obsti- 
 nacy was their own wilfulness, great, and indeed beyond all 
 common expression, and therefore said to be of the Lord. In 
 this sense I understand what is said of the sound sleep of Saul 
 and his army : not taking the text to mean any more, than 
 that it was so deep a sleep, as might be hard to say how it 
 could be, that they were not awaked out of it. 
 
CHAP. IV. FALL OF MAN. 45 
 
 earlier ages of the' world, was pleased, in divers 
 manners, to give revelations unto men. When 
 soand asleep, their natural sensations made no im- 
 pressions on them ; hut, by internal visions and 
 movements of their minds, they had strong and 
 lively sentiments raised of what God was thus 
 pleased to show them. Daniel says of himself, 
 using the verb from which the noun tardemah is 
 derived, mrdampil, I ivas in a deep sleeep, on my 
 face toivards the ground, hut he touched me, and 
 set me upright'^. In a deep sleep of this sort, 
 Daniel was made to understand a vision that ap- 
 peared to him^. And Job in like manner, in tar- 
 demah, a deep sleep of this kind, when a vision 
 of the night fell upon him, saw a spirit passing 
 before his face, an image before his eyes, and heard 
 a voiced Abram^ in tardemah, this depth of sleep, 
 bad a very signal revelation made to him; and, 
 accordingly, such was the tardemah, deep sleep, 
 which on the occasion before us fell on Adam. 
 Whether, abstracted from all impressions of his 
 outward senses, he saw, as Balaam speaks, a vision 
 of the Almighty^ ; as the Book of Job mentions, a 
 spirit, an image, before himf, actually performing 
 what was done to him, I cannot determine. Bui, 
 as Moses has nowhere said, that Adam ever saw 
 
 * Daniel viii, 18. * Ver. 19—25. 
 
 * Job, iv, 13, 15, 15, ' Gen. xv, 12—15. 
 
 * Numbers xxir, 15. * Job, ubi sup. 
 
46 THE CREATION AND CHAP. IV. 
 
 any simil'tnde or appearance to represent God*, I 
 rather think, that God was pleased, by impressions, 
 such as the ear usually conveys to the mind, and 
 which God undoubtedly can cause to arise in us, 
 as lively as he pleases, as well without their ac- 
 tually coming through the ear, as if they did come 
 through it, to cause Adam to perceive the same, 
 as if awake he had heard that voice, in which God 
 had before spoken to him, commanding a rib, a 
 bone, to be taken out of him, and seen that it was 
 done ; bidding the flesh be closed up instead 
 thereof, and it was so^: saying. Let the woman be 
 made hereof, and she was created. Upon Adam's 
 awaking, he found in fact, what in his sleep had 
 been showed to him : the woman, such in reality 
 as h© had before apprehended her, was brought to 
 him; i. e. was present before him; and he now, 
 using the power of naming things, the exercise of 
 which was upon his mind, as he had just began to 
 practise it, before he fell asleep ; having had a 
 clear perception of what had been transacted, said 
 naturally of this new creature. This is now bone of 
 my hone, and Jlesh of myfesh : she shall be called 
 woman, because she was taken out qfman\ But I 
 conceive that Adam ended here : for he in nowise 
 added the words which follow ; Therefore shall a man 
 leave father and mother, atid shall cleave unto his 
 
 ' We read of no divine appearance to any one before the 
 Jays of Abraham. See Connect, b. ix. 
 * Gen. ii, 21—23. ^ Ver. 23. 
 
CHAP. IV. FALL OF MAN. A^ 
 
 tvife, and tliey shall be one flesh^i for Adam could 
 not yet say what it was to be a father or a mother, 
 and therefore could draw no conclusion concern- 
 ing them. Moses indeed records these words as 
 now spoken, but he does not say that Adam spake 
 them ; and our Saviour has told us, that not Adam, 
 but God himself said this to them. It was He, 
 who made them, that said. For this cause shall a 
 man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to 
 his wife, and they twain shall be oneflesh^. 
 
 The last transaction of this first day of Adam's 
 life was, that after the woman was created, God 
 blessed them both, and said unto them what we 
 read in the 2Sth, 29th, and 30th verses of the first 
 chapter of Genesis ; the particulars of which may 
 be sufficiently considered, if I take a general review 
 of the things concerning Adam said and done in 
 this day. 
 
 One of Dr. Burnef s objections to the history of 
 Moses is, that it heaps together too many things 
 for the space of time allotted to them^: and in- 
 deed this writer has endeavoured to run together a 
 multiplicity of incidents, and to crowd them all 
 into this one day, in order to represent it as having 
 been a day of great hurry and confusion, rather 
 than such as the day ought to have been, on a cool 
 and deliberate sense of which, and a conduct ac- 
 
 < Gen. ii, 24. s Matth. xix, 4, 5. 
 
 * Quantillo tempore hcEC omnia peracta narrantur — ! Quot 
 autem, et quanta congerenda sunt in hunc unum diem! Bur- 
 net, Archccol. p. 204-. 
 
48 THE CREATION AND CHAP. IV, 
 
 cording to it, depended the life or death (we 
 might say, if there had been no farther purpose in 
 the deep counsel of God for us, depended the 
 whole) of man. But if we carefully examine, and 
 distinguish what are the facts which Moses ascribes 
 to this one day, and what arc not, and in what 
 manner he describes them, we shall see reason to 
 differ widely from this writer. God breathed into 
 Adam the breath of life, and caused him to become 
 a living soul'' : but Moses in nowise describes 
 Adam, as soon as he began to think, as abounding 
 instantly in a variety of conceptions concerning his 
 own nature, concerning the Deity, or the works of 
 God, and the fabric of the world". Had Moses 
 brought forth Adam expatiating in such an un- 
 bounded wild of sudden atid undigested apprehen- 
 sions, there would have been reason to consider 
 whether the human mind would not have hence 
 fallen into great confusion. But there is a pro- 
 priety in the manner in which Moses brings Adam 
 into the world : he does not tell us, that in order 
 to take his first sight of things, God set him upon 
 a hill, to look around him over the creation ; but 
 God put him into a garden, where a few plain and 
 easy objects surrounded and confined his first 
 views from taking in such variety as would have 
 been too much for him. A bounded shade of 
 
 ' Gen. ii, 7. 
 
 * We may see a large field of imagination of this kind most 
 beautifully coloured, but in fact, and the reason of the thing, 
 mere fancy nnd romance, in Milton, Par. Lost, b. viii. 
 
CHAP. IV. FALL OF MAN. 49 
 
 trees was a scene, which neither fatigued his eye 
 nor gave a multiplicity of conceptions to his mind. 
 In this silent cover from the many things which 
 were in the world, he hears the voice of God, and 
 finds that he knows what was said to him. 
 
 The vA^ords now spoken to him were not such as 
 called him into the midst of things to load him 
 with a multitude of sentiments, either of God, of 
 himself, or of what was in the world ; or concern- 
 ing what were to be the moral and relative duties 
 of his life. The voice of God, as yet, spake to 
 him only of the plain objects then visibly before 
 him ; called the lofty plants, which he saw, the 
 trees of the garden ; told him, that he might eat 
 of them all, except one ; but commanded him not 
 to eat of that one ; for that, if he did, he should 
 surely die^. And it is remarkable, that this one 
 tree was so distinguished from all others by its 
 situation^, that it must, at sight, have been known 
 in order to be avoided, before he had time to make 
 observations, to see wherein one tree differed from 
 another. 
 
 » Gen. ii, 16, 17. 
 
 ' It does not seem to me determined, that the tree of life 
 stood also in the midst of the garden. Eve seems rather to hint 
 that the forbidden tree stood single and alone in that situation. 
 Gen. iii, 3. Our 9th verse of the second chapter might be 
 pointed and translated thus: '* ^nd out of the ground made the 
 Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and 
 good for food, and the tree of life; in the midst of the garden 
 also, the tree of knowledge of good and evil." And thus this 
 verse would agree with what Eve said in the next chaptt^F. 
 VOL. IV. E 
 
60 THE CREATION AND CHAP. !V. 
 
 May we add, that Adam heard the voice of God 
 declare, that it was not good that he should he 
 alone, but that a help, which should be his like- 
 ness, should be made for him^? Suppose that 
 these words conveyed to him, not all the enlarged 
 notions of the wants and imperfections of solitary 
 life^ nor the variety of the comforts of social hap- 
 piness ; the ideas of which could not begin and 
 increase in him, sooner or farther, than a know- 
 ledge and experience of life raised and improved 
 them : and suppose that the words suggested to 
 him no more, than that another person like him- 
 self should be made to be with him, and that 1% 
 was good for him to have it so (a point, which 
 perhaps, if God had not told him, he would as yet 
 not have thought of); nothing herein was pro- 
 posed to him so complex, as that his first thoughts 
 could be in any confusion about it. 
 
 The next incident may indeed seem an embar- 
 rassment, if we suppose it to have been transacted 
 as it is commonly conceived ; but this, I think, 
 I have already obviated. There was no assem- 
 blage of the living creatures of the world for 
 Adam to name them, nor could he at any one time 
 
 * Gen. ii, 18, vide qu^ sup,. 
 
 * Milton supposes Adam wonderful!}'' able to expatiate upon 
 the unhappiness of solitude, and the benefits of equal society; 
 to sav v\hy God might, but man could not, comfortably be 
 alone The representation he draws is most delightfully poe- 
 tical. But we can in nowise think considerately, that Adam 
 oould as yet have thoughts like these upon the subject. Mil- 
 ton, Par. Lost, b. viii, J65— 435. 
 
CHAP. IV. FALL OF MAN, >6l 
 
 make a survey of them ; it would have been a 
 work too large for him. But though Adam had 
 heard the voice of God, yet he had not, at this 
 time, made any one word of his own for himself; 
 and Ave may allow, that the fact of his naming the 
 creatures, as Moses truly states it, shows us very 
 naturally, how the man, having been enabled to 
 understand the words which God had spoken to 
 him, was introduced to begin and exercise himself 
 to make farther words for the occasions of his life. 
 The naming one creature taught him how he 
 might name another ; and the making names for 
 the creatures gradually apprised him how he had 
 it in his power to name and to speak of all kind 
 of things, for him and Eve to begin and improve a 
 conversible life. In this easy and natural mati- 
 Fier (to use the words of the author of the Book 
 of Wisdom) it was granted to them, to speak 
 as they would of the things which were given 
 tbem^ 
 
 Before Adam had proceeded far in naming the 
 creatures, it pleased God to cause him to fall into a 
 deep sleep ^, wherein no sensations from without 
 gave him any interruption. He had, however, a 
 clear and disimplicated perception of the manner in 
 which Eve was taken out of him ; and therein 
 learned to name some parts of his own body, a rib, 
 a bone, his flesh; and from what he had perceived 
 
 * Wisdom vii, 15. * Gen. n, 21. 
 
 E 2 
 
5J^ THE CREATION AND CHAP. IV, 
 
 toncerjiing her origin, to name the woman also 
 according to it. And, 
 
 After he had received the person made for him, 
 and given her a name, reconsidering her extract, 
 He, who made them both, said unto tbem^, the 
 voice of God spake, what he intended should be 
 the strict and indissoluble union of man and wife 
 in their lives. Relations of life were indeed here 
 suggested, of which Adam and Eve as yet could 
 not have any judgment ; for it seems that Adam 
 did not yet know that Eve was to be a mother, or 
 himself a father. It maybe observed, that as soon 
 as he knew she was to be the mother of all living, 
 he gave her a name accordingly, and thereupon 
 called her name Eve'; but this was not until after 
 the fall, and after the sentence of God passed 
 upon them^. However, it may be apprehended, 
 that what God here said must strike their minds, 
 charged as yet with only few things ; and be so 
 remembered by them, that when afterwards they 
 came to be a father and a mother, and in time 
 had children grown up to be husbands and wives, 
 they m.ight consider and instruct them, what in the 
 beginning had been said unto them ; and how, 
 according to God's original design and command- 
 ment, man and wife were inseparably to live to- 
 gether in the world. 
 
 *"' Vide quaE sup* ' Gen. iii, SO, 
 
 « Ibid. 
 
rHAP. IV. FALL OF MAN. 53 
 
 Before the close of this their first day, God 
 blessed them, and said unto them, he fruitful, and 
 multiphj, and replenish the earth, and subdue it, 
 and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and 
 ever the foivl of the air, and over every living 
 thing that moveth upon the earth^. It does not 
 seem, I rather think I may affirm, that our first 
 parents had not yet looked beyond their garden ; 
 they hiid not seen the compass of the world, nor 
 taken account of the numbers of the creatures that 
 were therein. They had not been on the sea 
 shore ; nor could they know the inhabitants of the 
 floods, whose paths are in the waters ; so that it 
 would be unnatural and absurd to think that the 
 words, now spoken to them, were any farther un- 
 derstood, than to give them a general expectation 
 of seeing and becoming acquainted with a various 
 and extensive scene of things, far beyond what 
 was yet beheld by, or known to, them. Their 
 garden was the inclosure which at present sur- 
 rounded them. But they were now informed, 
 that a whole world was to be opened to them ; 
 that they should find innumerable living crea- 
 tures on the land, in the seas, and in the air ; and 
 that they themselves should be fruitful and multi- 
 ply, should replenish the earth, and subdue it, and 
 have dominion over, and be, as it were, proprietors 
 of all the living creatures that were created ; that 
 
 » Gen. i, 28, kc, 
 
54 THE CREATION AND CHAP. iV. 
 
 there was sustenance provided for all living 
 thins^s, in the fruits of the ground ; which were 
 all given without exception or restraint^ the one 
 limitation only observed, of one tree in the garden, 
 of which Adam and Eve were not to eat\ These 
 intimations were now given them ; but they were 
 in nowise instructed by them to know the things 
 spoken of, so fully as every day after more and 
 more led them to understand. What God now 
 spake to them had only this general effect; that, 
 as the world opened to them, nothing in it was 
 so absolutely unexpected as to surprise or con- 
 found them ; for, remembering what had been 
 said to them, they might, as new things presented 
 themselves, gradually proceed to name, distinguish, 
 and daily grow acquainted with them, to consider 
 how they could use their power over them, and 
 make them useful or agreeable. 
 
 I might add farther, that how much soever of 
 these things was told them, it appears to have 
 been provided for them, that they should not 
 hurry too fast to look into, and after the many 
 things in the world. The day ensuing was to be 
 a Sabbath^, a day of rest, to be set apart to recol- 
 lect and consider all that had been said and 
 showed to them ; that before they proceeded, 
 they might have all the instruction, which a 
 repeated review of it could give, distinct upon 
 
 * Gen. i, quae sup. * Geii. ii, 2. 
 
CHAP. IV. TALL OF MAN. 55 
 
 their hearts. And when the Sahbath was over, 
 they were not instantly at liberty to wander at 
 large over the earth ; for their 6rst business was 
 in their garden ; where God had given them 
 employment ; to dress Hy and to keep it^- Their 
 duty here, if attended to, would so far confine 
 them, that the world would not break in upon 
 them, nor they go into the world faster or farther 
 than they might become gradually able to receive 
 and digest that knowledge of things, which would 
 arise from it. In this manner Moses repre^^ents 
 God as having given our first parents the begin- 
 ning of their lives : and whoever will duly examine 
 the sentiments which he sets before us upon this 
 subject, and compare them with what other writers 
 have fancied and represented (of all whom we shall 
 find none so likely to captivate us as ourMilton^) ; 
 I say, whoever will compare Moses with other 
 Avriters upon this subject, will find, that he deeply 
 entered into the real nature of man ; and will be 
 brought to say of him above all others, 
 
 Quanto rectius hie — nil molitur inepte. 
 
 HoR. 
 
 His account speaks itself to be fact, and not fable; 
 and though our first thoughts may not fully com- 
 prehend what he has written ; yet a careful exa- 
 mination of it will show us, that they, who have 
 
 3 Gita, ii, 15. * Paradise Lo»t. 
 
56 THE CREATION AND FALL OF MAN. CHAP. IV. 
 
 thought it fable^ have not taken pains truly to 
 understand it. I have only to observe, before I 
 close this chapter, that from what has been said 
 we may reasonably conceive, that onr first parents 
 were not hurried into any scene, either of things or 
 sentiments, larger or sooner than they were able to 
 form, as they should want them, all such words as 
 the incidents of their lives would call for, over and 
 besides those which God already had, or did after-^ 
 wards speak to them, 
 
CHAP. V. 
 
 An Inquiry, what we may reasonably think to have 
 been, at this time, the actual state of Adam's 
 knowledge. 
 
 Most writers, who have treated of the Fall, give 
 us accounts of what they think was the primitive 
 state of Adam and Eve's knowledge before they 
 committed sin ; but their sentiments, however 
 ingenious they may seem, are no better than 
 groundless imaginations. Our English poet re- 
 presents Adam, when just created, not only as 
 seeing things as they came before him ; but in- 
 stantly knowing their natures, by God's giving 
 him an immediate apprehension of them. Intro- 
 ducing Adam relating how he named the crea- 
 tures ; supposing the hypothesis to have been fact, 
 that God caused an assemblage of the whole 
 animal world, to see what Adam would name 
 every creature, he makes him say of himself, 
 
 I nam'd them as they pass'd, and understood 
 Their natures; with such knowledge God enduM 
 My sudden apprehension \ 
 
 ITiat God could, if he had pleased, have thus en- 
 dowed Adam, can be no question ; but that God 
 
 • Milton's Paradise Lost, b. viii, I. "iSZ. 
 
5» THE CREATION AKD CHAP. V. 
 
 did not, is plain ; for nothing can be more evident, 
 than that neiy^er Eve nor Adam had in fact this 
 knowledge. They seem both to have been toge- 
 ther when the serpent spake to Eve^; but neither 
 appears to have been surprised at hearing a ser- 
 pent speak in man's voice. The observation 
 which they seem to have made upon it was, that 
 the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the 
 field? I they had heard no other creature thus 
 speak, and therefore apprehended that the serpent 
 had higher endowments than other animals. But 
 •we have no hint which represents either of them 
 as having been at all aware that the serpent was 
 not by nature as conversible as themselves*; a 
 
 ^ The supposing Eve to have gone forth to vrork, separate 
 from Adam, on the morning that the temptation befel her, is 
 un ingenious fiction of our poet; which gave him room to in- 
 troduce an episode as beautiful, and well-ornamented in all its 
 incidents, as human imagination could contrive or can con- 
 ceive. See Milton's Paradise Lost, b. ix. But I do not see 
 that the text of Moses appears to countenance it: Moses says, 
 that Eve, 
 
 bsw^i ryo'^ ntt>>b^b-tz3: |nm tiDMni v.so 'npjn 
 
 et edit secum viro etiam et dedit et edit de fructu ejus et cepit 
 That she took of the fruit and did eat, and gave also to her hus* 
 handy who was with her, and he did eat. 
 
 3 Gen. iii, 1. 
 
 4 Milton, b. ix, supposes that Eve had been much surprised 
 at hearing the serpent speak ; and represent her asking how 
 he came by that ability ; to which he answers, that he was 
 raised to that attainment by eating the fruit of the forbidden 
 tree; and that she hence an^ued, if the dumb animal was so 
 heightened beyond his natural abilities by eating of this fruit, 
 then well might she and Adam hope to be as God, if they 
 should eat of it. But, however agreeable this fiction is by 
 
CHAP. V. FALL OF MAN. 59 
 
 plain indication, that they had no such knowledge 
 of the animal world as Milton supples. Milton 
 variously imagines that Adam had this innate sud- 
 den apprehension to guide him aright to judge of 
 all things ; of the nature of God^; and the nature 
 of man^; in a word, of every thing knowahle, 
 within the reach of the human capacity. In truth, 
 this seems to be the general opinion of writers ; 
 who speak of Adam as if he was created a philo- 
 sopher ; had implanted in him a natural fund of 
 all science, instantly informing him of the true 
 nature of things, v/henever any of them came be- 
 fore his eyes, or any occasion was given him to 
 have thoughts of them in his mind. They think, 
 that he had innate sentiments of all moral duties ; 
 and that before the Fall he was ignorant of nothing 
 but of sin : but the history of Moses sets before u* 
 plain facts, flatly contradicting all these assertion^, 
 if Adam had a true and innate knowledge and 
 apprehension of the nature of God ; how could 
 he have been so ignorant of him with whom he 
 had to do, as to think that getting behind the 
 cover of a few trees would hide him from his pre- 
 sence' ? or if he philosophically knew himself, 
 
 the manner in which the poet has most elegantly painted 
 it; yet it can only be an elegant fiction. Moses suggests no- 
 thing like it, nor is it likely that God would have permitted 
 what might have given a more than ordinary appearance and 
 strength to the temptation. See hereafter. 
 
 5 Milton, b. viii, 357—413, &c. ^ Ibid. 
 
 ' Gen. iii, 8. — The reader will observe, that this was aftct 
 Adam's Fall, when all his mental powers were debased by the 
 introduction of sin. Edit. 
 
60 THE CREATION AND CHAP. V. 
 
 had full and innate npprehensions of the use and 
 h'ght of his own reason, and of all that could come 
 within the reach of it ; what room could there be 
 for the serpent frivolousl}^ to offer to open farther, 
 either his eyes or his understanding ? Rationally 
 judging, and having a right judgment of every 
 thing that came before, either his outward percep- 
 tion, or his inward reflection, the serpent's tempta- 
 tion must have appeared intuitively absurd. He 
 would have felt himself not waikting such additions 
 as the serpent suggested ; and, besides, would 
 have had a better thought of things, than to be 
 capable of imagining, that the improvements pro- 
 posed to him could arise from doing what the ser- 
 pent recommended. We may therefore, if we will 
 write at random, say high things of Adam and 
 Eve's natural and philosophical knowledge ; but 
 we can never make it appear, that they had asyet 
 much science, if in fact they knew things no better 
 than to think that a serpent might naturally 
 be able to speak to them ; or grossly to believe, 
 that meat for the body might be food for the un- 
 derstanding ; that the fruit of a tree, w^hich they 
 saw growing in their garden, could be a thing to 
 he desired to eat to make one wise^. A sentiment 
 this, not to be digested by any one that has un- 
 derstanding, and consequently must demonstrate^^ ''' 
 that our first parents had as yet attained but little 
 advancement in real knowledge. 
 
 • Gen. ill, 6 
 
CHAP. V, FALL OF MAN. 6l 
 
 Adam, as soon as he received the hreath of life, 
 became a living souP : but he had a body made of 
 the ground ^^ and his soul was, as our souls are, 
 shut up within the in closure of this tabernacle. 
 In this state, the things without him, the material 
 objects of this world, could raise in him no ideas, 
 but as sensations of them were convej^ed by his 
 outward senses'^. He could naturally judge of 
 what he thus perceived no farther than IvSw/jtajS^va, 
 a^icjog rdiu haopisvcuv^, to think of them suitably 
 to what was given, or presented to him : and if he 
 looked inward upon himself, he could form ideas 
 of his own mind, only as he made trial of its capa- 
 city and powers, and thereby came to know them : 
 so that experience only could give him naturally 
 an increase of knowledge. Let us suppose him 
 turning his thoughts from himself to a higher ob- 
 ject ; to consider Him who made him ; 
 
 " Say, — of God above 
 
 What could he reason, but from what he kne\v<;" 
 
 He knew of God as yet no more, than what the 
 words which God had spoken to him could teach, 
 
 * Gen. ii, 7. * Ibid. 
 
 ^ This, I think, must be allowed as unquestionable. See 
 Locke's Essay on Human Understanding, b. ii, c. 1 ; unless we 
 could imagine, that Adam had been a creature originally fur- 
 nished with different abilities to perceive the things without 
 him, other than the Jive operations, or senses, which the author 
 of Ecclesiasticus represents that he had been endued with as 
 we are. Ecclus. xvii, 5. 
 
 * Wisdom vii, 15. * Pope's Essay on M?n, Ep. i. 
 
62 
 
 THE CREATION AND CHAP. V, 
 
 or hiB own few and first observations of things 
 done might lead him to infer. 
 
 There are indeed some texts of Scripture^ which, 
 if not rightly considered, may lead ns into a mis- 
 take in this matter. St. Paul tell us of the Gen- 
 tiles, who had not had the light of the law of 
 Moses, that tliey did bi/ nature the things con- 
 tained in the laiv : not having the law, thei/ ivere 
 a law unto themselves : tvhich, he says, show the 
 work of the law written in their hearts, their con-- 
 science also bearing witness, and their thoughts — 
 accusing, or else excusiyig one another^. Are we 
 then to conclude from hence, that God has ac- 
 tually written, as it were, or implanted innate sen- 
 timents of duty upon the heart of man r I rather 
 apprehend, that a true essay of the human under- 
 standing; a true judgment of whatever was, or 
 still is, the ability of man, will show us, that a 
 capacity of attaining just notions of our duties, and 
 not an actual possession of real sentiments of 
 them, is the utmost of what the first man was 
 created in, or any of us are born to : and a careful 
 examination of what is offered by St. Paul 
 will in nowise lead us to conclude more. The 
 apostle elsewhere tells us, speaking of the Gen- 
 tiles, that that which may he known of God was 
 manifest in them, for that God had showed it unto 
 them^. The question is, how had God showed it ? 
 Had God planted it innate in their hearts ? This 
 
 " Rom. ii, 14, 15. * Chap, i, 19, 
 
CHAP. V, FALL OF MAN. 63 
 
 was not the sentiment of St. Paul ; rather, he tells 
 ns, that God had showed it unto them ; for or 
 because the invisible things of him from the crea-r 
 tion of the world are clearly seen, being understood 
 by the things ivhich are made\ Tlie Gentile 
 nations, of whom the apostle here and elsewhere 
 treats, had so far read the volume of the book of 
 nature, had so far heard of, or known and consi- 
 dered the works of God, as to be without excuse, 
 if the thence apparent duties of their nature were 
 not collected by tliern. But we should in fact be 
 mistaken, and err from the meaning of St. Paul*, 
 if we expect to find implanted in men's hearts real 
 characters of their duties farther than the book of 
 nature has been read and considered by them ; or 
 they have attained a knowledge of them, more or 
 less perfect, as they have happened to hear of, and 
 be instructed from, some of the revelations which 
 God has made to the world. Consequently, 
 speaking rationally of Adam, whilst he had as yet 
 heard and seen but a very few of God's works, 
 and those few had not been so repeatedly examined 
 by him, and compared with things which in time 
 followed, as to give him a various trial, and an 
 enlarged and corrected judgment ; he cannot be 
 thought to have attained a great extent of any 
 kind of knowledge. All natural science has 
 grown amongst men, as observation has gradually 
 increased it ; therefore, to say of Adam, that as 
 
 ' Rom. i, 20. « Ibid. 
 
64 THE CREATION AND CHAP. V. 
 
 soon as he lifted up his eyes, after he was created^ 
 and saw the San, Moon, and Stars, which gave 
 light upon the Earth, he instantaneously knew 
 that these lights of Heaven were to he for dgns and 
 fo? seasons, for days and for years^ ; is to talk 
 very irrationally. He cannot be supposed to have 
 known, before his first evening showed it, that the 
 Sun was to have a going down ; nor can we ima- 
 gine that the next morning told him of the rising 
 day, what would have enabled him to have said 
 with the poet, 
 
 aliusque et idem 
 
 Nasceris Hor. 
 
 He could not have told, whether the rising San of 
 his second day was a new one ; or the same which 
 had the day before shone upon him. In time he 
 formed a better judgment of these and other ap- 
 pearances : but as many ages, abounding in all 
 kinds of learned disquisitions, passed, before it 
 was apprehended that the Sun did not move round 
 the Earth ; it must be a wild notion to think, that 
 in the beginning of the world our first father was 
 possessed of an innate astronomy. All notions of 
 his innate knowledge of the nature of the animals 
 must, if thus considered, fall likewise to the 
 ground ; for he could know nothing of them until 
 he observed them ; and then, nothing farther than 
 what he observed, or concluded from observations 
 made of them. And, of God, he knew that he 
 
 9 Gen. i, li. 
 
CHAP. V. FALL OF MAN. 65 
 
 had received an audible injunction not to eat of 
 one tree : and he had heard from the same voice 
 other particulars ; and in the formation of Eve, he 
 had had a sensible conviction, that he who spake 
 to him had great power to make or create, and 
 consequently to destroy. Hence, as soon as he 
 had disobeyed, he reasoned, that he might justly 
 be afraid : he ivas afraid, and hid himself^ : but 
 having had nothing yet told or showed him, 
 whereby he might consider the omnipresence of 
 God, the imperfection of his own sight led him to 
 imagine that he might get out of God's sight, if 
 he hid himself behind the cover of a few trees. 
 Respecting himself he had experienced, that he 
 saw, and heard, and felt, and lived ; that he tasted 
 the food he was to eat ; that it revived his spirits, 
 and strengthened his hearf^ : and though I must 
 think that he had a clear intellect to reason and 
 conclude of things as far, though no farther, than 
 they appeared lo him, or he had experience of 
 them ; yet, hitherto, he could have made no ad- 
 vancement in knowledge, which could show him 
 whether there were or were not juices in the fruit 
 of a particular tree, which might literally cheer 
 both God and ma7i^ ; give fresh life and spirits 
 to the body, and likewise wisdom and under- 
 standing to the mind. Therefore he did not 
 
 » Gen. lii, 10. ' Psal. civ, 15. 
 
 ^ Judges ix, 13. 
 
 VOL. IV. F 
 
66 THE CREATION AND CHAP. V. 
 
 hereupon know enough to argue and refute the 
 falsehood which Eve's imagination seems to have 
 proposed, that the tree was to be desired to make 
 one wise^. 
 
 It will, I am sensible, be here said by some, 
 that they do not assert Adam and Eve as having 
 had any innate actual knowledge ; but they appre- 
 hend that both our first parents had been created with 
 such powers of capacity, that they would naturally 
 form just and true notions of things, as they came 
 under their inspection and observation ; so as not 
 really to want any farther insti'uction concerning 
 any thing which they ought or could be obliged to 
 know, than what might naturally arise to them 
 from their own senses and understanding. Our 
 modern rationalists think, that they can not only 
 support this notion from reason, but can bring 
 Scripture also to confirm it. They argue, that 
 '^ Moses says, that God created man in his own 
 imagery and that Solomon tells us, that God made 
 man upright^ ; the meaning of both which expres- 
 sions, taken together, imports, they say, that man 
 was endued with rational moral faculties, resem- 
 bling the moral perfections of his Creator: was 
 made perfect in his kind, capable to know and 
 fulfil the duties, and attain the end of his creation, 
 by a right use of his rational faculties, which were 
 
 4 Gen. iii, 6. * Gen. i, 26. 
 
 ^ Eccles. vii, 29. 
 
CHAP. V. FALL OF MAN. 6/ 
 
 given him to be the guide and rule of his life and 
 actions : and therefore that the reason, which God 
 gave, must have been sufficient to direct him to 
 those duties, which God required of him, and to 
 conduct him to that happiness, which is the natural 
 effect, or by God's will the appointed reward, of the 
 performance of it." 
 
 The writer, from whom I have cited these words, 
 did, I dare say, conceive, that he had guarded his 
 expressions in a manner liable to no exception; but 
 he has, I think, the misfortune common to these 
 writers, not to hit the least tittle of the meaning, 
 in the texts which they cite. 
 
 God, he says from Moses, created man in his 
 own image. It must, I think, be indisputable, 
 that, in a most obvious sense of the words, man's 
 being created in the image of God may refer to the 
 make of his body ; and intimate, that he was 
 formed, not after the fashion of any other living 
 creature, but was made in a pattern higher than 
 they ; a more excellent form than theirs was given 
 to him. 
 
 Pronaque cum spectant aiiiraalia caetera terras, 
 Os homini sublime dedit, coelumque tueri 
 Jussit, et erectos ad sidera tollere vultus. 
 
 Ovid. Metam.' 
 
 It is an expression not unfrcqucnt in the Hebrew 
 Scriptures, to say of things, that they are of God, 
 
 ' In like manner the Roman philosopher : -' Figuram cor- 
 poris habilem et aptani ingenio humano dedit ; nam cum 
 
 F 2 
 
6s THE CREATION AND CHAP. V. 
 
 if they are in quality eminent above others, which 
 have no more than common perfections. Thus, 
 trees of a prodigious growth are called trees of God, 
 or the trees of the Lord : such were the cedars of 
 Lebanon ; so greatly flourishing and full of sap as to 
 be for that reason called the trees of the Lord, trees 
 which he had planted ^ And thus man might be said 
 to be made in the image of God : his outward form 
 was of a different make ; far more respectable, and 
 superior to the make of all other creatures in the 
 world. Accordingly, to speak suitably of it, the 
 expression is used, which in the language of Moses's 
 times was commonly said of any thing, which was 
 so superlatively excellent as to have nothing like 
 to or to be compared with it. No image of any 
 thing in the world was equal to, or like that of man ; 
 therefore man was said to be created in the image 
 of God. 
 
 I would observe, that from St. Paul it appears, 
 that the expression of Moses may carry this mean- 
 ing : A man, he says, ought not to cover his head, 
 forasmuch as he is the image and glory ofGou: 
 but the woman is the glory of the man^. The 
 
 caeteros animantes abjecisset ad pastum, solum hominem 
 
 erexit, ad coelique conspectum excitavit: turn spe- 
 
 ciem ita formavit oris, ut in ea penitus reconditos mores af- 
 fingeret ; nam et oculi nimis arguti, quemadmodum animi 
 affecti simus, loquuntur, et is, qui appellatar vultus, qui nullo 
 in animante esse praeter hominem potest, indicat mores. Cic. 
 de Legib. lib. i. 
 " Psalm civ, T6. s 1 Cor. xi, 7. 
 
CHAP. V. FALL OF MAN. G9 
 
 apostle is here inquiring, not into the dignity of the 
 mind or soul of the man or the woman, but con- 
 sidering what ought to be the outward appearance 
 or dress of their persons. He would not have the 
 man's head covered, because the man was the image 
 of God : his form was original, not the copy of 
 another ; and therefore, to express its original su- 
 periority above all others, is said to be of God. 
 But the woman herein was inferior, being made 
 after the likeness and similitude of man ; therefore, 
 in the sentiment of the apostle, she ought to wear 
 a covering upon her head, in acknowledgment, that 
 she was not sui^ forma, the original pattern of the 
 make she was of. She was herein inferior to the 
 man \ in that the glory or dignity of her make was 
 his ; she was the glory of the man ; the high ex- 
 cellence of her make was but a copy of what he, 
 the man, was made in before her. 
 
 But the words of Moses bear also a farther sense, 
 yet not what the writer I have cited would put 
 upon them. God created man to he immortal, and 
 made him an image of his own eternity^. Now 
 here a great original difference may appear to have 
 been intended between the spirit of man, that goeth 
 
 ' I would here observe, that in ancient times, contrary to 
 our modern customs, the having the head free, or without the 
 incumbrance of being covered, was a mark of dignity and 
 superiority ; and, on the contrary, to wear a covering on the 
 head was a token of inferiority and subjection. 
 
 ? Wisdom ii, 23. 
 If 
 
70 THE CREATION AND CHAP. V. 
 
 upward, and the spirit of the beast, thai goeth 
 dowinvard^: and that Moses bad in view this par- 
 ticular, when he said of man, that he was created 
 in the image of God, seems agreeable to the reason 
 given for the early law pronounced against murder: 
 whoso sheddeth mans blood, bij inan shall his blood 
 he shed ; for in the image of' God rnade he nian^. 
 God so made man to be immortal, that it is a high 
 insult and violence against the design of God's 
 creation, to put an end by murder to the life of 
 man. Therefore, surely at the hand of every man's 
 brother will God require the life of jnan^. This 
 explains our Saviour's calling the Devil a jnurderer 
 from the beginning'' ; he had acted contrary to the 
 design of God concerning the life of man, because, 
 when God had created man in his own image, to 
 be an image of his own eternity, to be immortal, 
 nevertheless, through envy of the Devil, death came 
 into the world'^. 
 
 Thus, if we explain the text of Moses, without 
 going beyond what was intended by it, we shall 
 find, that it means no more, than that man was 
 originally made of a more excellent form than all 
 other creatures, and that he was made to be im- 
 mortal, had not death, which God did not make 
 for man', come into the world through sin^. There 
 
 » Eccles. iii, 21. ^ Gen. ix, 6. 
 
 5 Gen. ix, 5. ^' John viii, 44'. 
 
 7 Wisdom ii, 24. « Chap, i, 13. 
 9 Kom. V, 12. 
 
CHAP. V. FALL OF MAN. 71 
 
 is very little foundation to infer from this text, that 
 Moses intended to represent, that man was made to 
 re3emble his Maker in his powers of knowledge'. 
 
 * If we examine what the heathen inquirers argued upon 
 this subject, we shall find them far more correct than our mo- 
 dern reasoners. They all, indeed, except a more sensual sect, 
 Epicurus and his followers (see Cic. de Nat. Deor. lib. i, c. 18), 
 saw plainly, that man could in no wise resemble God in his 
 outward form and figure. Therefore they would have under- 
 stood Mcses's expression of man's he'mg 7tiade in the image of 
 God, as to his outward form, in no higher sense than I have 
 above mentioned ; namely, that man was of an extraordinary 
 and singular make, eminent above other creatures, of a form 
 appropriated to man. As to his inward powers, they saw in 
 them what was far more worthy than his outward person to 
 be compared to God. " Tu — sic habeto non esse te mor- 
 TALEM, sed corpus HOC. Nec cnim is, quern forma ista 
 declarat, sed mens cujusque is est quisque; non ea figura, quae 
 digito demonstrari potest : Deum te igitur scito esse, siquidem 
 Deus est, qui viget, qui sentit, qui meminit, qui providet, qui 
 tam regit et moderatur et movet id corpus cui praepositus est, 
 quam hunc mundum ille princeps Deus." Cic. Somn. Sci- 
 pionis. But however they thus thought in general terms of a 
 resemblance in man of the divine nature, they always, when 
 the subject called for it, so explained themselves as not loosely 
 to assert, that in man, " motus iste celer cogitationis, acumen, 
 solertia, quam rationem vocamus (Cic. de Nat. Deor. lib. iii, 
 c. 27), the mere faculty of human reason made man like to 
 God. They rarher argued, that the likeness of man to God 
 arose from this fticulty so managed and conducted that we 
 might possess virtue. ** Ad similitudinern Deo propius acce- 
 debat humana virtus quam figura." Cic. de Nat. Deor. lib. i, 
 c. 34. And thus Plato^ 8x, eriv avtw oi/.oiO'toLT'ov ouhv tj o; a,v 
 '^f/.ujv QLu yev'/jtai ors ^iKOCiotaTo^. Plat, in Thesetet. Thus 
 again, 'O/xoiwcij ^ecv — Sikcciov y.cci o^oiov (xstx (ppovYjtrsujs yg- 
 vsa-^ui. Id. ibid. Again, 'O /xev <ruj(ppMv riy^oov ^scv <pi>.o$. 
 
72 THE CREATION AND CHAP. V. 
 
 Such a thought is so far from being deducible 
 from this text, that it is absolutely contradictory to 
 what Moses expresses upon the subject ; for their 
 desire to be he Eloliim, as, or like to, God in 
 knowivg^, was the mistake which caused our first 
 parents' ruin. 
 
 xo;. Plat.deLegib. lib. iv. We are here to observe, that these 
 ancients, in no wise like our modern rationalists, crudely affirm, 
 that man is endowed with moral faculties, resembling the moral 
 perfections of his Creator ; but they distinguish the faculties 
 of man, as then only rendering us like God when they are so 
 conducted as to make us (rcju(^pQV£s, so truly wise as to be really 
 virtuous. They did not determine, that our likeness to God 
 consisted in our barely having a faculty of free reason ; but 
 they considered, that we could then only be like God when 
 we became just and holy, oikccioi kcci oq-ioi i^srcc (ppoyy)<rsujs' or, 
 in other words, when we attained a right understanding to de- 
 part from iniquitj/. They observed the difference betweea 
 reason and right reason : they pointed out a height of reason, 
 with which whosoever are endued, may in all things act in- 
 tuitively aright ; but this they allowed to be above man : 
 ** Quartus autem gradus et altissimus est eorum qui natura boni 
 sapientesque gignuntur, quibus a principio innascitur ratio 
 recta, constansque, quae supra hominem putanda est, Deoque 
 tribuenda." Cic. lib. ii,c. 13. Herein they stated the great 
 difference between the human nature and divine; they allowed 
 God to be the standard of all rectitude and truth ; but they 
 affirmed, that man in no wise was so, but wanted a measure or 
 rule to adjust his judgment by, in order to act aright. 'O Sy) 
 €>£0; rffj^iv Tfdvrujv ^pvjfji.ocT'ujv (J^srpov ocv tir) fJ^aXis-a, xa< 7to\u 
 fiocXXoy 7} TtH nst ctjg (pocav, oLv^pajitos. Plato de Leg. lib. iv. 
 Which one point, duly considered, is that sobriety of knowing 
 and estimating ourselves, which will lead us to admit, both the 
 sentiments 1 have above observed that Moses hinted, £^nd what 
 I endeavour to bujld upon it, 
 
 « Gen. iii, 5» 
 
 % 
 
CHAP. V. FALL OF MAN. 7^ 
 
 Let US now see how the other text will answer 
 the purpose designed to be served by it. God, said 
 Solomon, made man upright^: the words of Solo- 
 mon are, God made the man, jashar, which we 
 might render «77o^A^ ; God implanted in him no- 
 thing that was wrong. Adam, before the fall, had 
 not in him the evil inclinations of a corrupt nature, 
 and the not having these was the rectitude in which 
 he was created. When the sentence of death 
 passed upon him, he, who before was an image of 
 God's eternity, was now become mortal, his body 
 became corruptible ; and a cort'uptible body presseth 
 down the soul*. He now began to have sensual 
 appetites and desires, which created him many in- 
 clinations which he had to strive against, if he 
 would strive against sin. He was now fallen into 
 the imperfection under which we all labour, 
 
 Video meliora proboque 
 
 Deteriora sequor 
 
 He might now many times see and approve the 
 things, which are most excellent, and yet have a 
 heart that might cause him often to be such as the 
 best of us are, who, as there is 7io man upon Earth 
 that sinneth not\ do in many things offend aW, 
 But though before he became corruptible he had 
 not in him those evil appetites, which are since 
 grown so powerful in our nature ; yet it will not 
 
 3 Eccles, vii, 29. * Wisd. ix, 15. 
 
 * 1 Kings viii, 4C. ^ James iii, 2. 
 
74 THE CREATION AND CHAP. V. 
 
 follow^ that God originally gave him such a beam 
 of unerring understanding as to place him in a 
 light, which would not admit of mistake and error. 
 
 Decipimur specie recti 
 
 HOR. 
 
 To this failure Adam was subject in his first estate; 
 and herein it was that he fell from it : both Eve 
 and he judged what the tempter proposed to them 
 to be very right, although it was grossly wrong, 
 and in the error of their judgment they went 
 astray ; their appetites were not the strength which 
 prevailed against them. In their judgment lay 
 their weakness ; they were misled, they were de- 
 ceived. Thus St. Paul speaks of their transgres- 
 sions, not imputing it to their corrupt inclinations, 
 but to their erring in their understanding ; the ser- 
 pent beguiled Eve through his suhtlety'^ ; the insi- 
 nuation of the tempter became too subtle for them. 
 Herein, therefore, the writers, who use the text of So- 
 lomon with the view above mentioned, mistake his 
 true meaning. From Solomon's asserting, that God 
 made man upright, they would infer, that God gave 
 Adam a perfection of actual understanding, by 
 which he might, without farther direction, have 
 devised his own way aright, to complete himself in 
 every moral virtue ; whereas Solomon says no 
 more than that God made man (jashar) rectus, 
 i. e. not crooked or perverse ; or, as we render it 
 in English, upright, /. e, not inclined or propense 
 
 ' 2 Cor. xi, 3. 
 
CHAP. V. FALL OF MAN. 75 
 
 to evil. Solomon says, that Adam had originally 
 a rectitude of heart or inclination ; but these writers 
 would infer, that he had a perfection of head^ an 
 unerring judgment; whereas these are two very 
 different things. I can apprehend, that Adam had 
 a natural capacity, quick and lively, far greater 
 than we have ; but as he had far less acquaintance 
 with, and information of, the nature of things than 
 even we have had, his actual knowledge, at the 
 time of his being seduced, must have been less than 
 our knowledge is ; consequently, it happened in 
 fact, that he erred in a matter, wherein no one of a 
 moderate share of improved understanding would 
 have been so grossly mistaken. 
 
 But may we not correct a little the expressions 
 used in setting forth this pretended rational scheme 
 contended for, and query upon the subject as 
 follows ? Is not the spirit of man the candle of the 
 Lord^ ? Is there not a spirit in man\ created with 
 abilities of reasoning suited to his state ? Is there 
 not herein a natural inspiration of the Almighty to 
 give man understanding^ as soon as he grows 
 up to know the use of it? And if Adam w^as 
 created not a child, but a man ; if he was created 
 
 ^ Pror. XX, 27. ^ Job. xxxii, 8. 
 
 * Job xxxii, 8. I think I need not here observe, that the 
 word nDl^i here used, which we translate inspiration, is the 
 word used by Moses, Gen. ii, 7, to signify the inspiration, 
 or breath of life; and that therefore we may justly here take it 
 to mean, not what we Christians call the grace of God, but 
 rather that original ability of mind which God has given unto 
 man. 
 
76 THE CREATION AND CHAP. V. 
 
 Upright, having a right heart not biassed by evil 
 appetites ; must he not have had all the powers of 
 a sound mind ? And what can we say or think he 
 could want more ? Would not things have gra- 
 dually appeared^ to him in their true light ? His 
 mind not corrupted would have admitted them to 
 have been rationally considered ; and his know- 
 ledge, as it grew and increased, being sincere and 
 unbiassed, would have led him in a right use of his 
 reason*^ unto true sentiments of his duty, as the 
 relations of life came to be known to him ; so that 
 he might by his own natural light have gone 
 wisely and virtuously through the world. I might 
 cite many passages from the best and most vir- 
 tuous heathen writers, to show^, that they seem 
 sometimes to have thought the human ability of 
 this sort^. But I might again cite other places 
 from them, which lay a foundation for not being 
 positive in this nice disquisition*: and herein they 
 
 ^ Uccvfa, rx Tfpo; rr^v Kfr^o-iy rwv aycc^ujv G-vvrsXsvta. Sicc 
 Ppxy^Bouv UTTEypx^sy Xoyos ro ttj; v|/i;;^ij; avroKivr^toy, Hie- 
 rocles. 
 
 * Est quidem vera lex, recta ratio, naturae congruens, diffusa 
 in oirrnes, constans, sempiterna, quae vocet ad officium ju- 
 bendo; vetando a fraude deterreat. Cic» de Rep. lib. iii, in 
 Fragment. Erat enim ratio profecta a rerum natura et ad recte 
 faciendum impellens et a delicto avocans. Id. de Leg. lib. ii. 
 
 ^ Si tales nos natura genuisset, ut earn ipsam intueri et per- 
 spicere, eademque optima duce cursum vitcc conficere posse-f 
 mus; baud erat sane quod quisquam rationem ac doctrinam 
 requireret: nunc parvulos nobis dedit igniculos, quos celeritey 
 malis moribus opinionibusque deprivati sic restinguimus, ut 
 Rusquam naturae lumen appareat. Cic. Tusc. Quaest. lib. iii, 
 in init. Est profecto animi medicina philosophia. Id. ibid, 
 
CHAP. V. FALL OF MAN. 77 
 
 preserved a sincerity of inquiry, far more to be 
 respected than the arrogant forwardness of our 
 modern contenders for the sufficiency of human 
 reason. These latter seldom fail to show an un- 
 warrantable disposition to assume, without proving, 
 that God gave no revelation, until men had first 
 departed from the guidance of their reason, and 
 wanted to be brought back, to be told the use 
 and the light of it. And they hastily conclude, 
 that, if human reason at first was not in itself a 
 sufficient guide and direction for man, it will fol- 
 low, that God did not sufficiently provide for him. 
 They tell us, " that God at first left men to the 
 guidance of natural light, by a due use of reason 
 to discover what best became the station they were 
 
 This able writer appears to me here to allow, that men by 
 nature are not so made as to look at once to the bottom and 
 truth of things; to sec without farther information, than the 
 prompt suggestion of their own reasonings, the true relations 
 of things and the moral duties of their lives. Had he known 
 what we do from Moses, of the true origin of mankind, he 
 would, I dar» say, have allowed, that it might be necessary 
 for man, when he first came into the world, not to be left ab- 
 solutely to himself, to be guided by the parvulos igniculos, as 
 he calls them, which God had given him. He would have 
 considered man, as not admitted naturam ipsam intueri, but so 
 far only endowed, as that though he had received rationem a 
 Deo, yet he might make it honam aut non bonam a seipso. (The 
 reader may find this sentiment suggested by one of the dispu- 
 tants, in Cic. de Nat. Deor. lib. iii.) Therefore he would have 
 rejoiced in the clear light, which he would have had, of man's 
 having all the rationem et disciplinam, which he supposes him 
 to want, from the directions, which, over and above his reason, 
 God began, as soon as man came into being, by express reve- 
 lation to give unto him. 
 
78 THE CREATION AND CHAP. V. 
 
 placed in, and what duties were incumbent upon 
 them, in the relation they stood to God as their 
 Creator, and to one another as fellow-creatures ; 
 expecting no service from them, but what their 
 own reason would suggest, and the very nature 
 and circumstances of their being would have re- 
 commended." And they add, that ^^ God did not 
 interpose until man had herein greatly failed." 
 But all this is directly contrary to what Moses 
 informs us ; according to whom, after Adam 
 was created, before he had time to do, I might 
 say, to think, of good or evil, the voice of God 
 commanded him, saying, Of every tree of the 
 garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of 
 the hioivledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat 
 of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof 
 thou shall surely die^. A command was herein 
 given, such as the reason of man would not have 
 investigated, had not the voice of God appointed 
 it to him ; consequently, a service or observation 
 was herein expected from him, other than what 
 his own reason would have suggested. But these 
 writers will perhaps say of this particular com- 
 mand, that it is allegory and not a fact. Let us 
 then proceed, and we shall find, that as soon as 
 Eve was created, Adam and she were told, that 
 a man should leave his father and mother, and 
 should cleave unto his wife, and that they 
 should he one flesh. This command, as Moses 
 states it, was, our Saviour tell us, spoken to them 
 
 5 Gen. ii, 16, 17. 
 
CHAP. V. FALL OF MAN. 79 
 
 by the voice of God. Herein, then, there is no 
 allegory ; herein we have the witness of a greater 
 than Moses, that Moses related what was really 
 fact. And it is a testimony, which, duly consi- 
 dered, will prove, that both our Saviour used, and 
 the Jews also, to whom our Saviour spake, re- 
 ceived the accounts of what Moses relates to have 
 been done in the beginning, not as allegory and 
 fable, but to be read and cited as true history^. 
 God, in fact, declared to Adam and Eve, what 
 was to be the inseparable union of man and wife; 
 and therefore herein they were not " left at first 
 to the guidance of natural light, by a due use of 
 reason to discover what best became the station 
 they were placed in to one another ;" but received 
 a special direction by an audible voice from their 
 Maker concerning this relation of life, before they 
 had in any one thing failed in the use of their 
 reason. 
 
 What these writers say farther, that to suppose 
 reason, the reason of man, " in itself in any state 
 or circumstances an insufficient guide, is directly 
 to impeach the Author of reason ; is to say, that 
 God did not give man sufficient abilities to know 
 and to do his duty." This is equally dogmatical ; 
 contradictory to what we are informed by Moses 
 was, in fact, the manner in which, and the abilities 
 with which, Adam and Eve were brought into the 
 
 ^ Have ye not read ? said our Saviour, appealing, as to fact, 
 to what was recorded in Moses's writings. See Matth. xix, \-, 
 &c. above cited. 
 
80 THE CREATION AND FALL OF MAN. CHAP. V. 
 
 world. Moses does not say, that God originally 
 gave Adam a sufficiency of knowledge, for him to 
 depend solely upon it ; but he abundantly shows 
 us, that man was not left insufficiently provided 
 for, because he shows us how God would by his 
 voice have directed, as directions would be neces- 
 sary for him. Upon the whole, the texts of Scrip- 
 ture above cited, to show that there is in man a 
 light of reason, do in nowise determine to what 
 degree it is given ; therefore they are not in them- 
 selves conclusive against the necessity of revela- 
 tion. And whatever else has been oifered, may at 
 best be but the conceits of mere imagination, and 
 therefore intrinsically vain ; so that 1 apprehend, 
 if we would proceed as we ought in this inquiry, 
 it may pertinently be examined, whether in the 
 reason of things it may not be right, that the infi- 
 nite Creator should make a rank of rational beings, 
 so far endowed with reason, as to be above the 
 restraint and confinement of instinct ; and yet not 
 endued with so unerring a beam of reason, as to 
 need no farther direction, than what would arise 
 from the intimations of their own breasts. After 
 such an inquiry, carefully made, we may consider 
 whether man was the creature made, in this rank ; 
 and whether the directions mentioned by Moses, 
 as originally given to the man, may not be appre- 
 hended to have been the most proper means to 
 supply his defects, to make him perfect, tho- 
 roughly furnished unto every thing necessary to 
 answer the great end of his creation and being. 
 
CHAP. VI. 
 
 Concerning the Points above stated. 
 
