VOLATILES FROM THE HISTORY OF Adam and Eve: Containing, Many unquestioned Truths, and allowable Notions of several Natures.  
By Sir John Pettus, Knight.  
LONDON, Printed for T. Bassett at the George in Fleetstreet, 1674.   

To the Right Honourable LEICESTER DEVEREUX, Lord Viscount Hereford.  
My Lord,  
HAving the Honour of being your Neighbour in Suffolk, it London, and in our Public Employments; and your Lordship knowing the occasion of my Writing, upon this subject, affords me some reasons of Dedicating this to your Lordship, to show you how I spent my time (when I had any little leisure from business, which I seldom neglected) persuant to Antoninus' advice, that if one should ask me at any time what I was thinking, I might be able to give an account of some worthy matter, and therefore I made Choice of this Story, which hath furnished me with above an 100 several Subjects, which always fed my Thoughts with such safe Varieties, that they fenced out the Consideration of other troubles which might have perplexed them: My Method of Writing, I borrowed from Malvezzi his Davido persecutato my Extravagant way, from Mountain, who in his Essays, undertakes in one Chapter to write of Thumbs, and yet not one word of them in all that Discourse, for have observed in the Country, that when I forsook the path, which would have guided me to the place I designed, and crossed the Pastures sometimes I started Hares, sometimes sprang Partridges, or observed some curious Plants; which pleasures I had never enjoyed if I had confined myself to the path, yet I kept my Eye on it, (lest I should stray too far) and returned home by it, and inliven'd or enriched my thoughts with the Contemplations of what happened by my digressions.  
Possibly, these Excursions might have been more excusable to me in my Youth, than in my Age; but it is a solace to me, that I can be yet youthful in my notions, and if your Lordship please to peruse these as a Recreation, your Lordship will very much Honour,  
My Lord, Your Lordship's most humble Servant Jo. Pettus.   

The Stationer to the Courteous Reader.  
THere are some Erratas occasioned by the Indisposition of the Printer, for want of Orthography, Commas, Conjunctions, Parenthesis, expunging of needless Adverbs, mistakes of Singulars for Plurals; which may be amended by the Ingenuity of the Reader upon the intended sense of the Sentence; but the most material are, viz.  
PAG. 14. l. 5. read sixteen, and l. 18. r. grains. p. 18. l. 1. r. Life, p. 30. l. 10. r. Undermines, and l. 25. r. humid part, and l. 28. r. prae-efficient, p. 40. l. 21. r. adjectively, p. 79. l. 25. r. feminine, p. 96. l. 4. r. tunes, p. 110. l. 1. r. of, p. 125. l. 30. r. are none, p. 163. l. 13. r. Jonathan.   

THE HISTORY OF ADAM and EVE.  

Introduction.  
IN the beginning. Whilst all we can apprehend was God, in the beginning of his manifestation of himself by Parts: In the beginning of those Parts, from whence we account the beginning of Time: In the beginning, when that Time was an Emanation of Eternity: In the beginning, when God afforded us Visibility out of his Invisibility, God Created Heaven and Earth. And from that Mass of Creation divers other parts were (as we may say in respect of their Comparative Excellency) also created, as it appears Verse the 3. And God said, Let there be Light. Secondly, And God said, Let there be a Firmament. Thirdly, And God said, Let the Earth appear. Fourthly, And God said, Let the Earth bring forth grass. Fifthly, And God said, Let there be Lights. Sixthly, And God said, Let the waters bring forth Fowl. Seventhly, And God said, Let the Earth bring forth Cattle. So that there was a Septenary or seven Fiats, and no more (seven being a perfect number.) And those being done, God gins with Man in another Dialect; for instead of Let there be God said, Let us make: 
Cap. 1. ver. 26.  Now whether these words Let us are to be understood as more Majestically spoken, or an Invocation of the Trinity, employed in the word Elohim, 
Et dixit Dominus angelis mini strantibuscoram eo, qui creati sunt die secundo creationis mundi. Targ. Hier.  or a summoning of Angels or other spiritual Instruments: Or Let us, that is, let the Creatures which I have Created on the five former days, together with such a Soul as I shall infuse into Man, Let us make Man; that is, let man be constituted of Light, Air, Water, and Earth, and of the Qualities and Virtues of those and other Creatures, and of a Soul peculiar to himself, yet derivative in some manner from us (his Creator, and my other Creatures) I shall not here dispute; but leave it to other voluminous Writers: For not only the Dialect (as I said concerning Man's creation) is different, but it is clear that Moses gives only a Concise Narrative of the things created before Man, not imparting to us any circumstances used in their Creation. But as to Man he gives a full and ample discourse, from the seventh Verse of the second Chapter, to the end of the same Chapter, being wholly spent in it; and indeed is but a Parenthesis proper to be read between the 26 and 27 Verses of the first Chapter: the words, Let us make Man, in the 26 verse, being either the Consultative part of Man's Creation, or as God's declarative Resolution so to do; and the words in the 27th. verse (So God created man) shows the completing that deliberation or resolution. And therefore I shall begin with those words of the seventh verse Chapter second, And the Lord God (made) as being the beginning of the active part of his Creation, and so descant upon that whole second Chapter; and that being finished, return to the 27th. verse of the first Chapter, (So God created man) and then to the 28 and 29 verses, with which I shall conclude the first part of these discourses.  
The second part shall begin with the 30th. of the first Chapter, because it is an Induction to the offences of the Serpent, and thence pass to the whole third Chapter: to which shall be added so much of the 4th. and 5th. Chapters as shall make the History and variety of discourses concerning Adam and Eve entire and pleasurable to the Reader, and I hope without the least offence to the sacred Method, or dissatisfaction to any.  
The Notions which I have used herein are chief from my Notes out of Dr. Waltons' Laborious and Learned Polyglotta, some parts of St. Augustine, Pererius, Sir Walter Raleigh, Dr. Donne, Paulus Lovatius, Crook, and some others cited on the Margin; and if I have hit upon any others veins which I have not cited, it is the error of my Memory not of my Gratitude, so that till I know them I may be excused: and if the Style and Method be somewhat above, or out of the usual road, it may be ascribed to my Education, which hath been not like a Pedant, but a Gentleman.   