 The creation of God, as far as we can examine itj 
 in the things which may be known by us, shows a 
 wonderful connection between all things. If we go 
 to what I would call the lowest, the most dead, aod 
 inorganical parts of matter; it is a question, whether 
 vegetative life does not subsist in all. It is indeed 
 so slow in some, that it will escape our first inspec- 
 tion; but stones and minerals in time show enough 
 of it to apprise us, though it be hard to conceive 
 how small its 6rst beginnings are, that probably 
 there is not any thing in the natural world wherein 
 it really is not to be found. We may trace a gra- 
 dual increase of the circulation of it, from the 
 more inert parts, as it were, of matter, to trees, 
 shrubs, plants, and flowers; whose living growth 
 is more and more conspicuous, and daily orna- 
 mented with new appearances of accrescent variety 
 and alteration. And how near do some of these 
 come to almost a visible connection with the 
 animal world ? It is difficult to ascertain how 
 much more sensation there is in an oyster, if there 
 
 VOL. IV, G 
 
82 riih CREATION AND CHAP. VI. 
 
 really are not living animals of less sensation than 
 an oyster, of whose motion we can hardly say 
 more, than that it opens its shell, to take in the 
 water and soil which is to feed it, and shuts at the 
 approach of any thing which may more sensibly 
 aftect it ; than in those plants which open their 
 flowers to the soft and warm air, but will instantly 
 close up and shrivel, if any grosser object be moved 
 near enough to touch them. If we proceed through 
 the innumerable varieties of animal life, until we 
 come to those beings in whom the breath is most 
 conspicuous ; if we consider the difference of dis- 
 cernment in these, and carry on the progression 
 until we enter the rational world, we may find, 
 savs an ingenious writer*, that some brutes seem to 
 have as much reason and knowledge as some, who 
 are called men ; so that the animal and rational 
 creation do so nearly approach, that if you take 
 the highest of the one, and compare it with the 
 lowest of the other, there will scarcely be per- 
 ceived a difference between them. The variety in 
 the capacities of men being considered, will carry 
 us over a vast field, and bring us to the borders of 
 the angelic state ; for man was made only a little 
 Imvei' than the angels'^. How far, had sin not 
 come into the world, and death by sin, the highest 
 and most perfect men might have improved and 
 come near to the lowest order of angels, we cannot 
 
 ' See Locke's Essay on the Human Understanding, book iii, 
 c. 6. 
 * Heb. ii, 7. 
 
CHAP. VI. FALL OF MAN. 83 
 
 say. But if, from what we can see of the creation, 
 we may reason concerning things invisible, sup- 
 posing that God created the first man with the 
 highest capacity, which coukl belong to his rank 
 of being, yet knowing that he was made a little 
 lower than the angels, that the lowest of these intel- 
 ligences was made greater than he, we cannot place 
 him higher, than upon an ascent next between the 
 animal and more intellectual state. And when 
 we consider how it answers the analogy of things, 
 that all the intellectual powers should rise gra- 
 dually, one order above another, to complete a 
 fulness in God's creation of the Heavens and the 
 Earth', it will not be unreasonable to suppose, 
 that God created man with such powers indeed of 
 reason, as to be above all that can be called animal 
 life, yet not with so masterly a light of reason, as 
 absolutely to want no assistant information, Mr. 
 Pope has excellently well expressed what I am 
 aiming at. In the creation of God, he observes, 
 that as 
 
 All must fall, or not coherent be. 
 
 And all that rises, rise in due degree ; 
 
 Then, in the scale of life and sense, 'tis plain. 
 
 There must be, somewhere, such a rank as man ; 
 
 Plac'd on the isthmus of a middle state, 
 
 A being darkly wise and rudely great*. 
 
 3 Without this Plato thought the Heavens would be imper- 
 fect. Ovpavo; areX-r)^ sroUt ra ycLp aTtoLvra iv avrw ysvT} ^cuujv 
 ovK i^et. Afi Se £i fji,£\Ksi rsKsto^ Ikccvm^ sivat. Plato in 
 TimsBo. 
 
 < Pope's Essa)' on Man, ep. i and ii. 
 
 G 2 
 
S4 THE CREATION AND CHAP. VI, 
 
 There must be somewhere, in ascending from sense 
 to the height of reason, a rank of creatures r hove 
 the confinement and limitation of instinct, but not 
 so perfect in their powers of reason, as to stand in 
 need of none other than their own direction. 
 
 Of this rank the poet deemed man, estimating 
 him made 
 
 With too much knowledge fop the sceptic side. 
 With too much weakness for the stoic's prided 
 
 To have light enough to see bow he may, with a 
 sufficient certainty, from known premises, draw 
 many important conclusions, but not light enougk 
 absolutely to rest satisfied in the sufficiency of his 
 own wisdom^ The poet gives us many rational 
 intimations, that man must originally have beea 
 formed in this line of being, that there might be a 
 just gradation in the works of God : 
 
 that progressive life may go 
 
 Around its width, its depth extend below. 
 Vast chain of being! which from God began. 
 Nature's ethereal, human, angel, man. 
 Beast, bird, fish, insect ! what no eye can see. 
 No glass can reach ! from infinite to thee. 
 From thee to nothing ^ 
 
 ^ Pope's Essay on Man, ep. ii, ver. 5. 
 
 ''• The stoic's pride, here hinted at, is, I think, what is ex- 
 pressed in the latter part of the following sentence; Judicium 
 hoc omnium mortalium ,est; fortunam a Deo petendam esse, 
 a scipso sumendam esse sapientiam. Vide Cic. de Nat. Deor. 
 lib iii, c. 36. 
 
 ' Pope's Ejisay on Man, cp. i, ver. '235. 
 
CHAP. VI. FALL OF MAN. 85 
 
 The poet farther expatiates upon the subject: 
 
 Far as creation's ample r^inge extends 
 The scaie ofsen-ual, mental powers ascends. 
 Mark h w it mounts, to man's imperial race. 
 
 From tue gn-en n»yriads in the peopled grass! 
 
 How instirict var-e^ in the grovMing swine, 
 Compar'd, ha f rea^'ning elephant! with thine: 
 'Twixt that and reason what a nice barrier, 
 For ever s^p'rate, yet for ever near*! 
 
 And he farther hints, that we ought not to think 
 it wrong, that man, made to be of this order, has 
 not a large share of reason to gnide him: 
 
 say not man's imperfect, Heav'n in fault. 
 
 Say rather man's as perfect as he ought: 
 His being measur'd to his state and place. 
 
 Presumptuous man ! the reason would'st thoj find. 
 Why form'd so weak, so little, and so blind; 
 First, if thou canst, the harder reason guess. 
 Why formM no weaker, blinder, and no less. 
 
 What would this man r would he now upward soar? 
 And, little less than angel, would be more? 
 
 . — on superior powers 
 
 Were we to press, inferior must on ours; 
 
 Or in the full creation leave a void. 
 
 Where one step broken, the great scale's destroyed. 
 
 The gen'ral order since the whole began. 
 
 Is kept in nature, and is kept in man^. 
 
 These sentiments do, I think, most clearly lead us 
 to see, that, in the reason of things, there must bq 
 
 • Pope's Essay, ep. i, ver 207, and 221. 
 5 Ibid. ver. 35—163,233. 
 
86 THE CREATION AND CHAP. VI. 
 
 somewhere in the universe a being of such, and no 
 greater powers of reason, than are here supposed 
 to belong to man. And that this is our true stan- 
 dard has been the opinion of the best writers^, and 
 has been confirmed in fact by the experience of all 
 ages*. So that to talk of man having unerring 
 reason, or of our wanting no farther instruction* 
 than a careful attendance to the result of our own 
 judgment, is a vanity, which might be sufficiently 
 exposed in the sentiment mentioned in the Book 
 of Job : F'ain man would be wise, though man be 
 horn like a wild ass's coW : such an independence 
 of understanding is a height for which we were not 
 
 * It is the sentiment expressed by Cicero, that we are not 
 creatures made able by nature, '* naturam ipsam intueri et 
 T)erspicere,eademque optima dure cursum vtae conficere;'* but 
 that we want for this purpose, what he rails rationem ac doc- 
 trinam, having only igniculos, which, if not properly fed and 
 cherished, will fail and be extingui>hed. See Cic. Tusc. 
 Quaest. lib. iii, in piincip. sup. cit. Quartus autem gradus et 
 altissiraus eorum est, qui natura boni sapientesque gignuntur: 
 quibus a principio innascitur ratio, recta constansque, quae 
 supra hominem putanda est, deoque tribuenda. Cic. de Nat- 
 Deor. lib. ii, c. 13. 
 
 ^ Our Scriptures rightly tell us, that there is no man who may 
 not sin: 1 Kings viii, 46. There is not a just man upon Earth, 
 that doeth good and may not sin: Eccles. vii, 20. The philo- 
 sophers say, Sapientiam nemo assequitur. Vide Cic. de Nat« 
 Beor. lib. iii, c. 32. 
 
 * Nam, ut nihil interest, utrum nemo valeat, an nemo possit 
 valere, sic non intelligo, quid intcrsit, utrum nemo sit sapiens, 
 an nemo esse possit. Vide Cic. ibid. 
 
 * jobxi, 12. 
 
CHAP. TI. FALL OF MAV. 8/ 
 
 made. We may think of ourselves as we please ; 
 but from the beginning to this time, even from the 
 time when Adam was brought into the world until 
 now, he that has thus absolutely trusted in his own 
 heart^ has been a JboL How peculiar then is it 
 to the nature of man, that God, as soon as he was 
 created, made to him, as Moses relates, an especial 
 revelation ? If the perfection of man could have 
 arisen merely from his reason, without doubt no 
 such revelation would have been given him ; for 
 the all- wise God does nothing superfluous or in 
 vain^ Therefore, since a revelation was in fact 
 made to man in the beginning ; hence we know, 
 that it was necessary, and that his original reason 
 was not alone sufficient for him. As to those who 
 say, that the narration of a revelation made to the 
 first man is a mere allegory and fable ; let them 
 not pretend to argue, that, if the original reason of 
 man was not alone a sufficient guide, then it must 
 follow, that God did not sufficiently provide for 
 the creature made thus imperfect; for the answei 
 hereto is, that the revelation given to Adam, and 
 intended to have been continued over and above his 
 
 ' Prov. xxTiii, 26. 
 
 * The argument used by the apostle concerning the law, 
 might, I think, be justly accommodated to the topic before 
 ^s, in words as follow : for, if there had betn any reason given 
 ^}nto Adam, such as, or so sufficient, that it might have given 
 him life, verily his righteousness would have been by his 
 reason. See Gal. iii, 21. 
 
88 THE CREATION AND FALL 01 MAN. CHAF. VI. 
 
 natural reason, would have been sufficient for 
 man's natural weakness, and have thoroughly 
 instructed him more and more unto every good 
 work, if it had not been set aside and disregarded 
 by him. 
 
CHAP. VII. 
 
 Some farther Consider at lov^ concerning the ori- 
 ginal State of our first Parents ; the Nature 
 of the first Command^ or Prohibition made to 
 them ; jnd wherein consisted the Sin of their 
 not observing it. 
 
 The point we considered in the foregoing chapter 
 was, how fdv we may reasonahly conjecture, from 
 the rank and order of being in which man was 
 formed, that he was made a creature not of abso- 
 lute independent understanding. I would here 
 observe, that a most excellent writer has hinted to 
 us this very thing. The author of the Book of 
 Ecclesiasticus enumerates those endowments with 
 which, and the direction under which God thought 
 fit to bring our first parents into the world. The 
 Lord, be says, created man of the earth — they re- 
 ceived the use of the five operations of the Lord, 
 and in the sixth place he imparted them under- 
 standing, and in the seventh speech, an interpreter 
 of the cogitations thereof: counsel, and a tongue, 
 eyes, and ears, and a heart, gave he them to under- 
 stand^. In these and the three following verses, 
 
 ' Eccliis. XTii; 1—9. 
 
go THE CREATION AND CHAP. VII. 
 
 he remarks, how God gave unto man his five 
 senses, his ability of speech and understanding. 
 But he had before observed, that when God made 
 man in the beginning, he left him in the hand of 
 his counsel^. The question is, in whose counsel 
 was man now left ? The Latin version says sui 
 consilii, his own counsel ; but very absurdly ; 
 the Greek text, is a^r}Kev olvtov ev X^^P^ Aiol- 
 €s7^i& aura' not eaure his own, but aure his, 
 i. €. God's counsel. Now this truly agrees with 
 what follows in the next verse, if man would have 
 conformed to it ; his duty was to have kept the 
 commandments, Tcai tui^iv Toir}(rai svtoxtas^. He 
 was to have paid unto God vTraxor^v rr^g jfft^swg, 
 the obedience of' faith ; which imitation is no other 
 than what is the substance of all revealed religion ; 
 that without faith it was impossible man should 
 please God* ; for, not to follow absolutely the 
 counsels of man's own heart ^ ; but to fear GoD^ 
 a7id to heep his commandments, was to have been 
 the whole of man^. This is what Moses sets be- 
 fore us, who tells us, that God made man ; but 
 over and besides making him a limng soul, and 
 creating him, as Solomon speaks, jashar, aright, 
 having nothing in him unmeet for an intelli- 
 
 ' Ecclus. XV, M.. » Ibid. 
 
 * Heb. xi, 6. 
 
 3 The following our own counsels is, in Scripture-meaning, 
 the deserting or departing from what God has rerealed, to do 
 what seemeth right in our own eyes. See Psal. Ixxi, II, &c., 
 and many other places, which might be cited. 
 
 * Eccles. xii, 13. 
 
CHAP. VII. FALL OP MAN. gi 
 
 gence of his order and rank in being ; having 
 given him senses and understanding in such measure 
 as his Maker thought fit to bestow^ : over and 
 above all, he gave him a commandment, which, 
 if he would have faithfully kept to and observed, 
 would have led him unto every thing sufficient for 
 him. But, 
 
 The difficulty, which objectors raise against in- 
 terpreting literally what Moses relates of the 
 command here said to be given, lies in their con- 
 ceiving the command itself as in nowise rationally 
 conducing to man's perfection. It is impossible, 
 they think, that such a being as God is, should 
 appoint so great a weight, of the happiness or 
 misery of mankind, to depend upon a matter in 
 itself of such little real importance, as the eating 
 
 ' Eccles. Yii, 20. His imperfect reason would have been the 
 occasion of no evil, if he had not departed from observing the 
 commandments of God. Adam's ability of reason was such as 
 it ought to be in one of his rank in being, and the important 
 thing to him was, to 
 
 Know thy own : point this kind, this due degree 
 Of blindness, weakness, Heav'n bestows on thee. 
 
 Pope, ubi sup. 
 Ht ought not to have aimed to be knowing as God, but obev- 
 fng what God commanded ; thereby to have learned and done 
 the duties of his life, but, 
 
 In reasoning pride our error lies. 
 
 All quit their sphere, and rush into the skies : 
 
 Men would be angels, angels would be gods: 
 Aspiring to be gods, if angels fell; 
 Aspiring to be angels, men rebel : 
 And who but wishes to invert the laws 
 Of order, sins against th' Eternal Cause. 
 
 Pope, ubi sup. 
 
92 THE CREATION AND CHAP. VU, 
 
 or not eating of the fruit of a partlcalar tree^. 
 Here I confess they start, what ought to be exa- 
 mined very considerately, and is not to be so 
 hastily determined as some imagine; who, I 
 think, add to, instead of removing the stumbling- 
 block by their unaccountable rntiocinations. They 
 say, " God had laid the whole stress and weight 
 of his authority upon this one command : if," say 
 they, "you suppose a case so circumstanced, that if 
 a son's disobedience to a father, in some one par-, 
 ticular, in itself of no moment, will infer not 
 merely a neglect, but even a contempt of his pa- 
 rent's authority ; be the matter of the oifence what 
 it will, will it not deserve the severest resentment? 
 What the son thinks a trivial thing, and in com- 
 mon estimation may pass as such, he will presume 
 his father will think so too ; but had his father 
 expressly laid the whole weight of his authority 
 upon this one thing ; had he expressly said before- 
 hand, ' Son, whatever else you may think to do to 
 please or show regard to me, shall have no accept- 
 ance, unless in this one easy thing, which I make 
 and appoint to be the test of your duty, you care- 
 fully obey me ; for, upon your failure herein, I 
 will most absolutely treat you as a rebel' — should 
 the son, after all this, presume to offend in this 
 one point, would any reasonable man plead that it 
 is excusable ?" I confess, such a defence as this 
 
 * Id utiqiie videtur gravissimum et aspenimum quod gentem 
 humanam plexisse, irao perdidisse dicatur Deus ob rem exi- 
 guam. Burnet, Archaeol. p. 29G. 
 
CHAP. VII. FALL OF MAN* 93 
 
 shocks me exceedingly ; for it is obvious that the 
 unbeliever will readily reply, *' Should a man build 
 the most magnificent habitation in the world, and 
 add to it in estate every desirable possession ; but 
 in some one room of his house should set up a 
 piece of wood, with this strict prohibition to his 
 son : ^ As a mark of mv authority, as a test of your 
 obedience to me, yoar father, I command that this 
 one piece of wood be never touched by you : for I 
 have made it my will, that if ever you touch it, an 
 absolute disherison shall take place against you 
 and your posterity for ever — should the son now 
 offend herein, 1 will not," says the free-thinker, 
 " ask so much as a question about the son : I give 
 him up for a fool, to receive the fruits of his trifling 
 impertinence. But I must inquire concerning the 
 father : what may posterity, considering such a 
 ruin of a w^hole family unto all generations, think 
 of him, who made so trifling an injunction so 
 peremptory and so penal ?" 
 
 It will not be admitted that we write w^orthily of 
 God, if we suppose that he gave Adam a com- 
 mandment of no real moment ; only to make his 
 neglect, if he should happen to neglect it, most 
 terribly destructive. God is not man, that he 
 should lay the stress of his authority in caprice ; 
 upon a matter of no moment, whether it be ob- 
 jserved or not. Therefore, if we would give him 
 the honour due unto his name, it will be proper to 
 inquire, considering the nature of man, such as 
 God had made him ; whether such a command, as 
 
94 THE CREATION AND CHAf», VII. 
 
 Moses describes in the prohibition of the forbidden 
 tree, was not highly fit, I might say, necessary to 
 be given him ? and whether, this command being 
 broken, it could otherwise be, in the reason and 
 nature of things, as God had made them, unless 
 he had created them anew, than that the punish- 
 ment and ruin threatened for man must take 
 place ; for otherwise, he might not have had a way 
 back to honour, glory, and immortality. If we 
 can, in such examination as this, search and find 
 any grounds to believe that God, in what Moses 
 writes, had dispensed to our first parents no other* 
 wise, than what was suitable and agreeable to their 
 natures, we shall see great reason for all that is 
 set before us concerning the proceedings of his 
 providence, as Moses has related them. 
 
 The prophet Jeremiah argued with the Jews, 
 that God spake not unto their fathers — concerning 
 burnt offerings and sacrifices : but this thing com- 
 manded he them, saying, obey my voice, and I will 
 be your God, and ye shall be my people^. Hence 
 arises a directing intimation, that the great end 
 and design of the legal institutions were to disci- 
 pline and to exercise the Jews to obey God. In 
 like manner, when God thought fit to make the 
 covenant of circumcision with Abraham ; the declared 
 design of what was instituted was, that Abraham 
 should walk before God, and thereby be perfect\ 
 Thus we are to consider the commandment given 
 
 ^ Jerem. vii, 22, 23. * Gen. xvii, 1. 
 
CHAP. VIL FALL OF MAN. 95 
 
 to Adam concerning the forbidden tree ; not as if 
 God spake to him concerning a tree, merely to 
 preserve it inviolate ; but herein he commanded 
 him this one thing, namely, obey my voice indeed ; 
 to do whatever I shall declare to be the duties of 
 thy life. Not that God required, that man should 
 obey his voice merely for the sake of, and to lay a 
 stress upon his own authority ; but, because it was 
 necessary for man, not to be left to his own gui- 
 dance, but to be kept in the hand of God's counsel. 
 Adam, when created, was not so made, that 
 directions absolutely right in themselves would 
 occur from his own judgment of things, for the 
 whole guidance of his life; and therefore God 
 gave him a command not to eat of a particular 
 tree, as he afterwards gave to Abraham the com- 
 mand of circumcision. As Abraham received the 
 command of circumcision to be the sign^ a seal of 
 the righteousness offaith^, so Adam received the 
 command of not eating of the forbidden tree to be 
 a sign, an attestation, a standing and inviolate 
 memorial, that he was not to follow his own in- 
 ventions, but truly and faithfully to obey God. 
 
 If we consider the commandment, concerning 
 the forbidden tree, in this light ; the narration will 
 be greatly cleared from those difficulties, which are 
 surmised to be in what Moses hath said. In every 
 re\'elation, which God hath made unto men, it is 
 
 * Rom. iv, 11, 
 
96 THE CREATION AND CHAP. VII. 
 
 observable, that some positive institution or insti- 
 tutions are enjoined, for the receivers of such reve- 
 lations truly to pay unto God, in obeying them, 
 the obedience of faith ; i. e. to believe and do what- 
 ever God is pleased to declare or demand of them. 
 Thus we receive the two ordinances, whicb Christ 
 hath appointed us in the New Testament, baptism, 
 and the communion of bread and wine. Thus the 
 Jews w^ere bound to observe the rites, and to make 
 the sacrifices of the law by Moses ; even as Abra- 
 ham before received the command of circumcision'. 
 And thus unto Adam was given the injunction 
 not to eat of that particular tree, which was called 
 the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Of which 
 command we can no more say, that God did not 
 literally enjoin our first parents not to eat of that tree, 
 than we can say, that he did not literally enjoin Abra- 
 ham the circumcision of the flesh; or the Israelites 
 to offer the sacrifices, which are directed in the 
 law ; or us Christians the washing of water in 
 baptism, and the eating of bread and drinking of 
 wine in remembrance of our Saviour, as they are 
 enjoined by him. Upon the whole, the inter- 
 preting literally what Moses says of the prohibited 
 tree, and afterwards of the tree of life, does not 
 make the texts that speak of then shag STny^ua-ecog^; 
 it sets up no singular or peculiar notion in religion, 
 w^hich has nothing like it in the other Scriptures : 
 
 ^ Rom. iv, 11. * 2 Pet. i, 20. 
 
CHAP. Vir. FALL OF MAN. 97 
 
 but rather it is so truly ;cara dvoCKoytav rr^g 7ri^?tug^, 
 hath such an agreement with what is read of a 
 like nature J'rom faith to faith, in all the subse- 
 quent revelations, which God hath been pleased to 
 make unto men ; that it approves itself in showing 
 that the way of God to lead man through tlie 
 world hath been in this point none other than one 
 and the same in principle, though diversified in 
 circumstances, as the different ages might require, 
 from the very beginning down to these last times, 
 and is to continue the same until our state here be 
 fulfilled. 
 
 The objectors to a literal interpretation of 
 Moseses account of the two particular trees of the 
 garden, do therefore vainly think, that they have 
 an insuperable difficulty in asking, How could 
 there be in nature trees which could bear such 
 fruits, as seem, by a literal interpretation of Moses, 
 to be ascribed to the tree of knowledge, and the 
 tree of life ? For if any one should ask us con- 
 cerning baptism. What sort of water can that be, 
 which can give the washing of regeneration ? or 
 concerning the Lord's Supper, What can we con- 
 ceive of natural nourishment or juices in that 
 bread and wine, from the eating and drinking of 
 which we may be made partakers of the body and 
 blood of Christ ? Would any one, who thinks 
 soberly upon the benefits ascribed to the doing 
 these things, as God hath commanded them, find 
 himself at a loss to answer in these matters ? Or, 
 
 ' Rom. xii, 6. 
 VOL. IV. H 
 
98 THE CREATION AND CHAP. VII. 
 
 would he apprehended that the things so com- 
 iTianded are a mere allegory; and that we are not 
 enjoined literally to use real water^ or to eat and 
 drink real bread and real wine r Rather, how 
 much more reasonably may we see and apprehend, 
 that as we eat the bread and drink the wine, which 
 God hath commanded, in assurance of the faith, 
 that, if we obey God, it will be unto us according 
 to his word, to give us eternal life, to raise us up 
 at the last day^ ; even so might Adam, having 
 done the will of God, when God should direct it, 
 have literally put forth his hand, and taken of th§^ 
 tree of life, and eaten and have lived for ever". 
 And as we are to be washed with water as Christ 
 hath required, and God will give us of his Holy 
 Spirit, both to think and to do, above what we 
 otherwise would be able of our own sufficiency, 
 presumptuously assuming to stand in our own 
 strength without him ; so if Adam, literally speak- 
 ing, had not eaten of the forbidden tree, he would 
 have continued in the hand of God's counsel, and 
 not have corrupted himself and his way before God. 
 Not that meat, or abstaining from any kind of 
 meat, recommendeth unto God; not that the wash- 
 ing or not washing with water is in itself any thing; 
 rather, we may, and Adam and Eve might have 
 eaten, or not eaten, and therein have been neither 
 the better nor the worse, had there not been the 
 commandment of God. The tree prohibited was, 
 I apprehend, like other trees of the garden, plea- 
 
 • John vi, 54. "' Gen. iii, 22. 
 
CHAP. VII. FALL OF MAN. 99 
 
 sant to the eyes, and good foi^ food ; but the point 
 to be considered was, whether, in observing the 
 prohibition not to eat of this one tree, the man was 
 not to keep himself in the hand of God's counsel^ 
 not to take upon himself to be his own independent 
 director ; but to have obeyed absolntely, wherein- 
 soever God was pleased to give him special direc- 
 tions, to live according to every word which should 
 proceed from the mouth of GoD^ If man had 
 persevered herein, as God gave him one law for a 
 relative daty^, he would, in like manner, as occa- 
 sion required, have given him others also, which 
 otherwise, through man's inexperience of the nature 
 of things, he would have erred in investigating for 
 himself; until God's word having thus been a lan- 
 tern to his feet and a light to his paths, man might, 
 through it, have attained a right understanding, and 
 having, as long as, and whereinsoever he might 
 want them, been guided by God's counsels^, be 
 thereby made gradually wise, meet, and fit to be 
 received unto God in glory. But on the other 
 hand, man rejecting this, the counsel of God to- 
 wards him, and taking upon himself to judge abso- 
 lutely for himself; hence it came to pass, that not 
 having a light of actual knowledge of his own, 
 sufficient to preserve him from error, he would find, 
 that however God had created him (jashar) able, 
 under the directions designed him, to walk aright 
 
 * Deut. viii, 3 ; Matt, iv, 4. 
 
 » I have before observed, that God gave our first parents the 
 law, that man and wife should not be twain, but one flesh. 
 Mark x, 8, vide quae sup. 
 
 • Psalm Ixxiii, 2'k 
 
 H 2 
 
100 THE CREATION AND FALL OF MAN. CHAP, Vll. 
 
 in the duties of bis life ; yet now, not keeping 
 himself within this guidance, but following his 
 own thoughts, he would become a creature full of 
 error, and be in the end both wicked and vain. 
 We must conceive that God not only sees us, but 
 sees through us ; knows us, and knows the point 
 upon which the issue of our lives will turn. He 
 thus knew the Israelites, when he commanded them 
 to expel the Canaanites out of their land ; that, if 
 this one thing was not carefully observed and per- 
 formed by them, however they might resolve to 
 keep his law, yet they certainly would be drawn 
 away into idolatry by the remains of that people. 
 The Israelites would not apprehend this, but made 
 the experiment ; and the event proved to the full 
 what had been foretold^ In like manner, how easy 
 is it to see, that God might know, that the active and 
 busy faculty he had given our first parents, which 
 we call reason, not given in a greater measure than 
 he had endowed them with^, would never have been 
 kept within its proper bounds, unless at first exer- 
 cised under some such especial command as he 
 thought fit to give them ; and therefore gave such 
 command, to be the standing inviolate memento of 
 their lives, that, whether they ate, or whether they 
 drank, or whatsoeve?^ tliey did\ they should in no- 
 thing turn aside from what God commanded, 
 either to the right hand, or to the left^. 
 
 ^ See Exodus xxiii, 33 ; Judges ii, &c. 
 2 Molum istum celeremcogitationis, acumen, solertianai quam 
 lationem vocaraus. Cic. de Nat, Deor. lib. iii, c. 27* 
 * 1 Cot. X, 31. * Deut. V, 32. 
 
CHAP. VIII. 
 
 Concerning the Situation of the Garden of Eden, 
 
 The writers, who contend that Moses only de- 
 signed an instructive apologue, and not a real 
 history, would represent, that his very description 
 of the situation of the garden of Eden hints this to 
 us. They set before us the variety of opinions, 
 which different writers have had concerning^ the 
 situation of this garden' ; and would thence argue, 
 that most probably no such spot of ground ever 
 really existed. Plato, they tell us, feigned Aiog 
 xTjTov, a Jupiter's garden, wherein he relates how 
 Porus and Penia became the parents of Eros^ 
 Plato formed a mythologic tale, of the origin of 
 the principle, which he termed Eros, or l.ove ; 
 and supposes, that a garden, which he calls Ju- 
 piter's, had been the scene of the fable narrated by 
 him. Of this sort they would have Moses's gar- 
 den of Eden, a fictitious scene, the supposed place 
 
 * Dr. Middleton justly remarks, that it would be tedious to 
 collect the strange variety of conceits, which have been in- 
 Yented about the single article of a paradise ; the reader may 
 find enough of them in Burnet's Theory, both the Latin and 
 Kngiish. 
 
 ' Plato in Sympos. 
 
102 THE CREATION AND CHAP. VIll. 
 
 where Moses's mythological account of the origin of 
 sin was transacted ; no more a real spot of ground, 
 than Jupiter s garden, in which Plato represented 
 love to have had its origin. They say, divers of 
 the early fathers of the Christian church under- 
 stood Moses in this manner ; and they cite a very 
 learned one, Ensehius in particular, for this 
 opinion. To this we may well answer, that what 
 sentiments some of the fathers sometimes had of 
 divers parts of Moses's writings is not very ma- 
 terial. Our inquiry is, what we may reasonably 
 admit from the Scriptures to inform us concerning 
 the matter before us. However, I would observe, 
 that Eusebius certainly did not mean what is in- 
 ferred from him. We find, in our editions of him, 
 these words, M-wfrewg tcoltol rivag aTToppriTsg T^oyovg — 
 'FivoL TTOLpaosKTou ysyovsuon <f)avTog^. From hence it is 
 said, that Eusebius represents Moses as having 
 written of his paradise mi/thologicall7/ ; whereas I 
 apprehend, that whoever will duly examine Euse- 
 bius will see, that he here hinted Plato's sentiment 
 of Moses, but not his own. Eusebius represents 
 Plato as an allegorical writer, and the passage 
 cited from him has some defect*, or is obscurely 
 
 3 Vide Euseb. Pr<ep. Evang. lib. xii, c 11. Hunc hortum 
 Dei apud Mosem cund^m esse volunt nonnulli ac Aios tcijitov, 
 Jovis hortum apud Platonem, et eandem esse utrobique histo- 
 riam vel allegoriam xara ttvocs diropptjrovs Xoyovs Mwasujs, se- 
 cundum arcanos sensus Mosis inquit Eusebius. Burnet's 
 Archseol. p. 87. 
 
 * I should suspect that Eusebius wrotCj Mvoasios wg •aoLta riva.g 
 ci7toppy}tou$ Xoyov$ — (pavto$. Mosis, quasi secundum quosdam 
 
CHAP. VIII. FALL OF MAN. 103 
 
 worded ; but it seein« to me, that he aimed to set 
 himself avr/xpu^ Mivcrsws ; in a point of view over 
 4gain»?t Moses ; to appear such a writer as he 
 (Plato) took Moses to have been before him. Ac- 
 cordingly, though Plato changed the facts related 
 by Moses ^, and did not narrate the very same 
 which he read in Moses's writings, but adopted 
 others ; yet be thought he would write as elegantly 
 of Porus and Penia, as he deemed Moses had 
 written of Adam and Eve ; reputing Moses, as well 
 as himself, (pavrog xajTOL riva^ aTopprjTsg Xoye^, 
 writing not as a historian, but in the mythic style 
 of allegory. The sentiment of the whole period 
 cited from Eusebius is different, if we understand 
 Mwcscog (pavrog to mean, that Moses really wrote in 
 allegory, and that Eusebius so thought of him, 
 from what it would appear, taking those words as 
 referring to Plato, and intending only that Plato 
 so thought of Moses. The Greek sentence may, I 
 think, admit the latter sense ^; an English reader 
 may be apt to catch the former : and Dr. Burnet 
 
 lircanos sensus loquentis. The meaning of the phice would 
 thus be clear ; but perhaps ihe unskilful transcriber dropped 
 the second wf, not seeing the meaning of it. 
 
 * Ta pTiiLxra, fjisrinroir^cras o IlAarct'v. 
 
 • The words of Eusebius, in our present copies of hiin, are, 
 Mujcsw; xocra, rivccg cciropprirovg Xoyovg fv r?) dpx'^ r-rjs -roy xoa-y.ov 
 cvroiorews ^lov riva, Yla.ta.lsio-C/V ysyoveyai (pavTOs, xa'v [x* fv} 
 TQvTwrov dv^pouTfov Tj-jrarTyo-^a* Six rr^s yvvxi-KOc -rrpos rov d^sujg, 
 ci'/riKfivs fxovoyov^i tx fTjjxara jicf raTTCiTjcra^ o 11/ arwv, siraxo-jcov 
 qIx iv SupTocrw y^m avrog aAAijyo^ay rs^^^xsy. Euseb. Pra?p. 
 Evang. lib. xii, c. 11. 
 
104 THE CREATION AND CHAP. VIIL 
 
 hereupon endeavours, in a manner unworthy a 
 scholar^, to palm the former upon us. We may 
 fully see the opinion of Eusebiiis concerning Plato's 
 imitating Moses in the chapter following what is 
 cited. Eusebius tells us, how Plato formed his fable 
 of the Androgynes, from what Moses had related 
 of GoD*s making: the woman out of the man\ 
 Plato changed the fact related by Moses, and used 
 a fiction, as he thought, similar to it, and reputed 
 it as warrantable ; supposing that Moses herein, 
 as well as himself, had written allegory. But 
 Eusebius hereupon tells us expressly, that Plato 
 did not understand Moses's intention^, and was 
 ignorant of his way of speaking^. Here then we 
 come to Eusebius's sentiment concerning both 
 Plato and Moses : he plainly shows, that he knew 
 Moses had written fact, and history, but thought 
 Plato mistook him, and supposed him an allegorist; 
 and that, in writing in that stile, he was an imi- 
 tator of him. Accordingly, we ought so to con- 
 strue what was before cited from Eusebius, as to 
 make it agree with what he has thus plainly de- 
 clared. 
 
 But to return from whence 1 have digressed : 
 the writers, who do not admit, in a literal sense, 
 what Moses relates of the garden of Eden, remark, 
 that the ignorance of all ages, concerning its true 
 place and situation, must be deemed a considerable 
 
 ' Euseb. Praep. Evang. lib. xii, c. 12. 
 
 ® M->) cvvsis 6 riAarwy oTfoia sipyiroti ^lavoiou Euseb. ibid. 
 
 '^ Av)Xo^ l^Bv iftv 8K CLy^^y^(yoL^ t'ov Aoyov. Id, ibid. 
 
CHAP. VIII. FALL OF MAN. 105 
 
 argument, that no such real place ever existed'. 
 It is not likely, they say, but that some of Adam's 
 early posterity must have found in the world some 
 traces of the mansion of their first parents, if so 
 remarkable a place of their abode had ever been ; 
 but, if it be in fact true, that, choose where we will, 
 we can hear of no spot of ground so situate and 
 bounded as Moses describes, why should we think 
 his garden any other than a mere scene of fancy, 
 which no real geography could ever mark out upon 
 the face of the whole earth^? But these writers 
 are in all this guilty of the most shameful careless- 
 ness. They first call for an inquiry, whether any 
 of Adam's posterity could ever trace out any marks 
 of the situation of the place where Adam first 
 lived ? and then, overlooking, that, ages after 
 Adam, Moses gave his contemporaries a very par- 
 ticular designation of it, they run away to a mo- 
 dern disquisition, whether we can now find charts 
 of the world, that may perfectly agree with the 
 descriptions of Moses ? But the best method we 
 can take to clear the whole of this inquiry will be 
 to examine, 1. Whether we can reasonably admit, 
 that any situation of places in the world before the 
 flood could possibly be found the same in the jposU 
 diluvian Earth. 2. To examine whether Moses does, 
 or does not, settle the boundaries of his garden, 
 
 * See Middleton's Essay upon the allegerical and literal in- 
 terpretation. 
 
 ' Middleton's Examination of the Lord Bishop of London's 
 Discourses, p. 133. 
 
106 THK CREATION' AND CHAP. VIII. 
 
 such as they were known to be after the flood. 
 3. Whether it appears, that the site of the garden, 
 as Moses describes it, was known in the world be- 
 fore, in, and after, the lime of Moses. 4. To de- 
 termine what his description of it precisely is. 5. 
 Whether there has not happened, J^ince his time, 
 such alterations in the countries bordering upon its 
 situation, as may give us reason to think, that we 
 cannot now ascertain the local spot described by 
 him ; yet, notwithstancing all the changes in the 
 face of the Earth, that we may still find the country 
 in which Moses's garden of Eden may be reason- 
 ably concluded to have had its situation. 
 
 I. Our first inquiry ought to be, whether any 
 spot of ground in the first world could possibly be 
 found again after the flood r Here we have to 
 combat with two opinions : one, that the first 
 world was made so very different from the postdi- 
 luvian Earth, that it cannot be thought there was 
 such a situation in it as Moses describes. The other, 
 that if there bad been originally such a primitive 
 situation, the earth must have suffered such altera- 
 tion by the flood, that, after that catastrophe, no 
 traces of what had been before could ever be found. 
 For the former of these we may read Dr. Burnet's 
 Theory ; that there were no hills ; no such rivers 
 in the first world as now water the earths But 
 we shall find this a mere fancy of his philosophy, 
 into which he would not have fallen had he kept 
 
 ''Theorv, b. i, c. 5. 
 
CHAP. VIII. FALL OF MAN. 107 
 
 to what he proposed should conduct his inquiries, 
 namely, the light he might have had from the 
 holy Scriptures'*. The sacred writers have ever 
 accounted mountains and hills as coeval with the 
 world. The writer of the Book of Job was of this 
 opinion ; who speaks of the first man as made be- 
 fore the ] tills ^ ; not meaning before them, in point 
 of time; for the expression is, made in the sight 
 of the hills^ ; that is, when as yet not men, but 
 the hills only were spectators of his coming 
 into being. The expression intimates what the 
 Psalmist also suggests, that the mountains were 
 brought forth as soon as the earth was made; for 
 to these he appeals as to the most ancient things^ 
 to argue from them, that He, who was before them^ 
 is Gon ; Before the mountains were brought forth, 
 or ever thou hadst formed the earth, even from 
 everlasting to everlasting thou ai^t God'. Agreea- 
 bly hereto, Moses speaks of hills, which had not 
 their rise from the deluge, but were more ancient; 
 were the heights of the earth, over and above the 
 loftiest of which the waters of the flood, he tells us, 
 prevailed fifteen cubits upwards ; to cover all the 
 high hills then under Heaven ^ But it was in 
 Dr. Burnet's imagination, that a fluid mass, rolled 
 round upon its axis, might gradually throw out- 
 ward its earthy particles, and become incrusted 
 
 * Adducamus in concilium naturam et rationem, praeeunte 
 <emper, qua licet, sacrarura literarum lumine. Tell. Theor. 
 Sac. lib. i, c. 5. 
 
 5 Job. XV, 6. *K!i?n^ ^iSP. Ibid. 
 
 7 Psalffli. xc, 2. • Gen. Tii, 19. 
 
103 THE CREATION AND CHAP. VIII. 
 
 over a huge body of waters, and growing more and 
 more firm and compact, have its surface naturally 
 formed in an even oval ^ But how small a mote 
 became here a beam in our author's eye ; from his 
 not considering the greatness of this work of God I 
 He does not treat (though he is not willing to 
 allow his conceptions to be so narrow') his inun- 
 dune e^^ suitably to the real amplitude of the 
 world". Geometry shows, that the height of the 
 highest mountains of the earth bears no greater 
 proportion to a semidiameter of our globe, than as 
 about 1 to 86o\ Therefore, though to us many of 
 the mountains are vast ol)jects, as they take up 
 great room in, or, if we approach them, more than 
 fill the little orb of our sight ; yet they are in truth 
 no greater prominence on the face of the Earth, 
 than an excrescence of about the one hundred and 
 forty- third part of an inch high would be upon a ball a 
 yard round. Our sight is not minute enough to reach 
 so insensible an irregularity; and were it even large 
 enough to take a comprehensive view of a whole 
 hemisphere of the Earth, it could not spy so little an 
 object as the hugest mountain*. Had our author 
 
 » Theory, vol. i, c. 4. * Id. c. II. 
 
 * Id. c. 5. 'Tis the doctrine of the mundane eg^. I do not 
 know any symbolical doctrine so universally entertained by 
 the Mystae. Id. b. ii, c. 8. 
 
 'Varen. Geogr. sec. iii, c. ix, prop. vii. 
 
 * Varenius's proposition is, Montium altitudo ad semidiame- 
 trum telluris non habet sensibilem proportioncm, sive adeo 
 cxiguam, ut rotunditati telluris non magis officiat, quam punc- 
 turn in globi artilicialiii superficie notatum. 
 
CHAP. VIII. FALL OF MAN. IO9 
 
 thus considered the bigness of the Earth, cavities 
 for the seas impressed upon the formed orb of it, 
 to receive the gathering together of the waters, 
 which were to run from among the hills, and the 
 mountains and hills raised upon the face of the 
 antediluvian globe, might have been deemed by 
 him to he no more than what the 6 ^eop yso/xer^oiv, 
 the divine workmaster, who gave every thing its 
 due weight and measure, knev/ was proper to ba- 
 lance the parts of the Earth one against another, to 
 give a due libration to our globe. 
 
 But the other opinion is, that, if the Earth was 
 indeed originally made such, as to have hills and 
 rivers like what are mentioned by Moses ; yet that 
 such alterations of our globe must have happened 
 from the universal deluge, that any of the same 
 mountains and rivers which were before the flood, 
 cannot be supposed to have remained, or be found 
 after it. This sentiment is thought supportable 
 either by considering, 1. What a fracture must 
 have happenened in the Earth, to bring forth the 
 abyss of waters produced by God's breaking up 
 the fountains of the deep^ ; or, 2. The strata of 
 the relics of a flood, which are said to lie every- 
 M'here deep in all parts of the present Earth. 
 
 1. Moses tells us, that at the deluge all the 
 fountains of the great deep were broken up^. Our 
 ingenious theorist, having observed what a quan- 
 tity of water must otherwise have been created, to 
 
 5 Gen. vii; 11. ^ Ibid. 
 
110 THE CREATION AND CHAP. VIII* 
 
 fill a Sphere extended fifteen cubits every way 
 higher than the summit of tfie highest hills ^, re- 
 presents the old world as having been arched over 
 a vast abyss of waters inclosed around its centre, 
 laid up here as in a store house^, contained as in 
 a bag^ against the time when God called them 
 forth to destroy the world that then was. God 
 then, he says, broke up the fountains of this deep; 
 caused the compass of the world set over it\ t. e. 
 the Earth^ established upon these floods, to be 
 broken down, and in huge fragments to fall into 
 this vast cavern, whereby the waters, forced out of 
 it, were added to the rain of forty days, to drown 
 the world. He adds, in lively descriptions, that 
 the face of the present Earth, overspread with 
 broken mountains, craggy precipices, ragged and 
 mis-shapen rocks, looks apparently to be such a 
 world of ruins ; and shows us, that we live upon 
 the remains of a thus fractured globe. He con- 
 cludes, that if we admit his hypothesis, or such a 
 disruption of the Earth, we cannot expect to find 
 rivers now, as they were before; the general source 
 is, he says, changed, and their channels are all 
 broken up^. It is surprising that this ingenious 
 author did not reflect, that even his own hypothesis 
 does not make it certain that the ruins he supposes 
 occupied the face of the whole Earth. Might not 
 
 ' Theory of the Earth, vol. i, c. 2. 
 
 * ibid. c. 7 ; Psalm xxxiii, 7 ; » Ibid. 
 
 ' Psalm, ciixxvi, 6. • Psalm xxiT> 2. 
 
 3 Theory of the Earth, vol. h b. ii, c. 7. 
 
CHAP. VIII. FALL OF MAN. 1 1 1 
 
 divers enormous frae^ments fall into the abyss re- 
 presented by him, in many different parts of the 
 world, and for vast and extensive tracts of country 
 together : and yet in other parts vast plains, and 
 a well watered champaign, snch as are found, and 
 have been found in all ages in many countries, 
 have remained not disfigured, as not having suf- 
 fered, in these ruins ? The disruption of the 
 world was local, here and there in places, as the 
 rocky precipices are found to be, which are scat- 
 tered over, but do not everywhere cover, the whole 
 face of the Earth. And if Moses's Eden was in a 
 tract of country, which did not break and fall in 
 such disjointed fragments into the deep, its primi- 
 tive situation might remain, and be well described 
 by him in the postdiluvian world. In like 
 manner, 
 
 2. If we examine what is offered by others con- 
 cerning the several strata in the bowels of the 
 Earth, occasioned, as they represent, by a universal 
 deluge ; we shall find nothing in their speculations, 
 to prove that Moses might not be able to describe 
 the local situation of the garden of Eden, by such 
 boundaries as might really exist in the postdiluvian 
 Earth. 
 
 Some writers speak of shells and exuvide of 
 fishes, of teeth and bones of some animals, often 
 found buried under the surface ; many times deep 
 in the bowels of the present Earth ; and sometimes 
 inclosed even within the mass of the most solid 
 stones, or beds of minerals. They suppose that 
 
4 
 
 1X2 THE CEEATION AND CkAF. VIIl. 
 
 the Earth, at the universal dehige, was so long 
 soaked in the water which overflowed it, that the 
 crnstation or concretion of all its parts was ahso- 
 lately loosened, and the whole orb liquidated into 
 a universal fiuor. In this, trees, animals, fishes, 
 and all sorts of vegetables, not of a contexture, 
 such as that water was a proper menstruum to dis- 
 solve, were variously tossed about and carried, 
 until, when God was pleased to quiet the flioods, 
 and the agitations of the waters became a dead 
 calm, things began regularly to subside. They 
 suppose the earth to concrete again^ and the bodies 
 rolling here and there in the turbid and thick 
 waters, to sink and lodge deeper or nearer the 
 surface of the accrescing earth, in proportion to 
 their specific gravities. Then that the bed of 
 earth, in which they became thus situated, bar* 
 dening daily, suitably to the nature of its respective 
 soil, some strata became in time a chalk ; others 
 vegetated or were concocted to stone ; to ore of 
 minerals in concretions of various sorts, such as 
 might be formed according to the different nature 
 of the parts of which they were compounded : 
 that the undissolved bodies, which subsided, and 
 rested where the surrounding matter answered 
 their gravity and sustained them, became, us that 
 hardened, inclosed in it; and are therefore, where- 
 ever the earth is ransacked down to the beds 
 where they lie, found sometimes whole and entire, 
 where no air has been introduced to loosen the 
 contexture of their parts, or any menstruum has 
 
T^l. 4.J'axn^ J7S. 
 
CHAP. VIII. FALL OF MAN. llS 
 
 been generated, to corrode and dissolve them. 
 And many times, where the shells or animals are 
 dissolved and gone, such a print appears in the 
 yielding and soft substance of the strata where 
 they lay, as to exhibit even in ^vhat now are the 
 hardest stones, impressions of various kinds, more 
 perfect than the best matrices which the highest 
 art of founderv could ever have made to cast their 
 forms in. In this manner they suppose that the 
 liquidated earth, being full of all that j)erished in 
 it, has gradually become again a round lump, pre- 
 cipitated to the centre of the waters in which it 
 was immerged. And they say, that after this sub- 
 sidence, God raised the earth again above the 
 waters by breaking the round orb, and elevating 
 some parts into hills, making deep channels for 
 rivers and seas, and thereby draining great tracts 
 to be dry land for a new habitable world. They 
 assign this to be the reason, why in some moun- 
 tains, and sides of hills', the relics are found lying 
 in lines perpendicular, and not, as in other parts 
 of the earth, in horizontal strata*. These monn- 
 tains, they say, vv'ere raised up from their flat and 
 recumbent situation, set as it were on edge, so as 
 to have what originally was their horiz^ontal sur- 
 face now placed sloping or perpendicular to the 
 horizon, and accordingly to have their whole con- 
 tents in a like situation. In this manner we are 
 apt to think ourselves able, speculatively, to de- 
 
 * See Woodvvard*6 Theory. 
 VOL. IV. I 
 
114 THE CREATION AND CHAP. VIII* 
 
 stroy and make a world. But whether in fact 
 these things were thus done, must he more than 
 douhted hy any one who attends to the history of 
 Moses. If the earth, within six generations of 
 Adam, was found to abound in such ore of metals, 
 as could employ every artificer in brass and iron, 
 of which we read Tubal-Cain was an early in- 
 structor*; we cannot conceive that the whole 
 globe had been, at the Flood, of so loose and 
 dissoluble a contexture, that forty days' rain, and 
 the waters which came from the great deep, 
 should altogether melt it away. And if, as an 
 ingenious friend observed to me, in a conversation 
 upon this subject, the dove which Noah sent out 
 the second lime from the ark, came to him in the 
 evening, and, lo ! in her wcuth was an olive leaf 
 pluckt off, so Noah knew that the waters were 
 abated ; some trees, at least, which were before 
 the Flood, stood their ground, and therefore their 
 ground was not absolutely washed away from them. 
 Their summits or tops of boughs appeared as the 
 flood decreased, for the dove to alight on, and to 
 bear away the spoils of them. 
 
 The world, such as it subsided during the in- 
 crease of the Flood, such it appeared again in the 
 parts where the ark rested, rising by degrees out of 
 the waters ; the summits of trees upon the hills, 
 from one of which Noah's dove plucked an olive 
 leaf, emerged first ; the tops of hills next became 
 
 * Gen, iv, 22. 
 
CHAP. VIII. FALL OF MAN. 115 
 
 visible ; the earth, and what was upon it, came 
 gradually into sight, until the face of the ground 
 was dry. The heathen poet seems to describe 
 this great event more suitably to what the provi- 
 dence of God caused to be the fact, than our 
 modern philosophers have done. Ovid tells us, 
 that upon the abating of the Flood, 
 
 Flumina subsidunt, colles exire Tidentur, 
 Surgit humus ; crescunt loca decrescentibus undls: 
 Postque diem — nudata cacumina silvae 
 Ostendunt, limumque tenent in froiide relictum, 
 Kedditus orbis erat. 
 
 Ovid. Met. lib. i. 
 
 The world was restored to the remnant of man- 
 kind ; not a new world, created over again, upon 
 a total dissolution of the former ; but a globe, 
 which, though the waters left everywhere sufficient 
 marks of an inundation, was in nowise so entirely 
 stripped of its trees, its herbs, and all its other 
 garniture, that the sons of Noah could not know 
 it to be the same, or could think it absolutely an- 
 other Earth. 
 
 We may well account for all the phasnomena of 
 which our naturalists are so full, without running 
 the length of their imagination for a solution. If 
 we consider the accounts and effects of many lesser 
 inundations, which have happened in divers parts 
 of the world, we may explain such effects as are 
 mentioned by the poet : 
 
 Vidi ego, quae quondam fuerat solidissima tellus 
 Esse fretum, vidi factas ex asquore terras : 
 
 I 2 
 
nb THE CREATION AND CUXP. tltU 
 
 Hi procul a pclago conchas jacuere marinae, 
 Et vetus inventa est in montibus anchora summis: 
 Quodque fuit campus vallem decursus aquarum 
 Fecit, et eluvie nions est deductus in a^quor. 
 
 Ovid. Met. lib. xr. 
 
 Great tracts, which were formerly dry land, may 
 be now in the sea ; and much, of what the waters 
 formerly covered, is in many parts of the world 
 become dry and habitable ground. Tlie shells of 
 sea-fish are often seen in parts very remote from 
 any seas, and ancient anchors have been found 
 upon the tops of mountains :• a flow of waters has 
 gullied plains into deep valleys ; and hills have 
 been washed do\^^n, and borne atvay mto the ocean. 
 
 Our own country might afford many demon- 
 strative facts of this nature. In the levels of 
 Cambridgeshire there are many reasons to think, 
 that there was formerly a surface, which now lies 
 buried some yards deep under the present soil. 
 The bottom of some rivers show it^; and in setting 
 down a sluice there has been found, sixteen feet 
 deep, a smith's forge and the tools thereunto be* 
 longing, with several horseshoes. At Whittlesey, 
 in that county, in digging through the moor, at 
 eight feet deep, they came, we are told, to a per- 
 fect soil of what is called sword ground. Timber 
 trees of several kinds, it is said, lie deeply buried 
 in other places ; and, in some part?, skeletons of 
 fishes, whole and entire, lie many feet underground 
 
 * See Dugdale's History of Embanking, 
 
CHAP. vm. FALL OF MAN. 117 
 
 in a silt. From all these appearances our natu- 
 ralists inform us, with great show of prohability, 
 that some ancient land floods have brought down 
 from the higher countries a prodigious wash of soil 
 with their waters ; thai these w^aters, not finding a 
 sufficient outlet to run off with a strong current, 
 spread over the whok level the adventitious earth 
 brought with them, which in time hardened and 
 incrusted to a new surface over the old ground, 
 covering whatever was overflowed upon the former 
 lands, and containing the exuvla: of whatever fish 
 or aninjals were choked and buried in it. From 
 these lesser effects of lesser causes, we may, I 
 think, well trace the greater effects of greater. If 
 an iniiiidation, of so small a country as an inland 
 level, heaped a soil over the face of it y^rds deep, 
 why might not the universal deluge of the world, 
 in places where the drain from them might let away 
 the water, but retain the sediment, lodge vast and 
 mountainous tracts of adventitious earth ; in which 
 might be buried all the layers of the exuvice, which 
 are the noted curiosities of their strata, and over 
 which the earths they were buried in were at first 
 but wet mud, loose mould, gritty sand, loam or 
 marl ; little particles of stony substance ; some of 
 all aptitudes for all sorts of accretion, concoction, 
 and vegetation ; and which have accordingly, in 
 the maturation of ages, remained sandy and sabu- 
 lous earth in all kinds, or become rocks or minerals, 
 veins of metals, or quarries of all sorts of stone, 
 according to the respective natures of their com* 
 
118 THE CREATION AND CHAP. VIII. 
 
 ponent particles and constitution ? The hills, as 
 the waters surmounted all, might in many places, 
 where their summits were plain and extensive, and 
 the fall from them but little, have their tops hugely 
 heaped, and their sides every way loaded with 
 these incrustations. In countries, also, where a 
 great fall was open for the waters from high hills, 
 and a spacious outlet for their currents into the sea, 
 mountains of this adventitious soil might be car- 
 ried off through the channels of large rivers, deep- 
 ened by the torrents borne through them, and the 
 face of the adjacent lands, scoured indeed of some 
 of its own surface, might have its boundaries left 
 much the same after as before such deluge. 
 
 The depths to which the labour of man has, or 
 ever can explore the Earth, are, comparatively 
 speaking, a mere span ; for how little do the 
 deepest mines approach towards the centre of our 
 globe ? It may probably be true, after all our 
 naturalists have offered upon these subjects, that 
 none of the shells and exiivut they talk of, such as 
 really are or have been what they take them for, 
 have ever been found anywhere in the earth, but 
 where the deluge heaped and left the soil where 
 they are found. In other parts of the world, where 
 the flood did not make new ground, if these parts 
 were dug and opened to proper depths, undoubtedly 
 we should find different layers or strata of earth, 
 quarries of stones, or veins of minerals, such as 
 may have been forming from the origin of things, 
 but no such exiivi^ in these as are found in like 
 
CHAP. VIII. FALL OF MAN. }]Q 
 
 beds in the other places. And where the exuvice 
 < are found lying perpendicularly or aslope, and not 
 in horizontal lines, I suspect that earthquakes, 
 since the deluge, may have variously hroken up 
 these places from their deepest foundations ; sub- 
 verted the old, and made a new position oi huge 
 fragments of them. 
 
 If, in thus examining all that has been suggested, 
 we can, after all, find such a situation in the present 
 world, as Moses describes, w^iich hath all ajipear- 
 ance of being the tract where he marked oat the 
 boundaries of his land of Eden, and its garden ; 
 I conceive, that, if those parts were dug up and 
 explored, such exuvi^ of the Flood would be found 
 in them as to induce us to think, that such a spot 
 of ground, as described by Moses, has existed both 
 upon the antediluvian and postdiluvian Earth. But 
 let lis consider, 
 
 II. Whether the description of Moses does not 
 plainly tell us, what were the marks or bounds of 
 his garden of Eden in the first world ; and also as 
 plainly, that these boundaries remained, but had 
 new names, and were well known in the second. 
 A river, he tells us, went out of Eden to water the 
 garden, and it was a river of four heads^: this was 
 the run and streams of the river of Eden, when the 
 garden was first planted, and the man put if»to it. 
 The words of Moses must have this, and can have 
 no other intention. But Moses does not rest his 
 
 ' Gen. ii, 10. 
 
i20 THE CREATION AND CHAP. VIII. 
 
 description here ; he proceeds to tell us what these 
 rivers were called, and what countries they washed 
 upon in after- ages. He calls the first of the rivers 
 Pison, the second Gihon, the third Hiddekel, and 
 the fourth Euphrates ^ He tells us of the first 
 river, that it cpmpasseth the whole land of Havi- 
 lah^ a country noted for its gold and precious 
 stones^; of the second, that it compasseth the 
 whole land of Ethiopia, or Cush*; of the third, 
 that it runs east into Assyria'; of the fourth, that 
 it is the Euphrates*. These names of the rivers 
 here mentipned by Moses, three of them, at least, 
 are not, that I know of, mentioned anywhere by 
 profane geographers ; but the most ancient of these 
 are mere moderns, comparatively speaking, with 
 regard to the ancient Scripture geography*. The 
 author of the Book of Ecclesiasticus mentions both 
 Pison and Gihon^; and hints, that both were 
 rivers, which at particular seasons of the year 
 abounded in their flow of waters ^, and ^s npt un- 
 
 • Gen. ii, 11 — J^. Moses having told us, that the garden 
 was watered by a river from four heads, proceeds here to make» 
 as it were, a new terrier of it, by giving it streams, and 
 the countries they washed upon those names by which they 
 were called after the Flood, &c. 
 
 » Gen. ii, 11. » Ibid. 
 
 ' Thp wqrd we translate Ethiopia is Cusk in t|ie Hebrew. 
 
 Gen. ii, 13. See Cpqnect. Sac. et Prof. Hist. yol. ii, book iii, 
 p. U7. 
 
 3 Gen. ii, 14. * Ibid. 
 
 * Vide quBB post. ® Ecclus. xxiy, 25, 27. 
 ^ Ibid. 
 
 ^ 
 
CHAP. VIII. FALL OF MAN. 121 
 
 worthy of being named with the Tigris and Eu- 
 phrates': therefore we may think, that in his day 
 they were noted, and in nowise inconsiderable 
 streams. The Pison, Moses tells ns^ encompassed 
 the whole land of Havilah^, a country well known 
 by this name from after Abraham's day*, and in 
 the times of SauP; although not thus called in the 
 antediluvian world, for it must have been thus 
 denominated from its having been planted after the 
 Flood by Havilah, one of the sons of Joktan'; or 
 perhaps originally by Havilah, a son of Cush*. 
 We can find no more of Gihon, than that it com- 
 passed the whole land of Ethiopia, or land of 
 Cush\ The country called the land of Cush was 
 what the sons of Cush first planted^, most probably 
 Babylonia^; undoubtedly not called the land of 
 Cush until after the Flood, when Cush, the son of 
 Ham, and grandson of Noah, had been an inha- 
 bitant of it. The river Hiddekel was known to 
 Daniel ; it was a great river in his days, and one 
 of the visions he saw was made to him in the th»rd 
 year of Cyrus, king of Persia, upon its banks*. 
 The fourth river of Moses's Eden was the Peraih, 
 or Euphrates^, a river so known as to want only 
 
 * Eeclus. xxiv, 25, 27. » Gen. ii, ubi sup. 
 » Gen. xxY, 18. "1 Sam. xv, 7. 
 
 3 Gen. X, 29. 
 
 * Ver. 7 ; see Connect, vol. i, book iii, p. 151. 
 ^ Gen. ii, ubi sup. 
 
 * Gen. X, 7; see Connect, vol. i, book iii, p. 151. 
 7 Ibid. « Dan. x, ^. 
 » Gen. ii, U. 
 
122 THE CREATION AND CHAP. VIll. 
 
 to be named to be sufficiently distingnisbed from 
 all others. It was called, by way of eminence, 
 The Great River , in Abrabam's days', and so in 
 like manner by Moses at the exit out of Egypt ^ 
 It is well known throughout the Scriptures by the 
 same name', and the heathen geographers are all 
 very full in their accounts of it*. In this manner, 
 therefore, Moses describes the situation of the 
 garden of Eden, not as if he had thought the 
 Flood had washed it away, so that the place of it 
 could nowhere be found ; but he remarks what 
 names the rivers of it had from after the times of 
 the sons of Noah, what countries they bounded ; 
 and he so remarkably observes, that it had been 
 situate in the neighbourhood of the most known 
 river in the world, the river Euphrates, that it 
 must be evident, he had no thought of placing it 
 in some obscure corner, Avhich surely he would 
 have done, if he had intended a mere fiction. And 
 1 apprehend, considering him as describing a real 
 place, that he would have added more, if he had 
 thought what he wrote was not clear enough to 
 leave no doubts, at the time he wrote, concerning 
 the situation which he described, 
 
 III. The site of the garden of Eden, as Moses 
 describes it, seems to have been well known in the 
 
 ' Gen. XV, 18. ' Deut. i, 7. 
 
 3 The reader may find it thus named in all parts of the Old 
 Testament, 
 
 < Vide Strab. Geogr. lib. xi ; Plinii Nat. Hist. lib. r, c. JO; 
 Ub. vi, c. 9, &c. 
 
CHAP. VIII. FALL OF MAN. 123 
 
 world, both before, and in, and after Moses's time. 
 The Scriptures are generally concise ; every part 
 is confined to the matter it treats of; therefore the 
 garden of Eden being situate beyond the Eu- 
 phrates, and near the river, upon whose banks 
 Daniel was, in his captivity at Babylon, it must at 
 first sight be obvious, that the land and garden of 
 Eden were in the neighbourhood of Babylonia. 
 But the history of the Bible, from after Abraham's 
 days to about the time of the captivity, has no 
 accounts relating to any thing beyond the Eu- 
 phrates ; therefore it is no wonder, if we meet 
 nothing remarkable relating to places of this 
 country in all this interval. But Abraham and 
 Lot came into Canaan, from Haran*; and before 
 they dwelt in Haran, they had left a farther part 
 of the country of the Chaldees, for they came from 
 Ur^ They were not young men'^ when they left 
 these parts, but may well be supposed to be no 
 strangers to a country in which they and their 
 fathers had for many generations lived. Accord- 
 ingly we find them readily agreeing in a material 
 point concerning the subject of our inquiry. They 
 sojourned together in Canaan, between Bethel and 
 Hai; their flocks and herds were so large, that 
 they could not conveniently live together, but were 
 
 ^ Gen. xii, 5. '^ Chap, xi, 31. 
 
 ' See Connect, vol. i,b.v, p. 250. Abraham was seventy year? 
 old, when his father removed from Ur to Haran, and seventy* 
 five when he came into Canaan. 
 
i24 THE CREATION AND CHAP. VIII, 
 
 Kow to separate®; and Lot, we read, chose to live 
 in the plain of Jordan, hecause it was everywhere 
 well watered, even as the garden of the Lord, and 
 like the land of Egypt^. Abraham and Lot had 
 been together in Egypt, so that this country was 
 well known to them"; and fronj the whole course 
 of their travels, it must appear, that they could 
 have seen no parts of the Avorld so well watered as 
 the plains of Jordan, except the lands adjoining 
 the waters of the Nile, and the waters of Babylon. 
 They speak expressly of the one ; and respecting 
 the garden of the Lord, in the country of the 
 other, they agree, without any farther mention 
 than its name, as being a place familiarly known to 
 them both^ The comparison between the plains 
 
 * Gen. xiii. ^ Ver. 10. 
 » Ver. 1. 
 
 * It may seem to us a great retrospect, for Abraham to look 
 back for Adam's first habitation. But let us consider the 
 Jength of men's lives from Adam to Abraham; Adam lived to 
 see Lamech fifty-six years old. See the table of antediluvian 
 lives, according to the Hebrew chronology. Connect, vol. i, 
 b. i. Lamech appears to have been a person, who had much 
 considered the state of his forefathers, and the labours they 
 Jiad from the ground, in God's having cursed it. He therefore 
 knew what had been the error of Adam's life; and yvas enabled 
 to assure his contemporaries, upon the birth of his son Noah, 
 that this child v\ ould obtain for them a relief of their difficul- 
 ties. See Gen. y, 29. Lamech lived to within five years of 
 Ikhe Flood. See the table above cited. Shem, the son of Noah, 
 was one hundred years old, two years after the Flood, see Gen, 
 xi, 10; and therefore was born ninety-seven years before the 
 beginning of the Flood, and ninety-two years before the 
 
CfftAP. VIII. FALL OF MAN. i^d 
 
 of Jordan and the spot of ground watered by these 
 rivers, said by Moses to be the rivers of Eden, was 
 so just, that the writer of the Book of Ecclesias- 
 ticus, afterwards, allowed it (o be a true one. The 
 waters of Tigris, and Pison, and Geon, and Eu- 
 phrates, are by him, as Abraham and Lot had long 
 before agreed, very properly compared with the 
 waters of Jordan ^ 
 
 But it may be doubted, whether by the garden 
 of the Lord, mentioned by Lot to Abraham, was 
 meant the garden of Eden, as described by Moses. 
 Let us consider how far these places, retaining this 
 very name in the countries where it was situate, 
 down to the captivity, may be of weight ta clear 
 this matter. Ezekiel, in his prophecy against 
 Tyre, whose merchants traded to all parts of the 
 Earth, observes, that they had been at the garden 
 of God*. Where now was the place so called ? In 
 what land ? He plainly tells us, it was in Eden\ 
 
 death of his grandfather Lameeh. Shem lived five handred and 
 two years after the Flood ; see Gen. xi, 10, i. e. the Flood hap- 
 pening a. Si. 1656. See Connect, vol. i.b. i, p. 44-. Shem lived 
 to A. M. 2158. Abraham was born a. m. 2008 ; see Connect, vf)!. iv 
 b. V, p. 250; so that Shem lived to see Abraham one huiidred 
 and fifty years old. Abraham therefore might converse many 
 years with Shem, Shem with Lameeh, and Lamedh with Adam; 
 and though a knowledge of where Adam first Irved may seem 
 to have travelled into a vast tract of time, to come down to 
 Abraham, yet we may observe the links of the chain of tradi- 
 tion of it were so few, that we may tnink it really not more 
 remote fiom his having a full account of it, than it may be to 
 as to know the habitation of our father's grandfather. 
 
 ' Ecclus. x.\iv, ubi sup. * Ezek. xxvii, IS. 
 
 » Ibid. 
 
126 THE CREATIO?^ AND CHAP. VIII. 
 
 1 would observe what the merchandise was, which 
 the Tyrians brought tbence ; it was, saith the 
 prophet, many precious stones, and amongst them 
 the onyx-stone and gold^; the very commodities 
 which Moses tells us was the produce of this 
 country^. Shall we doubt where the prophet sup- 
 posed the situation of this country of Eden, and 
 this garden of God, was ? We may see he placed 
 it near Babylon, and amongst the domains of the 
 Assyrian empire. Eden seems to have been be- 
 yond Haran and Canneh, near to Shebah and 
 Ashur^; all which well agrees with DanieVs being 
 upon the banks of the river Hiddekel, one of 
 Moseses rivers of Eden, when he was among the 
 children of the captivity at Babylon^. These are 
 very plain hints ; and if any one will say they do 
 not amount to demonstration, I shall not contend 
 with him ; yet, at the same time, I think I may 
 venture to propose a serious consideration, whether 
 they do not concur, and induce us to admit, that 
 the garden of God in Eden, was a place, wxll 
 known by that name to Abraham and Lot, and 
 many ages after by the Jevrs in the days of their 
 captivity, known to be situate not very far from the 
 waters of Babylon, and in a situation very well 
 agreeing with Moses's description. This seems 
 more reasonable than all the trifling suggestions, 
 which can be offered to make us think otherwise. 
 
 « E2ek. xxviii, 13. ' Gen, ii, 11,12. 
 
 * Ezek. xxvii, 23. 
 
 • Dan. ubi sup.; see chap, iii and v. 
 
CHAP. VIII. FALL OF MAN, 127 
 
 IV. Let us consider what Moses's description 
 of the land and garden of Eden precisely is : and 
 if we attend carefully to his narration, we shall 
 find that it plainly gives us the following particu- 
 lars : 1. That a river went out of Eden and watered 
 the garden'. Eden, then, was the country higher up 
 the stream than the garden ; for the river ran down 
 from Eden to the garden. 2. And from thence it 
 was parted'^ ; after the river had ran past; i.e. at or 
 below the farther end of the garden, it was parted; 
 the meaning of the words is sufficiently clear; the 
 river, after it came out of the land of Eden, was 
 one single or undivided stream to, and all along 
 the garden ; but when it had passed the garden, 
 then it divided, and branched into more streams. 
 Bat, 3. what next follows seems more confused : 
 it became into four heads\ Heads of rivers are 
 the springs or origin from whence they have their 
 waters ; so that to say of rivers, that the current of 
 their stream proceeds, and becomes into four heads, 
 or comes to four heads, seems to be an inversion of 
 nature, a kind of describing tlieni as running up- 
 wards to their fountains ; when, on the contrary, 
 all streams must run down from, and not to or 
 into> their heads. The Hebrew particle used by 
 Moses, and which we translate iiiio, is indeed /e% 
 which generally signifies to or u?ito ; but the trans- 
 lators ought to have observed, that it sometimes 
 alio signifies J? am, and so it ought to have been 
 
 ^ G?n.ii, 10. • Ibid. 
 
 ' Ibid. " ni^:n?^7 Heb. text. 
 
l28 THE CREATION AND CHAP, rilti 
 
 rendered in this place. In the Book of Chronicles 
 we read, when Solomon was made king, he, and all 
 the congregation with Mm^ went [nos!?] to the high 
 place that teas at Gibeon ; for there was the taber- 
 7iacle of the congregation of God, which Moses ^ 
 the servant of the Lord, had made in the wilder- 
 ness\ Here the particle le is prefixed to hamahy 
 and signifies to or unto the high place. Bat in 
 the 13th verse we are told, Then Solomon came 
 [non^], (the same prefix and word is again used)$ 
 our English version says, from his journey to the 
 high place, that was at Gibeon, to Jerusalem ; but 
 the Hebrew text has no words for from his journey* 
 The vulgar Latin, therefore, renders the passage 
 more truly, " venit ergo Salomon ab excel so Gabeon 
 in Jerusalem :" the Septuagint say, Ka/ t^a^s Sa- 
 Xcojowov Ih ^a/xa Trig Iv VoL^aunv s\g ^lepoucraTiTjix* 
 The fact was, Solomon had been at the high place 
 at Gibeon, and was now returning back again to 
 Jerusalem, which the Hebrew text expresses by, 
 thefi Solomon came, labbamah,Jrom the high place^ 
 that was at Gibeon, to Jerusalem. Here the par- 
 ticle Icy prefixed to bam^h, signifies from ; though 
 it is as plain, that in the 3d verse, prefixed in like 
 manner to the same word, it signifies to or unto ; 
 i. e. this particle in the Hebrew tongue may have 
 either of these significations ; and the necessary 
 sense of the place must guide us when to give it 
 the one, and when the other : and under this direc- 
 tion in the text of Moses, which we are considering, 
 
 ^ 2 Cliron. i, 3. 
 
CHAP. VIII. FALL OF MAN. 129 
 
 it must signify from^ and not into. The words of 
 Moses are, vehajah le arhanah rashim^y which 
 should be rendered, and it was from four heads. 
 This, then, is the express account, which Moses 
 gives of the river of Eden. It came from Eden to 
 water the garden ; from thence it parted ; from 
 Eden, downwards to the garden, it was but one 
 stream ; beyond the garden it parted, and branched 
 into more streams. Moses does not say how many 
 these were, nor what the courses in which they 
 ran ; but he returns to give an account of the one 
 stream which ran down to the garden, which he 
 tells us was made by the confluence of four rivers, 
 afterwards named by him, Pison, Gihon, Hiddekel, 
 and Euphrates'^. 
 
 V. We are to consider, whether such alterations 
 in the face of the country and rivers of Moses's 
 Eden may not have happened since his time, as to 
 render it impossible to trace every mark of the 
 garden or land of Eden, as he described it. Let 
 us inquire, nevertheless^ how far we can find 
 sufficient marks of its situation. 
 
 capitibus e quatuor et fuit 
 
 ' We may here observe, that Dr. Burnet most egreglously 
 mistook Moses's expression. He asks, insulting, " Die ubi in 
 
 terris quatuor fluvii nascuntur ab uno fontc ?" Archaeol. 
 
 p. 287, 288. In his English works; " Where are there four 
 rivers in our continent, that come from one head ? " Theory 
 of the Earth, vol. i, b. ii, c. 7. He would insinuate that Moses 
 had been guilty of an absurdity; but he did not understand 
 Moses; the absurdity is his own, 
 
 VOL. IV. K 
 
130 THE eREATION AND CHAP. VIII. 
 
 It was evidently near to or upon the Euphrates^ 
 upon the HiddekeP, a river not far from ancient 
 Babylon \ It was in the country where the 
 mighty empires of Assyria had their seat, their 
 height of grandeur, and their ruin. Now, wheu 
 we think of the amazing works performed by the 
 ruling powers in these countries, in their altera- 
 tions of the course of rivers ; building and remov- 
 ing even great cities ; all which are since become 
 no better than a vast tract of stupendous ruins ; 
 we see it must be impossible to find in these parts 
 any face of things, to such a minute degree as 
 Moses described, ages before what has been their 
 glory in all the various works of art, and labours 
 of empire, which adorned them, and which are now 
 their desolation. 
 
 The two great rivers in these countries are the 
 Tigris and the Euphrates ; which have been al- 
 ways noted by all geographers, who have written 
 about these parts of the world. The Euphrates 
 was, without doubt, the Perath of Moses ; and we 
 may well allow that the Tigris was his Hiddekel, 
 considering that it is called by Daniel the great 
 river ^. This was the eminent title of the Euphra- 
 tes', and it is not likely it should be given to any 
 lesser stream, which could not be compared 
 with it. But can we offer a similar conjecture, to 
 find out what river was the Gihon or the Pison of 
 
 * Gen. ii, ubi sup. •' Ibid. 
 
 ^ Ban. X, ubi sup. • Ibid. 
 
 I Gen. XV, ubi sup. 
 
CHAP. VIII. FALL OF MAN. 131 
 
 Moses ? I confess I think not. The memorial of 
 hoth these rivers seems to have heen distinctly 
 kept up, to the' time of the author of the Book of 
 Ecclesiasticus, who, according to Dean Prideaux, 
 wrote in Hebrew, about two hundred and fifty 
 years before Christ*, what his grandson, above 
 a century later, turned into Greek. This writer 
 appears to refer to all the four^ rivers mentioned 
 by Moses as well known in his time, and known 
 to have their extraordinary flow, annually, like the 
 river Jordan ; but those geographical writers we 
 have now extant, are but modern in comparison of 
 the age even of this author ; none of tbein being 
 so old by above two hundred years, and some, 
 who are often cited as old writers, falling short of 
 him by many centuries. A vast change began 
 to be made in the face of this country, before the 
 writing of the Book of Ecclesiasticus, when Se- 
 leucus built Seleucia on the Tigris, which proved 
 the desolation of old Babylon^. What the rivers 
 of this country were, before the province where 
 Babylon had stood began to become a heap of 
 deserted ruins, might be recollected when the 
 
 * Prideaux Connect, part ii, b. v. Anno ante Christum i:J2. 
 At this time the learned Dean says it was translated into 
 Greek. It was, he says, originully written in Hebrew by the 
 author of it, about the time when Onias, the second of that 
 name, was high priest at Jerusalem, which was about anno 
 ante Christum 250, See his Connect, part ii, b. ii, 
 
 * Ecclus. xxiv, 25 — 27. 
 
 ^ See Prideaux, Connect, part i, b. viii. 
 
 K 2 
 
132 THE CREATION AND CHAP. VIII. 
 
 writer of Ecclesiasticiis mentioned them ; but be 
 ]ost, in much confusion, before the earliest writers 
 of geography after his time, whose works are now 
 extant, made their inquiries into the state of the 
 world. For I think Strabo's is the most ancient 
 work, at least of any figure, we have of the kind, 
 and it was not composed before the times of Tibe- 
 rius. If Dionysius Periegetes lived about the 
 same age, Pliny and Ptolemy were much later, 
 and the Nubian geography is still more modern. 
 And we may observe, that from whatever more 
 ancient writers Strabo, or any wbo followed 
 him, had to collect, even these had difficulties 
 about the waters of Babylon. They had no 
 clear accounts what were the original ancient 
 rivers which might here concur; or what were 
 the artificial lakes, streams, and canals, cut 
 from and into the Euphrates, for the ornament or 
 convenience of that superb, and, beyond compa- 
 rison, great and populous city". In the confusion 
 arising from hence, and in length of time growing 
 inexplicable, we may reasonably allow that all 
 knowledge of the true channels of these rivers, 
 
 '' Quails fades Eupliratis fuerit, priusquam manu factis fus- 
 sis et alveis distraheretur, difficile est delineare; nam et ilia? 
 fossae antiquiores pleraeque sunt, quani Gra^ci, a quibus et na- 
 tarse reruni, aut ab. hoininibus gestarum memoriam habemus, 
 ad scribendum et historias componendas, aut res naturae traden- 
 das se composuerunt. Cellarii Geogr. lib. iii, c. 16. Strabo 
 makes many complaints of the incorrectness of the Greek geo- 
 graphers in many parts of his work. 
 
CHAP. VIII. FALL OF MAN. 133 
 
 Pison and Gihon, has been lost; and we should 
 greatly trifle were we now to pretend, through 
 curiosity, to find them. The material point is, 
 whether Ave have not enough left, indisputably 
 certain, to convince us that Moses's description is 
 not such a romance as our modern allegorists 
 suppose. 
 
 The garden of Edqn bordered upon a river 
 made up of a confluence of four streams, one of 
 which was the Euphrates, the other HiddekeP. 
 The question is, Is there a place in the world 
 where these two rivers and other streams join ? I 
 answer, there is ; viz. at the south-east extent of 
 the province of the now Irak Ai^ahi of the Tur- 
 kish empire, which was the ancient Chaldaea ; at 
 the place where the Turks now have a fortification, 
 called Korna ; at which place, the Hiddekel, or 
 Tigris, and Euphrates, with some other lesser 
 streams, fall in and make one river. Let us in- 
 quire farther, do these rivers, thus joined, con- 
 tinue to run in one stieam, as Moses mentions that 
 his river of Eden ran down from Eden to the gar- 
 den of God r I answer, they run in one undi- 
 vided channel down to Bassora; from whence 
 they are parted, and run in streams, navigable 
 even by large ships, in different channels into 
 the Persian gulf. An inspection of the map, 
 which I have here inserted, will exhibit what 1 
 offer in the clearest view. 
 
 ^ Gen. ii, ubi sup. 
 
134 THE CREATION AND CHAP. VIII. 
 
 Whether these rivers were so large in Moses's 
 time as they are now, I do not pretend to say; 
 though it is obvious, that Hiddekel was a great 
 river in Daniel's days '^5 and the Euphrates^ was 
 reputed eminently so in the times of Abraham. 
 It was the taste in the days of Moses to think a 
 ground well watered, which lay, as the land of 
 Egypt did, upon the confines of some great and 
 overflowing river ; so that a man might water if 
 ivith his foot'^, might trace out furrows, or chan- 
 nels, which might be filled with the flow of it, 
 and convey water to the plants wherever he might 
 design lines for its conveyance. But, leaving the 
 reader to consider and determine, as he thinks fit, 
 whether, in the first world, there were any snows 
 covering, in their season, the hills or mountains 
 whence these rivers take their rise ; and, if there 
 were not, whether their flow might not be less, 
 and their channels not so wide and deep in Adam's 
 days, as they became afterwards, when greater 
 currents made their way through them ; I might 
 remark, that this augmentation of their waters 
 may, in the hand of Providence, have been one 
 mean of keeping their channels open and known 
 even until now, and likely to continue so to the 
 end of the world. 
 
 9 Daniel, ubi sup. » Gen. ubi sup. 
 
 * Deut. xvi, 10. Thus Ezekiel hints, a vine so planted in a 
 good soil by great waters, that it might be watered by the 
 furrows of her plantation. Ezek. xvii, 7. 
 
CHAP. VIII. FALL OF MAN. 135 
 
 The course of the Euphrates may be traced in 
 all noted writers of geography ; and is plainly to 
 be seen, in all the tracts of country through which 
 it passes, that in no point, but that one which I 
 have mentioned J can it be found to form a conflu- 
 ence with other rivers, to make one stream, as 
 Moses describes ; and to part again, before it runs 
 into the sea. And if, as I measure it, from Korna 
 to Bassora be not above sixty miles, our inquiry 
 after the earthly paradise is brought within a nar- 
 row compass ; and however inconsiderately some 
 may be disposed to ridicule the inquiry, we may 
 reasonably conclude, that we cannot be far from 
 the spot which was the garden of Eden, any where 
 in the confines of the flew of this river, between 
 Koi'na and Bassora. 
 
CHAP. IX. 
 
 Concerning the Teinptation of Eve hy the Ser- 
 pent ; and her and Adanis eating of the for- 
 bidden Tree, 
 
 We left Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden ; 
 the day after their creation was a Sabbath, to be 
 employed in considering the bounty and goodness 
 of their Creator ; what expectations he had given 
 them; what duties were enjoined them^ and how 
 they might perform them. Now when this dav 
 was over, and they began to employ themselves in 
 what God had appointed them to do, namely, to 
 dress the garden and to keep it : it is very natural 
 to think that they went out to their work desirous 
 to see and consider the creation of God, and fully 
 purposing to revere and obey him, in every thing 
 he had said, or should farther speak to them. 
 Dr. Burnet supposes, that the temptation befel 
 them instantly on the very day of their creation' ; 
 
 * Istoc die creavit omnia pecoia, omnes feras, et omnia rep- 
 tilia — denique creavit Adamum, — finita hac opera fabrifecit 
 foeminam ; eodem die conjugium ineunt mas et foemina recens 
 nati. — Eodem die nova nupta, nescio quo proposito, vagata 
 inter arbores nemoris, incidit in serpentem : ille serpens 
 colloquium instituit cum foemina: arguraenta jactant hac illuc 
 
138 THE CREATION AND CHAP. IX. 
 
 but it is observable, tbat, although the narration 
 of Moses is very concise. 
 
 Semper ad eventum festinat— — 
 
 Hou. 
 
 although he has related to us only a few events, 
 upon vrhich all the whole affairs of the first world 
 turned ; and relates them in their order as they 
 were done, omitting all that was intermediate 
 betvi^een the particulars recorded by him ; yet the 
 intervals of time between the facts recorded must 
 have been filled up in a manner reasonably agree- 
 ing to the nature of the things related, and the 
 character of the persons concerned in them. 
 Both a just writer, and a judicious reader, 
 
 Reddere personae scit convenientla cuique, 
 
 HoR. 
 
 will know how to say, and, where it is not neces- 
 sary to be expressed, how to think what is suitable 
 to every character. But it is hard to think, that 
 God should permit a temptation, of so great con- 
 sequence, to break forth upon our first parents, be- 
 fore they had had time to form any sort of 
 thoughts of things about them. And we give 
 Adam and Eve no character at all, if we suppose, 
 that, whilst the voice of God, strictly charging 
 them not to eat of the tree, had scarce ceased 
 
 de quadam arbore aut quodam fructu, edendo, vol non edendo: 
 ilia tandem rationibus aut lenociniis victa fructum comedit; 
 iieque id tantum, sod eundem defert marito, qai pariter come- 
 dit. Aichacol. p. 2D5. 
 
CHAP. IX. FALL OF MAN. 139 
 
 Speaking to them, they would eat, because they 
 heard a serpent say they might safely do it. If 
 Moses had expressly told us, that they thus in- 
 stantly fell into the sin which caused their ruin, 
 he had, I think, laid before us a great rock of 
 offence against his narration. For to suppose, 
 that as soon as God gave the prohibition, Adam 
 and Eve would immediately transgress it, implies 
 not only a total want of all consideration in our 
 first parents, but something incredibly prone not to 
 regard Him, who had showed himself to be the 
 only proper person to be regarded. But Dr. Bur- 
 net takes up the sentiment only that he may tragi- 
 cally complain of Moses's narration^ : had not 
 this bias possessed him, he would have seen, that, 
 notwithstanding any thing said by Moses, many 
 days might intervene between Adam and Eve's 
 creation, and their breaking the commandment of 
 God. 
 
 Our English poet took a view of the subject in 
 a better temper and disposition ; and accordingly, 
 though what he supposes is a mere fiction of his 
 
 ' Intra unius diei spatiolum hsec omnia confecta legimus t 
 magna et multifaria negotia. Sed ardeo dolore, cum tantillo 
 tempore omnia inversa et perturbata video, totamque rerum 
 naturam vixdum compositam et adornatam ante prinii solis 
 occasum, ad interitum mere et deformari. Mane diei Deus 
 dixit, omnia esse bona: sub ?espere omnia sunt execrabilia. 
 Quam fluxa est rerum creatarum gloria ! Opus elaboratum per 
 sex dies, idque omnipotenti manu, infamis bestia totidem horis 
 pefdidit. Archaeol. p. 295. 
 
140 THE CREATION AND CHAP. IX. 
 
 own, not at all warranted by Moses, or suggested 
 by an inspired writer, nor do I think it true in 
 fact, yet I would observe, it seemed natural to 
 suppose that the angel Gabriel had spent half a 
 day with Adam and Eve, after the night in which 
 he represents Eve as having had a troublesome 
 dream ^, and that the temptation happened the 
 day after the angel left them*. He tells us, that 
 on the day when the angel visited them, they had 
 in the morning said 
 
 Their orisons each morning duly paid 
 In various styled 
 
 Which implies, that he conceived they had had 
 divers mornings, in which they had diversified 
 their devotions. I cannot tell how any one, who 
 will think reasonably upon the subject, can be 
 satisfied with the shocking view of it which 
 Dr. Burnet sets before us. But, as I before 
 hinted, what misled him is obvious, namely, his 
 disposition to represent Moses intimating, in his 
 narration, that the works of God's infinite wisdom, 
 displayed for six days together, by creating and 
 forming a wonderful system in the fabric of a 
 world, were all ruined and undone by a low rep- 
 tile, a serpent, in as few hours ^. The reflection 
 is so offensive, that if some strange perversion has 
 not seized our hearts, we must hesitate and con- 
 
 3 See Milton's Paradise Lost, b. v, &c. 
 
 4 Ibid. b. ix. s Ibid. b. v, ver. 145. 
 ^ Burnet, sup. citat. 
 
CHAP. IX. FALL OF MAN. 141 
 
 sider, whether what is thus said was indeed thus 
 done ; and hence we shall be easily led to remark, 
 that the ruin which happened was not so absurdly 
 precipitate as our author represents it. 
 
 Our first parents went out daily to take care of 
 their garden, and made their observations of the 
 things which occurred to them. They named the 
 living creatures as they found opportunity to see 
 and consider them. And upon the serpent's com- 
 ing in their way, and being observed by them, he, 
 in a human voice, spake unto Eve'. They were 
 not now such novices as not to have remarked, that 
 no other creature could thus speak, which occa- 
 sioned them to think, what is recorded, that the 
 serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field, 
 ivhioh the Lord had made^. Had the serpent's 
 speaking to them happened early in the beginning 
 of their life, before they had made observations of 
 the other creatures, they would have had no 
 notion of the serpent's being herein superior to 
 other animals ; for they might have expected, that 
 all other animals could speak to them in like man- 
 ner. Therefore it may reasonably be inferred, that 
 many days had passed between their creation and 
 the serpent's thus speiking to them ; as many, as 
 we can judge, must have intervened, before they 
 could know in general concerning the living crea- 
 tures, that none of them, except the serpent, had 
 any power to speak. But we ought to remark, 
 
 ' Gen. iii, 1. * Ibid, 
 
142 THE CREATION AND GHAP. IX. 
 
 that they were not yet masters of so much science 
 as to know, that thus to speak could not be within 
 the natural powers of a brute creature, for it gave 
 them neither fear nor amazement. Had they ap- 
 prehended, that the serpent's speaking had been 
 an incident miraculous and unnatural, they would^ 
 as Moses did, when he saw the bush burning with 
 fire, and not consumed^, have turned aside to see 
 this great sight ; and would have been greatly con- 
 founded at what could be the meaning of so unna- 
 tural a prodigy. But, as Moses represents, they 
 heard what was said to them as undisturbed and 
 unmoved as they would have been by any other 
 new but ordinary incident, which could have come 
 under their observation. Therefore, agreeably to 
 this, we ought to fix the time of Eve's being 
 tempted as not happening until she and Adam had 
 observed in general concerning the animal creation, 
 that none of them had the gift of speech ; and they 
 could not have observed this of the several species 
 of creatures in the world in a very few days. It 
 happened before they knew it to be a miraculous 
 thing for an animal to speak, and therefore it un- 
 questionably did happen early in their lives \ 
 
 » Exod. iii, 3. 
 
 * Syncellus cites some Minutes of the Book of Genesis, 
 which supposes seven years to have passed before the trans- 
 gression. The passage cited by Syncellus is in these words, 
 under the title of 'Ex rwv Aeirrocv TevsaBuis i Tcu s^Sofjiw eVei 
 Ttocpsty) ['A5a/x], xoci fcv oySocv s^eppKpi^a-ccy rr)s irapaOeKrou, wg 
 <pr^7i, iietd rso-oracpaKOvra irsvre -^[^spas rr^g 'rfapa,^a,<rB(jug, iv tri bttI' 
 roXyj 'Tujy UKeioc^ujv. Syncellus, p. 8. What may be the au- 
 
CHAP. IX. FALL OF MAN. 143 
 
 Moses calls the serpent u;ni (nachash'^) ; it is the 
 general word for a serpent used throughout the 
 Old Testament, and was, perhaps, the original 
 name, which Adam gave this animal, if we make 
 allowance for some variation in pronouncing the 
 word, after words became of more syllables than 
 one^. The word signifies an augur, diviner, or 
 foreteller of things to come*. It appears that 
 Adam's manner, in naming things, was to consider 
 some particular property in them, and from that tQ 
 name them. Thus knowing that Eve had been 
 made out of him, himself being aish'\ man, he called 
 
 thority of the antiquity of this fragment, or whether it was 
 originally written in a language more ancient than its present 
 Greek, I cannot say ; but by its mentioning the Pleiades, I 
 should think it is not, in any language, as old as the time of 
 Moses. For however early asterisms, or a combined plurality 
 of stars, were formed, as they certainly were very early, be- 
 cause such are mentioned in the Book of Job, yet as Moses 
 hints nothing like them in his books, I think we must look for 
 this astronomy in times later than his days. This citation then 
 gives no authority to warrant our saying, that seven years 
 passed before Adam*s transgression; though, in the reason of 
 things, we will allow, that a competent time must have passed, 
 before our first parents could know enough to excite in their 
 hearts even a conceit of desiring to be wise, or a notion of 
 becoming so, without, or in opposition to, their Maker. 
 
 ' tyni. Gen. iii, 1. 
 
 ^ See Connect, vol. i, book ii, p. 99. 
 
 * The verb u,»n3, from which the word denoting the serpent is 
 derived, signifies, where it is used in the Old Testament, " Au- 
 guratus est, augurium fecit, divinavit, ominatus est: certas 
 conjecturas habuit." 
 
 ^ Gen. ii, 23 ', see Connect, vol. ii, book ix, p. 381. 
 
144 THE CREATION AND CHAP. IX* 
 
 her aishah^y which wc render zvoman. And thus he 
 afterwards gave her another name, and called her 
 Chaiah, or Chevah, Eve ; as soon as he was told she 
 w^as to bear children, and be the mother of all (chai) 
 living^ of all their descendants, who were to derive 
 life from them. So here, the serpent speaking, and 
 foretelling, that they should have their ei/es opened, 
 and be as gods^, Adam called him the diviner or 
 foreteller of what was to come (nachash). If this may 
 be admitted, it will farther hint, that Adam had 
 lived some time before the temptation ; for in the 
 first moments of life, before he had had any kind 
 of practice both of eyes and understanding, to con- 
 sider the difference between seeing and knowing 
 immediate objects, and considering and pronounc- 
 ing things, which should afterwards come to pass, 
 he could not in anywise give the serpent a name, 
 implying such a determinate sentiment concerning 
 him. 
 
 Milton represents Eve as being alone, without 
 Adam present, when the serpent spake to her ; but 
 we ought to observe, that Moses does not say this, 
 nor is there anything anywhere hinted by the sacred 
 writers to induce us to admit it. Milton's design 
 was to make 
 
 Ex nolo fictum carmen ^ 
 
 HOR. 
 
 He took the fact, as Moses related it, for the 
 ground of his poem ; but ornamented it in his own 
 
 ♦* Gen. ii, 23. ' Chap, iii, 20. 
 
 » Ver. 5. ^ Paradise Lost, b. ix. 
 
CHAP. IX. FALL OF MAN. 145 
 
 way, by a variety of episodes, such as be thought 
 might naturally coincide with what Moses had 
 related, and thus both to edify and entertain his 
 reader. And he has nowhere, in his performance, 
 worked up a scene more natural, than by represent- 
 ing the vanity of Eve desiring to work apart by 
 herself; the manner of the temptation, and success 
 of it ; her address to Adam after she had eaten the 
 forbidden fruit; his foreseeing, better than she had 
 done, the ruin into which she was fallen ; the fond 
 but rash resolution he took, rather to perish with 
 her than live without her ; the turbulent scenes of 
 passion and disgust, of mutual accusation and re- 
 sentment, which soon arose, when both were be- 
 come guilty ; elegantly expressing how certain it is, 
 that the being partakers in sin will not satisfy but 
 disturb the soul. But however elegantly Milton 
 may have represented these things, if we truly 
 judge of the subject, as Moses relates it, we must 
 ])lainly perceive, that all this is Milton's imagina- 
 tion, and not the history of Moses. Moses does 
 not hint, that Eve had to go any distance from the 
 place where she had eaten, to carry the fruit of the 
 tree to her husband ; but she took of the fruit of the 
 tree, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband 
 icith her, and he did eat\ The point here treated 
 proceeds without any discontinuance : her husband 
 was with her at the time ; she ate, and reached to 
 
 ' Gen. iii, 6. 
 VOL. IV. L 
 
146 THE CREATION AND CHAP. IX. 
 
 him ; he partook of what she had taken ^, and ate 
 also. The serpent indeed spake only to Eve, and 
 she only replied to him ; she admitted his temp- 
 tation, and added a sentiment of her own to 
 strengthen it, The serpent told her she would 
 become wise in eating ; she had no fear of being 
 overwise, though the danger threatened was, that 
 she would thereby destroy herself. She perceived, 
 that the tree was good f 07^ food, that it was pleasant 
 to the eyes, and a tree to he desired to make one 
 tmse; but did not consider nor know, that there 
 could be no wisdom, nor understanding, nor counsel 
 against God : and Adam, we read, hearkened unto 
 the voice of his wife^ , Thus far we may say, ia 
 the words of the apostle^ Adam was not deceived ; 
 not meaning, as the poet intimates, that Adam had 
 such superior sense and judgment beyond Eve, as 
 absolutely to reject the temptation, if, after she had 
 eaten and was thereby ruined, he had not rather 
 chosen to die with than to live Avithout her^ (for 
 this is entirely Milton's fiction) ; but the woman, 
 being deceived, ivas in the transgression : the ser- 
 pent through his subtlety deceived Eve^, The 
 words spoken by the serpent were all the subtlety 
 
 ^ If she had carried fruit to her husband, he not being upon 
 the spot, to eat at the same time with her, this would have re- 
 quired other words, than those used by Moses, to express it. 
 
 3 Gen. iii, 6—17. ^ 1 Tim. ii, U. 
 
 * Paradise Lost, book ix, ver. 890, &c. 
 
 «' 1 Tim. ii, li; 2 Cor. xi, 3. 
 
CHAP. IX. FALL OF MAN. 14/ 
 
 they knew of him ; these caught Eve's imagination 
 first; Adam was Jirst formed, then Eve'^ ; but 
 Adam was not deceived; the apostle means, Adam 
 was not deceived first. Here Eve unhappily took 
 the pre-eminence, and, by adding to what the 
 serpent had said, led her husband also to be de- 
 ceived. This I take to be the true meaning of what 
 the Scriptures declare upon the subject. But it will 
 be said, there are much greater points, than what I 
 have mentioned, which ought here to be well ex- 
 plained ; as, 
 
 I. How is it possible, that a serpent should 
 speak, as Moses supposed ? I answer, we can 
 form so clear a judgment of the natural capacity 
 and ability of the brute creation, that I may be 
 allowed to say, 1. That the serpent could not, of 
 himself, speak the words, w^hich, according to 
 Moses, came from him. But, 2. The tongue of 
 the serpent might be so vibrated, or moved, by some 
 superior, invisible agent, as to utter the sounds, or 
 words, which Moses tells us Eve heard. This, I 
 think, must readily be allowed by any one, who 
 considers how the tongue of Balaam's ass vi^as 
 moved, speaking in man's voice, to forbid the mad- 
 ness of that prophet^. But, 3. I would add here 
 what I have considered more at large upon that 
 case% that we cannot reasonably suppose, that the 
 serpent here speaking to Eve, any more than the 
 ass there speaking to Balaam, understood the 
 
 ' 1 Tim, ubi sirp. >* 2 Pet. ii, 16. 
 
 ^ See Connect, vol. iii, book xii, p. 290. 
 
 L 2 
 
lis THE CREATION AND CHAP. IX. 
 
 meaning of one word which it spoke. Both their 
 tongues were moved otherwise than of themselves 
 Ihey would have moved them ; they were so moved, 
 that such sounds proceeded from them as were 
 significant words to the person, who heard and 
 understood such words when spoken. But these 
 sounds conveyed no meaning to the serpent, or to 
 tiie ass ; hoth of whom, I apprehend, had spoken 
 without any apprehension or intention of the sounds 
 which came from them. In all this there was 
 plainly a miracle ; for, that the thing was impos- 
 sible, cannot reasonably be asserted, unless we can 
 assert, that the air could not be, by the power of 
 any agent whatsoever, in using the tongue of a 
 serpent, put into this or that motion, to cause what 
 words such agent designed to be sounded by it. 
 But, 4. Was it then God, who miraculously 
 caused the tongue of the serpent to utter the words 
 spoken ? In the case of Balaam, the text tells us, 
 that the Lord opened the Jiiouth of the ass^ : shall 
 wc here say, the Lord God opened the mouth of 
 the serpent in like manner? I answer, No: the 
 deceiving our first parents by a miracle cannot be 
 deemed a work worthy of God ; but seems much 
 more suitable to him, whom our New Testament 
 denominates, that old seiyent^ called the Devil 
 and Satan, who decelveth the ichole world^. The 
 ialsehood, spoken by the serpent to Eve, seems to 
 come naturally enough from him^ who, when he 
 
 * Numb, xxii, 28. ' Rev, xii, 9. 
 
CHAP. IX. FALL OF MAN. 149 
 
 speaheth a lie, speaheth of his own, he being the 
 original antbor of falsebood ; for he is a liar, and 
 the father of it^ ; and oar blessed Saviour hints, 
 that he was the real person who deceived Eve, for 
 he was a murderer from the beginning^ ; and it 
 was by him that death came into the ivorW^. 
 Therefore, we have sncli intimations, that it w^as 
 not God, but Satan, who spake to our first parents 
 by the serpent. But the question, which will here 
 occur, is, 5. Can we then say, that there is any 
 power in the universe, except the power of Him, 
 who is God over all, blessed for ever, that can 
 make alteration in the natural faculties of any 
 creature, or cause a mere serpent to be heard 
 speaking in man's voice, whatever he may purpose 
 to have spoken r If we say there may be any such 
 power, it will be queried, whether, in supposing it, 
 we do not set up two opposite and contending 
 powers, each able, beyond our capability to dis- 
 tinguish their limitation, to create or give things a 
 new nature contrary to their true one? And do 
 we not hereby lay a foundation for great confusion 
 of sentiment concerning God, and his power over 
 the world ? 
 
 I answer, 1. I apprehend there was no change 
 made in the nature of the serpent, by his speaking 
 to Eve, from what, in every respect, he was before. 
 He was the same reptile; went upon his belly, 
 even then, as a serpent now does^; had the same 
 
 " John viii, 44. 3 i^id. 
 
 « Wisdom \'\, '24. ^ Vide quae postea. 
 
150 THE CREATION AND CHAP. IX. 
 
 mouth, and tongue, the instrument of speech, 
 which a serpent still hath. His tongue was, in- 
 deed, moved in a way which he had not been 
 accustomed to move it, and made such sounds as 
 he never made before nor since. Adam and Eve, 
 who heard him thus speak, and understood what 
 he spake, but did not yet know that it was not 
 natural for a serpent to have this faculty, readily 
 apprehended, as indeed they well might, not know- 
 ing by what power he spake to them, that he was a 
 creature of greater sagacity, than all other creatures 
 of the animal world ; all the rest appearing to them 
 to be dumb, and not capable of such conversation. 
 Yet all this while, I cannot conceive, that the 
 serpent was at all wiser when he was speaking, 
 than whilst he was dumb. For, as the vibrations 
 of tongue, which gave the sounds he uttered, were 
 just as involuntary and unconceived by him, as 
 any mechanical or convulsive motions can be ; the 
 serpent knew no more what his tongue had uttered, 
 than if the words spoken had been blown across 
 by a wind, which had no connection with him. 
 2. That Satan, that spiritual being, who, in the 
 New Testament, is styled the Prince of the air, 
 may have a power to make in the air, by the 
 tongue of any bird, beast, or animal, sounds of 
 significant words, if God shall permit, does not, as 
 f^ir as I conceive, contradict any principle of true 
 philosophy; any more, than that he might inflict"? 
 
 ' The author of the Book of Samuel had this notion of the 
 agency of the wicked one, that he could do nothing, but under 
 
CHAP. IX. FALL OF MAN. 151 
 
 on Job, or may inflict on any of us, boils^ sickness, 
 or many other evils, if permission be given him. 
 But herein the dependance of all powers upon God 
 is preserved and acknowledged ; herein we guard 
 against all notions of two independent principles, 
 the one good, and the other evil : by showing, in 
 all that has been done by the great agent of evil, 
 that no one thing was ever done by him, but just 
 so far as God permitted him to go, and no farther. 
 Of the great adversary, w^ho seduced our first pa.- 
 rents, let us consider all that was done by him : 
 Did he speak to them from Heaven, in a voice, as 
 God spake to them ? No. Why did he not ? He 
 was not permitted to speak in this manner. Did 
 he appear to them in person ; in a similitude that 
 might carry dignity, and create himself respect ? 
 No ; any thing of this sort was not allowed him. 
 Did he cause some noble and respectable creature 
 of the world to propose his insinuation ? This he 
 was not suffered to do. Did he create even a ser- 
 pent suitable to the intention he designed to serve 
 by it? This can in nowise be pretended. He was 
 allowed, indeed, to use a creature of this very low 
 
 the permission and control of God; and, accordingly, says of 
 David's numbering the people, that God moved him to do it, 
 2 Sam. xxiv, 1 ; when, in fact, the instigation came imme- 
 diately, not from God, but from Satas. See 1 Chron. xxi, 1. 
 But the author of the Book of Samuel intended to establish it 
 as an universal truth, that God was supreme, and nothing could 
 be done without him. Had not God permitted, Satan herein 
 could have done nothing; and this, and nothing but this, was 
 intended in saying, that he, the Lord, moved David to number 
 the people. 
 
152 THE CREATION AND CHAP. IX. 
 
 species, but to use it only at a time, when the per- 
 sons tempted had not such knowledge of the nature 
 of a serpent, as to think it at all miraculous to 
 hear one speaking. And when he had liberty 
 to use this animal, was he able to make it speak 
 elegantly, what great parts and capacity would 
 have invented upon the subject? Not at all. 
 What Milton has intimated, may abundantly show 
 a field to expatiate in^ if the tempter had been 
 suffered to argue copiously upon the point pro- 
 posed. But, in fact, the tempter was only per- 
 mitted to bring, from the mouth of his agent, 
 little more than a bare negation of what had been 
 affirmed by the voice of God. In the event, in- 
 deed, little as he said, he said enough ; for he suc- 
 ceeded. But all this Mobile, an impartial examiner 
 must allow, that no temptation was suffered to 
 befal our first parents, which could have had weight 
 with them, unless they gave up the great principle, 
 without which nothing could be wise or strong in 
 them ; namely, that they were to obey God. They 
 had heard Him, who made them, say they should 
 not eat: they heard a serpent, a low and creeping 
 creature^ vastly beneath themselves^ say they might 
 
 ** Milton carries on the temptation in a fine process of rea-. 
 soning, supposed by him to have been artfully used by the 
 serpent; any part of which must have been infallibly too 
 much for our first parents, in the state of their knowledge of 
 the reason of things, to be able to gainsay or contradict. But 
 all this is Milton's fancy ; for Moses in nowise represents them 
 as having been thus tempted above what they were able. See 
 Milton, b. ix, ver. 532 — 722, 
 
CHAP. IX. FALL OF MAN. 153 
 
 eat. They apprehended nothing wonderful in this 
 animal's speaking, so that no thought of a miracle 
 had any weight with them. What then deter- 
 mined them ? We are told, Adam hearkened to 
 the voice of his wife^; and it is plain, that though 
 the serpent was the occasion of Eve's falling, yet 
 judging for herself, contrary to the direction of 
 God, that as the tree was pleasant to the sight, 
 a7id good for food, so it was to be desired to make 
 one ivise, was what made the temptation too hard 
 for her. But when the apostle tells us, the serpent 
 beguiled Eve by his subtletij\ does the expression, 
 here used hy him, absolutely coincide with what I 
 have been now saying? I answer, perfectly so: 
 the apostle only represented a plain and real fact 
 as it was most evidently done ; and it is a very 
 proper way, thus to speak of things being done as 
 they are evidently seen to be, without always divino- 
 to the bottom, or true springs and causes of them. 
 Moses relates, that the serpent was subtle, and 
 said — ; his speaking was the subtlety remarked of 
 him ; from his speaking to her, Eve received senti- 
 ments by which she was deceived. What now 
 could be said with more propriety of diction, than 
 that the serpent, who really and truly spake to 
 her, beguiled her? The apostle was no more 
 obliged to discuss here, whether the serpent spake 
 sua, or, nicely distinguishing, non sua verba; 
 whether subtlety used by him was of his own 
 
 » Gtn. iii, 17. • !? Cor. xj, 3. 
 
154 THE CREATION AND CHAP. IX. 
 
 natural sagacity, or of another's suggestion ; or,, 
 whether the persons beguiled by him, did not add 
 sentiments of their own to his intimation, than if 
 his converts had suffered what he was afraid of, 
 namely, their being corrupted from the simplicity 
 of the gospel by any one speaking to them things 
 contrary thereto ; he must, if he had charged the 
 person so speaking with having corrupted them, 
 have strictly determined, whether what such per- 
 son said to them was his own contrivance, or 
 only words dictated to him by some other ; and 
 whether no improvement of what he said came 
 into the minds of those who were seduced by him. 
 This might be a matter proper to be considered, if 
 the nature of the guilt of him, who had deceived 
 them, was the subject inquired into ; but w^as in 
 nowise necessary, if the fact only was to be related, 
 viz, by whom they had been deceived. The ser- 
 pent beguiled Eve through his subtlety^. The 
 apostle barely recognizes a fact, really done, as 
 Moses had recorded it ; the words, which Eve had 
 heard from the serpent, were all she knew of the 
 serpent's subtlety. Therefore w^e carry the apos- 
 tle's words to a view farther than he designed, if 
 we suppose him deciding from whom originally, 
 and by what manner of reasoning, the temptation 
 offered to Eve proceeded ; for he only reminds us, 
 from whose mouth the words actually came, which 
 ministered the temptation which proved her ruin. 
 
 » 2 Cor. xi, 3. 
 
CHAF. IX. FALL OF MAN. 155 
 
 But the next point may have greater difficulties : 
 for let us consider, 
 
 II. Whether it can he conceived, that the in- 
 finitely good God, the God, not only of all 
 power, but of all truth, and all rectitude, should 
 admit, as it vi^ere, the throne of' iniquity to have 
 fellowship with him, to frame mischief by a law^ ? 
 Can we think, that God would make a law intrin- 
 sically of no importance, and then suffer a throne 
 of w^ickedness, a power or principality of darkness, 
 
 2 Psal. xciv, 20. There are passages in the Book of Psalms, 
 
 which, though we may ina'tentively overlook them, hint at and 
 
 refute ancient abstruse notions, which obtained amongst the 
 
 then sages of the world, who were not possessed of the true 
 
 religion. One of these sentiments, recorded by Theopompus, 
 
 as being a tenet of the ancient magi, that dyaXiwrrza-^oLi ms 
 
 dy^pooTfsc, Kcii icrsar^CLi d^ciyo(.t8$, xai ra ovrx rat; olvt'uiv siii- 
 
 xKr^ascri Ux^Evsi-r (see Diogen. Laert &c. in Prooem. p. 7) 
 
 seems to be considered and refuted in Psal. xlix, in what the 
 
 Psalmist offers, for due observation, Aoiy ivise men die, likexcisc 
 
 the fool, and the brutish person, perish, and leave their wealth to 
 
 others; contrary to what he intimates as the inward thought of 
 
 some, who seemed to suppose, that their hoiiscs should continue 
 
 for ever, and their dwelling-places to all generations, and they call 
 
 their lands after their own names — &c. In like manner; as the 
 
 power of God and of Satan in the affairs of the world appears 
 
 to have been a subject not unthought of, in, and before, David's 
 
 times (see Job i and ii; 2 Sam. xxiv, compared with I Chron. 
 
 xxi, above cited); I cannot determine, whether the throne of 
 
 iniquity, mentioned by the Psalmist, and what is said of it, had 
 
 a view only to wicked earthly rulers, as the commentators 
 
 seem to take it, or might be designed to explode false doctrines 
 
 of a higher nature, concerning the two principles, which some 
 
 very early sages supposed to have each its share of power over 
 
 the world: Vlpsa-'Svrspovs shai tunv Kiyjitn'jjv, y.ai cvo >cx'* 
 
 avtss shai Wpyjx^, dyx'^ov dccimyoc v-m zxy.ov oxiiiovx. Laert, 
 
 ubi sup. 
 
166 THE CREATION AND FALL OF MAN. CHAP. LX, 
 
 the Devil or any of his angels^ to frame mischief 
 from it ; to contrive to have it hroken, only to bring 
 thereby labour and sorrow, sin, misery, and death, 
 upon men ? Can we think that God, having made a 
 rank of creatures of a lower degree of light and un- 
 derstanding, but such, that, if not tempted by some 
 other, they would have persevered in their obe- 
 dience to him, and been happy, would permit a 
 wicked spirit, of higher abilities than they, to 
 attack these creatures in a way, wherein, without 
 his permission, he could not have had access to 
 them, and thereby beguile and ensnare them into 
 ruin ? Should we not rather think it more reason- 
 able, that, if God gave our first parents such a law 
 as has been mentioned, and if, being left to them- 
 selves, they would not have swerved from it, he 
 should not have permitted any agent to have herein 
 perverted them ? The objection has in it a variety, 
 that ought to be considered in several parts, if we 
 would fully and truly answer it. 
 
CHAP. X. 
 
 The Objection last stated consider^ed and refuted. 
 
 The objection above stated will, I think, require 
 us to consider, 
 
 I. Whether it can be reasonable, that our first 
 parents should be permitted to be tempted, by any 
 heins; of a superior intelligence above themselves, 
 in any manner whatsoever : but, if we determine 
 this in the negative, how greatly may we err, not 
 seeing sufficiently into the creation of God. 
 
 He, who through vast immensity can pierce. 
 See worlds on worlds compose one universe; 
 Observe how system into system runs, 
 What other planets, and what other suns. 
 What varied being peoples ev'ry star. 
 May tell why Heav'n made all things as they are. 
 But of this frame, the bearings and the ties. 
 The strong connections, nice dependencies; 
 
 Pope. 
 
 the knowledge of them may not lie within our 
 reach; and we may therefore determine very wrong 
 concerning much of what we can only partially 
 consider in forming our judgment. 
 
 Respecting man, whatever wrong we call, 
 May, must be right, as relative to all. 
 
 Pope. 
 
158 THE CREATION AND CHAP. X. 
 
 The Circle of our own agency wonderfully ope- 
 rating over and by the powers of the creatures 
 beneath us/ though, in all they do, they have an 
 intention of their own, distinct from us, may rea- 
 sonably argue to us, that. 
 
 When the proud steed shall know why man restrains 
 His fiery course, or drives him o'er the plains; 
 Then shall man's pride and dulness comprehend 
 His action s, passion's, being's, use, and end : 
 Why doiHg, suffering, check'd, impell'd — 
 
 Pope. 
 
 An analogy to one another runs through the 
 powers of all intelligences in creation. The uni- 
 verse is but one whole in the hand of God ; we 
 are not independent principals, unconnected with 
 others. Rather, the various spheres of action of 
 all the innumerable orders of intelligent spirits, 
 that exist among the works of the supreme God, 
 are to have, under his direction and control, their 
 line, their weight and measure, to affect and be 
 affected by one another. And the event, resulting 
 from all, is to afford a true judgment of all ; when 
 all the evil, which may hence have come in, shall 
 have had its course, and be cast out ; and the sum 
 of all be found the greatest possible good, upon 
 the whole, to the Creator's glory. 
 
 In human works, tho' laboured on with pain, 
 A thousand movements scarce one purpose gain; 
 In God's, one single can its end produce. 
 Yet serves to second too some other use : 
 So man, who here seems principal alone. 
 Perhaps, acts second to some sphere unknown ; 
 
CHAP. X. FALL Ot MAN. 1 59 
 
 Touches some wheel, or verges to some goal ; 
 'Tis but a part we see, and not a whole. 
 
 Pope. 
 
 We in no wise see the scene of the demerit of apos- 
 tate spirits ; nor how far it may be requisite they 
 should be permitted to fill up their own measure, 
 within just and wise limitations (and in such we 
 find the tempter of Eve peatly restrained), to 
 answer the great ends of the infinite and eternal 
 Providence. Sin, indeed, and death, have there- 
 by come into our present state ; and death must 
 reign upon all, until the state we are in be accom- 
 plished ; but let us 
 
 Wait the great teacher. Death, 
 
 Pope. 
 
 and we shall, in time, be able 
 
 To look through nature up to nature's God ; 
 Pursue the chain, which links th* immense design, 
 Joins Heav'n and Earth, and Mortal and Divine. 
 
 Pope, 
 
 We shall then see, beyond what we are now able 
 to conceive, that, whatever hath befallen us, all 
 will display a most amazing height, and depth, 
 and length, and breadth of the wisdom, and power, 
 and goodness, and glory of Him, who will hence 
 bring those, who shall be meet to be partakers of 
 it^, through the one man, whom he hath ordained, 
 Jesus Christ, to the hingdom prepared for m^nfrom 
 
 Col. i, 12. 
 
i6o 
 
 THE CREATION AND CHAP. X, 
 
 the foundation of the worl(P ; and the wicked, 
 whether they have heen men or angels, shall go to 
 then' own place. 
 
 II. But it may be said, ^^ What, if it were fit, 
 and might answer a great end, that an intelligent 
 evil spirit, higher than they, should be permitted to 
 tempt our first parents : is there not a natural im- 
 propriety in supposing, that the particular access of 
 such a spirit to them hath been as Moses describes, 
 and that the temptation hath been of that sort 
 which he records ? To suppose that an intellectual 
 spirit, not visible to our first parents, should speak 
 to them, not in a voice that might have been 
 thought his own, but by the tongue of a serpent 
 seen by them ; and this to persuade them to do a 
 thing in itself neither good nor evil, to eat of the fruit 
 of a tree, only because God had forbidden them to 
 eat of it; is there any thing, that appears natural 
 in this proceedure ? Has it the colour of a rational 
 endeavour to bring moral evil into the world ? If 
 our adversary, the Devil, had been permitted, as 
 he is a spirit, to have had a spiritual access to the 
 minds of our first parents, to suggest to them evil 
 thoughts and evil desires, to fill them by degrees 
 with all uncleanness, to bring them to destruction, 
 both of body and soul; this would have seemed a 
 reasonable procedure for such a spirit of darkness : 
 he has for ages thus worked, and even still worketh 
 thus, in the children of disobedience^. But, to 
 
 " Acts xvii, 3! ; Matth, xxv, 34.. ^ Eph. ii, 2. 
 
CHAP. X. FALL OF MAN. l(jl 
 
 suppose that the Almighty had set, as it were, a 
 spell over our first parents, to require them not to 
 eat of a particular tree ; had determined, that, 
 whilst they kept within this injunction, no evil 
 spirit should get within them to hurt them ; hut, 
 if they would be seduced to break through it, that 
 neither they nor their posterity should ever after 
 be able to be proof against the evil one ; does this 
 look like the way of supreme understanding, ac- 
 cording to the reason and nature of things, and 
 therefore to be the way of GoD with man?" I 
 have, I think, given this objection all the strength 
 of which it is capable ; at least I am sure, that I 
 have endeavoured so to do. If I could find words, 
 which would express it more advantageously, I 
 "ivould use them ; for I take this, in reality, to be 
 the whole hinge upon which all that is to be said 
 against the religion of the Bible can turn. Let us 
 now attentively consider how far we can answer it. 
 Here the material point to be considered is, 
 whether the particular manner of the temptation 
 objected to was not, in reality, exactly suited to 
 the economy, or manner and measure in which the 
 Creator had made man ? God, the divine work- 
 master, must have so ordered his dispensations, as 
 to be suitable to the measure and nature of his 
 works, for which they were designed. Such as he 
 made man, to such he dispensed, that he 
 
 Qualis ab incepto procederet, 
 
 HOR. 
 
 might have the progress and procedure of his being 
 VOL. iv^ . ., M ^ 
 
l62 THE CREATION AND CHAP. X. 
 
 exactly suited to what were his original native 
 powers and endowments. Had God made man 
 such a being, that a true and right intelHgence of 
 the nature of things would, at all times, instantly 
 have occurred to his mind to give him a right judg- 
 ment concerning them*, the natural way of tempta- 
 tior., to such a being, might have been to admit a 
 perverted spirit to try his better judgment, to draw 
 him, if he could, from his own right sentiments 
 into evil. But, if God at first made man with 
 lesser powers, such a permission would have sub- 
 jected him to an unequal conflict indeed; for, how- 
 ever reasonable it may appear, that the wicked one 
 should be permitted to attempt to catch away that 
 ivhich is soivn in our hearts'"; when we need not 
 lose that which is sown, if we be willing to preserve 
 it ; it cannot follow, that it could be fit, that he 
 should be admitted, before any thing was sown in 
 the heart of man, so to possess the heart, as to 
 make it naturally impossible, that any good thing 
 should find a place in it. Had God made man, at 
 first, such as our rationalists assert, left absolutely 
 to the guidance of natural light, to discover there- 
 by the duties of his life ; expecting no service from 
 him, but what his own reason would suggest ; it 
 would seem unnatural, I might say, a contradiction, 
 to assert, that, before man had done, or even 
 
 4 Si tales nos natura geuuisset, ut earn ipsam intueri et per- 
 spiccre, eademque optima duce cursum vitse conikere pos- 
 semus. Cic. Tusc. Qucest. lib. iii, 
 
 s IMatth. xiii, 19. 
 
CHAP. X. FALL OF MAN. iG.S 
 
 thought good or evil^ God should interpose, by 
 giving him a law, which no reason of his own 
 could, without God's interposing, have laid before 
 birn ; and, permitting him to be tempted by the 
 voice of a serpent to break this law, absolutely to 
 defeat all he might otherwise have done, in pur- 
 suing what his natural powers w^ould have led him 
 to see to be the reason, and reasonable conduct of 
 his life. But if, on the contrary, we may affirm, 
 from what is written by Moses, that God did not 
 create man with this beam of actual understanding, 
 but gave him only the information of his senses, 
 and a capacity of mind, free, as not being under an 
 over-ruling instinct, and yet not having power to 
 be so perfect, as to want no external informa- 
 tion ; and that God designed, wherever man 
 should want it, to give him this information, by 
 causing him to hear his voice from Heaven ; re- 
 quiring him to have faith in him ; to believe and 
 obey whatever he should thus hear from his 
 Maker ; it is absolutely consistent with this eco- 
 nomy, that he might give man, thus far, but no 
 farther, endowed, such a command as Moses men- 
 tions, to be to him both a sign of what he w\as to 
 expect from God, for the direction of his life, and 
 an inviolate standard and remembrancer, to pay 
 unto God, in every thing he should command, tJie 
 obedience of faith. The faith of man in believing 
 God, being thus derived from hearing^, it could 
 
 ^ Rom. X, 17. 
 
 M 2 
 
l64 THE CREATION AND CHAP. X. 
 
 ijot be meet, that the temptation to disobey should 
 come to him otherwise than by hearing ; that, unless 
 he would choose to pervert himself, no other should 
 have a more intimate admittance to corrupt him. 
 Now, if the temptation was thus to come to him 
 only by hearings surely we must allow, that what 
 he heard from God, and all that he heard to tempt 
 him to disobey God, must appear, iu all the cir- 
 cumstances of both, to be very sufficiently disr 
 tinguished, so as to leave our first parents without 
 excuse, for not strictly adhering to obey the one 
 and reject the other. Thus the whole apparent 
 reasonableness, or seeming contrariety to the rea- 
 son of things, in what Moses relates, taken to be 
 historically true, depends upon whether it be fact, 
 that God did at first create man to guide his own 
 life, as himself should devise, left absolutely to 
 himself to find out the reason of those duties, which 
 he should investigate and practise ; or, whether 
 God made man to hear his voice, in order to be 
 directed by it ; to receive whatever God should, 
 by external revelation, make known to him ; to 
 make this the rule and guide of his actions. This, 
 therefore, is a point so material, and so really the 
 whole of man, that I hope I do not digress from 
 the intention of my undertaking, if I now and 
 then repeatedly endeavour to prove, that this ought 
 to have been the ruling principle of our first pa- 
 rents in their lives. 
 
 But, it is asked, " Was the prohibition a sort of 
 spell, that, whilst our first parents observed it, so 
 
CHAP. X. FALL OF MAN. l65 
 
 preserved them, that the evil one, although he 
 was a spirit, could not approach to hurt them, nor 
 they fall into evil, to their undoing ; but that, as 
 soon as they had broken through this charm, they 
 became so liable to all evil, both from without and 
 within, that henceforth all men would inevitably 
 sin, and freedom from guilt would be now no 
 more ?'* ^ I answer, the dressing up a proposition 
 in terms of ridicule is not a just and reasonable 
 way to discover what is true, or detect what is 
 false'. It is raising an inconsiderate contempt of 
 what ought to be brought to the bar of more de- 
 liberate examination to be there approved or re- 
 jected, as a right and well weighed judgment of 
 things may appear for or against it. Now, if in- 
 stead of using frivolous words upon the occasion, 
 which prove nothing, we take the point here to be 
 considered under due inquiry, we shall see, that 
 the prohibition given to our first parents, as Mo- 
 ses relates it, was no spell or charm, but what was 
 naturally both necessary and sufficient for them. 
 Our first parents were made living souls ; they 
 bad outward perception and inward understanding, 
 but both only in such a degree, that if, in using 
 them, they would admit the voice of God to direct 
 them, wherever he should see they wanted direc- 
 tion ; hereby they would be kept hi the hand of 
 God's counsel^ so as not to fall into any error to 
 their undoing. Their knowledge of life, and ex- 
 
 " See Mr. Brown s very excellent Essay on Ridicule. 
 
166 
 
 THE CREATION AND CHAP. X. 
 
 perience of their being, could not yet show them 
 their moral situation : how suitable then was it to 
 have some one plain inhibition to teach them that 
 they were not to do any thing whatever, which 
 God should think fit, by his express voice, to pro- 
 hibit ? And as God was pleased to add hereto his 
 express command, enjoining them the duties of 
 their lives ^; what could they have wanted now, 
 if they would truly have^ made this their wisdom, 
 this their understanding, to keep and observe all 
 that the Lord their God should declare ? The 
 natural event of their herein preserving themselves 
 could be no other, than that using all the powers 
 of their own minds, whereinsoever God did not 
 think fit specially to interpose, but strictly con- 
 forming to whatever he directed ; man, though 
 made with lower powers of reason than angels, 
 being guided by his Creator, and ripening himself, 
 might have gradually advanced unto all truth. 
 But when, instead of thus proceeding, our first 
 parents deviated from obeying the voice of God, to 
 hearken to the words of a lower speaker, and to 
 break the commandment of Him, who made them^ 
 because it seemed to be pleasant to their ei/es so to 
 do, and a thing to be desired to make them wise ; 
 
 * God's adding to the prohibition of not eating of the tree, 
 his command for the relative duty of man and wife, Gen. ii, 24, 
 shows in what manner he would have been pleased to inform 
 them, as time and the incidents of their lives shonld require, in 
 their other moral duties, 
 
 9 Dcut. iv, 6. 
 
eiiAP. X. FALL OF MAN. I67 
 
 what else did they herehi, but take themselves out 
 of the hand of God's counsel, into tlie hands of 
 their own ? And what could this possibly lead to, 
 unless they had been created with greater actual 
 knowledge, or with the powers of a more unerring 
 understanding, but to all mistake, and by degrees, 
 unto every evil work. 
 
 Another part of the objection is, ''that, if our 
 first parents had not been tempted from without 
 by a deceiver, they would not have broken the 
 commandment of their God." But we see thin2:s 
 very superficially indeed, if we do not perceive 
 enough to apprize us, that if we say this in our 
 lieart, we certainly do not inquire wisely into tliis 
 matter. That, in fact, a serpent speaking in man's 
 voice, occasioned in our first parents (whilst they 
 two were the all of mankind as yet in tbe world) 
 a sentiment, that what God had prohibited was 
 both pleasant and desirable, in the reason of the 
 thing, to be done, to make tlieyn wise, is indeed 
 true ; and that this sentiment was too hard for 
 them ; but it can in no wise follow, that, had it 
 not been thus incidentally occasioned, earlier, per- 
 haps, than otherwise they might have thought or 
 it, it would never have had rise in the heart ct 
 man. If we consider its nature, no thought here 
 took hold of them, but what is common to man' ; 
 for it has in all ages been a captivating point in 
 human theor}^, that what seems to us contrary to 
 
 ' See Connect, vol. iii, b. xi, p. 132. 
 
l6*8 THE CREATION AND CHAP. X. 
 
 what wc account wisdom, may not be a real reve- 
 lation from God. And, if the breaking of the 
 commandment concerning the forbidden tree had 
 not happened until our first parents had gradually 
 formed their hearts more deliberately to reject it, 
 how do we know but a thought might have been 
 raised in them, which could never be changed", in 
 the way and manner in which it mast be ever fit, 
 that God should govern, but not absolutely force 
 the moral world. Or, had it not taken effect until 
 the sons of men were many, until mankind were 
 multiplied upon the Earth, can we say, whether 
 the fall of mankind would, in the measure and 
 manner of it, have been so suited to the great and 
 deep purpose in the hidden counsel of God, to 
 bring man out of all his evil to salvation at last^ ? 
 The nature of virtue or vice in moral agents must 
 require, that it be really in our own choice, to do 
 the one or the other ; but the times and seasons, 
 when the incidents shall happen, that may give us 
 an opportunity of standing or falling by our own 
 choice, are best left unto God, to have them mi- 
 nistered to us as he sees to be most proper. The 
 Jews were permitted to complete our Saviours 
 death, whilst yet they protested, that, if he would 
 have come down from the cross, they would have 
 believed in him*. Whether they really would or 
 not, we cannot say ; but, if God knew they would 
 
 * Wisdom xii, 10. 
 
 3 See Eph. i, 4.— 12; iii, 11: Rom. v, 12—19. 
 
 * Matt, xxvii, 42. 
 
CHAP. X, FALL OF MAN. IGQ 
 
 not, it was a mercy to them, that he let their 
 transgression be finished, whilst yet it might be 
 prayed for^. That mankind would not so govern 
 that spark of reason, wherewith God had endowed 
 them, as not through it to break away from that 
 dependance, which they ought to have on him, was 
 undoubtedly foreseen by God before the worlds 
 were; which, duly considered, will suggest a 
 thought to us, that, if we could be admitted to see the 
 whole counsel of God, we might find, that in per- 
 mitting sin and death to come by one man into the 
 world, as related by Moses, he best knew how to 
 link and connect his design of bringing mankind 
 unto salvation by the obedience of one. 
 
 But there remains one suggestion more, which I 
 think a few observations may very clearly refute. 
 It will be said, '' What if our first parents did 
 break this positive command, concerning the tree, 
 of which no reason could tell them it was intrin- 
 sically good or evil ; will it follow, that they there- 
 fore would have disobeyed God in any one moral 
 law, which he would have been pleased to make 
 known to them ?" Although Adam and Eve did 
 not keep inviolate the observance, not to eat of 
 the tree ; we do not see that they proceeded, or 
 had any desire to think of breaking the law con- 
 cerning man and wife, which God declared to 
 them^ ; might they not have been as punctual in 
 observing every moral law for the duties of life, 
 
 ^ Luke vxiii, 3%, ^ Gen. ii, 24-, ut sup. 
 
170 THK CREATION AND CHAP. X. 
 
 whenever such law should have been made known 
 to them ? I answer, we may judge very rashly in 
 this great matter ; and, in all we thus say of it, 
 only darken the counsels of the Most High, hy 
 ivords ivithout hnowledge\ The Israelites, I ques- 
 tion not, believed, that both they and their pos- 
 terity would keep their solemn resolution® to serve 
 their own God, and not be corrupted to go after 
 the idols of Canaan.; although they did not so 
 strictly expel the Canaanites out of their land, as 
 God had commanded them^; but the event soon 
 showed, that their imagination was only vain. 
 God, who sees into us, and sees through us, knows 
 best what observances may be necessary to exercise 
 us to our duties ; and could best judge, whether, 
 whenever our first parents would go beyond the 
 restraint he had prescribed them, they would not 
 therein cherish a thought which would naturally 
 fill apace every measure of error, and heap it up, 
 to run over into their bosom. The principle, in- 
 tended to be established by the command concern- 
 ing the tree, was, as I have said, that our first 
 parents, having no actual science of life, should 
 proceed in the hand, under the direction 0/ God's 
 counsel) to make it their wisdom and undei^ standing, 
 strictly to practise whatsoever God should enjoin 
 them. And the consequence of rejecting to be 
 under this direction, to follow, instead thereof, 
 what seemed agreeable in their own eyes, and 
 
 7 Job xxxviii, 2. ^ Joshua xxiv, '2 1 — 25. 
 
 ^ See Judges i ; Numb, xxxiii, j2, 55. 
 
CHAP. X. FALL OF MAN. I7I 
 
 desirable in their own judgment ; might na- 
 turally plant in them the root, from whence 
 all these shoots have sprung, which have been 
 the great perversion of human life. This be- 
 ing duly considered, must lead us, not to think 
 of the positive command given our first parents as 
 a thing indifferent, or of no real moment; rather, 
 to use the words of St. Paul, as equally applicable 
 to this the beginning of revealed religion, as to the 
 end and completion of it. God, in giving our first 
 parents the law of the prohibited tree, abounded 
 towards them in all ivisdom and 'prudence^ ; to give 
 them, such creatures as he had made them, a law, 
 which, observed as it ought, would, in its natural 
 event, have been their life and salvation. 
 
 We may speculate at random as we please upon 
 the subject ; but, iffiict is at all to guide us, we 
 must observe, that this beginning of error being 
 once admitted, notwithstanding God's immediately 
 proceeding to denounce and ascertain the ten'ible 
 punishment he had declared should be the wages 
 of it; yet the error itself did not cease, although 
 it could not be again committed in the same fact, 
 which was Adam's transgression ; but rather grew 
 luxuriant, and abounded in the world. We read 
 of one person in the first world, who most emi- 
 nently ivalked with God", in the obedience of faith ; 
 Enoch herein so pleased God, as to be translated". 
 There were others, who were found faithful in their 
 
 » Eph. i, 8. ' Gen. x, 22. 
 
 3 Heb. xi, 5. 
 
172 THE CREATION AND FALL OF MAN. CHAP. X. 
 
 generations, in what had been revealed to them*; 
 but, in general, the principle of doing what seemed 
 right in their own eyes, appears to have so greatly 
 prevailed, that Lamech, a descendant from Cain, 
 some centuries before Adam died^ thought so dif- 
 ferently from what God had most expressly com- 
 manded, concerning man and wife^, that he intro- 
 duced polygamy''. And the world in general, in 
 little more than the then age, and half an age 
 of man, was become so corrupt, in man's departing 
 from God and his laws^, to follow the imagina- 
 tions of their own hearts^, that, to preserve right 
 and truth from perishing from off the face of the 
 Earth, it became the wisdom of God, eight per- 
 sons only excepted, to destroy the world. 
 
 "• Gen. V ; Ecclus. xliv ; Heb. xi. 
 
 5 Lamech was grandson of Cain : perhaps not born later 
 than Enos, the son of Seth: and, if so early, was born almost 
 sieven hundred years before Adam died. See the tables of the 
 lives of the antediluvian fathers. Connect, vol. i, b. i, p. 44-, 4-5. 
 
 ^ Gen. ii, 24. ' Gen. iv, 19. 
 
 *The life of man, at this time, was about nine hundre4 
 years. See Gen, v. 
 
 » Gen. V, 5; Job xxii, 17. 
 
CHAP. XL 
 
 The iminediate Consequences of our first Parents^ 
 eating of the fcrrbidden Tree : and the Sentence 
 ivhich God passed upon the Serpent, on account 
 of their Transgression, 
 
 No sooner had our first parents eaten of the tree 
 ibrbidden them, but we are told their eyes were 
 opened, and they knew they were naked^. We 
 must here ask, what sentiments could our first 
 parents receive from what they had done, to affect 
 them in this manner ? And it is amazing how 
 many writers have most absurdly trifled upon this 
 topic*. 
 
 If we would know truly what Moses here in- 
 tended, we must carefully attend to what he him- 
 self has expressed. And here let us observe, that 
 Moses does not say, that what the serpent had 
 promised our first parents was fulfilled to them , 
 they understood the serpent as telling them that 
 some great advantage of sight would be given 
 
 ' Gen. iii, 7. 
 
 * Videtur ingenerasse, nescio quo succo, vel qua alia virtute, 
 novos sensus pudoris et modestiae, vel nuditatis ut dicitur; 
 quasi nullum pudoiem habuissent in rebus venereis ante lap- 
 sura, hodie tamen in rebus istiusmodi innocuos niaxime coini- 
 tatur pudor. Burnet. Archeeol. p. 292. 
 
1 74 THE CREATION ANJD CHAP. XI. 
 
 them^; but the event certainly did not answer 
 their expectations. The serpent had said unto 
 them, your eyes shall he opened: Moses observes, 
 that their eyes were opened ; so indeed they were« 
 according to a true meaning of Moses's expression, 
 though not at all according to what they hoped for, 
 A fact, related by a heathen historian, may show 
 us the manner of speaking here made use of by 
 Moses, in the case of our first parents. 
 
 When the Lacedaemonians consulted the oracle 
 at Delphos, whether they should make war upon 
 the Arcadians ; Herodotus tells us, that the oracle 
 answered them, 
 
 Aivcuj Toi TsysYjv 'mocrcny.poT'ov opyyicatr^ca^ 
 Kat xaAov zszhov a-y^oivw Siccfj.ri'r'pria'aa-^cci. 
 
 That he would give them to march over the coun- 
 try of the Tegeans, and to measure its fair plains 
 with a line*. The Lacedaemonians expected that 
 they should over-run and absolutely conquer Tegea, 
 and divide and set out their lots in that country as 
 they pleased. But the event was, that the Lace- 
 daemonians were beaten and taken prisoners by the 
 Tegeans ; and were employed by them as their 
 slaves, to measure their lands, and to labour in 
 them ; and, says the historian, measured with a 
 line the Tegean plains ; a remark severe, but true 
 in fact, though not in the manner it had been ex- 
 pected. And this was Moses's observation upon 
 our first parents ; their eyes zvere indeed opened, 
 
 3 Vide quae sup. * ilcrodot. lib. i, c. 66. 
 
CHAP. XI. FALL OF MAN. IJ^ 
 
 in a true sense of Moses's expression ; but in a 
 manner very different from what tliey bad con- 
 ceived would have befallen them. 
 
 What Moses here intended to say was the real 
 event, which happened to our first parents, must be 
 gathered from the use he makes elsewhere of the 
 expression, eyes being opened. We Hnd it re- 
 markably used in the case of Hagar, in the wil- 
 derness of Beersheba^ ; who had wandered there 
 with her son IshmaeP. The water she had 
 brought with her in a bottle was all spent, and 
 both she and her child, with her, were in danger 
 of perishing for want of a supply. But Moses 
 tells us, the Lord opened her eyes, and she saw a 
 ivelP. We are not to suppose a miracle here 
 done ; the well is not said to have been created at 
 this time; for, undoubtedly, it w^as in the same 
 place before she saw it, as it was afterwards ; 
 and her eyes might be, in reality, as open, before 
 she saw the well, as when she espied it. But she 
 now turned her eyes to the place where the well 
 was, and saw what before she had not observed ; 
 and this, in Moses's expression, was having her 
 eyes opened. In this sense, likewise, Moses writes 
 it of our first parents ; after eating of the tree, 
 their eyes were opened ; they saw a circumstance 
 of their condition, which, before, they had not 
 remarked, and which led them to a thought, as 
 new to them, they hnew that they ivere naked^. 
 
 * Gen. XX i. ^ Ver. 14. 
 
 ' Ver. 19. • Gen. iii, 7. 
 
176 THE CREA.T10N AND CHAP. XI. 
 
 The question now is, in what sense did they 
 know themselves to he naked ? And here, hoth 
 later commentators, and many ancient and grave 
 writers, have, as I above hinted, immodestly trifled. 
 It is generally thought, that nakedness now first 
 became a shame ; but Moses in nowise gives any 
 such intimation : he tells us of a very different 
 passion here raised by it; it gave them fear. 
 Adam was not ashamed^ but afraid^ because he was 
 naked, and therefore hid himself; and it is obvious 
 to see the just reason he had for this sense of his 
 condition. The word, which we render naked, 
 has, indeed, in general, this, its most obvious signi- 
 fication ; but it is used in other senses, by a sort 
 of metaphor, in many places of Scripture ; and, in 
 the place before us particularly, we ought to take 
 it as it is used in the Book of Job. Hell, says 
 that writer, is {narom) naked before Mm, and de- 
 structioji has no covering^ : L e. Hell and destruc- 
 tion lie open, not concealed from the eye, nor in 
 any way covered from the vengeance of God. 
 This sense of the place is just and elegant, free 
 from the shameful fooleries, which writers, not 
 carefully considering, have ingrafted upon it. 
 Adam and Eve had taken upon them, not to rest 
 satisfied in what God had commanded ; but to 
 begin to think for themselves, contrary to what 
 He had said to them. And their thoughts taking 
 this turn, one sentiment brought on another ; 
 
 " Gen. iii, 7. » Job xxvi, 6. 
 
CHAP. XI. FALL OF MAN. 177 
 
 tliey were now to be wise for themselves, witliout, 
 nay against, their Maker. Now, how natural was 
 it for them, going in the paths of this theory, to 
 be reminded, and consider how to guard against 
 Him, who had severely threatened what they had 
 committed ? Alas ! their eyes now told them 
 they had no covering ; neither could they think 
 how to find a shelter, which might protect them. 
 However, they attempted to do the best they could; 
 they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves 
 aprons'^. 
 
 They made themselves aprons. Here again 
 Moses is supposed to say, what no one would have 
 thought of, unless he imagined that our parents 
 had reasons of shame to cover some particular 
 parts of their bodies. But Moses hints nothing 
 like it: his words are, vagithperu naleh ieenah, 
 vejanashu lehem chaggoroth^. We may observe, 
 that the word, which we render leaves, is, in the 
 text, not plural, but singular ; and, 1 apprehend, 
 that both here, and in some other places of Scrip- 
 
 = Gen. iii, 7. 
 
 Vestimenta circumligata sibi et fecerunt ficus foliaturam insuerunt 
 
 i. e. intexucrunt. 
 As the text may be thus construed, Di\ Burnet's low ridicule 
 of the beginning of the art of a seamstress, of their having 
 neither thread nor needle, is without foundation. " En ! " 
 savs he, ** primordia artis sutqriae : sed unde iilis acus, unde 
 filurar'* Archaeol. p. 293. There was no want of any instru- 
 ments to try to entwine tender boughs into one another, and 
 it must seem a very natural thought for them to attempt a 
 "work of ihis nature. 
 
 VOL. IV. N 
 
178 THE CREATION AND CHAP. XI. 
 
 ture, it should be rendered, not leaves^ but a folia" 
 ture, or intei^iwining of leaves, and that the whole 
 paragraph should be thus translated : they wreathed 
 together a foliature of the fig tree, and made them- 
 selves enwrapments ; i, e, they wrapped themselves 
 up in them. What they wanted was to hide 
 themselves from God. An apron, or a cincture 
 about their waists, would in nowise answer this 
 jiurpose ; therefore they could have no thought of 
 so partial a covering ; but the casing themselves 
 up within boughs full of leaves, to look like trees, 
 and thereby to escape his observation, — this might 
 be a sentiment not too weak for a first thought of 
 persons, who, when they found their investments 
 inconvenient or insufficient, were still so ignorant 
 and foolish before God, as to conceive, that they 
 might possibly be hidden from Him behind the 
 trees of the garden. 
 
 What Moses therefore relates, thus explained, is 
 highly natural ; they had broken the comniand- 
 ment of the Lord their God ; and now it came 
 into their mind, how shall we escape his observa* 
 tion ? Will he not soon see us ? and when he sees 
 us, will he not punish? Every thought about 
 themselves now was a new terror ; their eyes 
 w ere opened, and they saw they had no covering ; 
 their hearts were alarmed, they considered they 
 had nothing wherewith they might protect them- 
 selves against him ; whither now could they 
 fly from his presence ? or what should they do to 
 ward off his displeasure ? Had they now known 
 
CHAP. XT. FALL OF MAN. 179 
 
 the world, and the hiding places which are therein, 
 they would have gone into the dens and rocks of 
 the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, 
 fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him^ and 
 from his wrath to corned But they had, as yet, 
 been little farther than the compass of their 
 garden, and knew of ro thicker cover than the 
 leaves and shelter of their trees ; with some of 
 these, therefore, they tried to wrap up and dis- 
 guise themselves, as well as they could ; and here- 
 in they seemed to amuse themselves, until towards 
 the evening of the day : they then heard the voice 
 of God moving from one part of the garden to 
 the other^ ; which struck them with fresh confu- 
 sion. Their fears came now upon them like an 
 armed man ; they were not able to abide in the 
 way of the voice of God, but gat themselves into 
 the closest thicket of trees they could find, and 
 here they hoped to lie hid. But the voice of God, 
 calling now more peremptorily, J dam, where art 
 thou ? darted terrors quite through him ; he 
 could no longer think that he was concealed, but 
 came forth, confessing, that he was afraid because 
 he was naked, and had therefore hid himself^. 
 The transaction is a most natural progress of con- 
 scious guilt ; and the words, which Adam now 
 spake, are as natural, and a deep humiliation of 
 himself before God. They are, as if he had said, 
 I was afraid, and hid myself; but I see I am 
 
 * Rev. vi, 16. ^ Gen. iii, S-^-10. 
 
 * Ver. 10. 
 
 N 2 
 
180 THE CREATION AKD CHAP. XI, 
 
 naked, I have no cover from thine eye ; I know 
 also that I am farther naked, unarmed against, 
 having nothing to oppose to, or protect me from 
 thy power ; 1 submit, Lord, do unto me as thou 
 vAh, 
 
 It is very obvious to remark, how our trans- 
 lators and commentators came to have a notion of 
 Adam and Eve's shame for their nakedness. In 
 the last verse of the second chapter of Genesis we 
 have this observation, that, they ivere both naked, 
 the man and his tvife, and were not ashamed. It 
 being here observed, that no shame attended their 
 being naked before they ate of the tree, it was con- 
 cluded that a shame of being naked entered with 
 sin into the world. But I would, hereupon, offer 
 to the reader's consideration, 
 
 1. That what is expressed in this 25th verse of 
 the second chapter of Genesis, is an observation 
 that has no manner of reference to, or connection 
 with, any thing before said, which might give 
 occasion for it ; nor does it any way lead to intro- 
 duce what follows in beginning the next chapter. 
 It seems, in its obvious sense, quite an indepen- 
 dent remark, which might indeed be made by any 
 one who considered, that at that time they were 
 not clothed , but had mankind never worn clothes 
 at all, nothing was yet said which could have 
 occasioned such an observation. Every thing, 
 which Moses had related, or proceeded to relate, 
 would have been as full and complete without it 
 a& with it. 
 
CHAP. XI. FALL OF MAN. 181 
 
 2. There are several observations of this sort, 
 in many parts of the Old Testament, and in the 
 Book of Genesis particularly, which the learned 
 agree were not originally in the text ; hut were 
 hints written^ in the margin of ancient copies, as 
 observations from, or upon, the text ; and that 
 transcribers from these copies, not carefully dis- 
 tinguishing, took them into the text ; that such 
 transcribers, not being modern, hut more ancient 
 than any printed copies, or, indeed, any manuscript 
 Bibles now extant, perhaps we have now no copies 
 without some of these insertions in the text. If, 
 indeed, the meaning of the verse we are treating 
 was, that Adarn and Eve were not ashamed at their 
 wearing no clothing, and I could have any warrant 
 from any one copy to omit it, I should be inclined 
 to think it an insertion of this nature. 
 
 3, But I apprehend the truth is, that this verse 
 was not intended at all to speak of their being 
 naked, in respect to clothing. As the word naked 
 has metaphorical senses in some passages of the 
 Old Testament, so also has the word, which we 
 here translate ashamed^. It is far from signifying, 
 m all places, being affected with what we call the 
 passion of shame; it often means, being confounded 
 or destroyed. The word here used is a termina- 
 tion of the verb buosh (u/in), and this is the verb 
 used by Isaiah, where, recollecting how God had 
 
 ' See Prideaux's Connect, part, i, b. v; Connect. Sacr. and 
 Prof. History, vol. ii, b. vii, p. 200; vol. iii, b. xii, p. 446. 
 * The Hebrew text is, wXDir\^ sh. 
 
182 THE CREATION AND CHAP. XT. 
 
 destroyed the kings of Canaan before the Israelites, 
 and laid waste their fenced cities into ruinous heaps, 
 he tells usj that their inhabitants ivere of small 
 power; they ivere dismayed {^w1^, veboshu). He 
 does not here ri>ean that they literally had the 
 passion of shame affecting them, hut were con- 
 founded ; were, as he proceeds, as the grass of 
 the fields and as the green herb, as the grass on the 
 house-tops f and as corn blasted before it be grown 
 up^. And this was Moses's meaning in the word 
 here used ; a meaning of it perfectly coinciding 
 with what afterwards appeared to be his sentiment 
 of man's standing personally to hear the voice of 
 God. Moses, elsewhere, speaks of it as being 
 no ordinary mercy, that a man should hear the 
 voice of God and live^ ; therefore he might here 
 leave us this observation, concerning our first 
 parents; that God spake to them, and that, al- 
 though they stood naked before him, i. e. in his 
 more immediate presence, under no covert, nigh to 
 him, to hear the voice of his word talking to 
 them, they experienced what Moses always re- 
 puted a very extraordinary thing, that God 
 did talk with man, and they were not confounded, 
 but lived^. 
 
 Thus far we have no difficulty ; we are now to 
 consider what the voice of God said to Adam 
 upon his confessing himself thus naked before him. 
 And he (i. e. God) said, who told thee that thoi^ 
 
 9 2 Kings xix, 26 ; Isaiah xxxvii, 26. 
 
 \ Deut. iv, 33. ' Chap, v, 24, 
 
CHAP. XI. FALL OF MAN. 183 
 
 wast 72aJced 9 Hast thou eaten of the tree tvhereqf 
 I commanded thee that thou sliouldest not eat^ 9 
 The words point very clearly to what I have ex- 
 plained to be the meaning of Adam's thinking 
 himself naked. Had Adam intended by that ex- 
 pression, that he was ashamed to appear before 
 God, upon account of his having no clothes, here 
 would have been something said hugely trifling, 
 and no way pertinent to any circumstance of his 
 condition ; but take him to mean by naked, not 
 covered from the sight of God, and without any 
 defence or protection against his power ; and the 
 reply from God here is, as if he had said. You say 
 you are without cover from, and without defence 
 against me : have you never been so before me 
 until now ? Have you hitherto wanted any cover 
 or defence ? Who tells you, that you now want 
 them ? I never threatened you, but for one thing: 
 art thou afraid r Hast thou done that one thing, 
 to be afraid of me? This now speaks itself to be 
 the reason and explanation of what God was 
 pleased to say to Adam, and refers evidently to 
 what Adam had done to occasion this being said 
 to him. Adam hereupon denied not, but con- 
 fessed his guilt ; the ivoman, said he, whom thou 
 gavest me, she gave me of the ti^ee, and I did eac^. 
 The woman being interrogated, answered without 
 evasion, the serpent beguiled me, and I did eai\ 
 All this, I think, can want no comment ; we ma'y 
 
 a Gen. in, II. * Ver. 12. 
 
 s Ver. 13. 
 
184 THE CREATION AND CHAP. XI. 
 
 therefore proceed to examine the sentence, which 
 God hereupon passed upon the offenders. 
 
 And here we read, that the Lord God said unto 
 the serpent : because thou hast done this, thou art 
 cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of 
 the Jield : upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust 
 shalt thou eat all the days of thy life\ The objec- 
 tors, hereupon, ask, — '^ Shall we say, that the nature 
 of the serpent was now changed r that before the 
 serpent had done what he is here made criminal 
 for, he was an animal that walked upright^ and 
 moved in a manner very different from what he 
 now moves in ? Were his whole make and shape, 
 and powers of moving, upon the sentence now 
 passed upon him, totally altered r If they were 
 not, he was, before this sentence, just the same 
 reptile, as he was after it ; and if so, then no 
 punishment was inflicted. If we say, God changed 
 his make and form, and degraded him to a low 
 reptile for the mischief he had done ; how can this 
 be^ ? For, where there was no fault, how should 
 
 * Gen. iii, 14. 
 
 7 Vide Criticos in loc. ; Rivet, exercit. in Gen. 
 
 " De poena serpentis non levis est cpaestio : si diabolus rem 
 totam egit sub specie serpentis ; vel si coegit serpentem, ut ea 
 ageret vel pateretur; quid serpens luit pcEnascriminisadiabolo 
 commissi? Dein quoad modum et formam poenae in serpen- 
 tem irrogatae, nempe quod in posterum pronus iret in van' 
 trera, quid hoc sibi velit non est facile explicatu: erectuia 
 antea fuisse serpentem, aut quadrupedum more incessisse aggre 
 qiiis dixerit. Quod si vero ferebatqr pronus in ventrem ab 
 initio, ut hodierni angues, ineptum videri possitid pro supplicio, 
 ct in poenam singularis facti, huic animali imponi aut attribuiji 
 quod semper et a natura habuit. Burnet. Archneol. p. 291. 
 
CHAP. XI. FALL OF MAN. 185 
 
 God punish ?*' If, as I have observed^ the words, 
 which came to Eve, from the mouth of the serpent, 
 were, in reality, not the serpent's words ; were 
 words he in nowise intended, nor had any sense 
 of, or meaning in them^, wherein could the ser- 
 pent be criminal ? and, if he was not criminal, 
 why should he be so execrated and degraded ? 
 They, who oppose our understanding Moses in a 
 literal sense, seem here to triumph ; and I cannot 
 say, that those who answer them, do speak so 
 clearly as might be w^ished in this particular. The 
 true fact, in what had been done, undoubtedly was, 
 that the serpent had been no moral agent in the 
 affair, had really done nothing; for he was only a 
 mere tool, an instrument in the use of an invisible 
 agent; and therefore cannot be tbonght either 
 accountable, or deserving to be punished, for any 
 thing which had happened ; so that we ought 
 carefully to examine the words of Moses, whether 
 he says any thing which intimates that God had 
 really called the serpent here to an account, or 
 inflicted any punishment upon him. 
 
 It is, indeed, observable, that not only our Eng- 
 lish, but all versions of the text of Moses, render 
 the place^ as if great guilt was imputed to the 
 serpent, and punishment thereupon denounced 
 against him ; but if the reader be apprised how the 
 Hebrew particle >5 (ki), in the text, which we 
 translate, because, ought to have been rendered, 
 
 ' Vide quae sijp. 
 
186 THE CREATION AND CHAP. XI. 
 
 not because, but although ; the passage will appear 
 to have a different meaning \ 
 
 The words used by Moses are, hi nashitha zaoth^; 
 we render them, because thou hasi done this : the 
 particle hi has often this signification, and possibly 
 may be thus taken, where Adam is spoken to, in 
 the 17th verse (hi shamanta^), because thou hast 
 hearkened unto the voice of thy ivife, — But it must 
 be rendered otherwise in other places. In Ge- 
 nesis viii, 21, The Lord God said, I ivill not 
 curse the ground any more for man's sahe ; for 
 (ki), the imagination of juans heart is evil from 
 his youth. Had we here rendered the particle M, 
 because, we had darkeued the sense extremely ; 
 and the translating it for, does not entirely clear 
 it. The words truly rendered are as follow : 
 I ivill not curse the ground any more — although 
 the imagination of mans heart is evil: — This is 
 the true meaning of the words : God was pleased 
 to determine, not to curse the ground any more, 
 although the wickedness of man was such as de- 
 served its being again cursed. Thus again, in 
 another place : Israel stretched out his right hand, 
 and laid it upon Ephraim's head, who was the 
 younger, but he laid his left hand upon Manasseh's 
 head; hi, we say, for 'M.^LXid.ssoh was first born^, 
 
 * The Arabic version seems to specify, that the serpent de- 
 signedly beguiled Eve : cu7n feccris hoc scienter, in the Latin 
 version of the place. But how groundless is this fancy ? 
 
 "" n«T niT)) ^5 3 Gen. iii, 17. 
 
 4 "n:3in nil*iD "-^ Gen. xlviii, I'k 
 
CHAP. XI. FALL OF MAN. I87 
 
 Surely tlie reason intimated is a little confused : 
 but if we had rendered the words, although 
 Manasseh was thejirst born, the expression would 
 be just and significant. And thus in Psalm xxv. 
 Pardon my iniquity, Id, we say, for it is great^ ; 
 but we should better express the Psalmist's mean- 
 ing, if we translated it, although it is great. 
 Our version has, in one place, given the particle 
 this its true meaning : God led them not through 
 the land of the Philistines ; we here render the 
 particle ^i, justly, although it was near^. 
 
 And thus the verse concerning the serpent 
 ought to have been translated : And the Lord 
 God said unto the serpent, although thou hast 
 done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and 
 above every beast of the feld; upon thy belly shalt 
 thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of 
 thy life. The words in nowise imply, that a 
 change of the nature of the serpent was now in- 
 flicted on him ; he remained the same animal as 
 he was created. But they are, as it were, an 
 apostrophe to the serpent, in the hearing of Adam 
 and Eve, designed to evince to them, what a folly, 
 as well as crime, they had been guilty of, in being 
 deceived by so low a seducer. The words are, as 
 if God had said to the serpent : *' Although thou 
 hast done this great mischief, yet thou art no 
 lofty and respectable creature ; thou art one of the 
 meanest of all animals ; thou art not raised to any 
 
 * iilin Ti O ver. U. ^ yip ^3 Exod. xiii, 17. 
 
188 THE CREATION AND CHAP. XI. 
 
 high form, but art a mere reptile, and shalt always 
 continue to be so ; upon thy belly thou art made 
 to go ; and shalt feed low all the days of thy life, 
 in the very dust^." Adam and Eve had con- 
 ceived high notions of the serpent, above all the 
 beasts of the Jield tvhich the Lord had made'' ; 
 but God here reprehends their foolish fancy, and 
 sets before them, what their own eyes might have 
 told them, that the serpent was a creature made 
 only for a very low life ; and that no such 
 elevation as they imagined should ever belong to 
 him^ 
 
 The translators of the Bible were, I dare say, 
 led to think a punishment was here inflicted upon 
 the serpent, from the expression of his being 
 cursed above every beast of the field. To he 
 cursed, may be to have some signal mischief or 
 great evil, either wished to, or inflicted upon, the 
 person cursed. This is indeed the general signifi- 
 cation of the word ; but it ought to be considered, 
 whether it is contrary to the nature of the Hebrew 
 tongue, to call a thing cursed, when such circum- 
 stances belong to it as are so extremely bad, that 
 
 * Was there ever a second person of the above opinion ? 
 Surely such a far-fetched interpretation of a text never saw 
 the sun. — Edit. 
 
 7 Gen. iii, 1. 
 
 * The ancient naturalists have largely considered the pro- 
 priety of the motion of a serpent, to its whole make, and con- 
 struction of the nature of its body ; in "fstcov yap <pocv£pov, ht 
 7cjjy ivoLi^Lajv oo'cx, Y-outc/, /xtjho^ d(rvpi.pi.srpcc aWi wpo^ tyjv olXXj/ 
 m a-cvfj^ccT&s <pv7iVt y.ot.^(ntsp o\ o^sis, cv^ev oiov t's avrwv 
 vtciTfohv Eivcii. Aristot. lib. de Animalium incessu, c. viii. 
 
CHAP. XI. FALL OF MAN. I89 
 
 it might be deemed as unhappy a thing, even as a 
 most severe curse, to be under them, though they 
 be not inflicted as a particuhir judgment. In this 
 sense the Jews, in our Saviour's time, called their 
 vulgar or common people cursed^, who, they 
 thought, could not know the law. We cannot 
 suppose them, here, as meaning that the body of 
 their people were under any .particular curse or 
 judgment of God, which deprived them of all pos- 
 sibility of knowing their duties ; rather they 
 thought of them in the sentiment of the prophet ; 
 Surely these are poor ; thei/ are foolish^ for they 
 know not the way of the Loud, nor the judgment 
 of their God ; 1 will get me to the great men, and 
 will speak unto them, for they have known the way 
 of the Loiid\ The prophet here looks upon the 
 poor, not as particularly cursed of God ; for this 
 he could not think ^, but they ^vere in such cir- 
 cumstances as might not have afforded them any 
 considerable information concerning their duties, 
 and he therefore said, he would get him to the 
 great, as reputing it more likely to find them ready 
 to hear and understand. In this way the Jews 
 held their estimation of the common people: they 
 imagined it not likely that these should know the 
 law; therefore they deemed them so despicably 
 ignorant, that though no particular judgment of 
 God was in the case, yet they held them in no 
 
 ' John vii, 49. * Jerem. v, 4, 5. 
 
 ' JSec Prov. xxii, 1 ; Dcut. xv, II. 
 
190 THE CREATION AM> CHAP. XI. 
 
 kind of regard, but as in a cursed or most con- 
 temptible condition. It is no unnatural way of 
 speaking to say of poor, barren, and unprofitable 
 land, that it is cursed ground; not only where 
 God may have been pleased to make a fruitful 
 land barren^ for the wickedness of them that dwell 
 therein^, as was particularly the case of the earth 
 that was cursed upon our first parents' having 
 sinned*, but also when the land is very steiil and 
 unfruitful, though no particular curse of God has 
 ever been denounced against it. In the Hebrew 
 tongue we often find things, eminently excellent 
 in their kind, said therefore to be of God ; cedars 
 of Lebanon, highly flourishing, to be, for that 
 reason, of God's planting ; so on the contrary, the 
 word cursed may as reasonably be used, as it were 
 in contrast, where God had given no appearance 
 of a blessing. Adam and Eve were thinking 
 highly of the serpent ; the design of what God 
 now said was to show them, that he was a cr;ea- 
 ture deserving their lowest notice ; they thought 
 him above any beast of the field which the Lord 
 had made. The words here spoken were to tell 
 them, that he was not above, but beneath all 
 others ; so creeping and abject, that his make and 
 form might be spoken of in terms, as if they were 
 a curse upon him ^ 
 
 ' Psalm cvii, 34. ^ Gen. iii, 17. 
 
 * I do not know whether I might not observe, that the 
 death of being hanged on a tree, was suicl to be a cursed 
 
CHAP. XI. FALL OF MAN. IQ\ 
 
 Bat the words that next follow have greater 
 difficulties : And I will put enmity between thee 
 and the woman, and between thy seed and hei^ 
 seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt 
 bruise his heeP. The inquiries I w^ould make 
 concerning these words are, I. Whether Adam 
 and Eve understood them? II. Whether they 
 conceived that they had any reference to the 
 animal, the serpent from whose mouth they had 
 heard the words which had beguiled Eve? III. 
 What may be the true and literal meaning of 
 them ? 
 
 I. Are we sure that Adam and Eve understood 
 what God now spake to them^r They are words, 
 which, I hope, I shall be able reasonably to ex- 
 plain, and show to be the first prophecy which 
 was made to the vvprld. I call them a prophecy, 
 as speaking of events to come ; and that for many 
 days to come, referring to what was to be accom- 
 plished in times that were afar off,^ therefore, 
 
 death in thig sense of the word. See Deiit. xxi, 22, 23. There 
 were other deaths inflicted by the laws of God; such as 
 stoning with stones till a man died, Levit. xx, 2, 27, &c. 
 Whoever came under the sentence of this, or any other death 
 inflicted by God's law, was as really accursed of God, as he 
 that was hanged on a tree ; but the ignominy of this death was 
 despicable beyond others : it had a shame belonging to it, 
 hard to get over and despise ; it was stigmatized, low, and 
 base, beyond other punishments, and therefore had peculiarly 
 thifi term of reproach annexed to it. 
 
 ^ Gen, iii, 15. ' Ibid. 
 
 * Eicek. xii, 27 ; see Dan. xii, 8, 9, 13; x, 14; viii, 20; 27 ; 
 vli, 23. 
 
192 THE CREATION AND CHAP. XL 
 
 though it seems obvious that Adam and Eve might 
 understand, from what was spoken^ that the enemy 
 who had hurt them would at length he conquered ; 
 yet it does not appear that they were precisely in- 
 formed who this enemy was, nor what the contest 
 was which should be with him and against him ; 
 nor how, or by whom in particular he should be 
 subdued. What had been said in their hearing, 
 concerning the cursed or very low and grovelling 
 nature of the serpent, must have apprized them, that 
 they had been much mistaken in their notions of 
 this animal. Whether it caused them to reflect, 
 although they did not before think so, that the 
 serpent did not perhaps speak of himself; but that 
 thej had some greater enemy whom they had not 
 seen, nor known, I cannot say ; but that our first 
 parents, though their experimental knowledge could 
 as yet be but little, were not of slow parts, but able 
 to turn every thing hinted to them over in their 
 minds, to conceive of it all that a lively imagina- 
 tion would, as far as they could know things, pre- 
 sent to them, must, I think, be admitted as unques- 
 tionable ; and that they henceforward acquitted 
 the serpent of all guilt towards them, seems to me 
 to appear from what I shall presently consider, 
 viz, that we have no hints in history, that either 
 they, or their immediate descendants, commenced 
 any particular enmity or hostility against the ani- 
 mals called serpents, any more than against any 
 other animals of the world. But, that Adam and 
 Eye knew the real meaning of what was here said 
 
CHAP. XI. FALL OF MAN. 193 
 
 to them, any more than the ancient prophets per- 
 fectly understood what was revealed to them, to be 
 by them declared unto the world, is what I see no 
 reason to conclude. Are we to think that Daniel, 
 after he had written down what had been revealed 
 unto him concerning the seventy weehs determined 
 upon his people^, could have exactly determined 
 what manner of time was here signijied beforehand ; 
 or how that which was testified, was to be fulfilled 
 in the sufferings of Chr^ist, and the glory that 
 should follow^? Or shall we think, that David, 
 to whom it had been foreshown, that his soid'^ 
 should not be left in Hell, neither should God's 
 holy one see corruption, could have hence been 
 able to declare, that Jesus Christ, or even any one 
 of his (David's) descendants, should be dead and 
 buried, and on the third day be raised from the 
 dead r Or that even Moses, who recorded the 
 words, which God had thus spoken to our first 
 parents ; and afterw^irds, that in Abraham's seed 
 all the nations of the Earth should be blessed"; 
 and afterwards, that Shiloh should come of the 
 tribe ofJudah^; and farther, that God would give 
 the Israelites a prophet from among their brethren 
 like unto him, that they should hear him^ ; can we 
 say, that Moses could have explained, as St. Paul 
 was able afterwards to show, who the particular 
 person was, that was to be this seed of the woman s the 
 
 * Dan. ix, 24—27. * 1 Pet. i, 11. 
 
 ^ Psalm xvi, 10; Acts ii, 25 — 35. ^ cjen. xxii, 18. 
 
 * Gen. xlix, 10. ^ Deut. xviii> 15. 
 
 VOL. IV. O 
 
194 THE CREATION AND CHAP. XI. 
 
 seed of Abraham ; the Shiloh ; the prophet who was 
 to come ; and in what particular manner all that 
 had been foretold should in him be fulfilled^ ? 
 Prophecy was designed to point beforehand to 
 something, which was afterwards more fully to be 
 revealed ; to create in those, unto whom it was 
 given, an expectation of things not yet fully ex- 
 plained to them ; which things were, in the pro- 
 gress of ages, to be farther added to and opened, 
 as God should think fit more and more to show 
 the contents of them ; until, when the time was 
 come that the whole was fulfilled, they, unto whom 
 the things foretold were accomplished, might look 
 back, and, by seeing from the beginning what had 
 been said, before any one but God knew how these 
 things should so be, might hereby have a surer 
 word?, than could possibly have been contrived for 
 cunningly devised fahles, to show them, that the 
 things thus foretold, and thus accomplished, were 
 of God. Such is that series of promises or pre- 
 dictions began in the words now spoken by God to 
 our first parents ; enlarged, and more specified as 
 to their meaning, by some farther prophecies given 
 in after ages ; until, at the end of about four thou- 
 sand years, a person appeared, in whose life and 
 death, resurrection and glory, the whole of what 
 had been foretold was clearly seen to be truly and 
 literally fafilled ; but yet so foretold and so ful- 
 filled, that no one, before the things were come to 
 
 ® Gal. iii, U— 16'. ' 2 Pet. i, 19. 
 
CHAP. XI. FALL OF MAN. 195 
 
 pass, ever so understood the prophecies as to think, 
 that thuswould be the event of them. Wherebyit was 
 th€ more demonstrably proved, that the Avhole v^^as 
 God's work ; for, as he only could declare the end 
 from the beginnmg^, mark out truly beforehand 
 the traces of his own deep counsels and designs ; 
 so, what had been foretold by him, was always so 
 imperfectly understood, as to be looked for by men 
 quite otherwise than it came to pass : and herein it 
 became evident, w'hen it w^as come to pass, that no 
 human contrivance was in the fulfilling it, any more 
 than in the foretelling it ; for, had there been 
 human contrivance in it, it would have been brought 
 about to have been fulfilled in quite another man- 
 ner. The words therefore before us, now spoken 
 by God, are, as a most excellently able and learned 
 prelate has pointed out to us^, the first of " a chain 
 of prophecies reaching through several thousand 
 years, manifestly subservient to, and gradually 
 opening, one and the same administration of Pro- 
 vidence from beginning to end ;" of which our first 
 parents knew no more, than to think that they 
 literally had hopes herein, so far seen by them as 
 to give them reason to trust and depend upon God; 
 but not enough explained to them, to show what 
 
 * Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and 
 there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me ; de- 
 claring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times 
 the things that are not yet done: saying, my counsel shall 
 stand, and I will do all my plea-ure. Isainh xlvi, 9, 10. 
 
 » Bishop Sherlock's Preface to the third edition of the Use 
 and Intent of Prophecy. 
 
 O 2 
 
196 THE CREATION AND CHAP. XI. 
 
 the particular things were which they were to hope 
 for, or how or when they were to be accomplished. 
 II. But did our first parents apprehend, that 
 any thing here said concerned or related to the 
 animal, to the serpent from whose mouth the guile 
 came, which deceived them ? I answer, I think 
 they did not. Had Adam and Eve understood 
 God as meaning, that there should be continual 
 war between mankind and the serpents ; that the 
 serpent should bite the heels of men, and that men 
 should crush and bruise to pieces the heads of ser- 
 pents, would not ancient history have given some 
 account of the endeavours of mankind, in the fii*st 
 iiges, to destroy these their enemies ? It is ob- 
 bervable, that God does not speak of the serpent as 
 a creature of enormous size, but rather as so con- 
 temptible, that Adam could have no reason to be 
 afraid of it'j but might have easily perhaps stamped 
 
 ' We are told by heathen writers of serpents of a most incredible 
 size. Pliny relates from Livy, that, when Regulus commanded 
 the Roman forces in Africa, he was infested by a serpent 
 one hundred and twenty feet long, and so invulnerable, its 
 scales being impenetrable, and its breath so infectious, that 
 he was forced to use the military engines, which they used 
 against towers and the v/alls of towns, before they could sub- 
 due it; and says the skin of it was hung up at Rome, and re- 
 mained there until the war with Numantia, i. c. about one hun- 
 dred years. Vide Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. viii, c. 14. Liv. Hist, 
 lib. xviii, c. 15, 16. And the same naturalist speaks of ser- 
 pents twenty cubits long in other places. Vide Nat. Hist, 
 lib. xxxi, c. 2. And of so large a size, as to draw away oxen 
 and stags whole. Lib. vii, c. 14. Whether these accounts did 
 not exceed what was strictly the truth, ought to be considered. 
 The Scriptures hint, that serpents in Moses's time had beerj 
 
CHAP. XI. FALL OF MAN. IQ7 
 
 it under his feet. How then came it to pass, that 
 neither Adam nor Eve, if they understood that they 
 were to destroy serpents, did instantly bruise the 
 head of this their enemy ? Or, if it may be said, 
 having no weapons, they might be afraid he should 
 bruise their heel, is it not wonderful that they should 
 never afterwards contrive how to afflict this hostile 
 creature? and that it did not become the heroism 
 of the first generations of the world to commence 
 a sort of religious war against these devoted ani- 
 mals, to extirpate the whole breed of them from off 
 the face of the Earth ? In after ages, and in coun- 
 tries where the clearing them of serpents was 
 thought a public good, exploits of this kind hadi 
 their glory : 
 
 .,-. diram qui contudit hydram. 
 
 HOR. 
 
 The subduing a serpent was one of the labours of 
 Hercules^: nay, he was said to have killed two 
 serpents in his very cradle^: a story which implies, 
 that the killing serpents was at this time of such 
 public utility, and therefore so highly estimated, 
 that no greater thing could be said of this hero, to 
 give high expectations of his future achievements,^ 
 or to evince his origin to be more than mortal. 
 Can we then think, in the first world, of which 
 
 of a more common measure, such as might lie in the way and 
 bite the heels of horses, Cen. xlix, 17. And we have no rea- 
 son to suppose the serpent that spake to Eve to have been 
 larger. 
 
 - Apollodor. lib. ii, c. 4; IVIart. Ep. lib. ix, ep. 104, 
 
 5 Apollodor. ubi sup. 
 
198 THE CREATION AND CHAP. XI. 
 
 the history, though very short, is not so imperfect, 
 hut that the inventors of useful arts% of the enter- 
 tainments of life ^, as well as the names of those, who 
 were eminent for religion, are come down to us®; if 
 one great instance, of performing what God had 
 declared, had consisted in destroying serpents, we 
 should not have had the name of some one worthy, 
 at least, who had exerted himself in this warfare ? 
 But, in truth, the animals called serpents were as 
 yet little in size, contemptible in figure, not under- 
 stood to be marked out by God, for men to make 
 it their employment to destroy them ; and accord- 
 ingly nothing more is told us, of the serpent's 
 having to do with man, or man with the serpent, 
 until the flood came, and took away man and 
 heast from off the earth. The serpent, which 
 tempted Eve, is reckoned amongst the beasts of the 
 Jield, and not a water animaP ; and therefore we 
 
 4 Gen. iv, 20, 22. * Ver. 21. 
 
 « Gen. iv, 26. 
 
 ' Gen. iii, I. The water-snakes are mentioned in all writers 2 
 the two serpents related in Virgil to have killed Laocoon, are 
 described as having come over the sea. 
 
 Ecce ! autem gemini a Tenedo tranqiiilla per alta, 
 (Horresco referens) imraensis Orbibus Angues 
 Incumbunt pelago, pariterque ad littora tendunt : 
 Pectora quorum inter fluctus arrecta, jubaiique 
 Sanguineae exuperant undas ; pars caetera pontum 
 Pone legit, sinuatque immensa volumine terga. 
 Fit sonitus spumante salo : jamque arva tenebant, 
 Ardentesque oculos sufFecti sanguine et igni, 
 Sibila lambebant Unguis vibrantibus ora. 
 
 ViRG, ^n. lib* ii. 
 The anjiotators observe, th?tt the Latins called the water-snakes, 
 
CHAP. xr. FALL OF MAN, IQQ 
 
 may suppose that his kind had been preserved in 
 the ark, and accordingly had come to Noah^ as in- 
 nocuous to men, and had been as well received 
 and dismissed by him as any other living creature 
 of the world ; so that I do not see the least ground 
 to imagine that Adam apprehended, in what 
 God now said, any thing was intimated, that there 
 should subsist between men and serpents a per- 
 petual enmity, to be always biting and destroying 
 one another. 
 
 ungues; the land-snakes, serpentes; anc!, when these animals 
 were consecrated and in temples, dracones: angues aquarum 
 sunt, serpentes terrarum, templorum dracones. And so Virgil 
 stiles these very serpents, when they were said to be hid at the 
 feet of Pallas; 
 
 At gemini lapsu delubra ad summa dracones 
 ElFugiunt, sa^vaeque petunt Tritonidis arcem. 
 Sab pedibusque deas, clypeique sub orbe teguntar. 
 
 Id. ibid. ver. 225. 
 
 The Hebrews had a different word for serpents of the water, 
 from that which they used for the land kind. The river ser- 
 pent they called pn (tennin). Thus, when Moses's rod was 
 turned into a serpent before Pharaoh, it wa<j turned (pnb le- 
 tennin) into a water-snake, as Pharaoh probably was now vvhere 
 he usually went in the morning, to the river. But the serpent, 
 which had tempted Eve, was not a tennin, but a nachash, a 
 land-serpent. It may perhaps be observed, that the s- rpent 
 called tennin is also called nachash. See Exod. vii, 9, 10, 12. 
 To which it may be replied, that nachash was the first general 
 word used for a serpent, before the different kinds of them 
 were distinguished : therefore the water-kinds may be some- 
 times called by this general name; but it will not follow, that 
 where nachash is used above, we should think a water-snake 
 intended. As in English, though we may say a water-snake 
 is a snake ; yet, if we should name a snake or serpent only, 
 we would not be thought to mean a water-snake. 
 * Gen. vi, 20; vii, 9. 
 
200 THE CREATION AND CHAP. XI. 
 
 If we look into the ages after the flood, we find 
 that serpents were, before Moses's days, becoming 
 noxious animals^ ; and men, when Moses lived, 
 were in general afraid of them \ There might ere 
 this time be poisonous juices in many of the herbs 
 and plants which grew on the earth. The same 
 alteration^ of the Avorld, which began from the 
 flood, and conduced to the shortening the lives of 
 men, might cause such an alteration in many herbs, 
 that men might not perhaps now find every green 
 herb and tree as wholesome, as they had found all in 
 the first world : and the nourishment of some, in 
 the concoction of some animals, might breed in 
 them, what to man and other creatures might 
 be malignant poison. At the going out from 
 the ark, none of the living creatures of the 
 world appear to have been hurtful or de- 
 structive to man. But time produced in many 
 a ferocity, and in others, other qualities, which 
 made them terrible ; and serpents were in general 
 such objects of terror in Moses's days, that when 
 the miracle, which God gave him to assure him, 
 that he sent him to Egypt, took effect, Moses, we 
 read, when he saw his rod turned into a serpent, 
 Jied from before it^. But, notwithstanding any 
 thing that may be said of men's natural fears, from 
 their apprehensions of the venom of serpents, a 
 thought of God's having ever given any order in 
 particular for man to destroy serpents, seems to be 
 a mere modern imagination. We can find no 
 
 ^ Gen. xlix, 17. ' Exod. iv, 3. 
 
 ^ See Connect. voU i, b. i, p. 29. ^ Exod. iv, 3, 
 
CHAP. XI. FALL OF MAN. 201 
 
 traces of such a sentiment in all antiquity ; rather, 
 the sages of the early times, who searched into 
 antiquity, and added to it what they thought the 
 religion of nature*, to be above the common no- 
 tions of the vulgar, held serpents in high honour, 
 had introduced them into their temples ^ deli- 
 neated their figures in their ancient fables and 
 
 * See Connect, vol. iii, b. xi, p. 131. The sentiments, that 
 led them to their notions of the divinity of the serpents, are 
 said to be, TrvsyjuoariKwraroy ro ^ojoy itaytoov twv spTfsrwv xat 
 vfvpUiSss — itaps^o^Ttj, Trap* o xat tcc^o; dyvirBptXrjrov ha, ra TTveu- 
 iucrog Tiapi^-fjo-i, yj^P^^ ito^ujy rs Tcai ^siptvv, tj olXKh nvcs tmv 
 i^w^Bv, £0 cvv TO. XoiTtoc t,'jjaL rag xiVTja-sis moisirai. kcci ntoiniK^v 
 tr^vjf^octujy rvits; dTtoraXsi, y.ai xara fr\v 'n'opsia.v s>^iK<jSi^if 
 s^Ei Tag opij^ag B(f p)8Xsroii rccypg- xcci iroXv^poviwraroY h 
 snv, 8 iJ^ovQv rcy iyJvoiJ^syov ro yrjpocg vsoc^siv, dXXa KiXi 
 au^Tjo-iv eitihyja-bai [j^ei^Qvcx, 'n'£(pvy.£' aai itsi^av ro wpic^Bvov 
 iji^stpov TUKfjpujo-ri, Big BOLvrov dvaXia-Ksraa' uj; iv ratg Ispaig 
 Ojxo/w^ (xutog 6 Taocvrog KaTsra^s ypa<pcx,ig. ho >cai iv h§oig 
 raro ro ^wov xa; iv i/.vs-r)pmc a-vi/.rapBikyjTrrcii. Euseb. Praep. 
 Evang. lib. i, c. 10. We cannot sufficiently despise the beg- 
 garly elements of this philosophy ; but yet it ought to be ob- 
 served, that it was reputed a height of wisdom in its day. A 
 plain demonstration this, what may be the trifles of mere hu- 
 man reasoning, when it has not been enlightened by any better 
 information. But my intention, in the citation above, was to 
 show, that no notions had traditionally prevailed to intimate 
 that the serpent had been originally a cursed creature, ap- 
 pointed everywhere for men to destroy ; for that the most an- 
 cient speculative and more curious inquirers had no bias 
 against theories, which might represent them to be representa- 
 tives of the most high God. 
 
 5 HayTBg — B(pvcnoXoyri<roLv wc-ifsp Trpoxsirccr xai ra fj^sv itpwroi. 
 $-oi;)^£i« 7'a hoL rwv o<pBcov vcLsg ycoLi'a.o-KBUoca-a.y.Eyoi kv ccvtoig 
 (l0ispuja'a,v, "noLi mroig ^v(riag xa; sopra; iitiBtBXBy -km opyio,, 
 ^£8$ reg y^syiras yoy^i^oyrsg xai dp^r^yi^g rouy oAwy. Id. ibid, 
 
202 THE CREATION AND CHAP. XI. 
 
 formalities of worship^; and gave many, such as 
 they thought reasons, for thinking them endowed 
 with a kind of divine nature^. And what is re- 
 markable^ they had no notion of the serpent's 
 being the representative of an evil being, in oppo- 
 sition to the good God ; for the Egyptians, we are 
 told, reputed the serpent to be an emblem of their 
 god, Cneph^, by which word they meant the 
 AyjfjLispyog^, we might render it the workmaster^^ 
 or maker of all things. The Phoenicians trans- 
 lated it aya^ov Aatixoinx, the good deity'^, and from 
 their most ancient symbols it may be thought, that 
 they intended to represent in their erp^Tj^aara, or 
 mystic figures of the serpent, what some of them 
 called the o-vutKriKou^ i I might render it, the 
 Power by which all things comist, 
 
 I do not pretend to trace the time of the rise of 
 these heathen superstitions ; they being brought 
 
 * Euseb. Prasp. Evang. lib. i, c. 10; see the table of Isw ; 
 Mon^auc. Antiq. vol. i, part ii, b. ii, c. 1. 
 
 " Vide quae sup. 
 
 * kiyvTtnoi ¥.vi](p gVovojxaftfcri. Euseb. ubi sub. 
 
 » Toy ^fj^iBpyov, ay Kvij^ oi AiyuittiOi Tfpocayop&vsffhv, M^ 
 lib^ iii, c. 11. 
 
 ' See Wisdom xiii, 1. 
 
 * ^oivmss ^£ ccuro dya^ov Saif^ova. xoAacr/y. Euseb. Praep. 
 Evang. lib. i, c. 10. 
 
 3 ETt fj^Ev 01 AiywTffioi dfto r^^ ayrtj^ ivvoias fov Koc^iy 
 yfia.<povT'£i, TTspiipspy} y.vx\(iv ocsposiSr) xeci ifvpouiroy ^ocpaa-o'sa'.i, 
 KOii i^za-ov retoi^syov oipiv—Koci £$-i ro nay <r;s/7j/xa w^ ro ittup* 
 r^yAv ©ij-ra* tov joosv tcvkXcv Ko<r[j.ov ij.rjVvovr£; tQv h fjt.B(rov c<piy 
 awzKriKOv tsrov dyoc^ov Aa,iiJ^oycc ffrjy.aivoyres* Id. ibid. 
 
CHAP. XI. FALL OF MAN. 203 
 
 out of one country into another. They were 
 thought to have been introduced into Greece by 
 Pberecydes*, who was contemporary with Thales^, 
 and did not flourish there earlier than about one 
 thousand years after Moses ^ ; but Pherecydes had 
 them from the Phoenicians^ ; and the Phoenicians 
 from the books of the Egyptian Taautus®; and, 
 I think, I may represent these notions about 
 the serpent as having been in vogue in Egypt 
 in, and before, Moses's time. For it is much 
 to be observed, that, though Moses, when he 
 first saw his rod turned into a serpent, was 
 terrified and fled from it, until God bade him 
 put forth his hand and take it^; yet, when 
 the same rod was, in like manner, turned into a 
 serpent before Pharaoh, and when all the rods of 
 his magicians were turned into serpents likewise, 
 neither Pharaoh nor his magicians appear to have 
 been under any consternation \ They knew the 
 
 < Tlapa <^oiyiyiUJV Ss xa; <^£psyiuh,g \a.tujy rag oL(popy.a.$ ih'j- 
 Xoyri^B Ttspi ta TTap* avto) X£yofji.£voi> '0<piujyeuj$ Qeov KOii rouv 
 ^0<piwyiScov. Euseb. Praep. Evang. lib. i, c. 10. 
 
 * Pherecydes was thought to have flourished about the 
 fifty-ninth Olympiad, Thales to have died iu about the fifty- 
 pighth. 
 
 ^ Moses died a. m. 255'k The fifty-ninth Olympiad was 
 about A. M. 3555. 
 Euseb. ubi sup. 
 
 * Taavtos oi AiyvTrtioi Qw^ 'TTpoa-ayopsuBo'i — tr)y fj^sy ovy ta 
 ApaKoyro$ (pva-iv xat touy Ocpsooy aurog s^s^eiocorBv 6 TaccuTQ^, 
 xcti jLtsr* avTOv cx,u^i$ ^oivixe;. Euseb. ubi sup. We are to 
 observe of ApccKOvfog, that a serpent was called draco when con- 
 secrated, and put into a temple. Vide quae sup. 
 
 9 Exod. iy, 3, 4, * Ibid, vii, 10—15. 
 
204 THE CREATION AND CHAP. XI. 
 
 arcana oF their temples, that serpents were at this 
 time amongst the sacra in their worship, and re- 
 puted the representatives, not of a mah'gn, but of 
 their good god. They might therefore think, that 
 their gods were come down amongst them", to sup- 
 port them against the demand made by Moses, 
 and that the wonderful phaenomena, before them, 
 portended great assistance and good, but no evil 
 to give them any terror. It ought only to be ob- 
 served, that when they saw Moses's rod swallow 
 up all the rods of their magicians % they ought 
 hence to have been instructed, in the way of their 
 own speculations, that a power appeared for Moses 
 which literally executed judgment against the gods 
 of Egypt^y annihilating and destroying the most 
 wonderful appearances they could imagine of their 
 gods, to gainsay what, by Moses, was required of 
 them. 
 
 As what I have observed does, I think, hint to 
 us, that there were in the world no notions of ser~ 
 pents antecedent to Moses*s writing his history^ 
 which can in any wise show that mankind had any 
 remarkable enmity against, or thought themselves 
 under any command to destroy them ; so, I might 
 observe farther, from what follows in the books of 
 Moses, that serpents were not, from any thing said 
 by him, devoted to either such odium or destruc- 
 
 ' Thus the men of Lystra, upon seeing a miracle, thonght 
 of Barnabus and Paul, according to their superstition, Acts 
 xiv, 11. 
 
 ^ Exod. vii, 1?. < Chap, xii, 12, 
 
CHAP. XI. , FALL OF MAN. 205 
 
 tion ; for I should think, if they had been so de- 
 voted, it is not likely that God would have ap- 
 pointed a serpent to be set up in the wilderness for 
 the* people to look up to, in order to be cured of 
 the plague he had then inflicted upon them ; be- 
 cause any other sign, if God had appointed it, 
 would have been equally salutary. It does not 
 seem agreeable to any end of a divine dispensa- 
 tion, that a prophet should make the figure of a 
 creature an emblem of health and life, if he had de- 
 signed that the same prophet should proscribe the 
 whole species of that creature to be abominated and 
 destroyed. But the fact was, the serpent spake to 
 Eve, as the ass did to Balaam, both, as to themselves, 
 ignorantly and without intention; and neither was the 
 one ordered to be honoured for what he said, nor 
 the other to be disgraced and destroyed. It was 
 fit that Adam and Eve should be apprised how 
 mean an animal they had admitted to be the in- 
 strument of deceiving them ; and God was pleased 
 very emphatically to tell them this in what he 
 said of the serpent, as I have above explained it. 
 It was in nowise reasonable, that they should 
 henceforth be employed as killers of serpents ; 
 and, agreeably hereto, the words farther spoken 
 do in nowise order, nor were, or could be under- 
 stood by them, to order this service, as will more 
 evidently appear by considering, 
 
 III. The true literal meaning of the words, and 
 I will put enmity between thee and the ivoman, 
 
 * Numb. xxi. 
 
206 THE CREATION AND CHAP. XI. 
 
 and between thy seed and her seed, it shall bruise 
 thy head, and thou shall bruise his heel. Upon 
 which words I would remark, 1. That nothing is 
 said, which in any wise employed Adam. It was 
 not said, I will put enmity between the man and 
 the woman and thee, and between thy seed and 
 their seed ; they shall bruise thy head, and thoii 
 shalt bruise their heels. But the enmity was pnt 
 between the woman only, and the person here 
 spoken of, and between his seed and her seed, 
 Adam was not the woman, nor of the seed of the 
 woman ; for the woman was made out of him ; he 
 was made first, and then the woman. So that, 
 whatever the enmity was, we see that Adam was 
 remarkably not made a party to engage in it ; an 
 incident, which must have occasioned him to re- 
 flect, that the matter here intended, could not be 
 the hating and killing the animal called a serpent ; 
 for if that had been designed, a slaughter of the 
 then serpent would have been seen to be what might 
 more likely have been instantly accomplished by 
 Adam, than by Eve and her future posterity. 
 
 But I would observe, that, in this particular, 
 there appears plainly what must, with all reason- 
 able thinkers, for ever silence all pretence of re- 
 conciling an allegorical interpretation with the 
 real meaning of this Scripture. The allegorical 
 interpreters say, that the serpent is the symbol of 
 lust and sensual pleasure^ i that Adam and Eve's 
 being tempted by the serpent means, that they 
 
 ^ See Middleton*s Essay on the Allegorical and Literal In- 
 terpretation, p. 132, 
 
CHAP. XI. FALL OF MAN. 207 
 
 were drawn away and enticed by tljeir own lusts 
 and appetites ; that the fact in truth was^ that they 
 were originally formed for a state of happiness and 
 perfection, which they lost and forfeited by fol- 
 lowing their lusts and passions, in opposition to 
 the will of their Creator^ Now if this be the 
 true way of interpreting Moses, it must follow, 
 that the enmity appointed against the serpent 
 hieans an opposition to the insinuations of sinful 
 Appetites, a striving against sin ; and the declared 
 event of this contest must be, that our sinful appe- 
 tites and lusts will often hurt us ; but that, if we 
 will press forwards, though in many steps we take, 
 we may sometimes meet defeat, yet in the end 
 we shall capitally wound and subdue them. I 
 promise myself, that no candid allegorist will ac- 
 cuse me of having herein falsified, or injured his 
 system. Herein then is summed up all that is so 
 highly boasted of as rational : but how obvious 
 is it to see in all this, that it does not touch the 
 matter related by Moses ? The enmity declared 
 by Moses to be put was, I observed, such, that no 
 part of it was assigned to Adam : Eve only, and 
 her seed, were the parties in this warfare : and 
 shall we now say, that nothing more was intended, 
 than the duty of striving against and conquering 
 sinful appetites ? Was Adam then, after the fall, 
 to have no such appetites as well as Eve, and all 
 
 7 See Middleton's Essay on the Aflegorical and Literal In- 
 terpretation, p. 131. 
 
208 THE CREATION AND CHAP. XI. 
 
 who were to be born of her ? or was he to have 
 no struggle against such like passions with other 
 men ? Was he to be given up to a reprobate 
 mind, to do whatever he should lust ? This I 
 take to be a plain fact ; which all the art and 
 subtlety of our pretended reasoners will never be 
 able to reconcile and clear up. To this therefore 
 I would earnestly call the reader s strictest atten- 
 tion : and would beg to have this one point taken 
 into the severest examination ; for I must think, 
 if it be found to be as I have represented, the 
 allegory must here meet its bane. It will be so 
 clearly evident, that there is something in the text 
 before us, which the allegorical interpretation can- 
 not reach, that no one, who is truly ingenuous, will 
 any more contend for it. 
 
 2. But we ought to observe, that in the words 
 here related by Moses, as having been heard from 
 God ; it was not said that mankind and serpents 
 should have a general enmity against each other; 
 but the Hebrew words, if truly interpreted, denote, 
 that some one person should descend from the 
 woman, who should capitally conquer and subdue 
 the great enemy of mankind. If 1 were forced to 
 allow, that we have now so far lost the perfect 
 understanding of the idiom of the Hebrew tongue, 
 as not to see that the words here used by Moses 
 must carry this restrictive sense ; yet from the 
 Septuagint version of the place it appears, that 
 when that translation was made, the Hebrew 
 
CHAP. XI. FALL OF MAN. 209 
 
 words were known to have that meaning ^ The 
 Septuagint version of the passage is thus : Kat 
 sy^pav ^vjcra) ava [xscrou cs tcoh olvol jw-ecov ttj^ 
 yjvaixog, >cai aua, (xscrov re (TTrspixarog ce, :tai ava. 
 [Mscrov T8 (TTTSp^OLTog atJTY}g. ATTOS (T8 r7]or}crii 
 xs^cx.7i.7iv, xoLi cru T7]prj(rsig auT8 TrrepuoLu' i. e. And 
 I ivill put enmity between thee and between the 
 looman, and between thy seed, and between the 
 seed of her ; he shall bruise thy head, and thou 
 shall bruise his heel. The point to be observed in 
 this translation is ; that it does not say it shall 
 bruise thy head, the pronoun does not refer lo the 
 word seed ; but it is he shall bruise, the pronoun 
 being personal, and masculine, not agreeing with 
 the word (nrspixtXy seed, which is neuter ; but de- 
 noting some one person to be the seed, and that 
 he should bruise the head of the enemy here 
 spoken of. Had the Greek interpreters thought 
 the text meant that the woman's seed or offspring 
 in general were here intended, they would have 
 said auTo, to agree with cnrspiJLa^ as we say it in 
 our English; but they more correctly rendered 
 the place a'jTcg, he, apprehending some one parti- 
 cular person to be here intended, and not the off- 
 spring of the woman in general. 
 
 But may it not be said, that the a\)Tog here used 
 
 * The Septuagint translation of the books of Moses ^vns 
 made about two hundred and seventy-seven years before 
 Christ, about a. m. 3727. See Archbishop Usher's Annals. 
 Prideaux's Connect, part ii, book i. 
 
 VOL. IV. P 
 
210 THE CREATION AND CHAP. XI. 
 
 is a mistake ; that the Septuagint did perhaps not 
 take the true meaning of the Hebrew expression ; 
 that they should have written not avrog, but auro, 
 IT, not HE ? I answer, we, who believe the 
 Scriptures, have the authority of St. Paul to assure 
 us, that the Septuagint version is most judiciously 
 right in this particular; that apostle having re- 
 marked a similar and subsequent expression to 
 that which is here used, that God therein spake, 
 not of seeds, as of many, but of seed, as one, 
 and hereby intended Christ^ Thus absolutely 
 certain therefore are we, that the Septuagint 
 translators have, in the peculiarity of the pro- 
 noun oLitTog, given us the true meaning of the 
 text ; for we have an inspired apostle testifying, 
 that they have therein given us what was really 
 the mind of God. But I would consider in the 
 next place, whether the Hebrew text does not 
 speak the very same thing. 
 
 The Hebrew words here used are, hua jeshuph 
 ha rosh^, which signify not it, but he himself 
 shall bruise thee in the head^ The Hebrew text 
 may not, at first sight, appear so remarkably to 
 point out what the Greek version clearly inti- 
 mates ; for, in the Hebrew, the word (zeran) 
 seed, is maculine, not neuter, as the word (nrepiJLOL 
 
 ' See Gal. iii, 10. * The Hebrew words are, 
 
 ti^i^ IPQiur win 
 
 caput conteiet te ipse 
 * Gen. iii, 15. 
 
CHAP. XI. FALL OF MAN. 211 
 
 in the Greek; therefore the pronoun hua, in 
 the Hebrew, does not, like auro^ in the Greek, 
 directly vary in gender from the noun to which 
 it should be referred. But we should here con- 
 sider, that the Hebrew pronoun, hua, is specifically 
 restrictive ; to intimate what is said to belong to 
 some one person, or one thing ; and thus the 
 Septuagint took the place as meaning, not of seeds, 
 as of many, but of owe. 
 
 I do not say that the pronoun hua, in Hebrew, 
 may never be used, where in Greek, or in other 
 languages, we would use a neutral pronoun, it 
 in English, illud in Latin, or ayro in Greek ; but, 
 I think, where hua is used, it naturally speaks the 
 thing intended in the singular number, and not 
 referring to a noun of multitude as plural. Thus, 
 Leviticus x, 3. Hua asher dibber Jehovah^, we 
 say, this is that the Lord spake, which, I think, 
 is deficient of the true emphasis expressed in the 
 Hebrew. The words were designed to show the 
 error of Nadab and Abihus oifering strange 
 fire, which the Lord coinmanded them not, i. e, 
 had not commanded them ; and they should be 
 translated, this is the one thing, or the thing 
 itself which the Lord spake. The Avords were 
 intended to lay down one special or specific rule, 
 which was the principle in all the laws giv«n ; 
 they strictly required one thing only, namely, 
 
 3 T\^r\'^ 111 lu^if* Mirr. 
 
 P 2 
 
212 THE CRJEATION AND CHAP. XI. 
 
 nothing to be done, but what God directed, to 
 sanctify him, and him only, in them that come 
 nigh him*. We may, I think, put in itself, him 
 or herself] i\\ the singnlar number where hua is 
 used ; and thus in the text before ns, huajesiiphha 
 rosh cannot mean it, her seed, shall brnise thee 
 in the head, taking the word seed as a noun of 
 multitude to intend many ; for in such case the 
 Hebrew language would have been, they shall 
 bruise thee in the head ; but hua jesuphka^ if we 
 rightly translate the Hebrew, must be he himself, 
 intending one person and no more. Thus the 
 translators of the Septuagint rendered the place, 
 without inspiration, and before any prophet or 
 apostle had directed any such interpretation, by 
 being only true masters of the Hebrew tongue, 
 so as not to lose or vary from the precise meaning 
 of a very significant expression in it. But I must 
 still remark, that if I should be judged wrong 
 in all I have here said of the Hebrew expression, 
 the authority of St. Paul will still remain, to give 
 us the true meaning of the place ; for, in that the 
 apostle, an inspired writer, informs us, that in the 
 word seed, was intended, not many hut one, and 
 that one, Christ; God ha^ not left himself ivith^ 
 out a witness to us, what was the intention of the 
 words before us spoken to our first parents. 
 
 And if what St. Paul explains to be the mean- 
 
 * Lcvit. X, 3, as above. 
 
CHAP. XI. FALL OF MAN. 213 
 
 ing of the word spoken to our first parents was 
 the le.il intention of God's purpose in them, we 
 must admit, that God, when he caused Adam 
 and Eve to hear the words from him, caused 
 them so far to know the intention of the words 
 spoken, as not to im^igine from them, that he 
 designed an idle and insignificant war, between 
 Eve, and her children, and tiie serpents ; but he 
 promised them hua, Idm, one person of her seed, 
 although he did not tell them who that one person 
 was, who was to be the captain of our salvation^, 
 the conqueror here foretold to subdue him, who 
 who had deceived them. 
 
 And this was all they could possibly as yet 
 know of this matter, no more than this being, as 
 I have said, told them. Who the particular 
 person promised was ; what the warfare he should 
 accompli>h ; who the very enemy was, to be 
 conquered by him ; when, and where, and in what 
 manner he should appear ; none of these things 
 can be said to have been discovered to them : and 
 therefore,, as Joseph and Mary, when our Saviour, 
 upon coming home with them from the temple, 
 said to them, If^ist ye not that I must he about 
 my fathers business ? understood not the saying 
 which he spake unto them : but his mother hept 
 all these sayings in her heart^ ; so our first parents 
 did not understand the whole meaning of what 
 
 * Fleb. ii, 10. « Luke ii, 49—51, 
 
214 THE CREATION AND CHAP. XI 
 
 God here intended ; but they carefully treasured 
 up the words in their hearts ; formed hopes from 
 them;, the extent of which they could not as yet 
 determine. They preserved the words to have 
 their children know them ; to the intent that they 
 also might show their children the same, that 
 future generations might see the whole of what 
 God had spoken, and observe what might farther 
 arise in fulfilling it. 
 
 We, who live in these last days of the world, 
 unto whom, in the gospel, the kingdom of God is 
 come, may plainly see what that purpose of God 
 is, which was hid from ages, from the foundation 
 of the world: but is now made more manifest''. 
 We may see Jesus Christ, a man ordained of 
 God^ of the seed of the woman, most literally 
 speaking, as born of a virgin^; descended from 
 David ^, who was of the seed of Abraham'^, a 
 descendant of our first parents : and may know 
 of this one person, that he is to conquer that old 
 serpent, called the Devil and Satan, which de- 
 ceiveth the whole world^ ; of whom we may con- 
 sider the words as coming, which were spoken by 
 the serpent to Eve ; though our first parents saw 
 
 7 See Coloss. i, 26. * Acts xvii, 31. 
 
 9 Isaiah vii. 14; Mattb. i, 18, 24, 25; Luke i, 34, 35. 
 
 * St. Luke, as he tells us, chap, ii, 4, that Joseph was of the 
 house and lineage of David ; so also, chap, i, 27, informs us, that 
 the Virgin Mary also was a descendant from David. 
 
 ' Sec Matth. i. ^ Rev. xii, 9; xx, 10. 
 
CHAP. XI. FALL OF MAN. 215 
 
 him not, neither understood that they came from 
 him. We may farther understand, that by the 
 power of Christ, this, the great enemy of man- 
 kind, will he cast down*; whereby will finally 
 b©' accomplished, in a most literal and true sense, 
 all that the text before us first intimated, and 
 all that has been since said pursuant thereto, 
 either by immediate revelation from God himself, 
 or by the mouth of all his prophets, since the 
 world began. 
 
 This, I think, is a true consideration of the 
 words I have endeavoured to explain. And, in 
 the whole of what I have gone through, as in 
 what is to follow, I shall, I hope, be allowed to 
 stand clear of what the objectors impute to all 
 who write upon this subject. I do not some- 
 times adhere to a literal narration, and some- 
 times have recourse to allegory, forced to allow 
 some part of what was said or done, not to have 
 been as it is historically told us ; but I endeavour 
 to show, that there is no allegory in the whole, 
 or in any part of Moses's relation : and that a 
 material part of what he relates, that important 
 part, in which the allegorist must absolutely lose 
 his point, if he cannot make it out to be nllegory, 
 cannot possibly agree to an allegorical inter|>re- 
 tation at all. I contend, that a real, a natural 
 serpent, as truly spake to Eve, as a real ass spake 
 
 * Rey. xii, 9; xx, 10. 
 
2l6 THE CREATION AND CHAP. XI. 
 
 to Balaam^; but I apprehend, from what we may 
 learn from other Scriptures, and from considering 
 the nature of the thing, we may know^ that 
 neither the ass nor the serpent spake ot^ them- 
 selves ; neither knew they what the words were 
 which were spoken by them ; although our first 
 parents could not know this to be true of the 
 serpent at the time he spake to them. I take the 
 words, contained Gen. iii, 14, 15, to have been 
 literally spoken by the voice of God ; that the 
 former part of them were in the way of apostrophe 
 to the serpent, but for the instruction of Adam 
 and Eve ; for, that the serpent did not know the 
 words, nor the meaning of them, nor was in any 
 wise affected by them ; but that Adam and Eve 
 were herein admonished and informed, how basely 
 
 i> Numb. xxii. That the ass speaking to Balaam was a real 
 fact, and not a trance, or vision of the prophet, see Connect. 
 vol. iii, b. xii, p. 290. 
 
 * Dr. Burnet trifles most egregiously in this particular: 
 His words are: " Aiunt nempe, sub hoc serpente latuisse 
 diabolum, vel malum daemonem, qui hujus animalis ore et 
 organis usus affatus est foeminam voce quasi humana: sed 
 quo teste, quo authore hoc dicitur? Non id praj se fert 
 litera Mosis, cujus iili adeo sunt tenaces/' Burnet's Archseol. 
 p. 290. A plain answer to all this is, the letter of Moses 
 says, that the serpent really spake to Eve : this unquestion- 
 ably was fact: Moses does not say, that he spake of himself, 
 or of any ability of his own, nor does he say the contrary. We 
 see no reason to think our first parents, at first at least, appre- 
 hended that he did not speak of himself; but we have many 
 hints from the New Testament, who it was that spake by or 
 hrough him: will these now conclude, that no voice came 
 literally from the serpent ? 
 
CHAP. XI. FALL OF MAN. 217 
 
 they had been deceived, and by hearkening to how 
 abject and contemptible an animal. It will be 
 allowed rae, that the invisible agent, whose words 
 the serpent had spoken, was at this time present 
 before God ; for, in truth, all persons and all 
 things may, at all times, be present before him, in 
 what manner he pleases ; and I take the latter 
 part of what was spoken, the 15th verse, to be an 
 address of the speaker to this wicked spirit, de- 
 nouncing to him, what should be the doom for 
 which he was reserved ; spoken in the hearing ot 
 Adam and Eve, though they did not apprehend 
 the full meaning of it; yet, so spoken, as that 
 they must have considered it could not concern the 
 animal they had heard speak ; but had a farther 
 intention, and was a declaration which they ought 
 to ponder in their hearts, and transmit to their 
 children ; and that from this, the first, and from 
 several other prophecies which have followed, 
 more enlarged and more directing, as God has 
 thought fit to give them in the several ages of the 
 world, there has been a sure path laid, to lead 
 from faith tofaith\ from one revealed declaration 
 to another, those unto whom such prophecies 
 have come ; so that we and posterity may, if we 
 will carefully attend to the information, have, over 
 and besides all other arguments for the truth of it, 
 what may show us of the gospel, that it is that 
 
 7 Rom. i, 17. 
 
218 THE CREATION AND FALL OT MAN. CHAP. XI. 
 
 one purpose of the wisdom and power of God, 
 which he foretold, and therefore designed from 
 the beginning of the world. In all which, I trust, 
 I do not theologize with those, whose schemes are 
 inconsistent with reason and themselves ; but, 
 saying none other things than what reason, fairly 
 considering, must admit to be possible, and reve- 
 lation warrants to be true, what I offer may be 
 more fit to be impartially considered, than all the 
 speculations of human wisdom, which cannot be 
 truly reconciled with the Holy Scriptures. 
 
CHAP. XIL 
 
 The Sentence passed upon Adam and Eve, and 
 the Consequences of their Transgression, consi- 
 dered. 
 
 The sentence passed upon Eve was, that it should 
 henceforth be specially her duty, to be governed 
 by and obey her husband'; that she should bear 
 children % be the mother of all living^; but have 
 herein a nmltipJicity of sorrow*. Adam hence- 
 forth was to find his tillage of the ground a ne- 
 cessary but laborious employment^; in or In/ the 
 sweat of his face, he was to eat his bread. 
 
 It seems natural to think, that whilst there were 
 yet but two persons in the world, a sufficient pro- 
 duce for two only might more easily be obtained 
 from the fruits of the trees, from the shrubs, and 
 from the herbs of the ground. Might not our 
 first parents, notwithstanding it pleased God to 
 have the earth now not so kindly fruitful, but 
 apt to abound in thorns and thistles, unless 
 duly cultivated for a better produce^, for some 
 time at least, respecting their diet, find the easy 
 
 ^ Gen. iii, 16. ' Ibid; 1 Tim. ii, 15. 
 
 3 Gen. iii, 20. * Ver. 15. 
 
 * Ver. 17 — 19, t Vcr. 18 
 
220 THE CREATION AND CHAP. XII. 
 
 days, which the heathen poet ascribed to their 
 golden age, 
 
 Contentique cibis nuUo cogente creatis, 
 Arbuteos foetus montanaque fraga legebant. 
 
 Ovid. Met 
 
 Excluded the garden, wherever they wandered 
 into the adjacent country, may we not suppose 
 that the earth afforded them fruits of divers trees, 
 nuts and berries, grain of all sorts, corn of several 
 kinds, and all salads ; every thing which grew 
 and had seed within itself, being at first created', 
 and made to spring out of the earth ^ ? and might 
 they not hence gather daily what we may suppose 
 to be no hard and uncomfortable living, without 
 finding a great pressure of want and distress ? I 
 answer; we read Moses too hastily, if we do not 
 observe, 1. However our first parents were al- 
 lowed within the garden to eat of every tree, ex- 
 cept one ^; and the trees of the earth, as well as 
 the herb upon the face of all the earth, were given 
 them for food'^; yet, upon their expulsion from 
 the garden, their living would be, thenceforth, 
 chiefly of the ground \ Are we to think, because 
 God planted or created within that particular spot 
 of ground, which he had distinguished from all 
 others to be called the garden, trees, of whatever 
 perfection he was pleased to give them, that, 
 therefore, all trees were of their full growth, and 
 
 ^ Gen. i, 12. » Gen. ii, 16, 17. . 
 
 9 Gen. i, 29. » Gen. iii, 17. 
 
CHAP. XII. FALL OF MAN. 2^1 
 
 abounded in their fruits all over the world? 
 Rather, may we not apprehend, that the earth, in 
 many parts, was made only to put forth its shoots, 
 which i^rew gradually up to their perfection ? 
 When Adam and Eve, therefore, were driven out 
 of the garden, fruits of trees, acorns, and great 
 plenty of berries, might he more rare than we 
 may hastily imagine ; a point, I think hinted, in 
 that at first the fowls of the air, as well as every 
 beast of the earth, were to live, not so remarkably 
 of the fruit of trees, as of the green herb ; dis- 
 tinguished from the trees, and said to grow upon 
 the face of all the earth : it was of a lower growth, 
 nearer to, and more closely covering the grounds 
 2. But we cannot form an exact theory of the 
 labours of our first parents' lives, because we 
 cannot ascertain how long they lived in their first 
 habitation, before they committed the transgres- 
 sion which caused them to be driven from it. We 
 may observe, that one part of their employment 
 in the garden was lenabdah^, to dress W^ ; it is the 
 same word which is used, where we are told, that 
 God sent Adam forth from the garden, laabad, to 
 till the ground, from whence he was taken^, Adam 
 was now put out of the garden into the adjacent 
 country, where God created him ^ ; his tillage, ex- 
 pressed by the same word as his dressing the 
 
 * Gen. i, 29. » rTr.:L)ih. 
 
 * Gen. ii, 15. s noic^n^n.^ ^^1^7. Gen. iii, 2$. 
 ^ Ibid. 
 
222 THE CREATION AND CHAP. XII. 
 
 garden, seems to have been the same employment, 
 only to be exercised upon a different soil. And if 
 we may suppose that he had been exercised long 
 enough in the garden, to know what the employ- 
 ment was which God had given him in it ; we 
 cannot think him quite a novice in what was now 
 to be his labour. Nothing, in truth, confounds us 
 in forming our conceptions concerning our first 
 parents, except thinking that the Fall happened 
 instantly, before they had lived long enough to 
 have some experience of living. Let us only 
 suppose it not so early ; but that they might have 
 had some months to observe of the herbs of 
 the garden what they liked best to eat, and how 
 they might cultivate them to give them a due 
 growth, and we may suppose them sent forth into 
 the world, with this care, to find places here and 
 there, where there were such produces as they had 
 eaten of; to cultivate and to preserve them ; to 
 weed out the thistles, which soon began to grow 
 amongst them ; to defend and keep them from the 
 cattle ; that enough of them might be had within 
 such distances as they could go to for the suste- 
 nance of their lives. This labour, if duly cond- 
 dered, will be allowed to have been a burden 
 which they had not felt whilst they lived in the 
 garden ; and to be sufficient, although at first, 
 before both beasts and cattle, and mankind, were 
 multiplied on the earth, it would not be absolutely 
 too much for them. The first husbandry was no 
 
eriAP. XII. FAtL OF MAN. 223 
 
 more than gardening^; and the grounds most com- 
 modious for the early tiHage were reputed to be 
 such spots as might be made gardens of herbs^; 
 and the easiest and happiest situation for these 
 was accounted such, that a man might water them 
 with the greatest ease^ ; and such spots of ground 
 abounded out of the garden, all along the land of 
 Eden, on the borders of its rivers*. Upon one of 
 these, I conceive, Adam bestowed his first pains, 
 and by a diligent care cultivated and preserved in 
 them enougli for him and Eve, of what they had 
 often before eaten within the garden. When man- 
 kind came to multiply, it would be necessary for 
 them to look for farther provision ; and before 
 Adam was a hundred and thirty years old, Cain, 
 one of his sons, began improvements in tillage*. 
 And though iron, or brass, was not yet found out, 
 and consequently no instruments for tillage were 
 made of any metals ; it requires no extraordinary 
 imagination to conceive, that this early age might, 
 
 " Antiquitas nihil prius mirata en qnam — hortos — hinc pri- 
 mum agncolae aestimabantur prisci. ViJe Plinii Nat. Hist, 
 lib. xix, c. 19, sec. 1 — 3. 
 
 " Deut. xi, 10. ' Ibid. Vide quic sup. 
 
 * Felicitas major Babyloniae, Seleucise, Euphrate atque Tigre 
 restagnantibus, quoniam rigandi modus ibi manu temperatur. 
 PHn. Nat. Hist. lib. xviii, c. 47, ad fin. 
 
 * Adam was one hundred and thirty years old at the birth 
 of Seth, efter the death of Abel, Gen. iv, '25; v, 3. Abel was 
 killed by Cain about the time ihey each of them brought an 
 offering unto God from the improvement of their respective 
 employments, not many years, I suppose, before the birth of 
 Seth. Gen. ir, 2-4. 
 
224 THE CREATION AND CHAP. Xlf, 
 
 by the means of sharp stones^ cut wood and frame 
 tools of divers sorts, such as would serve well 
 enough to perform their less improved agri- 
 culture : 
 
 primi cuneis scindebant fissile lignum. 
 
 VlRO. 
 
 Or we may suppose the first men were soon able to 
 contrive how to pull off, or to cut, from young 
 trees such twigs as might be scraped, and reduced 
 to fit the uses they had occasion to make of them, 
 before they knew how, in a workmanlike manner, to 
 take down a whole tree, or wanted, or even had 
 large trees for greater occasions. Arts and im- 
 provements grew, and had their progress : Abel 
 began to be a keeper of sheep ; and Jabal, a de- 
 scendant of Cain, in the sixth descent from him, 
 set up booths or tents in the fields, and began to 
 order herds of greater cattle : and Tubal Cain, 
 about the same time, found out and instructed 
 others to be artificers in brass and iron\ And now 
 we may apprehend, that the tillage of the earth 
 received an increase by improvements : 
 
 Mox et frumentis labor addltus . 
 
 VlRG. 
 
 The garden tillage would not afford a sufficient 
 
 ^ The great use of sharp stones made in the first unimproved 
 ages of all countries, might be collected from all, who have 
 written of the American nations. It might likewise be ob- 
 served, that even the use of them, to cut, as with a knife, was 
 not, in some improved countries, laid aside even in Moses*^ times. 
 See Exod. iv, 25. 
 
 * Gen. iv, 20, 22. 
 
CHAP. XII, FALL OF MAN. 225 
 
 produce for the ina-eased multitudes of mankind ; 
 nor could large tracts be managed with the insuf- 
 ficient implements of the most early husbandry ; 
 but, as they wanted them*, human art and industry 
 contrived better. Thus agriculture grew and in- 
 creased gradually, as the necessities of mankind 
 called for farther and larger improvements of it. 
 In all this, one observation only is material, that 
 the sentence of God upon man was in all these ages 
 felt enough to keep them sensible of that part of 
 the punishment denounced, which concerned the 
 labour of their lives ^ Our first parents had not 
 such enlarged wants as their more numerous poste- 
 rity ; but having less knowledge how to supply 
 their lesser demands, sufficient for their day was 
 the labour thereof. As the gracious purpose of 
 God was not instantly to destroy man, but to have 
 him ripened through a mortal life for a happier 
 state, no wants oppressed him, but what he might 
 by industry and labour get the better of. Yet we 
 do not find, that any improvements in husbandry 
 made in the first world were so great, but that the 
 most experienced in its later times acknowledged 
 
 Turn variae venere artes. 
 
 ViEG. Georg. i. 
 Pater ipse colendi 
 
 Haud facilem esse yiam voluit 
 
 curis acuens mortalia corda. 
 
 Id. ibid. 
 — ■ Labor omnia vincit 
 
 Improbus, et duris urgens in rebus egestas. 
 
 Id. ibid. 
 
 VOL. IV. 
 
226 THE CREATION AND CHAP. XII. 
 
 themselves sensible of the heavy and universal bur- 
 den of their lives, of the great toil and work of 
 their hands, before they had a grant to make use of 
 animal food, for a farther supply than what they 
 could reap from the ground^. 
 
 But the last part of the sentence denounced upon 
 the man was, that he should die; that, as he had 
 been taken out of the ground, so he should, after 
 a laborious life, return unto the ground again, and 
 become no better than his primitive dust^. 
 
 This sentence, we may observe, is not so parti- 
 cularly repeated against Eve as against the man. 
 But as all experience testifies, that the woman is in 
 nowise exempted from death, it must be remarked, 
 that enough was said in the original denunciation 
 of death ^, as well as acknowledged by Eve herself*, 
 to show, that, having transgressed, and the sen- 
 tence of death against such transgression being in 
 nowise reversed, it could not be supposed, that 
 she could think it should not proceed against her. 
 But there appears an evident reason, why the sen- 
 tence of death should be thus repeated, and, as it 
 were, re-established against Adam. He had thought, 
 and offered it as a mitigation of his fault, that he 
 Avas not the first in transgression, for that the 
 wom^n had misled him to eat'; God, therefore, 
 denounced more particularly to him, that he should 
 not escape the punishment denounced against what 
 
 * Gen. V, 29. ^ Chap, iii, 19. 
 
 » Chap, ii, 17. ' Chap, iii, 3. 
 
 3 Chap, iii, 12. 
 
CHAP. XII. FALL OF MAN. 22/ 
 
 he had done ; to tell him, that his plea was no 
 excuse ; for that, although* he had heen misled by 
 hearkening unto the voice of his wife, yet, as he 
 had done what had been commanded not to be 
 done, he also should surely die. 
 
 It hath been thought by some, that the death de- 
 clared against the sin of our first parents, ought, 
 according to the plain meaning of the words in 
 which it was denounced, to have proceeded to an 
 immediate execution. In the day that they ate of 
 the tree, they were surely to die'\ Can it be said 
 with any propriety, that when Adam died, nine^ 
 hundred and thirty years afterwards, that he died 
 m the day that he ate of the tree of the knowledge 
 of good and evil ? This is a cavil too trifling to 
 want confutation ; for every one, who reads the 
 Hebrew Bible, must see a manifest difference be- 
 tween the general expression hejom^, in the day, 
 and hejom hazeh^, in that very day, bejom hahiia^, 
 in the same day. Had either of the latter expres- 
 sions been used in the seventeenth verse of the 
 second chapter of Genesis, it might have signified, 
 that in the very day of their eating they should, 
 without farther delay, have been put to death ; but 
 
 * It may be observed, that the particle ki may be even here 
 rendered, not because^ but more elegantly although, as I have 
 before observed it must be sometimes translated. Vide quae 
 supra. 
 
 ^ Gen. ii, 17. « Chap, v, 5. 
 
 ' OVn. Gen. ii, 17. * nin tzjvn. Gen. vii, 11. 
 
 » N")nn tZ)Vn. Gen. XV, 18. See Gen. xvii, 23, 26; Exod. 
 V, 6; xii, 1 j Levit. xxlii, 29; Isaiah vii, 20; et in aliis ubique. 
 
 a 2 
 
228 THE CREATION AND CHAP. XII. 
 
 the general expression, in the day, may very ob- 
 viously claim to have a larger signification, and 
 intend no more, than that from the time of their 
 transgression they should become mortal ; have in 
 themselves the sentence of death\ sure to take 
 effect and be executed in its time, which he, who 
 made them, would appoint. 
 
 It was now determined, that they should inevit- 
 ably die; but the instant, hour, or day when, was 
 still left in God's power ; and we may easily appre- 
 hend great and wise reasons, why God was not 
 pleased to bring our first parents, and their imme- 
 diate descendants, to a more early dissolution. God 
 in nowise made man for nought^; and although he 
 made not death for us% but man sought it in the 
 error of his life*, yet herein God's abundant good- 
 ness has provided for us. It could not be consistent 
 with the liberty of reason and the freedom of our 
 natures, that he should absolutely force upon us 
 either wisdom or virtue. Being such creatures as 
 he intended, it was more suitable for us to be ad- 
 mitted to grow up, if we would, as our faculties 
 were capable of improvement in both, under the 
 universal influence of his Spirit, in and by which, 
 agreeably to their respective natures, all things 
 are, and do consist^; and consequently, time would 
 be necessary for our increasing in all knowledge as 
 
 * 2 Cor. \, 9. ' Psalm Ixxxix, 47. 
 
 » Wisdom i, 13. * Ver. 12. 
 
 ^ See and consider John i, 9 ; Job xxxii, 8 ; 2 Cor. iii, 5 j 
 Coloss. i, 17. 
 
CHAP. XII. FALL OF MAN. 229 
 
 well as virtue. What I shall here offer shall 
 chiefly concern the former. 
 
 We have now, indeed, lives but as a shadow, 
 short as a dream, in comparison of the duration of 
 the first men ; but we have much light from the 
 experience of ages ; all the knowledge we want for 
 life is not so far from us as it was from them, who 
 lived in the beginning. Had our first parents, and 
 their immediate descendants, come to decline as 
 precipitately as we do, their knowledge of life 
 would have been cut down too fast for any shoots 
 to be made, which might yield a produce of arts 
 and sciences necessary for the improvement of the 
 world. Therefore, if we duly think of mankind, 
 what we came from, and how we are come up to 
 what we now are, we may see, respecting our pre- 
 sent life, that it is long enough, ordinarily speaking, 
 for what is to be our work in the world ''; and also, 
 that the early ages must have required a more ex- 
 tended period for human attainments to be gra- 
 dually opened and displayed ; that man, as far as 
 he was made capable, if he should have time to 
 come up to it, might not absolutely be cut off from, 
 in not being allowed a sufllicient term to attain it. 
 The complaint, that life is not long enough for 
 man to reap all the fruits' of his labours under the 
 Sun, might be as sensibly felt by our earliest 
 forefathers, as it is by us. They lived, as I may 
 say, nearer the ground : their prospects were not 
 
 * See Sherlock upon Death, c. iii, sec. 2. 
 
 ' We commonly say, " Ars longa, vita brevis.** 
 
230 THE CREATION AND CHAP. XII. 
 
 SO elevated (things not having been tried for com- 
 mon use and benefit) as our sights of things are. 
 The schools of literature^ or the shops of artificers, 
 can at once put us, even in our younger years, upon 
 a progress in science above what they could come 
 near to in all their centuries ; and excepting, that 
 if they would fear God, and keep his command- 
 ments, they had herein all that they wanted for a 
 life to come (and we, in all our attainments, more 
 than this, have nothing worthy to be compared with 
 it), they must have felt concerning their life, w^hen 
 over, though they did not feel it so soon as we do, 
 that, in comparison of what they might have hoped 
 from it, few, after all, and evil, were the days of 
 their 'pilgrimage^, A pilgrimage it w^as, which, 
 however long we may think it, in counting over the 
 days of the yearns of it, unquestionably seemed to 
 them, when they had passed through it, but as a 
 tale that was told; and it brake off, at last, short of 
 that human perfection, which they might perceive 
 was far more extensive than what they had at- 
 tained ; and that, had their lives been shorter, they 
 would not have had room to lay the foundation for 
 what God intended they should contribute to hu- 
 man science and the improvement of the world. 
 In the day that our first parents ate of the tree 
 
 * Jacob said this of his days, when he was one hundred and 
 thirty years old; Gen. xlvii, 9. And can we think, that, if he 
 had lived to the days of the years of the life of his progenitors, 
 he would have found in human life, to use Tully's language, 
 the quod est diu ? Cic. de Senectute. 
 
CHAP. XII. FALL OF MAN. 231 
 
 they died^ or became mortal. It is frivolously in- 
 quired by some, whether the food of the tree was 
 not of a deadly or poisonous nature, deceitful to 
 the eye, appearing to be good fo7\food^ , but in- 
 wardly a 
 
 ■ ■ fallax' herba veneni, 
 
 VlRG. 
 
 treacherously full of those malignant juices, which 
 would have a natural effect to cause mortality ? I 
 
 » Gen. iii, 6. 
 
 * The epithet fallax, here used by Virgil, is, I think, pecu- 
 liar. I do not remember any herb described by the naturalists 
 as being remarkably tempting to the eye or taste, and inwardly 
 a treacherous and deceitful poison; yet this seems the intention 
 of Virgil's epithet. Mr. Pope well enough calls it the herb 
 that conceals poison. See the notes on his Eclogue, Messiah. 
 Had he had a word which would have hinted, that the herb had 
 been tempting, to induce men to be deceived and poisoned, he 
 had more fully come up to VirgiTs expression. The annotators 
 upon Virgil say, " Fallax herba, quia mortales fallaciter iis 
 utuntHr.*' I do not see the spirit of Virgil's poetry in this 
 explication. It rather creeps to human artifice in the use of 
 the medicine, to represent the deceit of it, than it gives a lively 
 hint, that the herb itself had an innate quality, both to hurt and 
 to tempt to deceit and ruin those who should be inclined to 
 use it. The learned generally suppose, that Virgil wrote his 
 Pollio upon hints taken from some prophetic poems among the 
 Romans, which had originally been formed from some senti- 
 ments taken out of the Jewish Scriptures. And as Virgil in- 
 troduces the serpent in the same line, occidec tt serpens et fallax 
 herba •ceneni, if it may be supposed, that any fragment or 
 sacred book of the heathens had hinted any thing of a ser- 
 pent's having deceived mankind, by eating what he had offered 
 to them, or if Virgil had, by any search after the notions of 
 the Jewish literature, formed any thought of such an ancient 
 sentiment, he may be conceived very poetically to have thence 
 written his fallax herba veneni. 
 
'232 THE CREATION AND CHAP. XII. 
 
 should ratber think, that, as yet, every thing which 
 God had made was intrinsically good*; that there 
 was naturally nothing nocent and baleful; nothing 
 that would hurt or destroy^; and the mortality of 
 man is in nowise hinted by Moses, as being the 
 natural event of his having eaten of the tree. He 
 rather suggests, that the frame of man would of 
 course not be eternal, unless God was pleased 
 farther to make it so enduring. Dust thou art^ 
 and unto dust thou shalt return*, was the declara- 
 tion now made to Adam. Undoubtedly he, who 
 iipholdeth all things by the word of his power ; in 
 whom we live, move, and have our being, and by 
 whom all things consist \ could have spoken the 
 word, and the mortal of our first parents would have 
 put on immortality ; of which he gave them a sign, 
 in the appointment of the tree of life^. But this 
 word was not as yet spoken ; for they had not yet, 
 tinder the direction of it, taken and eaten of the 
 tree of life to live for ever'; and this not being 
 done, God was now pleased to prevent their doing 
 
 « Gen. i, 31. 
 
 ' Things were, I apprehend, at first universally innocuous ; as 
 the prophetic writings, and best comments upon them (see 
 Isaiah ii, 4 ; xi, 6 — 9; Ixv, 25, &c.), hint they will in their 
 time be restored to be ; of which happy state of things to come 
 Virgil had collected many sentiments, almost verbatim, and 
 thought them an ornament to his poem. See Pope's Notes on 
 his Messiah; and, more particularly. Bishop Chandler's De- 
 fence of Christianity. 
 
 * Gen, iii, 19. * Heb. i, 3; Acts xvii, 28; Col. i, 17. 
 
 * Gen, ii, 9. ' Gen. iii, 22. 
 
CHAP. XII. FALL OF MAN. 233 
 
 it^ Accordingly, they were henceforward to have 
 
 their houses of clay^ whose foundations were but 
 
 djAstf stand only until time would moulder them» 
 
 and bring them by a gradual decay down again to 
 
 the ground. 
 
 Now this, rightly understood, must instruct us to 
 
 say likewise, concerning the tree of Vfe also, that 
 
 it could have no natural effect to give eternal life to 
 
 those, who should eat of it. There could be no 
 
 such power in it by nature. God only hath mimor^ 
 
 tality % and he can give to have Vfe in himself to 
 
 whomsoever, to whatsoever, and in what manner 
 
 soever he will. If he had appointed, that our first 
 
 parents should, whenever he commanded it, have 
 
 taken and eaten of a particular tree, and from 
 
 thenceforth be immortal, the command must be 
 
 rationally understood, as we understand our eating 
 
 bread and drinking wine in our sacrament, in order 
 
 to be partakers of the body and blood of Christ'. 
 
 The outward action would profit nothing*, were it 
 
 not the commandment of God. But the doirr'- 
 
 c 
 
 « Gen. iii, 23, 24. ^ 1 Tim. vi, 16. 
 
 • See Common Prayer Communion Office. John vi, 51 — 5s. 
 
 ^ The fiesh profiteth nothing; the words, that I speak unto you, 
 they are spirit, and they are life; John vi, 63. These words of 
 our Saviour do, I think, plainly hint to us, that the notion of a 
 transubstantiated body and blood of Christ in the sacrament, 
 as the Papists hold, is a fancy, not only groundless, but in 
 itself insignificant and vain; for that as the words our Saviour 
 spake, the commandment he gave was not meant thus gross\v, 
 but intended in a spiritual sense, the flesh would profit nothing. 
 The bating the body and drinking the blood of Christ really, 
 in his flesh, if they could do it, not being what he commanded, 
 would be of no moment at all. 
 
234 THE CREATION AND CHAP, XII. 
 
 with a faithful heart, what God has expressly com- 
 manded, as a memorial, and in acknowledgment, 
 that we receive the benefits we hope for, not as 
 coming of ourselves, but as they in truth are the 
 f;ift of God ; may be both a reason and an assur- 
 ance, that they shall be given us according to our 
 believing and doing his word. And herein we may 
 see, why man, having forfeited the hope of immor- 
 tality, of which he was to have been made a par- 
 taker in eating of the tree of life, the liberty to eat 
 of that tree Avas now denied him. We cannot be so 
 absurd as to imagine, that if Adam and Eve, as 
 soon as they had eaten of the forbidden tree, before 
 God had prevented them, had taken also and eaten 
 of the tree of life, they would thereby have defeated 
 the purpose of God, and, notwithstanding what 
 God had denounced, would have escaped death by 
 having eaten of it: the text of Moses neither speaks 
 nor hints any such thing. 
 
 The words of Moses are, And now lest he put 
 forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and 
 eat (vechaileolam^), Moses does not here use the 
 verb vachayah, which would be rightly rendered 
 and live, as we translate vechal^, and eat; but the 
 words used by Moses are the particle ve and the 
 participle chai. Now ve, in many passages of 
 Scripture, signifies, not and, but as, quasi, or sicut, 
 in Latin''; and ve chai, strictly rendered, signifies, 
 as living: and the expression of Moses, rightly 
 
 s See 1 Sam. xii, 15; 2 Sam. xv, 24'; et in al. loc. Noldius 
 ja partic 1 02, 
 
CHAP. XII. FALL OF MAN. 235 
 
 translated, is, And now, lest he put forth his hand 
 and tahe also of the tree of life as one livings i. e. 
 as if he ivere one who was to live for ever. The 
 sense of the place, thus rendered, is clear and rea- 
 sonable, free from those trifling insinuations, which 
 might otherwise be deduced from it. It was not 
 fit, that God should leave our first parents the use 
 of the sign of immortality, when the thing signi- 
 fied was taken from them ; therefore he now or- 
 dered them to remove out of the garden, and 
 placed at the east of the garden of Eden cheruhim 
 and a flaming sword, which turned every way, to 
 keep the way of the tree of Ife^, to deter and pre- 
 vent their approach to eat. God now gave them a 
 visible evidence, such as he afterwards showed the 
 Jews in the holy place of Sinai ', that he was greater 
 to be feared than it had as yet entered their poor 
 imagination to conceive ; that he had hosts in 
 Heaven to execute his word ; angels, that were his 
 ministers, and a flame of fire. 
 
 The facts we have considered can, I think, want 
 no farther examination. There are, undoubtedly, 
 other inquiries, which may be started. It may be 
 asked, why, or how came it to pass, that the all- 
 good and all-merciful God did not admit our first 
 parents to mercy ; to repent and be forgiven, espe- 
 cially if they should sin no more in the like manner, 
 but become thenceforth absolutely obedient to his 
 word ; to be restored to his favour ; to have, with- 
 
 * Gen. iii, 24. ? Exod. xix, 1G — I8i Ps. Ixviii, 14, 
 
 « Heb. i, 7. 
 
236 THE CREATION AND CHAP. XII. 
 
 out dying, eternal life? Would not this have 
 more clearly answered our reasonable apprehension, 
 concerning the nature of the goodness of God, 
 than that he should purpose to allot us to go 
 through a life of many sins, and much original 
 and acquired infirmity ; at last, indeed, to have a 
 way through death, unto this immortality^ ? I 
 answer, an inspired writer has suggested an 
 answer to this query : If, says he, we believe noty 
 yet he ahideth faitJifid ; he cannot deny himself \ 
 If God had denounced that man should die, unless 
 he would keep the commandment, which had been 
 enjoined him, it could not be that he, for whom it is 
 impossible to lie^^ should, after our first parents 
 had herein transgressed, still admit them not to 
 know that death, which he had most expressly de- 
 clared against such transgression. To this we may 
 unquestionably add farther, that, if it had not 
 been most fit, in the reason and nature of things, 
 that man now should die, the unerring goodness 
 and wisdom of God would not have threatened 
 nor appointed this punishment ; which, I think, is 
 suggested by Moses : behold the man is become as 
 one of us, to know good and evil : and now, lest, 
 
 he live for ever\ The meaning of the words 
 
 will, I dare say, by none be thought, that the man, 
 by eating of the forbidden tree, was actually be- 
 come wise as God is wise ; knowing, as God is 
 knowing. This, in fact, was not true ; and, in 
 
 9 Matth. XXV, 34. • 2 Tim. ii, 13. 
 
 * Heb. vi, 18. •Gen. iii, 22. 
 
CHAP. XII. FALL OF MAN. 23 7 
 
 the nature of the thing, was impossible. But they 
 point out for our consideration, that the man, 
 whom God had made so that he ought to be kept 
 in the hand o/* God's counsel, had now taken upon 
 him to be guided, contrary to God's directions, by 
 his own. The creature was not made intrinsically 
 all-wise, not endowed with a beam of unerring 
 wisdom, not capable of being to himself a steady 
 dictator in every thing that was right, for the 
 guidance of his life*. The creature, able indeed 
 to reason, but liable often to reason not aright ^y 
 had now set himself up to judge, without depend- 
 ance upon what God had said or should say to 
 him, what should be his good and what his evil ; 
 and now, lest — he live for ever — . The point, 
 here intimated, seems to be, whether it could be 
 meet, that this creature, now subject to vanity, 
 should be indulged with a peccant immortality ? 
 And here, how ought we to consider, that to 
 
 Snatch from God's hand the balance 
 
 to venture to define, contrary to what is, what we 
 may think might better have been his dispensations 
 to his creatures ; to 
 
 Rejndge his justice, be the God of God, 
 
 Pope. 
 is a most blind employment^ rather examining 
 
 * (iuartus gradusetaltissimus eorum, qui natura boni sapien- 
 tdsque gignuntur, quibus a principio innascitur ratio, recta 
 constansque quae supra hominem'putanda est, Deoque tribu- 
 enda. Cic. de Nat. Beor. ubi sup. 
 
 * Wisdom ii, 1. 
 
23S THE CREATION AND CHAP. XII. 
 
 what is declared to have been, in fact, his purpose 
 towards us ; and considering, how, although he 
 made man upright^, 
 
 • just and right. 
 
 Sufficient to have stood though free to fall : 
 
 Milton, Par. Lost, b. iii. 
 
 Although —man had of God 
 
 All he could have 
 
 Id. ibid. 
 
 consistently with his being a free agent ; I say, 
 considering, that although man was thus created, 
 yet God, foreknowing how our first parents would 
 abuse their liberty, did verily fore- ordain, before 
 the foundation of the world, a man to be the power 
 and ivisdom of God unto our salvation^. We may 
 reasonably apprehend, however apt we are to 
 judge otherwise, that, if God had not known that 
 our first parents, in eating of the tree, had begun 
 a thought, which (whilst they and their posterity 
 remained free agents) would not be so changed 
 as we may imagine ; he would not have denounced 
 nor executed upon man that sentence of death, 
 which obtains against us. We may observe farther, 
 that, if this is indeed the appointment of GoD, as 
 we have all reason to say of all that is so. 
 
 Whatever is, is right - 
 
 Pope. 
 
 SO it must unquestionably be true, that, if there 
 could have been some better way provided for us, 
 
 ^ Eccles. vii, 29. 
 
 ' See Romans i, 26; 1 Cor. i, 24; 1 Peter i, 20. 
 
CHAP. XII. FALL OF MAN. 239 
 
 than what is appointed, such way would have 
 been given to us. But since this is the way, and 
 we can prove from the Scriptures, that we may, if 
 we will, through this dispensation of God towards 
 us, come at length to an eternal life-; hence we 
 rightly conclude, that although it doth not yet ap- 
 pear what we shall be^, nor how every particular of 
 God's appointments doth conspire to connect and 
 make up the one universal design of Him, oftvhom 
 the ivhole family of the Heavens and the Earth is 
 7mmed^ : yet nothing can be more commendable in 
 us, than to believe and confess, that both great and 
 marvellous are thy worhs, Lord ^od Almighty ! 
 and just and true are thy ways, thou King of 
 saints^. 
 
 A consequence of the Fall, I apprehend, must 
 have been, that a depravity of the mind of man 
 gradually arose, and was occasioned by it. God, 
 at first, fnade man upright, jashar, not inclined to 
 any eviP ; but man was, when thus upright, to be 
 
 ' As in matters of speculation and philosophical inquiry, the 
 only judge of what is right or wrong is reason and experience ; 
 so, in matters either of human testimony or divine revelation, 
 the only certain rule of truth is the testimony of the revelation 
 itself. Clark's Scripture Doctrine of the Trinity, Introduc- 
 tion. 
 
 » 1 John iii, 2. 
 
 * Ephes. iii, 15 : 
 
 Man, who here seems principal alone. 
 
 Perhaps acts second to some sphere unknown. 
 Touches some wheel, or verges to some goal : 
 'Tis but a part we see, and not a whole. 
 
 Pope. 
 
 * Rev. XV, 3. ^ Sup. 73, .^c. 
 
240 THE CREATION AND CHAP. XII. 
 
 immortal*. After the transgression, our first 
 parents were to die : they had now, in the body, 
 what would by degrees bring them to decline, and, 
 in the end, effect their dissolution ; and a body, 
 become thus corimptible^ p^esseth down the souV ; 
 
 praegravat una 
 
 Atque affigit humo divins particulam aurs. 
 
 HOR. 
 
 It will introduce affections grosser and less pure, 
 irregular and distempered ; other than they would 
 have known, had they never been incumbered with 
 such a decaying tabernacle. The sages of the 
 heathen world would readily have admitted this 
 truth. St. Paul himself, in describing the state 
 of the unregenerate man, speaking in this person, 
 saith, / know that in me, that is, in my fleshy 
 dwelleth no good thing ; for to will is present with 
 me, hut how to perform that which is good, J 
 flnd not ; but the evil, which I would not, that I 
 do^. This is hardly more express than Plato' ; 
 who says, *^ As long as we have the body, and our 
 soul is intermixed with such an evil, we shall 
 never satisfactorily possess ourselves even of what 
 we desire." The philosopher, we see, and others 
 who followed him, would readily have allowed, 
 that it is of the utmost consequence to a divine 
 
 * Vide quae sup. * Wisdom ix, 15. 
 
 « Rom. vii, 18, 19. 
 
 gVi-'^uaBagy. Plat, ill Phad. 
 
CHAP. XII. fALL OF MAN. 241 
 
 spirit, whether it be joined to a mortal or an im- 
 mortal body ^ Our first parents might have had hi 
 the heart, in that which was not corruptible^, what 
 might render them superior in affections and in- 
 clinations to what naturally became their appe- 
 tites, when a bondage of corruption began to work 
 in them, a nature below the liberty of the sons of 
 God'. We niay, herein, easily reconcile the 
 Scriptures with true philosophy; for the body 
 and the soul are so intimately joined in our com- 
 position, that both must have a considerable in- 
 fluence, the one upon the other ; and having herein 
 intimated what our first parents now became, it is 
 obvious, that, as was the tree, such must be the 
 branches; that, henceforth there would be no 
 natural descendant from these now mortals, who 
 would not have in him a sensuality of nature% 
 such as must render it very reasonable, not only to 
 a master in Israel^ but to any one, who duly esti- 
 
 * Ipsi animi, magni est, quali in corpore, locati sint — Tanta 
 vis est ad habitum mentis in iis, quaj gignuntur in corpora, 
 Cic. in Tusc. Disputat. lib. i, c. 33. 
 
 9 See I Peter iii, 4. 
 
 * See Romans viii, 21. ^a/jtsv ^e rsto, dXfjQss' y^vpicc; /xf/ 
 yap Y^fji^iv da-y^oXiag TTOCps^si ro o"jjij.% — iu.Tt<ih^8criv -^y.wv rr/^ ra 
 
 Xsy^i^svov u); dXyj^oos rw oyti vir' oivts ovh <pcQYri<rat rjiMV 
 eyyiyvctcci ovhitors ouSsv. Plato ubi sup. 
 
 » The XXXIX Articles : see Art. ix. 
 
 3 See John iii, 10. 
 
 VOL. IV. R 
 
242 THE CREATION AND CHAP. XII. 
 
 mates the composition of man, to admit what our 
 Saviour argued, namely, that we must be born 
 again, if we would see the kingdom qfGoD\ Our 
 first parents now came to have, and their descen- 
 dants to be born to, that duplicity of nature ele- 
 gantly described by Plato ^, as well considered by 
 St. Paul ^. Mankind came now to have inclina- 
 tions arising from the body ; which would often 
 run contrary to the better sense of the mind ; and 
 give every one the unhappiness to know of himself in 
 looking back upon his life, that he had done, 
 thought, and said, so many things below what his 
 own mind and sentiments would tell him ought 
 and might have been his conduct', as to see in him- 
 self as clearly as in a glass, that we greatly want 
 
 * See John iii, 3. 
 
 ysvOs T'oiarov, 6 koli sksiTx yisyLXyja-oiro dvrjp' bitots $yj (rcju[j.acrtv 
 ilj,(pv'f&v^£isv, i^ dvocyKy)s kcci t'o ^av Ttpoa-ioi, to h ditioi r» 
 (rujiJ.ocro; avtcov, TTpouT'ov [Jisv ocla-^rjo'iy dvayKociQv sir) ^iolv iroca-iv 
 SKsi ^laiouv TiOL^yiif^OLruov ^uiMpvrov yiyyso'^ai' hvrzpov h rfiovri 
 
 ocra, te iirofJiEva, aufois xat oifoa-a, ivavTious tts^uks Sisrcorcc' cvv 
 al ^sv y.pcx,trj<T£iav, iv SiKrt piu^(roivto, KpatYfisyTss §£ dStKia. 
 Plato in Timaeo. 
 
 ^ Rom. vii, 23. 
 
 " I Kings viii, 46; James iii, 2; 1 John i, S. 
 
 'Avrap dvTjp dycch;, tots fji^sv xolkos, aXXots S' etx^Xog, 
 
 ysvecr^iXi /xsv dv^poc dya^ov ^aXsTtov dXy)^£Uj$, olov ts. /xsv rot 
 iifi ye ^povov tiva' yevoy^avov h SioLy^sysiy iy I'avTiri fn i^si, x-cci 
 i'ivoii dycc^ov — dSvyarov koci ouk dy^pajTieiov, dXKcc ^eo; dv 
 fuvos tato i)(oi to yspas. Plat, in Protag. 
 
CHAP. XII. FALL OF MAN. 243 
 
 to be delivered from a body ofsln^. In this point, 
 therefore^ reason and revelation agree, and bear 
 testimony to one another ; that we are, in fact, 
 imperfect, not only in our knowledge, but still 
 more imperfect, in oftentimes having a will not to 
 act so well as we know it to be our duty. The 
 history of Moses proceeds to show this in the 
 actions of men ; particularly, that before Adam 
 came to be a hundred and thirty years old, evil 
 had got such an ascendant, where it had been in- 
 dulged % that one of Adam's children became a 
 murderer and slew his brother \ 
 
 But Moses mentions one particular more, which 
 I have not considered. He tells us, unto Adam 
 also, and to his imfe, did the Lord God mahe 
 coats, of skins, and clothed them~. I would ob- 
 serve, 1. That the word, which we render skins, is 
 in the singular number, a skin^, not skins, in the 
 plural ; and that we have no leason, from the 
 Hebrew text, to put in the particle of. The 
 verse verbally translated is, and the Lord God 
 made a skin coat for the man and his ivife, and 
 
 ^ See Rom. vii, 21'. 
 
 ^ Cain, undoubtedly, did not come at once to that outrageous 
 wickedness of killing his brother. He had been a bad man 
 before in many evil actions; which Moses hints in what he fe- 
 cords of God expostulating with Cain, Gen. iv, 7. And the 
 apostle farther observes it in 1 John iii, 12. Cain — sleiv his hro- 
 ther. And ivherefore slew he hi?n ? Because his oivn zvorks xvere 
 evil, and his brother's righteous* 
 
 * Gen. iv. ^ Chap, iii, 21. 
 
 3 TV, pellis. 
 
 R 2 
 
244 THE CREATION AND CHAP. XTT, 
 
 clothed them\ The fact was; God now appointed 
 them to use the skin of a beast for clothing, not^ I 
 apprehend, manufactured into coats ; improve- 
 ments of this sort, undoubtedly, were afterwards 
 introduced. Our first parents did no more than 
 put about them the skin of some beast, as we read 
 the early inhabitants of other countries, and in 
 later ages of the world, did^, whenever they 
 wanted such a clothing. 2. Although the verse 
 we are now treating stands prior to God's putting 
 Adam and Eve out of the garden, and the end of 
 the verse says, that God clothed them; yet I do 
 not conceive that Moses here hints that God in- 
 stantly clothed them and sent them into the world. 
 The Hebrew word, vejalhasham, and clothed them^^ 
 is the future tense, with vau prefixed ; which 
 prefix, the grammarians observe, turns such future 
 tense into a perfect, or to speak the thing treated 
 of as being actually done. I may observe, that all 
 the verbs used in this and the verses following, 
 
 ^ The Hebrew" words of the text are, 
 
 tunicas et mulieri ejus Adamo Deus Dominus et fecit 
 
 et amicivit eos. peliem 
 
 ^ y.oLT'oL TfYiV i^ clpy/i^ yavtfxiv dvQpvoTfujy — ' — ayQpw'Tts; rai$ os 
 hpxis rujv ^■>]piLcy (rKr^ircx.s-Yjpioi; ^pr,(r^a,i. Diodor. Sic. lib. i., 
 p. li. 
 
 uti 
 
 Pellibus, et corpus spoliis vestire ferarum. 
 
 LucRET. lib, V. 
 
CHAP, XII. FALL OF MAN, 245 
 
 he made coats ; clothed them ; sejit them forth ; 
 di^ove out the man ; are thus in the future tense 
 with vail' . May we not irnderstand the reason of 
 the piece of grammar just above hinted ? Some 
 ancient writers imagine, that our first parents 
 were permitted to stay some little time in the 
 garden before they were put out of it into the 
 world ^ ; may not these future tenses, with the 
 vau prefixed, hint something of this sort ? The 
 clothing them, the sending them out of the 
 garden, &c. were things absolutely and actually 
 done ; but some process of time, to instruct and 
 prepare them for it, might be taken up, before it 
 was completed ; and may not the future tenses, 
 with i?aM prefixed, hint this? The things spoken 
 of had their execution ; but not instantly at once ; 
 but proceeded gradually to be effected, as God 
 thought fit to have them dispatched. If we may 
 take them in this sense, we shall easily find an 
 answer, 3. To what is or may be queried upon 
 the occasion ; how should our first parents get 
 possession of the skins of beasts, and make them 
 fit for the uses they were to make of them } I 
 answer ; I apprehend, God at this time appointed 
 sacrifices^; and if so, as he afterwards gave Moses 
 directions for the passover, and for other institu- 
 
 Ttc'/rs -fiiu^pOLg rr^g zjapix^aa-Eocs. Syncel. p. 8. 
 9 See Connect, vol. i, b. ii, p. 72. 
 
246 THjE CREATION AND CHAP. XII. 
 
 tions of the Jewish law^; so he now might give 
 our first parents such instructions as they must 
 have wanted, and which might suggest all they 
 wanted to know upon the occasion now before 
 them. However, I must remark, in general, that 
 we consider things with a judgment dull and un- 
 observing, if we can allow the mind of man no 
 invention, but as we can trace and mark out the 
 steps which lead to it. How Tubal Cain came to 
 find out brass and iron, and the w^ays of working 
 them ; or how Jubal became^ a master of music, 
 is not to be investigated in this manner. Our 
 minds are too lively to be accounted for by such 
 stated deductions. Incidental sentiments often 
 stir in us, we know not whence nor how ; and lead 
 us frequently to consequences as unexpected. 
 They open to us trials and experiments, which 
 produce what we had no thought of, even whilst 
 we w^ere pursuing them ; and many times, before 
 we are aware, throw us ujjon what we had no in- 
 tention or even notion of seeking. Tbe best 
 heathen writers were ready to acknowledge, that 
 the rise of the useful and important inventions of 
 their lives^ had been from God ; and we can 
 never reason about these things, but we shall find 
 it the best philosophy, as well as religion, not only 
 to acknowledge every good and perfect gift\ in all 
 
 » See Exod. xii, &c. ' Gen. iv. 
 
 3 Plato in Polit. * James i, 17. 
 
CHAP. XII. FALL OF MAN. 24/ 
 
 our endowments, as having come down from him, 
 in whom we live, move, aiid have om^ being\'' 
 
 Aratus. 
 but, He also, whose incorniptihle spirit is in all 
 ihings^, is often the author of many happy turns 
 of our mind, which lead us, in what we are apt to 
 call fortunate thoughts, unto great and useful dis- 
 coveries ; which, if we had been without Him 
 in the tvorld, might never have been made or con- 
 ceived by us. But, 4. I cannot apprehend that 
 our first parents had been so unthinking, that 
 common sense would not have led them, after a 
 very little experience of their now condition, both 
 to know it decent to have, and to invent a cover- 
 ing for themselves. What they did, when their 
 fears alarmed them to wish to hide themselves 
 from God', may suggest, what they naturally 
 would have done, to be clothed in the sight of one 
 another. Wreaths of greens, foliages, and flowers, 
 might have been variously combined to make 
 them ornamental habits ; and we may indulge our 
 imagination in saying, that even Solomon in all 
 his glory might not be arrayed, beyond what Eve, 
 after a little trial and experience, might be able to 
 decorate herself in these. The climate likewise 
 wherein they lived might perhaps be such, that a 
 clothing of this nature might be sometimes more 
 agreeable, than to be always in a closer and 
 
 5 Acts xvii, 28. '^ Wisdom xii, I. ~ 
 
 Gen. iii, 7. 
 
248 THE CREATION AND CHAP. XII. 
 
 warmer covering. But if it be considered, how 
 soon leaves and flowers would fade away ; that a 
 dress of long endurance could not be had from 
 these materials ; and that the labour and other 
 cares of their lives would not admit them to lay 
 out all their time in this one particular ; not to 
 say, that a covering of this sort might not serve in 
 all weathers, but at some seasons, at least, a better 
 shelter must have been a happy and necessary 
 accommodation ; leaving our first parents to add any 
 ornament they should like, as circumstances might 
 admit ; the j>rovision which God was pleased 
 to make for them was such, that we cannot see 
 how they could continue to live long without it, 
 
 I have now carried this undertaking to the 
 utmost extent, which I proposed to give it. It 
 contains, I think, an account of all that Moses 
 has related of the Creation and Fall of Man. It 
 will perhaps be asked, did God only clothe them ? 
 Was his care such as to provide for them in this 
 lesser, and did he not instruct them in greater and 
 more important matters ? I answer, undoubtedly 
 he did ; and, I apprehend, that both Moses sug- 
 gested, and subsequent Scriptures confirm it, that 
 God gave them a method for repentance and ob- 
 taining pardon of their sins ; and, some time 
 before Adam died, set before them hopes of an- 
 other world. But to proceed in treating of these, 
 would be to begin a new subject. All I proposed 
 herein, was to examine what Moses has said con- 
 
CHAP. XII. FALL OF MAN. 249 
 
 ceming the Creation and Fall, and what possible 
 objections may be made to his narration. I think 
 I have omitted none of any moment ; for of some, 
 which are pretended, surely, consistently with the 
 greatest candour, we may say, that they need not 
 be mentioned, being too frivolous to want an 
 answer. One, at least, of this kind I find in 
 Dr. Burnet; who asks, " What if Adam had not 
 sinned r could all his descendants have come 
 from all parts of the world, in all ages, to eat of 
 the one tree of life, planted in the garden of 
 Eden r or could this one tree have been sufficient 
 for all times, and for all nations®?" It is most 
 obvious, 1. That, supposing Adam had persevered 
 to live according to the word of God, until he 
 should have been commanded to eat of the tree of 
 life, we cannot say whether, as now in Adam all 
 have died, in such case, all mankind descended 
 of immortal parents would not have been im- 
 mortal. Or, 2. It must be evident, that as God 
 knew beforehand, what events would happen in 
 all things ; it is undeniable, that he might fore- 
 see, when, and how long it would be before our 
 first parents would transgress ; and that the ap- 
 pointments he had made would be sufficient for 
 what would be the duration of that state of man- 
 
 '^ Preeterea, si ex una arbore, vel ipsius fructu, perpendisset 
 longaevitas vel immortalitas hominura, quid si non peccasset 
 Adamus ? Q,ui potuissent ipsius posteri per totura terraruni 
 orbem diffusi fructus lepetere ex hoc horto, vel ab hac ar- 
 bore ? aut qui potuisset sufficere toti humano geneii unius ar- 
 boris proventus ? Archjeo], p. 292. 
 
250 THE CREATION AND CHAP. XII. 
 
 kind for which they were ajipointed. 3. That 
 if mankind had not fallen, bat proceeded to 
 walk with God according to his laws, until they 
 had become so instructed in all knowledge, and 
 rooted in all truth, as never to swerve from it; if 
 the partaking of some sign of immortality had 
 been thought fit to be commanded for them, in 
 using it to ivalk hiimhly icith God^, not arrogating 
 hnmortality to themselves as their own ; but re- 
 ceiving it, as it was, indeed, his gift ; as we have 
 considered, that the tree of life had no innate 
 virtue in itself to give life^, but could be of 
 moment only, as it was the commandment of 
 God ; so God might, as men multiplied and dis- 
 persed, have at sundry times, and in divers man- 
 ners, given other commands, other signs for this 
 purpose, as necessary and beneficial, just as he 
 should be pleased by his word to appoint, accord- 
 ing to what he saw most fit for distant and diffe- 
 rent parts of the world, in the counsel of his own 
 will. 
 
 I am aware that some may treat it as a topic of 
 ridicule, to imagine that God made man so weak 
 a creature as to w^ant his Creator at every turn an 
 admonisher at his elbovv^ But we may readily 
 reply, that to dress a proposition in ludicrous 
 terms, and then laugh at it, is laughing at the 
 dress we give it ; but does not really affect what 
 ought not to be treated with so fanciful a levity. 
 
 » Micah vi, 8. * Vide quae sup. 
 
 ' Dr. Middkton's hiquiry, p, 102. 
 
CHAP. Xir. FALL OF MAN. 251 
 
 To consider rationally the order and gradation of 
 God's works, will, I think, abundantly show us, 
 that man ought to be^, as fact and experience 
 agree to testify that he really is, a creature higher 
 than, and above the blinder instinct of animal life. 
 But to say hereupon, that man was made so per- 
 fect, as to want no guidance but his own, is a step 
 at once to a height of wisdom, which may be 
 many ranks above us in the intellectual world', 
 That there is a })rodigious difference, between the 
 abilities of even different men, is most apparent ; 
 and it is most evidently reasonable, that it should 
 be so ; that in the progressive order of each rank 
 of being above that which is beneath it, some 
 should descend almost to the species of those next 
 below thera, as others may, on the other hand, 
 be raised to a near approach unto the orb above 
 them. There may be, there ought to be, and 
 there are, some men, such, that it were to be 
 wished they never would act without an admo- 
 nisher at their elbow. But, on the contrary, to 
 say of the most intelligent of men, of those who 
 have the most exalted human understanding, that 
 they have a self-sufficiency of wisdom, above all 
 want of superior direction, is 
 
 to think beyond mankind. 
 
 Pope. 
 
 It is to think ourselves possessed of powers, which 
 
 3 See above, chap. vi. 
 
 * Quartus autem gradus, et altissimus est, eorum qui natuia 
 boni sapientesque gignuntur; quibus a priucipio innascitur 
 ratio recta constansque, quie supra homincm putanda est> 
 "Beoqiie tribuenda. Cic. de Nat. Deor. lib. ii, c. 13. 
 
252 THE CREATION AND CHAP. Xlf. 
 
 are beyond that line, which is our boundary ; our 
 nature does not reach to this height : 
 
 Our reason raise o'er instinct as you can ; 
 In this 'tis God directs j in that, but man. 
 
 Pope. 
 
 In our degree we have real perfections both of 
 body and mind ; the body has its eye, the mind its 
 imderstanding ; both wliich are of excellent use 
 and direction : but to say of either, that they are 
 so perfect as not in any point to want aid, or as- 
 sistance, is insupportable and absurd. The eye oi 
 the body is able, in many cases, intuitively 
 curvo dignoscere rectum — — 
 
 HOK. 
 
 to distinguish a straight line from a crooked ; but 
 shall we say of any man, that he has so sharp and 
 unerring a sight (however some may excel others 
 in this particular), as to be able, without line, rule, 
 or measure, by his eye alone, to raise a various 
 fabric, just, straight, upright, and regular in all 
 true dimensions ? It is the same with the under- 
 standing, the eye of the mind: we may be able, by 
 our reason, to deduce and judge aright of many 
 moral duties ; but if we say of the best human 
 reason, that it ever did, without any rule but its 
 own direction, raise the true fabric of all moral 
 virtue^ ; we must j)roduce something to warrant 
 
 * Ut sine ullo errore dijudicare possitnus, siquando cum illo, 
 quod honestum intelligimus, pugnare id videbitur, quod appel- 
 lamus utile, formula quaedam constituenda est: quam si seque- 
 mur in comparatione rerum, ab officio nunquam recedemus, 
 Cic. de Ofiic. lib. iii, c. 4. 
 
CHAP. XII. FALL OF MAN* 253 
 
 such assertion, beyond what either the ancient in- 
 quirers, or our modern reasoners, have been able 
 to evince. The wisest masters of the Greek learn- 
 ing could not ^x the criterion by which they might 
 know what w^as only human sentiment, and what 
 more surely was real truths The Roman philo- 
 sophy was as indeterminate; the quid est virtus — 
 the very exemplar ho?iesfi, was what they were not 
 able indisputably to ascertain ^ They wanted 
 some test, whereby they might settle, how to dis- 
 tinguish in the several duties of life, wherein rea- 
 son and right reason might happen to differ from 
 one another ^ And it is as remarkable of all our 
 modern moralists % that, however they show a 
 great want of precision, of determinate and indis- 
 putable direction each in one another's rule or 
 
 * El (J.sy v8; xai So^a, akri^r^g es-ov ovo ysyy}. Plato in TimsEO. 
 
 Plato in Theaetet. 
 
 " Sentit (lomus uniuscujnsque, sentit forum, sentit curia, 
 campi, socii, provinciae, ut quemadmodum ratione, recte fiat, 
 sic ratione peccetur. Cic. de Nat. Deor. lib. iii, c. 27. The 
 author of the book of Wisdom suggests the ditierence. We 
 may reason, but not aright. Wisdom ii, 1. 
 
 ^ The test wanted is, by what shall we know when we reason 
 aright, and when not? "A Deo," says the disputant in Tully, 
 " rationem habemus, bonam aut non bonam a nobis.'* Cic. de 
 Nat. Deor. lib. iii. We want a standard whereby to judge 
 when we make our reason the one, and v.hcn the other. 
 
 * Mr. Brown, in his very excellent Essay on the Motives 
 to Virtue, rightly observes, that our modern moralists have 
 said little more than what might be transcribed from the old 
 Greek philosophers, and from Tully, after them, p. 122. 
 
254 THE CREATION AND CHAP. XII. 
 
 standard^ they are every one at last exactly as de- 
 ficient in their own'. 
 
 The word of God is truth^; which was to have 
 been the rule of truth in all moral and religious 
 duty, to our first parents and to their descendants : 
 and a good understanding would have prevailed 
 amongst them, if they had carefully acted accord- 
 ing to its direction ^ Through the precepts of God, 
 as they more and more improved in knowledge, 
 they would have seen the error of every false way : 
 and, in time, have been able to delineate the true 
 religion of our nature according to it. Bat, al- 
 though God gave them his instructions^ we must 
 not represent, that he was minutely at their elbow, 
 to leave them in nothing to themselves, in reason 
 to consider things ; for Moses in no wise describes 
 them in this manner. God gave our first parents 
 one command to be a rule for them, how they were 
 to walk humbly ivith him*. He gave them one more 
 to be the foundation of their relative duty to one 
 another^; and he afterwards gave like precepts in 
 other particulars. If now they had made these 
 their faith ; to receive and believe them, and to 
 square their lives according to them ; herein they 
 would have had an abundant direction, and would 
 not have erred, if they would not vary and decline 
 from it. To have added knowledge to their faith^ 
 
 * See Mr. Brown*s Essay. 
 
 ^ Psalm cxix, \A!2; John xvii, 17. 
 
 ^ Psalm cxi, la; cxix. 104. 
 
 *Micahvj; 8; Gen. ii, 17. -"^ Ver. 24. 
 
CHAP. XII. FALL OF MAN. 255 
 
 as the incidents arose, which might afford them in- 
 struction, would have been their reasonable duty, 
 as it is ours^; and a great field for them herein to 
 exercise themselves must have opened daily unto 
 them. For we cannot suppose that they were so 
 insensible, as to think nothing to be their duty, 
 but barely to observe literally the points com- 
 manded them, and no more. They were to see, 
 and would see every thing to be wrong, which 
 would make their lives run counter to the inten- 
 tion of what was directed. Tlie being forbidden to 
 eat of one particular tree, enjoined our first parents 
 not only to abstain from the fruit of a tree^; but in 
 every thing, whenever and wherein soever God 
 commanded, they were to obey his voice ; as the 
 being obliged never to separate from one another^ 
 must show, that it was their duty to consider, and 
 be rationally such in their conduct, as to live 
 suitably to this indissoluble tie; that what God 
 had made the indispensable condition, they should 
 for themselves make the real happiness of their 
 life. Thus it can in no wise be said, that reve- 
 
 * 2 Peter i, 5. 
 
 ' Were we to •conceive that our first parents could have ima- 
 gined, that, if they but abstained from eating of the tree, they 
 duly observed the law of God, though in other points they did 
 not live according to the directions of their Maker; it is evi- 
 dent, that they would herein have kept only the form of their 
 religion, without admitting its power and influence. But no- 
 thing can be more contrary to reason than this, or more se- 
 verely reprimanded in the holy Scriptures, both of the Old and 
 New Testament. 
 
 * Gen. ii, 24. 
 
256 THE CREATION AND FALL OF MAN. CHAP. XII. 
 
 iation hath superseded reason ; hut that, from the 
 heginning, it hath been no more than the necessary 
 aid, without which human nature could not be 
 made perfect. It was given to be a lamp to our 
 feet, and a light to our paths ; to give us what, in 
 Tully's language, we might say are the formulae % 
 ta mark to us the points, which, if we had been 
 made creatures of a higher intellect, we might 
 have intuitively seen for ourselves, in looking into 
 the nature of things. But, if they had not been 
 given to such creatures as we are, if we had no- 
 thing to direct our judgment but the fruits of the 
 tree of our own knowledge of good and evil, we 
 should, not only from the present bias of our ap- 
 petites, but from (what man was subject to from 
 the beginning) mistakes of understanding, not have 
 found or pursued, so as to be such as we ought, in 
 this world ; or be able justly to satisfy ourselves, 
 how we might be meet for a better. 
 
 5 Jura, formulae de omnibus rebus constltutce, nequis aut in 
 genere injurise, aut in ratione actionis errare possit. Cic. Orat- 
 pro CI. Roscio ComoKilo. 
 
SUPPLEMENT 
 
 TO 
 
 THE PRECEDING DISSERTATION. 
 
 THOUGH the preceding hypothesis of Dr. Shuck- 
 ford, concerning The Creation and Fall of Man, is 
 supported with considerable ingenuity and learning, 
 yet it is so very discordant from generally received 
 and long established opinions, that there is some 
 reason to fear that most readers will hesitate to re- 
 ceive it, as having its foundation in reason and 
 truth. 
 
 To represent man, when just coming from the 
 hand of his all-perfect Creator, as little better than 
 the most uncultivated savage ; knowing little or 
 nothing of his being and its end, and having al- 
 
 VOL. IV. s 
 
256 ON THE TREE OF THE KNOWLEDGE 
 
 most every thing to learn from the slow progress 
 of experience ; ill accords with the opinions of al- 
 most all religious people, on the original state and 
 perfection of man. 
 
 Foreseeing, that these particulars of the author's 
 Creed will give but little satisfaction to many ; the 
 Editor begs leave to close the preceding Disserta- 
 tion with the following extract of a Discourse by 
 the learned Vitringa on the Tree of the Know- 
 ledge of Good and Evil. Observ. Sacr. tome ii^ 
 lib. iv, c. 12. 
 
OF GOOD AND EVIL. 259 
 
 On the Tree of the Knowledge of Good 
 and Evil, 
 
 The passages, on which the present inquiry is 
 founded, are in the second chapter of Genesis, 
 ver. 9, 17. Out of the ground made the Lord 
 God to grow every tree, that is pleasant to the 
 sight, and good for food : the tree of life also in 
 the midst of the garden ; and the tree of hioiv- 
 ledge of good and evil — and the Lord God com- 
 manded the man, saying, of the tree of the know- 
 ledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it ; 
 for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt 
 surely die. 
 
 We propose to show why this tree was denomi- 
 nated the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; 
 and what was the design of prohibiting the use of 
 it to our first parents. 
 
 The current opinion, respecting the fli^st of 
 these points, is, that the tree received its denomi- 
 nation from the event ; because our first parents, 
 having fallen in consequence of eating of its fruit, 
 knew, by experience, the good which they had lost, 
 and the evil which they had incurred. 
 
 This interpretation, though patronized by great 
 najines, and maintained by able pens, labours un- 
 
 S 2 
 
260 ON THE TREE OF THE KNOWLEDGE 
 
 der insuperable difficulty : and that, whether we 
 suppose the tree to have been so called by God 
 himself before the issue, or by Moses after it. The 
 difficulties are these : 
 
 I. The Hebrew phrase, i>^^ ^^to nr^, i. e. " know- 
 ledge of good and evil," cannot well bear such a 
 construction. '' To know good and evil," in the 
 style of the Scripture, is to understand the nature 
 of good and evil, of right and wrong; and, judging 
 accurately concerning them, to choose the one and 
 shun the other. In this lies the force of the 
 tempter s argument to the woman, ^^ Ye shall be 
 as God, ti:\"ibw5, hnowing good and evilJ" God 
 cannot know evil by experience ; and the Devil was 
 not such a fool as to think of seducing our parents 
 by assuring them, that misery would be the reward 
 of compliance. So afterwards, in that pathetic 
 lamentation, not sarcastic jeer, over the poor apos- 
 tates ; " Behold the man (who) was (n>n) as one of 
 us, to know good and evil ^" Here man is said to 
 have known good and evil before his fall. After 
 it, he knew evil by experience, but not good ; and 
 his faculty of judging correctly concerning both 
 was woefully perverted. He knew good and evil 
 as God knows them; not by experiment surely, but 
 by a clear perception of their natures, for it is thus 
 only that God can know evil ; and as it is absurd 
 and blasphemous to imagine, that man, by plung- 
 
 • Gen. iii, 22. Vide Boston, Tractatus Stigmologicus, 
 [). 30,31. 
 
OF GOOD AND EVIL. 2Gl 
 
 ing himself into sin, could become like God, his 
 knowledge of good and evil must have been pos- 
 sessed in the state of innocence, and consequently 
 could not consi§jt in the experience of both. 
 
 If any doubt remain, as to the scriptural use of 
 the phrase, it will probably be removed by a pas- 
 sage in Deuteronomy, chap, i, ver. 39. " Your 
 little ones, which ye said should be a prey, and 
 your children, which in that day had no knowledge 
 between' or of " good and evil, they shall go in 
 thither." Little children do actually ex])erience 
 good and evil ; but they have no discriminating ac- 
 quaintance with the nature of either ; they can 
 form no judgment on the subject, so as to choose 
 the one and refuse the other. Such being the 
 sense of the expression to ^'know good and evil,'* 
 it is evident, that the tree in question was not de- 
 nominated from its reference to the Fall of Man. 
 
 II. If we now repair to the fact, we shall 
 strengthen our interpretation. 
 
 It is not true, then, that man, fallen from his 
 state of integrity and blessedness into a state of sin 
 and misery, did or could by such experience know 
 good. With evily indeed, he acquired a practicul 
 acquaintance, as he had previously known it only 
 in theory. But how he should learn good from 
 being thrust headlong into the depths of calamity y 
 being both excluded and alienated by ^i^m from the 
 love and fellowship of God, and from all real joy, 
 is most inconceivable ! '* By contrast," you will 
 
262 ON THE TREE OF THE KNOWLEDGE 
 
 say, " his misery taught him the value of the good 
 which he had forfeited." Certainly. But this 
 solution supposes, that he did not know good when 
 he was in full possession of it ; and it is incon- 
 sistent with the idea of experience ; for to learn a 
 thing by experience implies the presence of the 
 thing when the expet^iment is made. But the good 
 was now gone, and therefore could not be a subject 
 of experience. 
 
 Let us go on to ask, what end was to be gained 
 by naming the tree from the event? Did the 
 Most High God design to reveal to man, by such 
 an anticipation, his approaching crime and wretch- 
 edness ? But how does it accord with the divine 
 wisdom to appoint a tree as the test of his obe- 
 dience, and to proclaim, in the very appellation of 
 the tree, his future disobedience, and its dire effects ? 
 Shall we say, that he did not understand the 
 meaning of the appellation ? With what view was 
 it bestowed, then ? To the Creator it was of no 
 use ; for mans sake it must have been given. But 
 how for man s sake, if its sense was withheld from 
 him ? Will it be said, on the other hand, that the 
 name was not annexed to the tree, till man had 
 discovered, by his fall, the relation which it bore to 
 his condition and prospects r But still, what be- 
 nefit could accrue from his learning, Avhen his pro- 
 bation was over, that his state had been prefigured 
 by the name of the tree ? 
 
 It appears, then, that the tfee was not denomi- 
 
OF GOOD AND EVIL. 2G3 
 
 nated from the event ; and that the *^ knowledge 
 of good and evir is not such a knowledge as arises 
 from experience. 
 
 We must look for something more satisfactory. 
 
 To know good and evil does in truth denote that 
 faculty of judgment, by which a rational being dis- 
 tinguishes good from evil, choosing the former and 
 rejecting the latter : that which Paul styles oiaxpi- 
 <nif xaT^oif re xai xaxoi}'^, the discerning between 
 good and evil. Assuming this as having been 
 proved before, there are only two reasons for the 
 denomination of the tree. Either it v/as endued 
 with some physical virtue of sharpening the powers 
 of man in discriminating between good and evil ; 
 or it was placed in Paradise, not as a physical, but 
 moral cause of that knowledge, warning him to 
 avoid death, and the source of death, which were 
 figured by that tree ; and to cleave to life, the 
 opposite of death. 
 
 The first of these, although it has amused some 
 speculative minds, is hardly tenable. For it is 
 not easy to see why the Creator should forbid the 
 use of a tree, to which he had imparted the quality 
 of perfecting man's faculty of judging; nor hc^v, 
 npon this supposition, he could be free from rbe 
 imputation of tempting his creature to sin, by the 
 very means, which he had selected as a criterion of 
 duty ; nor, finally, how the taste of a tree, posses- 
 
 « Hcb. V, It. 
 
264 ON THE TREE OF THE KNOWLEDGE 
 
 sing such singular virtue, should have produced, in 
 our beguiled parents, an effect the reverse of its 
 Own qualities ! For, if it had the intrinsic charm 
 of enlarging their knowledge and improving their 
 facuhiesj then the short way to perfection would 
 have been sinning against God ! These things it 
 surpasses all the limits of sobriety to affirm ; and 
 our conclusion necessarily is, that the tree of " the 
 knowledge of good and evil" was so called, because, 
 from the divine institution, it was a moral cause of 
 that knowledge, i. e, it was a visible, familiar, and 
 permanent lesson, by which man was not only 
 admonished of the eternal distinction between good 
 and evil, but was put upon his guard as to the 
 quarter from which alone evil could assail him. 
 This will receive additional light from the 
 
 Second part of our inquiry, which relates to the 
 design of prohibiting the use of the tree to our first 
 parents. 
 
 Regarding that modesty, which ought to limit 
 our researches into the divine plans, and obeying 
 the general dictates of scripture and reason, we may 
 perceive, that the prohibition answered the three- 
 fold purpose of trial, of instruction, and of a sa- 
 cramental pledge. 
 
 That man should love and obey God^ would 
 spontaneously demonstrate itself to his pure con- 
 science and his sound intelligence. But in that 
 iirst age of his being, there could hardly exist an 
 occasion of proving his obedience and love, with- 
 
OF GOOD AND EVIL. 265 
 
 out the intervention of a positive precept. Trans- 
 gression of those commandments, which afterwards 
 were written on the two tables of the moral law, 
 was either physically or morally impossible : and 
 yet it was in itself fit, and for the ends of mora! 
 government indispensable, that man's devotedness 
 to his God should be brought, even in his best 
 estate, to some direct and effectual test. All the 
 orders of rational beings, of whom the Scriptures 
 give any account, were subjected, at their creation, 
 to probationary law : but in what manner a state of 
 probation could exist without a positive precept is 
 inconceivable. Nothing else could afford ^n op- 
 portunity of evincing submission to the divine au- 
 thority, because nothing else could present to holy 
 creatur^es a case of collision between their will and 
 the will of their God, It is doubtful whether, 
 without some such prohibition as that relating to 
 the forbidden tree, the Devil, sapient as he was, 
 <,ould have rendered a temptation to sin intelligible 
 to our first parents. For, as nothing else was re- 
 quired of them but what their own pure nature led 
 them instinctively to do, they could have no sense 
 oi restraint. In every thing else, the will of God 
 coincided with their own propensities ; so that, 
 throughout the whole range of their gratifications, 
 there was not to be found either the occasion or 
 the matter of trespass. Some positive statute, 
 therefore, which might control their will in a given 
 instance, was requisite to produce and preserve in 
 their minds the sense of their dependence upon 
 
266 ON THt TREE OF THE KNOWLEDGE 
 
 God, and his authority over them, without which 
 his moral government could have no place. The 
 very fact, of their being under moral government, 
 seems to have demanded some positive test of their 
 loyalty ; as the very fact, of their being rational 
 creatures, supposes them to have been subjects of 
 such a government. The contrary supposition is 
 mere atheism. The *propriety, therefore, of a 
 positive test of their obedience, resulted from their 
 accountable nature. And the more simple this 
 test was in itself, and the more easy the duty which 
 it prescribed, the more conspicuously was the be- 
 nignity of their God revealed, and the more inex- 
 cusable was their own rebellion. What simpler 
 test could they have chosen, than abstinence from 
 a particular tree, however " good for food and 
 pleasant to the eyes ?" What duty could be of 
 easier performance, seeing it did not intrench upon 
 a single enjoyment ; as they were surrounded with 
 similar enjoyments, the Lord God having made 
 '^ to grow, ever^ tree that is pleasant to the sight, 
 and good for food?" What could be more con- 
 descending, on his part, than the appointment of 
 so delightful a probation? And what more wanton, 
 more thankless, or more provoking on theirs, than 
 the violation of its terms? 
 
 Disobedience, under such circumstances, was of 
 an aggravated sort : but it will appear still more 
 flagrant, from the consideration, that this very tree, 
 whose touch was death, was fraught with salutary 
 instruction. Placed in the midst of the garden. 
 
OF GOOD AND EVIL. 26? 
 
 and often meeting the eyes of our first parents, 
 it could hardly fail to teach them such truths as 
 these: — 
 
 That God is the lord of all things ; and, conse- 
 quently, that man's dominion was neither absolute 
 nor independent ; that, in the enjoyment of God 
 alone is the satisfying good of man ; that, in judg- 
 ing of good and evil, man is not to be directed by 
 his own reason or pleasure, but by the revealed 
 will of God ; that man had not yet arrived at his 
 highest happiness, but was bound to expect and 
 desire a more perfect state, yet in that way alone 
 which God had appointed ; that, if he would escape 
 death, he must avoid the cause of it, i. e. sin, or 
 the breaking out of his desires beyond those limits 
 which God had assigned to them. How much 
 farther the unclouded mind of the first man might 
 have carried his reflections on tlie forbidden tree, 
 to what sublime conceptions of the divine nature, 
 and works, and providence, it might have led him, 
 we, in our shattered state, with our discordant 
 affections and obscure lights, are poorly qualified 
 to judge. Yet, disabled as we are, by the Fall, 
 from taking such rapid, capacious, and elevating 
 views of whatever is ftiir, and good, and magnifi- 
 cent in the creature and the Creator, as were com- 
 petent to a sinless being, we can discern enough to 
 persuade us, that the tree of knowledge of good 
 and evil must have been, to innocent man, a rich 
 source of intellectual improvement and moral 
 joy. 
 
26s ON THE TREE OF THE KNOWLEDGE 
 
 The third use of the tree of knowledge of good 
 and evil was that of a sacramental pledge. 
 
 Our first parents were placed, not only under 
 the general obligations of moral law, but under a 
 peculiar moral constitution, which the sovereign 
 goodness of God superadded to their condition as 
 accountable creatures. This constitution is ordi- 
 narily termed the covenant of works; by which, in 
 the event of their adhering to the terms of their 
 probation, the divine faithfulness was engaged to 
 confer on themselves and on their posterity an im- 
 mortality of bliss. But, in the event of their 
 failure, that same faithfulness was engaged to sub- 
 ject them and their progeny to the penalty of the 
 law. It will be perceived, that punishment, upon 
 the commission of sin, was a matter of course. 
 For, that a creature should rise up in rebellion 
 against the Creator, and suffer no inconvenience on 
 account of his crime, is a contradiction, if not in 
 words, yet certainly in things. Whereas the pro- 
 mise of eternal life was purely gratuitous; no crea- 
 ture having a right to demand more than this, that 
 so long as he continues obedient he shall not be 
 miserable. Nor can any good reason be assigned, 
 why the Most High God, if it so pleased him, may 
 not create rational beings for a temporary existence 
 only, and, when his purposes are fulfilled, remand 
 them back again to nothing. The promise, there- 
 fore, of eternal life, converted the law of obedience 
 into a pacific covenant, of which the tree of life and 
 the tree of knowledge were the two sacraments ; 
 
OF GOOD AND EVIL. 26,9 
 
 the former being a visible document of God'-^ 
 faithfulness to his promise, and the latter a visible 
 document of his faithfulness to his threatening. 
 And thus the assurance of life or death being ex- 
 hibited to our first parents by sensible signs, they 
 were constantly admonished of the interest staked 
 in their hands, and of the infinitely happy or hor- 
 rible issue of their probationary state ^. 
 
 3 See the Christianas Magazine, New York, 1807, p. 67. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 The Numerals i, ii, iii, iv, refer to the Volumes, and the Arabic 
 Figures to the Pages. The Prefaces, being paged with Roman 
 Numerals, are referred to accordingly. 
 
 AARON appointed to accompany Moses to Pharaoh, ii, 373c 
 With Hur, holds up the hands of Moses in the battle 
 against Amalek, iii, 23. Permitted to see the God of 
 Israel, 36. Makes the Israelites an idol, 1 13. Mitigation 
 of his offence on that occasion, 116. Consecrated to the 
 priest's office, 161. His behaviour on the death of Nadab 
 and Abihu, 163.' With Miriam, opposes Moses, 175. 
 Priesthood confirmed to him by a miracle, 182. His 
 death on mount Hor, 258. 
 
 Abel killed, i, 2. Nature and design of the sacrifice offered 
 by him, iv, Ixxxiii. 
 
 Abihu, his offfence and death, iii, 162. 
 
 Abilities of understanding, ought to be different in different 
 men, iv, 251. 
 
 Abimelech, king of the Philistines, makes a covenant with 
 Abraham, ii, 19, Sole proprietor of the land in his king- 
 dom, 78. 
 
 Abiram, with Korah and Dathan, his rebellion, iii, ISO. 
 
 Abraham, where his ancestors lived, i, 246. Date of his birth, 
 251. Left Ur to go to Haran, ibid. Removed into Ca- 
 naan, 252. Went into Egypt, ibid. His religion, 258. 
 Returns into Canaan, ii, 2. Separates from Lot, ibid. 
 
272 INDEX. 
 
 Whom he rescues from captivity, 6. Receives the pro- 
 mise of a son, 7, 10. Goes into Philistia, 13. Defence of 
 his conduct in sending away Ishmael, 15. Enters into a 
 covenant with Abimelech, 19. Required to offer up his 
 son Isaac, ibid. Marries Keturah, 29. Accounts given 
 of him by tne profane writers, ibid. His contemporaries 
 in the heathen nations, 35. He and his descendants wor- 
 shipped two distinct divine persons, 378, 396. Mistakes 
 of his contemporaries concerning him, 456. 
 
 Achan, his transgression and death, iii, 376. 
 
 Acrisius makes laws for the council of the Amphictyones, ii, 
 271. 
 
 Actajus, king of Attica, ii, 227. 
 
 Adam, whereof made, iv, 11. Where placed, ibid. What 
 immediate command he received from God, ibid. Called 
 to name the creatures, 12. Instantly understood the 
 meaning of God*s voice, how, 15. Did not at first make 
 long soliloquies, 21. Did not name the creatures all at 
 one time, 35. When first taught to lase sounds of his own 
 for the names of things, 37. Learned the use of words 
 by being called to name the creatures, ibid. Had no 
 innate language, 38. Named the woman, 46. Did not 
 make the reflection, that the man and his wife were inse- 
 parably to live together, ibid. His first day not a day of 
 hurry and confusion, 47. When he began to think, did 
 not instantly abound in a variety of conceptions, 48. 
 Placed at first amongst a few plain objects, ibid. Heard 
 at first from God nothing but what was plain and intelli- 
 gible, 49. How he began to make words, 51. The state 
 of his original knowledge, 57. Not endowed with a sud- 
 den apprehension of the nature of the living creatures, 
 ibid. Had no such knowledge of the animal world as 
 Milton supposes, 53. Had no innate knowledge of God 
 or himself, 59. Not a philosopher, ibid. Had no innate 
 science, ibid. Nor innate sentiments of morality, ibid. 
 All his ideas from sensation and reflection, 61. Knew no 
 more of God than what he had seen or heard could occa- 
 sion him to think of him, ibid. Had only a capacity of 
 attaining just notions of his duty, 62. Had no innate 
 astronomy, 64. Was created in the image of God, what 
 
INDEX. 273 
 
 Jr.eant by that expression, 67. Not endowed with an 
 unerring understanding, 74. His capacity quick and 
 lively, 73. Had all the powers of a sound mind, 76. 
 Sufficiently endowed, if he would have kep» God's com- 
 mandments, 91. Having done the will of G'>d, might, by 
 the tree of life, have lived for ever, 98 Diii not sin 
 against God immediately after his creation, 138. With 
 Eve, at the time she eat of the forbidden fruit, 11- ,5. Not 
 superior to Eve in understanding, to reject the temptation, 
 146. Afraid of God because naked, why, 176. Not at 
 first sensible of God's omnipresence, 178. What he meant 
 by declaring himself afraid, because naked, 179. Not 
 appointed to die the very day he transgressed, 227. Would 
 not have lived for ever by eating of the tree of life afte;- 
 his transgression, 234. By eating of ihe forbidden tree, 
 did not become wise as God is wise, 236. 
 Adam and Eve both created on the sixth day, iv, 6. Their first 
 notions of things narrow and unimproved, 19. How their 
 knowledge enlarged, ibid. How they formed their first 
 language, 21. Blessed by God on the day of their crea- 
 tion, 47. Did not at first understand the relation they 
 stood in to each other, 52. Why first employed in the 
 garden, 55. Groundless opinions of writers concerning 
 their original knowledge, 57. Not surprised at hearing 
 the serpent speak, 58. Were both together on that occa- 
 sion, ibid, 144. Believing the serpent a proof of their 
 ignorance, 60. Whilst they continued obedient, conti- 
 imed in the hand of God's counsel, 90. Iheir eating or 
 not eating, in itself of no moment, but for the command- 
 ment of God, 91, &c. Did not transgress on the day of 
 their creation, 138. Expected great advantages from their 
 eyes being opened, 173. The tempter's promise, how ful- 
 filled to them, 174. Their eyes not opened as they ex- 
 pected, ibid. Wanted to hide themselves from God, 178. 
 Did not make themselves aprons, ibid. Their being 
 naked, not meant as to their clothing, 181. Their high 
 iiotions of the serpent reprehended, 187. Knew not at 
 first what enemy had hurt them, 192. Might, from what 
 God said to them, reflect, that the serpent did not speak of 
 himself, ibid. Knew not the full meaning of what was 
 said to them concerning the serpent, ibid. Did not ap- 
 
 VOL. IV. 1 
 
271 INDEX. 
 
 prehend what God said concerning the serpent to belong 
 merely to that animal, 19G. Did not die immediately 
 upon eating the forbidden fruit, 227. Could not have 
 prevented their dying, after God*s sentence, by eating of 
 the tree of life, 234. 
 Adrichomius, his mistake about the situation of Seir, ii, 156. 
 Adversary, who seduced our first parents, iv, 148. The man- 
 ner in which he vva«i permitted lo tempt them, 151. 
 Africauus, account of his Chronographia, iii, 214. 
 A^e, the brazen, next the times of Jupiter, why so called, 
 
 iii, 94. 
 Agriculture, its origin and progress, iv, 224. 
 Aholiab and Bezaliel build the tabernacle, iii, 155. 
 Aish, Hebrew word for man, its derivation, iii, 102. 
 Alcmena, the inscription and antiquities found in her tomb, 
 
 ii, 247. 
 Alexander the Great obliged to prove himself a descendant of 
 Hellen, ii, 277. His passage over the sea of Pamphyli^ 
 not to be compared with that of the Israelites over the 
 Red Sea, 450. His object in marching to the Temple of 
 Jupiter Ammon, iii, 315. 
 Alphabet, not invented so early as letters, i, 212. Specimens 
 of the ancient Samaritan, 226. Phoenician, 227. Greek, 
 229, 244. Latin, 235. 
 Amalekites, attack the Israelites, iii, 23. 
 Amphictyon, king of Attica, ii, 269. 
 
 Amphictyones, council of, established by Amphictyon, ii, 269. 
 Design of it, ibid. 270. Laws made for it by Acrisius, 
 
 271. Changes in the states which furnished its members, 
 
 272. Its constitution altered by Augustus Caesar, 273. 
 Place of their meeting, 274. Not two councils of that 
 name, 275. 
 
 Analogy, runs through all the intelligences of God's creation, 
 
 iv. 158 
 Ananim, first king of Lower Egypt, i, 191. 
 Androgyne'^, whence the fable of them, iv, 6, n. 
 Anecdote of Moses, when a child, ii, 330. 
 Animal fo d when first granted to mankind, i, 70. 
 Animals, naine<l by Adam, iv, 22. Not named all at one time, 
 
 35. Names of them not innate in Adam's mind, 38. Nor 
 
 dictated to him by the voice of God, ibid. 
 
INDEX. 275 
 
 Antediluvian world, its chronology, i, 44, 45. Its geography, 
 65. Number of its inhabitants, 32. 
 
 Antediluvians, Berosus*s account of them, i, 14. Sancho- 
 niatho's account of them, 15. Egyptian accounts of 
 them, 16. Their longevity, 27. Their religion, what 
 may be conjectured about it, 33. Their wickedness, 
 which occasioned the flood, what, 42. 
 
 Apollo, son of Jupiter, iii, .58. His travels and actions, 107. 
 
 Apophis, the king of Egypt, who was drowned in the Red Sea, 
 iii, 251. 
 
 Apjaetites, not the cause of the first sin, iv, 73. Gross, arise 
 from the corruptible body, 240. 
 
 Appointments, God's, conspire to make up one universal de- 
 sign, iv, 239. 
 
 Aprons, not made by Adam and Eve, iv, 177. 
 
 Arabians, had not corrupted their religion in the days of Job, 
 or of Jethro, i, 281. 
 
 Arad, king of, attacks the Israelites, iii, 258. 
 
 Aram, where he and his sons settled after the dispersion from 
 Babel, i, 144, 
 
 Ararat, mount, where situate, i, 87. 
 
 Arbaces, probably introduced the Nabonassarean year into 
 Media, i, x. 
 
 Areas, king of Arcadia, iii, 92. 
 
 Areopagus, origin of that court, ii, 264. Reason of its name, 
 according to iEschylus, 265. Number of its judges not 
 always the same, 267. Extent of its authority, 268. Its 
 great reputation, ibid. 
 
 Argos, the rise of that kingdom, ii, 255. 
 
 Argus, his family and genealogy, iii, 76. 
 
 Ark of Noah, its dimensions, i, 12. 
 
 Arphaxad, where he lived after the confusion of tongues, i, 142. 
 
 Arsinoe, city, where situate, iii, 4. 
 
 Acrefeif, who so called at the first rise of kingdoms, iii, 97. 
 
 Ashur settled in Assyria, i, 142, 161. 
 
 Askanez, what country he planted at the dispersion of man- 
 kind, i, 136. 
 
 Ass, Balaam's, reproves that prophet, iii, 290. That miracle 
 considered, 291. 
 
 Assessment of the Israelites, how much money raised by it, iii, 
 154. 
 
 T 2 
 
276 INDEX. 
 
 Assis, or Aseth, iirst corrects the length of the year, i, vix ; 
 
 iv, vi. 
 Assyrian empire from Ninus to Sardanapalus, its existence and 
 
 extent considered, ii, xxxix. 
 Astronomical observations at Babylon agree with the Scripture 
 
 chronology, i, 169. 
 Astronomy, the Chaldean, probably invented by Belus, i, 173. 
 
 Of the ancients, not exact, 301. Its use in the ancient 
 
 agriculture, ii, 56. 
 Athlius, first king of Elis, ii, 257. 
 
 Athothes, king of Egypt, contemporary with Abraham, ii, '35. 
 Atlas, why said to support the heavens, ii, 256. 
 Augustus Caesar alters the constitution of the Amphictyones, 
 
 ii, 271. 
 
 B. 
 
 Babel, tower of, when begun, i, 9i. How long the project of 
 building it was continued, 132. 
 
 Babylonia, the kingdom of Nimrod, i, 151. 
 
 Babylonians, when they began their astronomical observations^ 
 i, 173. 
 
 Bacchus, Grecian, fable about his birth explained, iii, 93. 
 
 Bacchus, Indian, said to be the founder of the Indian polity, ii, 
 45. Not Sesostris, 47. Arguments to prove him the 
 same person with Noah, 50. 
 
 Balaam, his countr}^, where, iii, 288. His answer to the mes- 
 sengers of Balak, ibid. The directions he received from 
 God, 289. Wherein his fault consisted, ibid. Not a ma- 
 gician, but a worshipper of the true God, ibid. Why he 
 sought enchantments, 290. Rebuked by his ass, 291. 
 Dismissed by Balak with contempt, 294. His advice to 
 the Midianites, 295. His views in giving it, ibid. His 
 circumstances and character, 297. Slain by the Israelites, 
 307. 
 
 Balak, king of Moab, sends to Balaam, iii, 2BS. 
 
 Balch, a city of Persia, Abraham never lived there, i, 280. 
 
 Bashan, kingdom of, conquered by the Israelites, iii, 297. 
 
 Beards of the Israelites, said to have turned yellow, iii, 123. 
 
 Belesis, see Nabonassar. 
 
 Belus, second king of Babylon, i, 161. Not the same persoa 
 
IKDEX. 277 
 
 with Nimrod, 172. Probably invented the Chaldean 
 astronomy, 173. His tower, 2'20. 
 
 Belus, son of Neptune, quits Egypt, ii, 218. Goes to Babylon, 
 219. lai;. roves the Babylonian astronomy, ibid. His 
 name not tgypiian, 222. Not the same with Belus, the 
 second king oFBa yion, 223. 
 
 Berosus, his extravagant history of the long lives of the antedi- 
 luvian ki<igs, i, xxiii. His account of the flood, 14. 
 
 Bezaliel and Aholiab build the tabernacle, iii, 155. 
 
 Birthright, Esau's, what, ii, 126. 
 
 Blood forbidden to be eaten, why, i, 83. 
 
 Body, become mortal, presses down the soul, iv, 240. Of 
 great consequence to the soul, to what body it is joined, 241. 
 
 Body of sin, we see in ourselves the necessity of being da- 
 liverf d from, iv, 242. 
 
 Bolingbroke, Lord, his remarks on the various readings in the 
 Scriptures, iv, xlviii. On the different endowments of 
 mankind, Ixxx, n. On the transgression of Eve, cxi, n. 
 
 Born again, necessity of our being, iv, 242. 
 
 Burnet, Dr., his objections to a literal interpretation of the 
 Mosaic account of the creation, considered, iv, xxi. His 
 theory of the antediluvian earth, lOG. Of the deluge, 
 109. Supposes the fall of man to have taken place imme-. 
 diately after his creation, 137. 
 
 Burning bush, miracle of, ii, 372. 
 
 Burnt offerings, law of, iii, 141, w. 
 
 Cabiri of the ancients, wh.o, i, 189. 
 
 Cadmus builds Thebes, ii, 242. Date of that event, ibid\ 
 Consideration of the arguments, whether he were a 
 Phoenician or an Egyptian, 246. Manner in which he 
 determined the site of the city Cadmea, 250 Fable of 
 his sowing the serpent's teeth, considered, 251. Intro- 
 duced the Phojnician letters into Greece, 252. Entertains 
 Jupiter, iii, 93. Date of his marriage, ibid. 
 
 Cain kills Abel, i, 2. His punishment, 4. His sorrow and re- 
 pentance 5. The mark set upon him, 7. Absurd conjec- 
 tures on this subject, ibid. n. Removes into the land of 
 Nod, 8. Arts invented by his descendants, ibid, Why- 
 he built a city, 9. 
 
27S INDEX. 
 
 Caleb, his eftbrts to appease the rebellion of the Israelites, 
 iii, 177. His inheritance, 417. 
 
 Calf, golden, set up by the Israelites, iii, 113. 
 
 Callimachus, rejected the Cretan account of the tomb of Jupi- 
 ter, iii, 95. 
 
 Callisthenes, his account of the astronomical observations at 
 Babylon, i, 170. 
 
 Calypso's island, suppo-ed situation of, ii, 257, n. 
 
 Canaan, son of Ham, what countries settled by him, i, 154'. 
 
 Canaan, land of, peopled sooner than Egypt, i, 195. Govern- 
 ment of, originally founded on principles of liberty, ii, 79. 
 In what manner divided amongst the Israelites, iii, 420. 
 
 Canaanites, their religion in the days of Abraham, i, 282. Had 
 no temples in the days of Moses, iii, 161. Whether any 
 companies of them escaped from Joshua by flight into 
 other Ian Lis, 434. Whether they made any settlements in 
 Lesser Asia or in Greece in the days of Joshua, 436. 
 
 Canon Chronicus of Sir John Marsham, account of, iii, 235. 
 
 Capacities of men border upon the angelic state, iv, 82. Not 
 such as to be an unerring direction to all truth, 74. 
 
 Capeilus, his arguments to reconcile the Hebrew and Septuagint 
 chronology, i, 55. 
 
 Caphtorim, where he settled after the dispersion from Babel, 
 i, 153. 
 
 Casluhim, what country he planted, i, 153. 
 
 Castor, his account of the time when Cecrops settled in Attica, 
 ii, 228. 
 
 Cat, why reputed sacred by the Egyptians, ii, 281. 
 
 Catalogue of Eratosthenes, account of, iii, 206. 
 
 Cecrops quits Egypt, ii, 218. Settles in Attica, 227. Date of 
 his reign there, 228. Contemporary with Moses, 232. 
 The means he adopted to civilize his followers, 237. His 
 people at hrst not numerous, 238- His care to instruct 
 them in religion, 240. Why he was called Ai(pvrj$, 241. 
 
 Cedrenus, his opinion about Belus, ii, 223. 
 
 Centimani, whom, iii, 50. Why so called, 51. In alliance 
 with Jupiter, 85. 
 
 Ceremonies, most ancient ones used in religion, what, i, 275,287. 
 
 Ceres, sister to Jupiter, iii, 55. At his death, settles in Attica, 
 108. Taught Triptolemus to sow corn, 109. 
 
 Chaldeans, their religion in the days of Abraham, i, 281 . The 
 first idolaters, 298. 
 
INDEX. 2/9 
 
 Chedorlaomer, the same with Ninyas, il, 4. 
 
 Chinese records agree with the chronology of Moses, i, 26. 
 Their account of Fohi, 90. Their language original, 108. 
 Their government the same now as at its foundation, ii, 
 54. Their account of the Sun standing still in the days 
 of Joshua, iii, 410. 
 
 Chinese Fohi, the same with Noah, i, 90. 
 
 Chiron, the constellations he formed, considered, ii, vi. 
 
 Christ, the person who is to conquer the old serpent, iv, 214. 
 
 Christians not obliged to abstain from eating blood, i, 86. 
 
 Chronicon, of Eusebius, account of the, iii, 222. 
 
 Chronogrnpheon, Egyptian, some account of, iii, 191. 
 
 Chronographia, of Africanus, some account of, iii, 214. Of 
 Syncellus, account of, 230. 
 
 Chronology, of the antediluvians, arcordint; to the Hebrew, 44. 
 Accor(iing to the Samaritan, 45. Accordinij »o the Sep- 
 tuagint, 49. Arguments of Capellus to reconcile them, 55. 
 Chronology of the Babylonian enipire, 167. Dilference 
 between the Septuagint, Samaritan, and Hebrew, respect- 
 ing the birth of Abraham, 252. Sir Isaac Newton's, con- 
 sidered, ii, V. 
 
 Chronus, said to have sacrificed his son, ii, 23 Probably the 
 same person with Abraham, 24. 
 
 Circumcision, practised earlier by Abraham than by any of 
 the heathen nations, i, 293. Arguments for Abraham's 
 learning it from the heathens refuted, ibid. Liscontinued 
 by the Israelites while in the wilderness, iii, 365. Re- 
 vived by Joshua, ibid. Reasons of its discontinuance, 36G. 
 Practised very early by the Egyptians, 369. 
 
 Cities of Greece chose their tutelar deities, when, iii, 88. 
 
 Cities of refuge appointed, iii, 432. 
 
 Clayton, Bishop, his Strictures on Dr. Shuckford's account of 
 the Heathen gods, &c., i, Ixi. His account of the origin 
 of the Grecian Fable of Charon, Ixiii. His reasons 
 against considering Jupiter to be a real per-<on, Ixviii. 
 Chronus and Time supposed by him to be the same, Ixx. 
 His opinion of the other deities mentioned by Ma- 
 netho, Ixxii. His account of the Egyptian god Cneph, 
 Ixxvii. 
 
 Clothing given to our first parents, what, iv, 243. 
 
 Cloud, pillar of, directs the march of the Israelites, ii, 441-. 
 Covers the tabernacle, iii, 159. 
 
280 INDEX. 
 
 Cneph, an Egyptian god, represented by a serpent, iv, 202. 
 Coats of skins, in what manner appointed our first parents, 
 
 iv, 243- 
 Colonies, probability of some being established in Africa, Sec, 
 
 from Canaan, iii, 434. 
 Command concerning the forbidden tree, suitable to what God 
 
 had made man, iv, 93. Why such a command given, 93. 
 
 Some positive command necessary to be given to our first 
 
 parents, 100. 
 Confusion of tongues, i, 94. Probable cause of it, 117. How 
 
 many languages arose from it, 120. 
 Corinthian history, begins, where, ii, 258. 
 Corn, how furnished to the Israelites on their entrance into 
 
 Canaan, iii, 372. 
 Counsel, God's, Adam's rejection of it, subjected him to all 
 
 error, iv, 99. 
 Cranaos, king of Attica, ii, 241. 
 Creation, the, discovers a wonderful connection between all 
 
 things, iv, 81. 
 Cres, king of Crete, contemporary with Abraham, ii, 36. 
 Cretans, anciently famous for their history, iii, 48. Pretended 
 
 to have the tomb of Jupiter, 95. 
 Crete, the state of, in the brazen age, iii, 94. Thought to be 
 
 well situated for universal empire. III. 
 Ctesias, probability of his account of the Assyrian empire^ 
 
 i, XXV. 
 Cubit, three sorts of, in use amongst the Hebrews, i, 12. 
 Cumberland, Bishop, his opinion of the era of Sesostris, iiij 
 
 184, 187. 
 Curetes, who the persons so called, iii, 85. 
 Cush, the land of, not Ethiopia, but Arabia, i, 147. Probably 
 
 so called from Cush the son of Ham, 146. 
 Cyclops, whom, iii, 53. Fable of their one eye explained, 
 
 ibid. The artificers of Jupiter, 85. 
 Cyphers, the Egyptian, why invented, ii, 293. 
 Cyril, St. misquotes Diodorus Siculus, iii. 347. 
 Cyrus the Elder, his account of himself, when dying, ii, 
 
 338, 
 
 D. 
 
 Dactyli Id.'ei, probably the companions of Cadmus, ii, 252. 
 Date when they lived, iii, 48. 
 
INDEX. 281 
 
 Banaus leaves Egypt, ii, 218. Said to have constructed the 
 first ship, 227. Accident by which he obtained the 
 kingdom of Argos, 253. Date of his reign, 254. Not the 
 brother of Sesostris, iii, 184. 
 
 Bathan, with Korah and Abiram, their rebellion, iii, 180. 
 
 Death, sentence of, particularly pronounced agains- Adam 
 only, and why, iv, 22G. Not inflicted immediately after 
 his transgression, 227. Fit and proper, in the reason of 
 things, after man had sinned, 235. 
 
 Dedan, where he settled at the dispersion of mankind, i, 152. 
 
 Deiphon, son of Ceieus, nursed by Ceres, iii, 108. 
 
 Deists, modern, their character of Moses, iii, 319. 
 
 Deluge, none in Attica in the time of Ogyges; nor in Thes- 
 saly, in the time of Deucalion, ii, 259. Did not dissolve 
 the whole globe, iv, 112. Effects of it to be accounted 
 for by considering the effects of smaller inundations, 115. 
 Strata, occasioned by it, accounted for, 116. 
 
 Depravity of man, consequent upon the Fall, iv, 239. 
 
 Deucalion, king of Thessaly, when, ii, 256. The flood of, 
 probably the; universal deluge, 259. 
 
 Devil, the serpent prompted by, to deceive our first parents, 
 iv, 148. Can do nothing but by divine permission, 155. 
 
 Di Consentes, who the gods so called, iii, 83. 
 
 Difference between Gen. xxxv and Gen. xlvi reconciled, ii, 
 196. 
 
 Differences in religion, what, in the time of Abraham, i, 257. 
 
 Diodorus Siculus, his account of the rise of false religion in 
 Egypt, i, 289. Proof from him, that Noah was the Indian 
 Bacchus, ii, 51. His account of the ancient Egyptian 
 constitution, 80. 
 
 Directions, our first parents' rejecting God's, was a great per- 
 version of human life, iv, 171. 
 
 Dispersion of mankind, i, 125. Commonly received opinion 
 concerning it, not true, 129. Most probable account of, 
 130. Did not reach at first to Spain or Italy, 155. 
 
 Divine appearances to Abraham, ii, 9, 10. To Jacob, 144, 
 159, 164. None before the days of Abraham, 395. To 
 Joshua, iii, 374. 
 
 Division of the earth by the sons of Noah, i, 133. Eusebius's 
 account of it rejected, 156. 
 
 Dodanim, thought to have planted Rhodes, i, 141. 
 
282 ZKDJiX. 
 
 E. 
 
 Eagle, the river Nile anciently so called, iii, 105. 
 
 Biirlb, originally produced nothing but by the word of God, 
 iv, 10. Did not produce full grown trees at the creation, 
 220. 
 
 Ebal and Gerizim, the law for building the altar, and writing 
 the law there, how executed, iii, 377. 
 
 Ecclesiasticus, author of the book of, his opinion of the cure of 
 the waters at Marah, iii, 6. His learning, 7. Time at 
 which he wrote, 8. 
 
 Eden, land and garden of, where situate, i, 65 ; iv, 123, 133. 
 Known by the Jews, in their captivity, to be not far 
 from the waters of Babylon, 126. 
 
 Edom, king of, refuses a passage to the Israelites, iii, 257. 
 
 Edomites, make their first king, ii, 171. 
 
 Egypt, not originally a despotic government, ii, 79. Anciently 
 an elective kingdom, 86. The parent of superstition, 
 101. An account of its priesthood, 102. 
 
 Egyptian dynasties and antiquities explained, i, 18. Arts and 
 learning, by whom invented, IQ-l-. Letters, at first, not 
 hieroglyphical, 217. Pyramids, eighteen, by whom 
 built, 24'0. Lavgest pyramid, by whom erected, 290. 
 Religion, by whom corrupted, ibid. With what views, 
 and for what end, 192. Errors, most ancient, what, ibid. 
 Idolatries very ancient, 306. Most of them not so early 
 as the days of Joseph, 308. Kingdoms, not founded at 
 first upon despotic authority, ii, 79. Ancient constitu- 
 tion, what, SO. 
 
 Egyptians, not the first inventors of letters, i, 206. At first 
 worshipped the true God, 283. Not corrupted in religion 
 in the days of Abraham, 284. Imitators of Abraham in 
 circumcision, and other religious rites, 293. Quickly 
 outstripped all other nations in their numerous idolatries, 
 301-. Infected all the neighbouring nations with their 
 abominations, 311. Their consecrating animals, ii, 279. 
 When they began this practice, ibid. For what reason, 
 280. Canonized their heroes, 282. Their most cele- 
 brated hero gods, whom, ibid. Why deified, ibid. When 
 this piaLticc begaii, 283. Did not deify men newly dead. 
 
INDEX. 283 
 
 285. Their hieroglyphics not their most ancient letters, 
 295. Perplexed their ancient history;, how, 29P. Their 
 fables about Isis and Osiris, 302. Their theology arose 
 from their learning, 305. Their errors in religion, how 
 occasioned, 306. Their learning, what, 31'2. Their as- 
 tronomy, 34>3. Their geometry, ibid. Their physiologj^ 
 S^5. Their astrology, 3 i-G. Their magic, ibid. Whe- 
 ther they had any lewd dances in their sacra in the time 
 of Moses, ill, \2\. Their antiquities, what books to be 
 searched for them, 191. Their opinion of the original 
 product of the e^rth, iv, 10. Reputed the serpent to be 
 an emblem of the good Gud, 202. 
 
 Elam, planted Persia, i, 14-2. 
 
 Eldad and Medad, prophesy, in the camp of Israel, iii, 173. 
 
 Elders, seventy, appointed lo iissist Moses, iii, 172. 
 
 Elim, when the l>rael tes went thither, iii, 8. Like a place 
 described by Strabo, ibid. 
 
 Elisha planted the (Jyclades, i, 139. 
 
 Employment of our tirst parents, in the garden, iv, 221. 
 
 Enchantments, heathen, f ;r the cure ot the bites of serpents, 
 iii, 265, 268. Used by Balaam, of what sort, 290. 
 
 Enoch, proof of his having had a revelation from God, iv, 
 xcix. 
 
 Enoch's book, a fiction, i, 39. 
 
 Eratosthenes, account of his catalogue, iii, 206. 
 
 Erectheus, not the same with Erichthonius, ii, 242. 
 
 Erichthonius quits Egypt, ii, 218, Invented chariots, 277. 
 
 E^Of of the mythologists, what meant by, iv, xvii. 
 
 Esau sells his birthright, ii, 118. Why he is called profane, 
 ibid. Wherein his birthright consisted, ibid. His resent- 
 ment against Jacob, 143. Is reconciled to him, 160. An 
 account of his descendants, 169. His character, 174. 
 
 Ethiopia, not the land of Cush, i, 147. 
 
 Ethiopians, two nations of that name, ii, 334. 
 
 Europs, second king of Sicyon, contemporary with Abraham, 
 ii, 36. 
 
 Europeans, not early acquainted with letters, i, 196. 
 
 Eusebius, his account of the division of the earth rejected, i., 
 156. His review of the ancient history, ii, 39. Account 
 of hi*? Chronicon, iii, 222, 
 
284 II^DEX. 
 
 Eve, her creation, iv, 12. What her first idea of death, IS, 
 Understood immediately what the serpent said to her, 23. 
 What she expected in having her eyes opened, 29. 
 Reason of her name, 52. Not tempted before she had 
 observed, that the animal creation had not the gift of 
 speech, 142. Tempted before she knew it to be mira- 
 culous for an animal to speak, ibid. Not alone, when the 
 serpent spake to her, 144. The sentence passed upon 
 her, 219. 
 
 Exit of the Israelites out of Egypt, ii, 436. Heathen accounts 
 of that event, 437. 
 
 Eye, of the body, not able, without rule or measure, to raise a 
 regular structure, iv, 252. Of the mind, unable, without 
 rule, to build us up in every virtue, ibid. 
 
 Eyes, Adam and Eve's, opened, how^ iv, 175. 
 
 Ezra, in what manner he might add to the books of Scripture^ 
 iii, 446. 
 
 F. 
 
 Fable of the Egyptians concerning the length of the year, i, 
 XX, n. ii, 2S4. Of Cadmus sowing the serpent's teeth, ii, 
 251. Of Hercules killing the eagle, which preyed upon 
 Prometheus's liver, iii, 105. 
 
 Faith, a part of natural religion, i, 258. In what God had re- 
 vealed, the only principle on which the men of the 
 early times could have a right knowledge of the Deity, ii, 
 380. Mankind not easily brought to the obedience of it, 
 iii, 133. Mistakes of different writers concerning the 
 doctrine of, iv, xcvii. Comes by hearing, 163. Obedi- 
 ence of it, to be paid unto God, 164. 
 
 Fall, not immediately after the creation, iv, 29. 
 
 Fallax, peculiar use of that word in Virgil, iv, 231, w. 
 
 Feasts, Jewish, not regulated by the Moon, iii, xxvi. 
 
 Females, opinion of the ancients, respecting their right to go- 
 vern, ii, 115. Their reigns generally glorious, 116. 
 
 Flesh, not eaten till after the flood, i, 70. 
 
 Fohi, first king of China, i, 26. Contemporary with Noah, 
 ibid. Probably the same person, 90. 
 
INDEX. 285 
 
 Cames, public^ how managed in the most ancient times, iii, 
 119. 
 
 Garden of the Lord, mentioned to Abraham by Lot, the 
 same as Moses' garden of Eden, iv, 125. Alluded to by 
 Ezekiel, ibid. 
 
 Generation, different meanings of that word, ii, xxiv. 
 
 Genesis, book of, supposed to be written by Moses while in 
 Midian, ii, 335. First and second chapters of, not con- 
 trary to each other, iv, 5. 
 
 Geography of the antediluvian world, i, Q5. 
 
 Geographers, the most ancient heathen, only moderns with re- 
 gard to the Scripture geography, iv, 120. 
 
 Gephyraei, the followers of Cadmus, ii, 249. 
 
 Gerizim. See Ebal. 
 
 Gibeonites, deceive the Israelites, iii, 3S2. Refuse to join the 
 confederate kings, ibid. Whether the Israelites were 
 justifiable in entering into treaty with them, 383. 
 
 Girgashites, whether they fled from Joshua into Africa, iii, 
 434. 
 
 God, his name inquired by Moses, ii, 370. Explanation of that 
 name, 376 — 402. In what sense seen by Moses, iii, 37. 
 Created both the man and the woman on the sixth day, iv, 
 6. His word produced all things, 10. The command which 
 he gave to Adam, 11. Caused Adam immediately to 
 understand what was spoken to him, \5. Did not give 
 our first parents any innate language, 19. Called Adam 
 to name the creatures, 22. Did not direct Adam what 
 names to give them, 37. Enjoined man and wife to live 
 together, 47. Did not confound Adam's first thoughts 
 with a variety of objects, 48. His blessing upon our 
 first parents, 53. Did not endue Adam with an unerring- 
 understanding, 74. Made a revelation to man, as soon as 
 he was created, 87. The first command he gave Adam, 
 suitable to man's nature. 93. His first command, how to 
 be undei^tood, 95. Did not cause the serpent to tempt 
 Eve, 148. His prophecies to our first parents, enlarp-ed 
 by farther prophecies in after-ages, 194. His sentence 
 against our first parents not to have been defeated by 
 
5286 INDEX. 
 
 their ealing oi the tree of life, 234. Appointed Adam 
 and Eve clothing, in what manner, 243. Appointed 
 sacrifices, when, 245. Instructed Adam in all necessary 
 knowledge after the fall, 248. His word the rule of 
 truth, 254. 
 
 God of Israel, whom intended by that appellation, iii, 38. 
 
 Gods of Egypt, rudeness of their sculpture no proof of their 
 antiquity, ii, 309. 
 
 Gods of human form, their origin, iii, 42. 
 
 Gomez, where he settled at the dispersion of mankind, i, 134. 
 
 Government, civil, in India, built upon the foundation of pa- 
 ternal authority, it, 65. 
 
 Greece, uncertainty of its history before the time of Cecrops^ 
 ii, 255. Dates of the foundation of its several states, 257. 
 
 Greek alphabet, specimens of, i, 229, 244. Additions to^ 
 231. 
 
 Greeks received their letters from the Phoenicians, i, 199. 
 Disguised all their ancient accounts with allegory, ii, 252. 
 Called Gr^ci, 275-. And Hellenes, 276. 
 
 H. 
 
 Hailstones, the Canaanites destroyed by a storm of, iii, 400. 
 
 Halirrothius slain by Mars, iii, 89. 
 
 Halley, Dr., his account of the astronomy of the ancients, il, 
 xix. 
 
 Ham, the youngest son of Noah, i, 133. Parts of the world 
 settled by his descendants, 146. 
 
 Haran, land of, whence so named, i, 247. 
 
 Hardness of heart, not produced in Pharaoh by God, ii, 429. 
 
 Harduin, Father, his ridiculous solution of a Scripture diffi- 
 culty, i, 254. 
 
 Havilah, land of, where, i, 66. Well known in the postdilu- 
 vian world, iv, 121. 
 
 Havilah, son of Gush, where he lived, i, 143. 
 
 Hazor, city, burnt by the Israelites, iii, 415. 
 
 Heathens, their opinion of the way in which miracles might 
 be wrought, ii, 353. Never prayed to one god for deli- 
 verance from another, 406. 
 
 Heathen writers confirm the Mosaic account of the creation, i, 
 XXXV i. Methods by which they obtained their know- 
 
INDEX. 287 
 
 ledge, xliv. Their attempts to overthrow the sacred his- 
 tory, ii, 39. Their accounts of the Israelites leaving 
 Egypt, 437. Mention the Sun standing still at the com- 
 mand of Joshua, iii, '1-OS. 
 
 Heavenly bodies, the first objects of idolatry, i, 292. ii, 352. 
 
 Hebrew, . probably the first language in the world, i, lOk 
 Specimen of the old Hebrew or Samaritan letters, 
 226. 
 
 Hebron, in Canaan, built seven years before any city in 
 Egypt, i, 195. 
 
 Heliopolis, opinion of the priests of, about the passage of the 
 Israelites over the Red Sea, ii, 4-54-. 
 
 Hellas, the name of Greece, at first only a part of Thessaly, ii, 
 276. Nevei called so b\^ Homer, ibid. 
 
 Ilellen, king in Thessaly, ii, 275. The Greeks called FTellenes 
 from him, ibid. The great influence of his descendants 
 in Greece, 277. Instituted the Panathencean games, 
 ibid. 
 
 Hellenes, the Greeks so called, ii, 275. Only those under the 
 government of Hellen received that appellation at first, 
 276. The Greeks in general never called so by Homer, 
 ibid. 
 
 Hercules, three persons of that name, iii, 505, 
 
 Herodotus, his opinion of the antiquity of Semiramis, consi- 
 dered, ii, xli. His account of the Egyptian polity, 
 81. 
 
 Heroes, when first worshipped, and why, ii, 282, 283. 
 
 Hiddekel, a river known to Daniel, iv, 121. 
 
 Hieroglyphics invented by the second Taautus, ii, 294. The 
 Egyptians had two sorts of, 295. 
 
 Historians, ancient, way in which their histories were collected, 
 ii, xc. 
 
 History, ancient profane, probably much corrupted, i, xvii. 
 Romantic accounts given by, ii, Ixxxii, &c. 
 
 Hobab, son of Jethro, journeys with the Israelites, iii, 171. 
 
 Homer, his notion of the divine right of kings, ii, 87. 
 
 Horeb, a mountain contiguous to Sinai, iii, 19. 
 
 Horites, possessed the land of Seir, ii, 1 07. Dispossessed by 
 the children of Esau, 108. 
 
 Hur assists Aaron to hold up the hands of Moses, whilst the 
 Israelites were in battle, iii, 23. He and Aaron have the 
 
288 INDEX. 
 
 charge of the people, 30. Did not probably outlive the 
 
 sin of the golden calf, 115. 
 Husbandry, the first, only gardening, iv, 222. 
 Hyagnis, said to have improved music, ii, 278. 
 Hyginus, his fable of Prometheus, iii, 100. 
 
 I. 
 
 I AM THAT I AM, explained, ii, 384. 
 
 Idolatry, none before the flood, i, 37. First practised in 
 
 Chaldea, 298. Most gross in the nations most acquainted 
 
 with the Egyptians, 312. 
 If^gu^, that term explained, ii, 97. 
 Image of God, what meant by, iv, 67. Opinions of the heathen 
 
 on this subject, 71. 
 Image worship, its origin, i, 31-1'. 
 Inachus, first king of Argos^ contemporary with Abraham, ii, 
 
 36. Probable method by which he formed his kingdom, 
 
 37. Ar_,uments of Sir John Marsham, against his exist- 
 ence, answered, 38. 
 
 India, fruitless attempts to conquer it by Ninus and Semiramis, 
 i, 178. Reasons of the opposition they experienced, 179, 
 ii. 67. What countries known by that name by ancient 
 writers, ii, 55. 
 
 Indians, first made astronomy subservient to agriculture, ii, 56. 
 Practice of their first physicians, 367. 
 
 Indian Bacchus, not the same person as Sesostris, ii, 47. Pro- 
 bably Noah, 50. 
 
 Indian polity, what, ii, 56. 
 
 Inscription, Sigean, fac-simile of, i, 237, 239, 210. Fac-simile 
 of one on the statue of Jupiter Urius, 242. 
 
 Isaac, his birth, ii, 14. Marries Rebekah, 29. Removes to 
 Gerar, 126. Banished thence by Abimelech, 127. Who 
 afterwards enters into an alliance with him, 128. Date of 
 his death, 166. His character, 188. 
 
 Ishmael, his birth, ii, 9. 
 
 Isis, table of, described, ii, 316. 
 
 Israelites, date of their exit out of Egypt, ii, 332. Eat the 
 first passover, 436. Time of their sojourning in Egypt, 
 440. Murmur against Moses at Marah, iii, 1. March to 
 Elim, 8. Distressed for provisions in the wilderness oC 
 
INDEX. 289 
 
 Sin, 9. Relieved by a miraculous supply of quails and 
 manna, ibid. Want water at Rephidim, 14. Defeat the 
 Amalekites, 23. Their march to Sinai, when, 35. Force 
 Aaron to make a golden calf, 1 13. Whether thev danced 
 naked before it, 124-. Whether they set up ihe calf, in 
 imitation of the Egyptian sacra, ibid. Upon what prin- 
 ciple they fell into this idolatry, 129. Taxed towards 
 erecting the tabernacle, 154. Numbered by Moses, 167. 
 Their rebellion in the wilderness of Paran, 172 -Afraid 
 to enter Canaan, 177. Punishment denounced again:?t 
 them for their obstinacy, 178. Attempt to entt-r Canaan, 
 but are defeated, ibid. Retreat towards the Red Sea, 180. 
 Their rebellion with Korah, ibid. Arrive in the wilder- 
 ness of Sin, when, 253. Their mutiny at Kadesh, 2^4. 
 Bitten by fiery serpents, 260. Their several encamp- 
 ments from Kadesh to Pisgah, 286. Conquer Sihon king 
 of the Amorites, 287. Reduce the kingdom of Bashan, 
 ibid. Seduced to idolatry by the Moabitish women, 290. 
 Numbered by Moses, 306. Give possessions to the tribes 
 of Reuben and Gad, 307. Could not have been deceived 
 with respect to the miracles wrought by Moses, 325. 
 Never disposed to believe or depend upon him implicitly, 
 330. Their miraculous passage through Jordan, 359. 
 Revive the rite of circumcision, 365. Besiege and tak^ 
 Jericho, 374. Defeated at Ai, 376. Deceived by the 
 Gibeonites, 382. Not commanded to destroy all the inha- 
 bitants of Canaan, 384. Whether they might make league 
 with them, 889. Whether justifiable in their treatment of 
 the Gibeonites, 396. In what manner they divided the 
 land, 421. Their embassy about the altar at Jordan, 433. 
 Jster, wrote a book about the migrations out of Egypt, ii, 217, 
 
 J. 
 
 Jabin, king of Hazor, conquered by the Israelites, iii, 415. 
 
 Jacob, his temper and disposition, ii, 1 17. Gets the birthright 
 from Esau, 118. Obtains the blessing from Isaac, 139. 
 Departs for Mesopotamia, 143. Marries Leah and Rachel, 
 145. His bargain with Laban justified, 146. Leaves 
 Laban, 153. Returns to Canaan in great prosperity, 154. 
 Sends to his brother Esau, 155. Wrestles with an angel, 
 
 VOL. IV. \j 
 
2C)0 INDEX. 
 
 159. Trials at Shechem, 161. Reforms his family, I63» 
 Removes to Hebron, 105. Goes into Egypt, 185. His 
 death and character, 187. Mention made of him by pro- 
 fane writers, 190. 
 Japhet, the eldest son of Noah, i, 133. Not at the confusion 
 of Babel, 13^. Parts of the world settled by his descend- 
 ants, ibid. 
 Jehovah, universally known as the name of the supreme God 
 
 in early times, ii, 387. 
 Jericho, taken by the Israelites, iii, 375. 
 
 Jethro, receives Moses, and gives him his daughter, ii, 332. 
 
 His advice to Moses, respecting the government of the 
 
 Israelites, iii, 29. Persuaded to accompany the Israelites 
 
 to Canaan, 171. 
 
 Jewish year, length of, i, xiii. Method by which computed, 
 
 iii, viii. Their feasts not regulated by the Moon, xxvi. 
 Jews, their opinion respecting their national birthright to the 
 
 blessings of the Messiah, ii, 123. 
 Job, time when he lived, ii, 133. Book of, not written by 
 
 Moses, 336. In what verse written, 337. 
 Jordan, passage through it, considered, iii, 362, &c. 
 Josephus, his account of Seth's pillars, i, 40. Of some parti- 
 culars in the life of Moses, ii, 332. Refutation of his 
 story of the change of the waters of Marah, iii, 4. His 
 extracts from Manetho, 209. 
 Joseph, sold by his brethren, ii, 165. His advancement, 177. 
 Interprets Pharaoh^s dreams, 178. Is made deputy over 
 Egypt, 179. Raises the king immense riches, 180. Re- 
 marks upon his management, ibid. Why he bought not 
 the priests' lands, 182. His brethren come to Egypt, 185. 
 Embalms Jacob, and buries him in great state, 192. By 
 what king of Egypt he was advanced, 193. His death, 1 96. 
 Joshua, his behaviour on the return of the twelve spies, iii, 
 177. Appointed by God to lead the Israelites upon the 
 death of Moses, 309. Takes the command of the people, 
 354-. Sends spies to Jericho, 355. Sets up the stones in 
 Gilgal, 360. Revives the use of circumcision, 365. Would 
 not have revived it without a special command from God, 
 371. Conquers the five kings of the south of Canaan, 
 400. Commands the Sun and Moon to stand still, ibid- 
 I Victorious over the kings of the north of Canaan, 415^ 
 
INDEX. 291 
 
 How long engaged in subduing that country, ibid. Di- 
 vides the land, 416 — 4.31. His inheritance, where, 431. 
 His admonitions to the Israelites, 438. His death, 441. 
 Whether he wrote the book called by his name, ibid. 
 
 Jubilee, year of, when to be kept, iii, 348. 
 
 Julian year, longer than the ancient, i, xv. 
 
 Juno, wife of Jupiter, assists him in the government of his 
 kingdom, iii, SI. Celebrated in Greece for her abilities, 
 HI. 
 
 Jupiter, of the Greeks, contemporary with Moses, iii, 48. Dif- 
 ficulties attending his history, ibid. Fabulous account of 
 his preservation when an infant, 55. Succeeds his father 
 in the kingdom of Crete, 57." Marries his sister Juno, 
 ibid. His other wives, and children, ibid. Mow many 
 generations he lived before the Trojan war, 59. Farther 
 evidence to settle the era in which he lived, 62 — 77. His 
 politics and improvements in his country, 77. His as- 
 sistants, and what posts they held under him, 81. Wh}?- he 
 and his colleagues were held, in higher estimation than 
 other heroes in after-ages, 82. His times, why called the 
 silver age, 84. The opposition he met with, and from 
 whom, 85, &c. Who were his allies, ibid. Travels from 
 Crete into other countries, 87. Goes into Arcadia, 89. 
 Not worshipped by Lycaon, 91. Worshipped the lumina- 
 ries of Heaven, ibid. Date of his visit to Cadmus, 93. In 
 love with Semele, ibid. Reason we have no account of 
 his death, 94. Cretans pretend to the possession of his 
 tomb, 95. His great wisdom, ibid. The new scenes of 
 life opened by him, 96. Reasons of his severity in the 
 punishment of Prometheus, 100. No grounds for sup- 
 posing his children succeeded to his kingdom, 106. 
 
 Justin, his account of the wars between Sesostris and Tanais, 
 considered, i, 180. His account of the exit of the Israel- 
 ites from Egypt, ii, 437. 
 
 K. 
 
 Kibroth Hattaavah, rebellion of the Israelites there, iii, 174. 
 Kingdoms, account of their formation after the flood, ii, 54, 70, 
 
 75, 79. All the ancient, not hereditary, 85. 
 Kings, the first corrupters of religion, i, 319. Calculation of 
 
 ij 2 
 
292 INDEX*. 
 
 the average length of their reigns, in different periods, it, 
 xxix, xxxii. The Indian kings originally had the sole 
 property of all the lands in the kingdom. 62. Ancient 
 opinion of their divine right, 87. Tht-ir ambition in the 
 early times to derive their descent from the gods, i i, 72. 
 
 Kircher, his opinion concerning the first inventors of letters, i, 
 203. 
 
 Kittini, the father of the Macedonians, i, 137. 
 
 Knowledge, state of our first parents', when in Paradise, iv, 57. 
 
 Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, their conspiracy, iii, 180. The 
 grounds of it, 18 J. How reduced, 182. 
 
 L. 
 
 Laban, his gods, what, i, 316. Deceives Jacob, ii, 145. Pur- 
 sues Jacob, but is reconciled to him, 154. 
 
 Labour of our first parents, what, iv, 221. 
 
 Lacedemonians, akin to the Jews, iii, 45. 
 
 Lamech's speech to his wives explained, i, 9. 
 
 Land of Eden, not in Coele-Syria, i, 67. But in Chaldea, 6S. 
 
 Laad of the garden of Eden in the neighbourhood of Babylonia, 
 iv, 125. 
 
 Language, nature and origin' of, i, 95 ; iv, Ixxi. Man only 
 capable of, ibid. Mistaken account of its origin, ibid. No 
 innate language, 97. Original of it, 98. First language, 
 of what sort, 99. What particular language most likely to 
 have been the first, 102. Chinese language an original, 
 108. Causes of the mutability of language, 110. These 
 not^the causes of the confusion at Babel, 115. Difficulties 
 of different writers in accounting for it, 1 1 6. How it may 
 possibly be accounted for, 117. How many languages 
 arose at the confusion of tongues, 120. Did not differ 
 much at fir.st, 122. 
 
 Latin alphabet, specimens of, i, 235. 
 
 Latins received their letters from the Greeks, i, 197. 
 
 Law, the ceremonial, given before the idolatry of the golden 
 calf, iii, 136. 
 
 Laws, written, first given by Moses, iii, 345. 
 
 League, what the meaning of that word, iii, 394. 
 
 Learned men have often embraced the grossest absurdities, ij, 
 300. 
 
INDEX. 293 
 
 Learning, Egyptian, state of, in the time of Moses, ii, 342. 
 
 Human, the source of false religion, 457. 
 Legislato s, ancient, paid a surprising deference to paternal 
 
 auHiort\ , i. 82. 
 Lehabim, fathei of the Lyblans, i, 153. 
 Lelex, first kinu of Laronia, iii 41'. Settlements made by him, 
 
 ibid. Probably an Israelite, 45 Date of his reign, 4G. 
 AvjS'ai, who so called at the first rise of kingdoms, iii, 97. 
 Letters, invention of, i, 195. Not early amongst the Euro- 
 peans, 196 Brought into Italy from Greece, 197. Re- 
 ceived by the Greeks from the Phoenicians, 199, Not 
 invented in Phoenicia, 202. Brought into Phoenicia from 
 Syria, ibid. The same letters used at first in Phoenicia, 
 Syria, >amaria, Canaan, and Assyria, 203. Not invented 
 by the Egyptians, 204. Probability of tlit ir being propa- 
 gated into all the we&t from Assyria, 200. Not invented 
 in Assyria, nor by Moses, nor by Abraham, 207. Pro- 
 bably used before the Flood, 203. Noah supposed to be 
 acquainted with them, 209. Absurd conjectures abo\ik 
 their origin, 210. First letters not alphabetical, 212. 
 Nor hierogiyphical, 217. Use of alphabetical letters very 
 early, 220. A conjecture about the original of them, ibid. 
 Derivation of the modern European letters, 224. Speci- 
 mens of the old Hebrew and Samaritan alphabets, 226. 
 Of the PhoBnician, 227, 228. Of the ancient Greek, 229, 
 244. Written originally from the right hand to the left, 
 ibid. Written afterwards ^8s-po^r}hv, 230. Several letters 
 taken afterwards into the Greek alphabet, 231. The old 
 Roman letters, 235. Specimens of those used in the Si- 
 gean inscription, 237, 239, 240. Copy of an ancient 
 inscription on the statue of Jupiter Urius, 242. Fac- 
 simile of the Lord's Prayer in ancient Greek, 244. 
 
 Levites, support Moses on occasion of the Israelites' idolatry, 
 iii, 118. Set apart for the service of the tabernacle, 168. 
 
 Life, the most dead parts of matter not entirely destitute of, 
 iv, 81. 
 
 Longinus, his character of Moses, ii, 369. 
 
 Lord's Prayer, fac-simile of an ancient one, i, 244. 
 
 Lot rescued from captivity by Abraham, ii, 6. Saved from the 
 destruction of Sodom, 11. Fate of his wife, 1!^. Tiie 
 father of Moab and Ammon, ibid. 
 
294 INDEX. 
 
 Lucian, his injudicious cavil at Moses's account of the creation, 
 ii, 369. His ridicule of the fable of Prometheus, iii, 102, 
 
 Lud, the father of the Lydians, i, 14-4. 
 
 Ludim, tiie father of the Lybians, i, 153. 
 
 Lupercalia, when mstituted, iii, 90. 
 
 Lycaon. king of Arcadia, his character, iii, 89. Entertains 
 Jupiter, who kills him, 90. Why said to be turned into 
 a wolf, ibid. Did not worship Jupiter, 9i. 
 
 LyccEus, Jupiter, an altar erected to him, iii, 90. 
 
 Lycurgus appointed sacrifices of small value, ii, 183. His 
 opinion of written laws, iii, 342. 
 
 Lyre, invented by Mercury, ii, 3(38. 
 
 M. 
 
 Madai, the father of the Medes, i, 141. 
 
 Magic, practised before the time of Moses, ii, 34(3. 
 
 Magicians, of Egypt, withstand Moses, ii, 404. Really per- 
 formed mn-acles, 413. 
 
 Magistrates, their duty to establish religious worship, ii, 113. 
 
 Magog, where he lived, i, 134. 
 
 Man, cannot be placed higher than between the animal and 
 angelic state, iv, 83. Not created with unerring reason, 
 86. Not without a revelation from the beginning, 87. 
 Why required to obey God's voice, 95. By obeying 
 God's voice would have been made wise, and fit for glory, 
 99. Guided by his creator, might have advanced unto all 
 truth, 166. After the fall, born to a duplicity of nature, 
 
 242. Mind of, not so slow in invention, as that we can 
 always trace the steps of it, 246. A creature a degree 
 above the instinct of animal life, 251. Not made so per- 
 fect as to want no guidance but his own, ibid. His per- 
 fections, both of body and mind, to a degree only, 252. 
 
 Manetho, his Egyptian antiquities considered, i, 16. His object 
 in writing them, 25. Tomes of, considered, iii, 199. Ex- 
 tracts from, in Josephus, an account of, 209. 
 
 Mankind, origin of, i, 1. Not from eternity, iv, 1. Origin of, 
 known only from Moses's history, 2. Imperfect, wherein, 
 
 243. Had our first parents not sinned, whether mankind 
 might not have been born immortal, 249. 
 
INDEX. ^ 295 
 
 Manna, given to the Israelites in the wilderness, iii, 9. Rab- 
 binical fancies concerning it, ibid. Supply of it ceases 
 on their entrance into Canaan, 371. 
 
 Marah, its signification, iij, 3. No place so called by profane 
 writers, ibid. 
 
 Mark, St., monkish fable concerning his festival, iii, ISO. 
 
 Mars kills Halirrothius, and is tried before the Areopagus, iii, 
 89. 
 
 Marsham, Sir John, gives the best account of the Egyptian 
 antiquities, i, 18. Proves Mizraim to be the same with 
 • Menes, 184. Answer ta his objections against the exist- 
 ence of Inachus, ii, 38. His remarks on the ancient kings 
 of Sicyon confuted, 42. Mistaken as to the king of 
 Egypt who advanced Joseph, 193. Falsely supposed 
 Belus, the son of Neptune, to be the same with Belus, the 
 second king of Babylon, 223. In error with respect to 
 the council of the Amphictyones, 275. An account of 
 his Canon Chronicus, iii, 235. His tables of the kings of 
 Egypt, 237, 238, 246. His remarks on the brazen ser- 
 pent, 260. 
 
 Marsi, their supposed abilities to cure the bites of serpents, iii, 
 265. 
 
 Meat, reco'mmendeth not to God, iv, 98. 
 
 Mercury, the second, author of many of the Egyptian super- 
 stitions, ii, 292. His three-corded lyre, 368. 
 
 Mesech, where he lived, i, 134. 
 
 Meton, cycle of, probably not discovered by him in its present 
 state, ii, xviii. 
 
 Middleton, Dr., his objections to a literal interpretation of the 
 Mosaic account of the Creation, considered, iv, xxi. Re- 
 futation of his arguments against the genealogy of Christ, 
 XXX i. 
 
 Midwives, the Egyptian, ordered to destroy the children of 
 the Israelites, ii, 211. Meaning of Gen. i, 21, respecting 
 them, 212. 
 
 Milton, his notions of Adam, when first created, poetical, but 
 not likely to be true, iv, 50. His relation, how Adam 
 named the creatures, groundless, 57. Does not suppose 
 Adam and Eve's transgression on the same day they were 
 created, 139. His account of the serpent tempting Eve 
 not warranted by Scripture, 144. 
 
*JC)6 INDEX. 
 
 Minerva, her difference with Neptune about the Athenians, 
 iii, 88. 
 
 Minos, falsely said to be the son of Jupiter, iii, 65. 
 
 Miracles, not to be wrought by art, ii, 411. Really wrought 
 by the ruagicians of Egypt, 413. How they were enabled 
 to perform them, 419. The passage of the Red Sea a real 
 one, 448. 
 
 Miriam and Aaron oppose Moses, iii, 175. Death of Miriam, 
 253. 
 
 Mizraim, settled in Egypt, i, 153. Time of that event, 183. 
 The same with the Menes of the heathen writers, ibid. 
 
 Mneves, not the same person as Moses, iii, 343. Governed 
 his people by unwritten laws, 347. 
 
 Moabites, seduce the Israelites to idolatry, iii, 296. 
 
 Monceius, his account of Aaron's making the Israelites naked, 
 iii, 123. 
 
 Montfancon, F,, his description of the table of Isis, ii, 316. 
 Errs in his explanation of the Egyptian images, 308, 314. 
 
 Monuments of the antediluvian learning, none, i, 39. 
 
 Moon, Jewish feasts not regulated by, iii, xxvi. Stands still 
 at t e command of Joshua, iii, 400. 
 
 Mosaic account of the creation, to be literally understood, iv, 
 1. Drs. Burnet and Middleton's objections to, considered, 
 xxi. 
 
 Moses, his account of the creation, i, xxxiv. Confirmed by 
 several heathen authors, xxxvi. His genealogy of* the 
 antediluvians, 44, 45. His birth, ii, 329. Preserved by 
 Pharaoh's daughter, ibid. Made commander of the Egyp- 
 tian armies, 330. Anecdote of, when a child, ibid. n. 
 His faith in the promises of God with respect to the Is- 
 raelites, 331. Flies to Midian, 332. Date of his birth, 
 ibid. Said to have married the king of Ethiopia's daugh- 
 ter, ibid. Supposed to have written the Book of Genesis 
 in Midian, 335. Not the author of the Book of Job, 336. 
 Learned in all the learning of the Egyptians, 342. Skil- 
 ful in w.iting both prose and verse, 369. His song, in 
 what verse written, 370. Is appointed to go to Egypt, 
 373. Circumcision of his son, 375. Asks the name of 
 God, and why, 376. Goes, with Aaron, to Pharaoh, 402. 
 Confirms his mission by a miracle, 404. Endeavours in 
 vain to persuade Pharaoh to dismiss the Israelites, 422, 
 
INDEX. 297 
 
 425. Not angry with Pharaoh at his last interview, 434-. 
 Conducts the Israelites out of Egypt, 436. Difl not lead 
 them by his own conduct or contrivance, 4+2 Divides 
 the Red Sea, 446. Fictions of the Hebrew vrners re- 
 specting that event, 447. Leads the Israelites i.uo the 
 wilderness of Shur, iii, 1. Probably notdir«cte«l thither 
 by God, 2. How tried and proved at IVlarah, ibid. 
 Smites the rock at Kephidim, 15. His hands being held 
 ^p, the Amalekites are defeated, 23. Is visited by Je- 
 thro, 28 With Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, sees the God 
 of Israel, 36. Continues in the mount forty days and 
 nights, 37. Finds the Israelites worshipping the golden 
 calf, 114. Reduces the idol to powder, and makes the 
 people drink it, ibid. Expostulates with Aaron on the 
 subject, ibid. Commands the Levites to slay the idolaters, 
 1 18, Goes up the mount a second time, 153. Taxes the 
 Israelites towards building the tabernacle, 154. Erects 
 the tabernacle, 158. Takes the number of the people, 
 167. Chooses seventy elders to assist him in the govern- 
 ment, 172. Sends out the twelve spies, 176. Leads the 
 Israelites back towards the Red Sea, 180. Rebellion of 
 Korah against him, 181. Disobeys the command of God 
 at Kadesh, 254. Makes the brazen serpent, 260. Num- 
 bers the people, 306. Exhorts the Israelites, 309. De- 
 livers his book to the Levites, 310. Dies in mount Aba- 
 vim, 311. Where buried, ibid, His character and con- 
 duct examined, ibid. Had no selfish views, 312. His 
 manner of leading the Israelites considered, 314. True 
 reason of his keeping them so long in the wilderness, 316. 
 Must have been directed by God in the prospects he sei 
 before them, 317. Character given of him by modern 
 deists, 319. His Jivine mission proved from the facts 
 recorded by him, 321. Those facts unquestionably true, 
 323. Could not have deceived the Israelites, 325. The 
 impartiality of his history proved from his riccunt of the 
 rebellions of the people, 334. Not partial, evt-i: to his 
 own character. 338. Would not have tiiven w, iiten !aws, 
 except by divine command, 341. The first who gave 
 written laws, 344. Some particulars m his lav^s consi- 
 -lered, 348 — 354. His account of the creation diflerent 
 from that of the Egyptians, iv, xiii. Wrote a real hi- 
 
298 INDEX. 
 
 lory of the origin of mankind, 1. His history differs from 
 the Egyptian philosophy, 10. Brings Adam into the 
 world in the most natural manner, 48. His relation of the 
 beginning of our first parents' lives not fabulous, 54. 
 Shows that man was not left insufficiently pr'>vided for, 
 80. His account of the forbidden tree, literally inter- 
 preted, agreeable to all revealed religion, 96. His gar- 
 den of Eden not a fictitious scene, 101. Speaks of hills 
 more ancient than the deluge, 107. His Eden might 
 remain in its primitive situation after the flood. 111. His 
 description of the garden considered, 119. His Paradise 
 not placed in an obscure part of the earth, 122. Afraid 
 of his rod when turned into a serpent, 200. 
 
 Mount Seir, where situate, ii. 156. 
 
 Mountains coeval with the world, iv, 107- Their great height 
 no argument against the rotundity of the earth, 108. 
 
 Murder, no express law agam^t, before the flood, i, 6. After 
 the flood, to be punished with death, 87. 
 
 Muses, thought to have been originally but three, iii, 5S. 
 
 Music, when invented, ii, 368. 
 
 Mythologists, their extravagant fictions, iii, 56, Their ac- 
 counts of persons said to be descended from the gods, 
 upon what founded, 70. Latin, their fable about Prome- 
 theus, 100. Greek, their fabie about Prometheus, 101. 
 
 Mythology, some account of the Egyptian, ii, 301. Not so 
 early as the time of Moses, iv, iv. 
 
 N. 
 
 Nadab and Abihu, their deaths, iii, 162. Wherein their crime 
 consisted, 165. 
 
 Nabonassar, first corrects the Babylonian year, i, x. 
 
 Nakedness of the Israelites, absurd fancies concerning, iii, 123. 
 Of our first parents, what meant by, iv, 173. 
 
 Name of God, inquired by Moses, ii, 376. His nature dis- 
 covered by his name, 383. I am that I am, explained, 
 384. 
 
 Names, famous men in Egypt called by those of their gods, 
 ii, 299. Divers names given to the same person, 300. 
 One name used for several persons, ibid. Heathen and 
 rabbinical notions about them, 376. Not arbitrarily given 
 
INDEX. 299 
 
 in early times, 380. Human names not always rightly 
 given, 381. 
 Nao^, does not always signify a temple, ii, 325. 
 Naphtuhim, king of Memphis, i, 191. First taught architec- 
 ture, physic, and anatomy, 1P2. 
 Naturalists, their phenomena of liie deluge, how to be ac- 
 counted for, iv, 1 15. 
 Neptune, probably an inventor of shipping, ii, 218. Assisted 
 Jupiter in governing his kingdom, iii, 81. His dispute 
 with Minerva about the Athenians, SB. Settles in the 
 island Atlantis, 1 10. 
 Newton, Sir Isaac, examination of his chronology, ii, 5. His 
 argument concerning the length of the reigns of the 
 ancient kings, answered, xxiii. Confutation of his argu- 
 ment respecting the Assyrian kings, xxxix. 
 Nimrod, king at Babel, i, 159. Did not engage in war, 16!. 
 Origin of his authority, ibid., ii, 60. IN'ot the same per- 
 son with Beius, or Ninus, 170. 
 Nineveh, buih. by Ashur, i, 175. 
 Ninus, second king of Assyria, i, 162. First practised war. 
 
 163; ii, S3. Contemporary with Abraham, ii, 35. 
 Ninyas, successor to Semiramis, i, 166. The same with Che- 
 
 dorlaomer, ii, 4. Contemporary with Abraham, 35. 
 Noah enters the ark, i, 13. Quits it again, 70. Animal food 
 first granted to him, 81. Never came to Shinaar, 8S. 
 Called Fohi by the Chinese, 90. Settled to the north of 
 India, 92. When his descendants came to Shinaar, 93. 
 Probable that he had a knowledge of letters, 208. 
 Founder of the first polity, ii, 45. Taught mankind agri- 
 culture, 53. Plan upon which he probably erected his 
 government, 56. Father, priest, and king to his people, 
 65. 
 Numa, not willing to leave his sacred books to posterity, 
 
 iii, 342. 
 Nyctimus, successor of Lycaon in the kingdom of Attica, 
 ii, 92. 
 
 o. 
 
 Ogyges, king of Attica, ii, 256. The flood of, probably the 
 universal delude, 259. 
 
300 INPEX. 
 
 Ophiogencs, their supposed abilities to cufe the bite of ser- 
 pents, iii, 265. 
 
 Opinion, human, hard to distinguish from real truth, iv, i853. 
 
 Ops, who the person so called, iii, 54. Travelled from Crete 
 into Phrygia, 110. Called also Rhea and Cybele, ibid. 
 Never worshipped in Crete, HI. 
 
 Origin of image worship, ii, 309. 
 
 Orus, the Egyptian, thought to become the star Orion, ii, 2S6. 
 
 Osiris, how represented by images, ii, 314. 
 
 Ouranus, king of Crete, iii, 50. 
 
 Ovid, his fable of Cadmus sowing ihe serpent's teeth, ex- 
 plained, ii, 251. 
 
 Palladium, no such idol in the days of ^neas, i, 319. 
 PanathensEan games, instituted by Hellen, ii, 277. 
 Papists, chargeable with idolatry, iii, 131. 
 Parents, our first, had no excuse for their transgression, iv, 
 . I64f. Why not permitted to escape death, 235. Not 
 
 driven out of the garden instantly after their transgression, 
 
 245. After the fall, would naturally think it decent to 
 
 be clothed, 247. 
 Passover, its institution, ii, 435. 
 Pastor kings of Egypt, their conquest of that country, ii, 205. 
 
 Probably were the Horites, 20S. Date of their invasion, 
 
 210. Oppress the Israelites, 211. 
 Paternal authority, deference paid to, by ancient legislators, 
 
 ii, 82. 
 Pathrusim, king of Thebes, i, 193. Author of the Egyptian 
 
 learning, 194. His death, 245. 
 Pelasgus, first king of Arcadia, ii, 257. 
 Pentateuch, arguments in defence of its having been written 
 
 by Mosps, iii, xxxix. 
 Persians, at first worshippers of the true God, i, 278. In what 
 
 manu* r they corrupted their religion, 302. 
 Person, one to descend from the woman, who should conquer 
 
 the great enemy of mankind, iv, 208. 
 Pharaoh, his opinion of the miracles of Moses, ii, 356. Refuses 
 
 to part with the Israelites, 403. His object in requiring bis 
 
 magicians to work miracles, 406. His impious obstinacy. 
 
INDEX. 301 
 
 426. This hardness of heart not produced in him by 
 God, 429. His rage against Moses, 433. Resolves to 
 pursue the Israelites, 44-5. Is overwhelmed with all his 
 army in the Rea Sea, 44-8. What king of that name pe- 
 rished in this manner, iii, 190. 
 
 Pharaoh's dreams interpreted by Joseph, ii, 178. 
 
 Pharaoh's daughter, adopts Moses, ii, 330. 
 
 Philistines, idolatry of, i, 311. True worshippers of God in 
 the days of Abraham, 2S2. Whence their strength and 
 increase of people, iii, 438. 
 
 Philo, the Jew. his observation upon the Jewish law, iii, 343. 
 
 Philosophy, speculative, first corrupted religion, i, 329. True, 
 will teach us to think the useful inventions of life were 
 given by God, iv, 246. 
 
 Phinehas, kill Zimri and Cozbi, iii, 297. That action consi- 
 dered, ibid., &c. 
 
 Phocus, king of Phocis, ii, 257. 
 
 Phoenician alphabets, specimens of, i, 227, 228. 
 
 Phoenicians, not the inventors of letters, i, 202. 
 
 Phoroneus, first taught the Greeks to kindle fire, iii, 101. 
 
 Phut, the son of Ham, settles in Arabia, i, 154. 
 
 Physic, studied early in Egypt, ii, 359. 
 
 Physicians, first mention of them in Scripture, ii, 359. In 
 what their practice at first consisted, 363, 
 
 Pictures, not the first letters, ii, 295. 
 
 Pillar of the cloud before the Israelites, not an artificial signal, 
 iii, 321. 
 
 Pillar of light, said to attend the march of Thrasybulus, what 
 proof we have of it, iii, 323. 
 
 Pillars, the most ancient idols, i, 314. 
 
 Plato, his opifiion about the names of the heathen gods, ii, 
 381. His advice, in order to know the names of the 
 gods, 382. His account of Prometheus, how to be under- 
 stood, iii, 102. 
 
 Pliny, method to cure bitter waters, recorded by him, iii, 7. 
 
 Plutarch 'is opinion about the heathen hero-gods, ii, 239. 
 His ' xplana ion of the Delphian inscription, 385. 
 
 Plulo, invented funeral rites, iii, 52. Assisted his brother 
 Jupiter in governing his kingdom, 81. At Jupiter's death 
 settled in Tartarus, lOS. 
 
302 INDEX. 
 
 Poll, first and second taken at Sinai, iii, 154-, 167. A third 
 taken in the plains of Moab, 306. 
 
 Polycaon, king of Messene, ii, 2.58. 
 
 Polysyllables, a conjecture about the rise of them, i, 1 19. 
 
 Pope, Mr., examination of some sentiments in his Essay on 
 Man, Ixxviii. 
 
 Prideaux, Dean, his opinion of the interpolations in the Scrip- 
 tures, iii, 446. 
 
 Priestcraft, did not rule the heathen world, ii, vS9. 
 
 Priesthood, first settlement of the Roman, ii, 90. Of the Gre- 
 cian, 93. Of the Asiatic, 101. The Egyptian not so 
 extravagant as some have imagined, 109. The Asiatic, 
 not so exorbitant as has been represented, ibid. 
 
 Priests, not appointed amongst the Indians in early ages, ii, 
 63. Their qualifications amongst the early Romans, 90. 
 Kings and rulers performed the priestly duties amongst 
 the early Greeks, 93. More numerous in Egypt than in 
 other nations, JOl. Disputes between those of Egypt and 
 Abraham on the subject of Religion, ii, 129. Their lands 
 not bought by Joseph, and why, ISl. 
 
 Princes of the tribes appointed, iii, 168. 
 
 Prohibition given to our first parents, considered, iv, 164. 
 
 Prometheus, time in which he lived, ii, 256. Fable relating 
 to him examined, iii, 100. In what he offended Ju- 
 piter, 104. What punishment Jupiter inflicted on him, 
 106. 
 
 Prophecies, the design of them, iv, 194. Spoken by God to 
 our first parents, enlarged by the prophecies in after-ages, 
 ibid. Full event of them not known until fulfilled, 
 195. 
 
 Prophets, false, their origin, ii, 99. True, did not always un- 
 derstand their own prophecies, iv, 193. 
 
 Proseuchae, used in the time of Abraham, i, 277. 
 
 Providence, has an unexpected influence on the affairs of men, 
 ii, 372. 
 
 Psylli, their supposed abilities to cure the bite of serpents, iii, 
 265. 
 
 Purification, a part of the ancient religion, ii, 422, ?i. 
 
 Pyramids, eighteen, by whom built, i, 246. 
 
 Python, who, fable of Apollo's killing him, iii, 108. 
 
INDEX. .303 
 
 Q 
 
 Quails, given to to the Israelits, when in distress for food. 
 
 iii, 9. Common on the coast near the Red Sea, ibid. 
 Queens, opinion of the ancients respecting their right to 
 
 govern, ii, 1 15. Their reigns generally glorious, 1 10. 
 
 R. 
 
 Rabbins, their fictions about tiie manna, iii, 0. Concerning- 
 the well at Beer, 23, w. Their defence of Aaron about 
 the golden calf, 11 4-. Their whimsical interpretation of 
 Numb, xiv, 9, 179. 
 Rahab, her behaviour to the spies considered, iii, 355 — 359. 
 Alive when the book of Joshua was written, 44-2. After- 
 wards married to a prince ol' Judah, ibid. 
 Raleigh, Sir Walter, his opinion of the conduct of Moses, ii, 
 
 443. 
 Reason, unassisted by Revelation, could not in the most early- 
 times lead men to true religion, ii, 306. Proneness of 
 mankind to follow its dictates in preference to the com- 
 mands of God, iii, 133. Not a sufficient guide to man, 
 iv, 79. 
 Rebekah, her opinion of Jacob better grounded than Isaac's, 
 
 ii, 139. 
 Rectitude in which Adam was created,- what, iv, 73. 
 Refuge, cities of, appointed, iii, 432. 
 
 Religion, of the antediluvians, i, 33. Of Abraham, what, 258. 
 Of the several nations with whom he sojourned, 278. Of 
 the Persians, ibid. Of the Chaldeans, 281. Of the Ara- 
 bians, ibid. Of the Canaanites, 282. Of the Egyptians, 
 283. General agreement respecting it in the early ages 
 of the world, 285. The ancient heathen, derived from 
 that of Abraham, 288. In what way the true religion 
 w-as at first departed from, 289. Kings the first corrupters 
 of it, 320. Revelation, not reason, the origin of the true 
 religion, 32(). Religion anciently considered as a positive 
 institution of God, ii, 102. Disputes respecting it between 
 Abraham and the Egyptian priests, 12i). What intro- 
 duced into Greece by the Egyptians, 279, 
 
304 INDEX. 
 
 Rephidim, place so called, where, iii, 14. 
 
 Revelation, had there been none in the early times, men would 
 not for ago • have attained just sentiipents of God ahd his 
 worsh p, ii. 308 Necessity and certainty of, iv, xxxix. 
 The origin or ail our information, cxiii. Made to man as 
 soon as created, 87. 
 
 Ridicule, not a just way to determine what is true, or what is 
 false, iv, 165. 
 
 Riphath, settled near Paphlagonia, i, 141. 
 
 River that watered the garden of Eden, its description, iv, 127. 
 Gihon and Pison known to the author of the book of 
 Ecclesiasticus, 131. 
 
 Rivers Pison and Gihon not mentioned by profane geogra- 
 phers, iv, 132. 
 
 Rock at Horeb produces water for the Israelites, iii, 15. Erro- 
 neously supposed to have followed them, ibid. 
 
 Romans, tht^ir treatment of the Carthaginians not to be justified, 
 iii, 396. 
 
 Rome, at first an elective monarchy, ii, xxxv. 
 
 Romulus, first formed the Roman year, i, xiii. 
 
 s. 
 
 Sabbath, order of the, amongst the Israelites, iii, ix, 
 
 Sabta, where he settled at the dispersion, i, 152. 
 
 Sabtecha, settled in Arabia, i, 152. 
 
 Sacrifices originally of divine appointment, i, 35, 75. Animals 
 used for this purpose from the time of Adam, 72. Several 
 sorts of, in Abraham's days, 269. What animals used 
 for, in his time, 274. Origin and use of, iv, Ixxxiii. 
 Nature and design of that offered by Abel, Ixxxiv. Not 
 the invention of men, cii. Institution of, 245. 
 
 Salatis, the first of the Pastor Kings of Egypt, ii, 205. Hfs 
 oppression of the Israelites, 211. 
 
 Samaritan alphabets, specimens of, i, 226. 
 
 Sanchoniatho, his account of the antediluvians, i, 15. Of 
 Chronus sacrificing his son, ii, 24. Time when he lived, 
 iv, V. His account of the ancient Egyptian theology, 
 iv, ix. 
 
 Sataii, his being permitted to have a power to cause the ser- 
 
INDEX. 305 
 
 pent to speak, contradicts no principle of true philosophy, 
 
 iv, 150. 
 Saiurn, king of Crete, iii, 48. Marries his sister Rhea, 55. 
 
 Meaning of the fable of his devouring his children, 56. 
 
 His reign, why called the golden age, 78. How far he 
 
 civilized his people, 96. 
 Saviour, our, his divinity proved from the Old Testament, ii, 
 
 402. Proved to be the seed of the woman, promised to 
 
 our first parents, iv, 205 — 215. 
 Scaliger, his mistake about the time of Cecrops, ii, 235. 
 Scholiast upon Callimachus, his remark upon the inscripti^ 
 
 on the tomb of Jupiter, iii, 95. 
 Science, natural, grows by experience and observation, iv, 
 
 61. 
 Scripture and philosophy agree as to the nature of man, iv, 
 
 241. 
 Scriptures, appear to have been in some places interpolated, 
 
 i, 311 ; ii, 201 ; iii, 446. Give no countenance to the idea, 
 
 that serpents might be charmed, iii, 296. On the various 
 
 readings of, iv, xlv — Ixiv. Internal proofs of their divine 
 
 origin, Ixix — Ixx. Teach us, that revelation, and not 
 
 philosophy, is the origin of all our information, iv, cxiii. 
 Sculpture, the rudeness of it, no argument for the antiquity of 
 
 the Egyptian images, ii, 309. 
 Seba, where he lived, i, 152. 
 
 Seed of the woman, meaning of that phrase, iv, 205 — 215. 
 Seir, the ancient inhabitants of, ii, 167. Conquered by the 
 
 children of Esau, 168. 
 Semele, mother of Bacchus, by Jupiter, iii, 93. 
 Semiramis, queen of Babylon, i, 161. Attempts the conquest 
 
 of India, 165. Opinion of Herodotus concerning ht-r 
 
 antiquity, ii, xli. Contemporary with Abraham, 35. 
 Sensuality of nature in every natural descendant of our first 
 
 parents, ii, 241. 
 Septuagint, the additions therein to the last chapter of Job, 
 
 ii, 134. 
 Serpent, used very few words to Eve, except what she and 
 
 Adam had heard from God, iv, 27. Meaning of its name, 
 
 143. Did not tempt Eve when alone, 144. Did not 
 
 speak of itself, 147. Did not change its nature on that 
 
 occasion, 149. Nor its form, 184. Import of the curse 
 
 VOL. IV. >^ 
 
306 INDEX. 
 
 pronounced upon it, 185 — 218. Reckoned among the 
 beasts of the field, 198. 
 Serpents, fiery, the Israelites destroyed by, iii, 260. Different 
 kinds of, mentioned, 262. Charms used by the heathens 
 for the cure of their bite, 265. Not originally destroyed 
 by mankind, iv, 197. Highly honoured in early times, 
 201. After the flood became terrible to mankind, 200. 
 Servitude, how it began, ii, 73. 
 Sesac, probably the same with Sesostris, ii, 1. 
 Sesostris, probably the same with Sesac, ii, 1. Not so great a 
 conqueror as generally supposed, Ivii. Not the Indian 
 Bacchus, 47. Extent of his conquests, 48. Did not live 
 in the time of Moses, iii, 183. Not the brother of 
 Danaus, 184. Nor the same person as ^gyptus, 185. 
 Not the son of Pharaoh, who was drowned in the Red 
 Sea, 187. 
 Seth*s pillars, Josephus's account of, i, 40. 
 Shadow, whimsical conceit of the Rabbins about it, iii, 179. 
 Shaftesbury, Lord, his remarks upon the Egyptian priesthood, 
 considered, ii, 102. Answer to his remarks on Joseph's 
 not purchasing the priests* lands, 182. His observations 
 on Jethro's advice to Moses, iii, 29. 
 Sheba, where he lived, i, 152. 
 Shekel, Jewish, of silver, of what value, iii, 154. 
 Shem, the second son of Noah, i, 133. Parts of the world 
 
 settled by his descendants, 142. 
 Sicyon, kingdom of, began when, ii, 255. 
 Sigean inscription, fac similes of, i, 237, 239, 240. 
 Sihon, king of the Amorites, defeated by the Israelites, iii, 
 
 287. 
 Slavery, prohibited amongst the Indians in the earliest ages, 
 ii, 62. Prejudicial to the commonwealth, 72. Its origin, 
 74. 
 Sleep, into which Adam was cast, considered, iv, 43- 
 Sodom destroyed, ii, 11. 
 
 Spencer, Dr., his mistake about the origin of the Jewish rites 
 and ceremonies, i, 288 ; ii, 327. Answer to his remarks 
 on Ezekiel xx, 26, iii, 150. 
 Spies, the twelve, sent out by Moses, iii, 176. 
 Spirits, evil, not concerned in the ancient magic, li, 348. The 
 scene of their demerit not fully known to us, iv, 159, 
 
INDEX. 0O7 
 
 Statutes not good, no part of the ritual Iaw> iii, 135. What 
 these statutes were, and when given, 147. 
 
 Strabo's geography, when composed, iv, 132. 
 
 Strata, those occasioned by the deluge, no proof against 
 Moses's description of the garden of Eden, iv. 111. 
 
 Sun, miracle of its standing still at the command of Joshua, 
 iii, 400. Remarkably pertinent to the circumstances 
 both of the Israelites and Canaanites, ibid. Astronomical 
 objections against the truth of this miracle, answered, 403. 
 Not unobserved by the heathen astronomers, 406. Occa- 
 sioned the fable of Phaeton, 408. The Chinese accounts 
 of it, 410. Could not be a mere vapour in the air, 412. 
 Other objections to it answered, 413. 
 
 Syncellus, account of his Chronographia, iii, 230. 
 
 Syphis, king of Egypt, his speculations upon religious sub- 
 jects, i, 290; ii, 133. Pretended to have had divine reve- 
 lations made to him, 291. Date of his reign, ii, 123. 
 
 T. 
 
 Taautus, the second of that name, author of the sacred animals 
 and hieroglyphics of Egypt, ii, 294. 
 
 Tabernacle finished, iii, 155. And set up, 158. A visible 
 demonstration given of its having been directed by God, 
 159. Purpose for which it was made, 160. First struc- 
 ture in the world for the purposes of religion, ibid.; ii, 
 325. Erected at the division of Canaan, when and why, 
 418, 419. 
 
 Table of Isis, described, ii, 316. 
 
 Tables of the kings of Egypt, iii, 237, 238, 246. 
 
 Tangier, inscription said to have been found there, iii, 434. 
 
 Tarshish planted Cilicia, i, 137. 
 
 Tartarus, where situate, iii, 51. 
 
 Tax, laid upon the Israelites towards building the tabernacle, 
 iii, 154. 
 
 Temples, none built by Cecrops, Cadmus, or Danaus, ii, 323. 
 None erected before the Jewish tabernacle, 325. Not 
 large when first built, 326. Made no great figure in 
 Homer's time, ibid. Solomon's much larger than any 
 then in the world, 327. 
 
 Terah, not the inventor of images, i, 316. 
 
 Texts of Scripture, cited and explained, iv, 311. 
 
 x2 
 
308 INDEX. 
 
 Thales, first corrected the Greek year, i, xi; ii, xi. Imper- 
 fection of his astronomical knowledge, ii, xv. 
 
 Thebes, in Egypt, when built, i, 187. 
 
 Themis, who the person so called, iii, 107. 
 
 Thermopylie, meaning of that word, ii, 269. 
 
 Thessalus, king of Thessaly, ii, 256. 
 
 This, a kingdom in Egypt, i, 161. 
 
 Thusimares. the king, who advanced Joseph, ii, 193. 
 
 Tillage of the ground, a laborious employment for Adam, iv, 
 219. 
 
 Tiras, the father of the Thracians, i, 141. 
 
 Titans, whom, iii, 53. Opposed Jupiter, 86. Men of a most 
 excellent character, ibid, 
 
 Togarmah, where he lived, i, 1 34. 
 
 Tomes of Manetho, some account of, iii, 199. 
 
 Tower of Belus, description of, ii, 221. 
 
 Tree, whether any one could naturally cure the waters at Ma- 
 rah, iii, 6. 
 
 Tree of knowledge, sufficiently distinguished from all others 
 by its situation, iv, 49. Prohibition of, the rule for our 
 first parents walking humbly with God, 254. 
 
 Tree of life, had our first parents not sinned, whether it would 
 have sufficed mankind unto alt ages, iv, 249. 
 
 Tribes of Israel, the situation of their inheritances in Canaan, 
 iii, 421. Where their lands were situate, not to be now 
 exactly ascertained, 428. Ihc two tribes and a half 
 build an altar at Jordan, 433. 
 
 Truth, the word of God the rule of, iv, 254. 
 
 Tubal, where he lived, i, 134. 
 
 Typho, called the Bear star, ii, 28G. 
 
 u. 
 
 Usher, archbishop, his date of the birth of Judah considered, 
 ii, 203, 204. 
 
 V. 
 
 Vaticination, whence the learned heathens thought it to 
 
 proceed, ii, 355. 
 Venephes, a king of Egypt, i, 246. Supposed to hare built 
 
 eighteen pyramids, ibid. 
 
INDEX. 309 
 
 Virtue and vice cannot exist where there is no choice, iv, 168. 
 
 Vitringa, on the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, iv, 
 259. Why the tree was so called, ibid. Not so called in 
 reference to the fall of man, 261. Placed in the garden 
 for the purpose of trial, 264-. Of instruction, 266. And 
 as a sacramental pledge, 268. 
 
 Vulcan, settled at Lemnos, iii, 110. 
 
 w. 
 
 Water, miraculously produced at Horeb, iii, 15. Did not 
 follow the Is,raelites through the wilderness, 23. 
 
 Waters, bitter, at Marah, iii, 3. How such waters were cured 
 by the heathen, 7. 
 
 Wilderness, not absolutely without water, iii, 16. What sort 
 of place, 317. 
 
 Words, in themselves mere sounds, iv, Ixxiii, 16. Do not 
 convey to us the speaker's intention till we have learned 
 their meaning, ibid. Never before heard, could not natu- 
 rally be understood at first hearing, 17. Those spoken by 
 the serpent to Eve not metaphorical, 25. Those recorded 
 by Moses, not the very words spoken by the serpent, 
 27,71. 
 
 World, not from eternity, iv, 1. Its origin known only from 
 the history of Moses, 2. Of the same appearance before 
 the flood as after, 111. Not everywhere broken by the 
 deluge, ibid. 
 
 Worship of the heavenly bodies, its origin, i, 292. Of images, 
 i, 314. Religious, duty of magistrates to establish, 
 ii, 113. Of heroes, when established, and why, 282, 283. 
 Of images, origin of, 309. 
 
 Writing, the manner of it amongst the ancients, i, 225, &c. 
 
 X. 
 
 Xerxes, his answer to Pythius the Lydian, ii, 84. 
 
 Year, probable length of, before the Flood, i, vii. First cor- 
 rected in Egypt, viii. The Babylonian, ix. The Me- 
 
310 INDEX. 
 
 dian, x. The Grecian, xi. The Roman, xiii. The 
 Jewish, ibid. The ancient, not so long as the present Ju- 
 lian, XV. Fabulous account, given by the Egyptians, of 
 the additions made to it, xx, n., Ixxiv. The antediluvian 
 year not lunar, 27. The Jewish, how computed, iii, viii. 
 Of Jubilee, when to be kept, 348, n. 
 Years, Sabbatical and Jubilee, some account of, 3iS,n. 
 
 z. 
 
 Zathraustes and Zamolxis compared with Moses, iii, 327. 
 Zelophehad, case of the inheritance of his daughters, iii, 307. 
 Zimri, slain by Phinehas, iii, 297. 
 Zoroastres, or Oxyartes, a king of Bactria, i, 16i. 
 
TEXTS OF SCRIPTURE 
 
 CITED AND EXPLAINED. 
 
 Page. 
 
 Genesis i, 14 ^'' 56 
 
 26 i^' <56 
 
 ^ iv, 6 
 
 iv, 13 
 
 iv, 7 
 
 ii, 6 !ZZ.! iv, 8 
 
 8 »V' 9 
 
 9 iv, 232 
 
 29 
 31 
 
 10 IV, 127 
 
 j5 iv, 221 
 
 16, 17 iv, 78 
 
 18 i^> ^5 
 
 19 iv, 32 
 
 20 i^^ 38 
 
 21 iv, 43 
 
 24 * iv, 'l^^ 
 
 iii, 1 Z.[, ' i^' 5S 
 
 5 iv, 23 
 
 7 *' iv, 175 
 
 jl " * iv, 183 
 
 15 ZlZ^^ZZZZZi i> 261 
 
 21 ...... iv, 2i3 
 
 22 iv, 236 
 
 iv, 1 ZZ'^Zl, ^ i'> 397 
 
 7 !'» 
 
 11, 12, H *' ^ 
 
 23 '» 5) 
 
 25 i, 36; ii, 397 
 
 v,29z;;z;: >'S3 
 
312 INDEX. 
 
 Page. 
 
 Genesis ix, 2 ii, 68 
 
 X, II h 175 
 
 32 i, 125 
 
 xii, 7 h 268 
 
 8 ii, 130 
 
 XV, 12, 16 iv, 45 
 
 16 ii, 8 
 
 xvii, 1 iii, 38 
 
 xviii, 1 iii, 38 
 
 XX, 16 ii, 13 
 
 xxi, 15 ii, 15 
 
 33 i, 26S 
 
 xxii, IS i, 263; ii, 125 
 
 xxvi, 16 ii. 127 
 
 24 iii, 38 
 
 xxvii, 35, 36 ii, 119 
 
 40 ii, 142 
 
 xxviii, 21 ii, 130 
 
 XXX, 33 ii, 146 
 
 xxxi, 53 ii, 130 
 
 xxxii, 28 ii, 159 
 
 30 iii, 38 
 
 xxxiii, 19 ii, 136 
 
 XXXV, 2 ii, 163 
 
 9 iii, 38 
 
 xxxvi, whole chapter ii, 169 
 
 xli, 43 ii, 179 
 
 xliii, 32 ii, 362 
 
 xliv, 5 ii, 347 
 
 xlvi, 8 ii, 197 
 
 15 ii, 198 
 
 27 ii, 199 
 
 34 i, 310 
 
 xlvii, 22 ii, 182 
 
 xlviii, 22 , ii, 123 
 
 xlix, 13 iii, 430 
 
 Exodus i, 10 ii, 206 
 
 21 ii, 213 
 
 iii, 13 ii. 376 
 
 14. 15 ii, 384 
 
 iv, 11 iv, 26 
 
INDEX. 313 
 
 Page. 
 
 Exodus iv, 21 ii, 429 
 
 V, 2 ii, 390 
 
 vi, 3 ii, 397 
 
 vii, 3 ii, 429 
 
 viii, 9 : ii, 430 
 
 9,10,12 iv, 199 
 
 19 ii, 409 
 
 ix, 12 ii, 429 
 
 X, 1 ii, 429 
 
 xi, 3 ii, 427 
 
 8 ii, 434 
 
 10 ii, 429 
 
 xii> 1 ii, 435 
 
 35 ii, 438 
 
 40 ii, 440 
 
 xiv, 18 ii, 390 
 
 XV, 25 iii, I 
 
 xvi, 16 iii, 10 
 
 xvii, 16 iii, 24 
 
 xix, 5 iii, 139 
 
 xxiii, 8 iv, 26 
 
 32 iii, 390 
 
 xxiv, 10 iii, 36 
 
 11 iii, 40 
 
 xxxii, 24 iii, 116 
 
 25 iii, 120 
 
 26,27,28 iii, US 
 
 35 , iii, 115 
 
 Leviticus x, 3 iii, 166 
 
 8,9 iii, 163 
 
 19 iii, 164 
 
 xvii, 10, 11 i, 84 
 
 xix, 31 ii, 350 
 
 XX, 27 ii, 350 
 
 Numbers iii, 39 iii, 1(T9 
 
 xi, 22 iv, 41 
 
 29 iii, 173 
 
 31 iii, 174 
 
 xii, 1 i, 150 
 
 XV, 39 iii, 166 
 
 xxi, 4 iii, 260 
 
314 INDEX. 
 
 Page. 
 
 Numb, xxi, 11— 20 iii, 286 
 
 xxii, 20 iii, 290 
 
 22 iii, 290 
 
 xxiii, 1 ii, 347 
 
 xxiv, 24- i, 137 
 
 XXV, 12 iii, 302 
 
 13 iii, 303 
 
 xxxiii, 44, 47 iii, 287 
 
 54 iii, 420 
 
 Deut. iv, 1.5 iii, 4S 
 
 vii, 1—3 iii, 388 
 
 ix, 21 iii, 18 
 
 xii, 11, 12 i, 85 
 
 xviii, 10, 11 ii, 349 
 
 XX, 10, &c iii, 384 
 
 11 iii, 392 
 
 xxviii, 60 ii, 360 
 
 xxxii, 8 i, 121 
 
 39 iv, Ivi 
 
 xxxiv, 6 iii, 311 
 
 Joshua iv, 9 , iii, 361 
 
 V, 9 iii, 367 
 
 n *, iii, 371 
 
 xi, 19, 20 iii, 387 
 
 xix, 47 iii, 427 
 
 xxiv, 1 iii, 439 
 
 2 i, 248 
 
 Judges xxi, 14 iv, 41 
 
 iSam.xxvi, 12 iv, 44 
 
 1 Kiiigs ix, 21 iii, 393 
 
 xviii, 36 ii, 133 
 
 2 Kings v, 11 ii, 378 
 
 xviii, 25 ii, 391 
 
 xix, 9 i, 148 
 
 1 Chron. i, 35 — 54 ii, 169 
 
 V, I, 2 ii, 121 
 
 xi, IS i i, 86 
 
 2Chron.viii, 7, 8 iii, 393 
 
 xxi, 16 i, 148 
 
 Job iv, 13, 15, 10 iv, 45 
 
 XV, 7 iv, 107 
 
INDEX. 315 
 
 Page. 
 
 Job xxxi, 26, 27 i, 304- 
 
 xxxii, 8 iv, 75 
 
 Psalm 1, 5 i, 273 
 
 Iviii, 4, 5 iii, 269 
 
 Ixviii, 15 ii, 431 
 
 ^xxviii, 16, 20 iii, 17 
 
 xc, 2 iv, 107 
 
 xcv, 10 iii, 120 
 
 civ, 16 ii, 431 
 
 cv, 41 iii, 17 
 
 cvi, 33 iii, 254 
 
 cxix, 18 iv, 24 
 
 142 iv, 254 
 
 Prov. iii, 5 iii, 133 
 
 xvi, 10 iii, 348 
 
 xix, 15 iv, 43 
 
 Eccles. X, 8 iii, 26Q 
 
 Isaiah xviii, 1 i, 150 
 
 Iii, 6 , ii, 207 
 
 Jerem. v, 4, 5 iv, ISQ 
 
 vii, 21 i, 75, iii, 141 
 
 22 iii, 140 
 
 viii, 17 iii, 269 
 
 xlvi, 9 i, 154 
 
 Ii, 27 i, 136 
 
 Ezek. viii, 14 i, 189 
 
 XX, 11 iii, 142 
 
 21—23 iii, J5l 
 
 26 iii, 150 
 
 xxix, 10 i, 147 
 
 xxxviii, 2 «.... i, 134 
 
 6 i, 135 
 
 Daniel viii, 19, 26 iv, 45 
 
 xi, 29, 30 1,138 
 
 Micah vi, 8 iv, 250 
 
 Wisd. ix, 15 iv, 240 
 
 Ecclus. xvii, 5 iv, 20 
 
 xliv, 22, 23 ii, 120 
 
 Matth. ii, 2 ii, 283 
 
 iv, 4 iii, 21 
 
 John iiij 10 iv, 241 
 
3l6 INDEX. 
 
 Page. 
 
 John iv,Q2 i, 75 
 
 vii, 18 iii, 256 
 
 viii, 56 i, 266" 
 
 xvii, 17 iv, 254» 
 
 Acts vii, U , ii, 199 
 
 xxvi, 7 ii, 124' 
 
 Rom. i, 20 ii, 307 
 
 26 iv, 238 
 
 ii, 14, 15 iv, 62 
 
 vii, 18, 19 iv, 240 
 
 ix, 6, 7 ii, 125 
 
 S ii, 124 
 
 11 ii, 120 
 
 11,12 ii, 175 
 
 17, 18 ii, 429, 430 
 
 1 Cor. i, 24 iv, 238 
 
 X, 4 iii, 21 
 
 13 iii, 132 
 
 xi, 10 iii, 122 
 
 2 Cor. xiii, 13, 15.,.. iii, 13 
 
 xi, 3 iv, 153 
 
 Gal. iii, 19 , iii, 139 
 
 iTim. ii, 14 iv, U6 
 
 Heb. iii, 2 ii, 375 
 
 vii, 6 i, 141 
 
 xi, 3 % ii, 307 
 
 3—6 ii, 380 
 
 4 ,,.. i, 73 
 
 5 i, 77 
 
 7 iii, 356 
 
 17— -19 ii, 20 
 
 24 ii, 331 
 
 31 iii, 356 
 
 xii, 16,17 ii, 119 
 
 1 Peter i, 20 iv, 238 
 
 1 John iv, 1^ iii, 3"? 
 
 THE END. 
 
 CHAKLEb WOOD, Printer, 
 Foppir.'s Court, Fleet Street, Loudon. 
 
^^ 
 
 I 
 
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