The Text of the first Part.  

Cap. 2.  
Verse 7. THe Lord God made Man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his Nostrils the breath of Life, and the Man became a Living Soul.  
8. And the Lord God planted a Garden Eastward in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had form.  
9 And out of the ground made the Lord 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 Knowledge of good and evil  
10. And a River went out of Eden to water the Garden, and from thence it was parted into four Heads.  
11. The name of the first is Pison, that is it which incompasseth the whole Land of Havilah, where is Gold.  
12. And the Gold of that Land is good: there is Bdellium, and the Onyx Stone.  
13. And the name of the second River is Gihen: the same is it which incompasseth the whole Land of Aethiopia.  
14. And the name of the third River is Hidekell, which is it which goeth towards the East of Assyria: and the fourth River is Euphrates.  
15. And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress it, and to keep it.  
16. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, of every tree of the Garden thou mayst freely eat:  
17. But of the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil thou shalt not cat of it, for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.  
18. And the Lord God said, It is not good that man should be alone, I will make an help meet for him.  
19 And out of the ground the Lord God form every Beast of the field, and every Fowl of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them, and whatever he called every living Creature, that was the name thereof.  
20. And Adam gave names to all Cattle, and to the Fowls of the Air, and to every Beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.  
21. And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept, and he took one of his Ribs and closed up the flesh instead thereof.  
22. And of the Rib which the Lord God had taken from man made he a Woman, and brought her unto the man.  
23. And Adam said this is now bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh, she shall be called Woman because she was taken out of man.  
24. Therefore shall a man leave his Father and Mother, and shall cleave unto his Wife, and they shall be one flesh.  
25. And they were both naked, and were not ashamed.   

Cap. 1.  
27. So God created man in his own Image, in the Image of God created he him, male and female created he them.  
28. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the Earth, and subdue it, and have Dominion over the fish of the Sea, and over the fowl of the Air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the face of the Earth.  
29. And God said, behold I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of the Earth, and every tree in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed, to you it shall be for meat.    


Cap. 2. Ver. 7.  
The Lord God. 
§ 1.  This is the first time that any Additional Attribute is added to the word God; for though Lord God is twice used in the two preceding verses of this second Chapter, yet the matter of those verses is subsecuent to the Creation of Man: For man was made before the Sabbath, and before the Creation was finished; so that this addition of Lord shows what deliberation and power was used in Creating and making Man, expressed in the words, Let us make: and here being made, 'tis said, the Lord God made Man; for as God he created Man, as Lord he governs and rules him being made: to which I shall add this Observation, that Jehovah (expressing God) hath seven Letters, and so hath Dominus (expressing Lord;) and Lord God joined consists also of seven Letters: so sacred is that number of Seven to the different Languages. And the word God (consisting of a Ternary of Letters) as used only in the general Creation; but in the Creation of Man, viz. from the seventh verse to the end of the Chapter, Lord God is mentioned nine times and no more; which two numbers seven and nine are most applicable to the business of Creation.  
For the Creation consisted of seven days (as some Fathers writ) seven Planets, seven properties of the two great Lights, nine Orbs or Spheres (and three times seven generations, of which I have writ a particular Treatise) and though our Common Translations do not mention the numbers of the parts of Man, yet the Targum of Jerusalem says, the Lord created Adam with 248 Membranes, and 365 Nerves, (so many it seems as there are days in the year) and covered all with a Skin which he filled with Flesh and Blood; so that there are but five similar parts here mentioned, but these that are more exact (collected also from the Text) do make the Body of Man to consist of twice seven similar parts, viz. Bones, Cartilages, Ligaments, Membranes, Nerves, Arteries, Veins, Fibras, Tunicles, Spermaticks, Fat, Blood, Flesh, Skin; but to satisfy the Reader with some variety before I proceed in my intended method, I take leave to insert here my sense of Spencer's Stanza, concerning those two numbers of seven and nine, and if I differ in the interpretation thereof from the Learned Sir Kenelm Digby, I may be excused because I leave it to the Reader to please himself in the allowance or disallowance of it.  
Spencer in his Fairy Queen (Chapter 22th. Of Temperance) describes the Castle of Alma (or Man's Body thus:  
The frame thereof seemed partly Circular,  
And part Triangular O Work Divine!  
These two the first and last Proportions are,  
The one Immortal, Perfect, Masculine;  
The other Mortal, imperfect, Feminine.  
And 'twixt them both a Quadrate is the Base.  
Proportioned equally by Seven and Nine:  
Nine was the Circle set in Heaven's place,  
All which compacted make a goodly Diapase.  
Which is thus to be understood as I conceive,  The Frame thereof seemed partly Circular. 
The Body of a Man or Woman being exactly extended makes a true Circle, by fixing the Centre at the Navel, and the Circumference to touch the extreme points of the fingers and toes. Then draw a Diametrical Line over the Navel point, so that the passing over the head touch no further downwards than the Navel Line, and it will be partly Circular, or Semicircular.  And Part Triangular. 
Then the inferior part from the Navel (both legs being divided and extended to the Circumferating Line) makes a Triangle, there being as much distance from foot to foot, as from the Extreme point of each to the Navel; so 'tis part Circular and part Triangular.  O Work Divine! 
And this is the Divine Work to give all things their Numberand Measure, Geometrical Proportion, as shall be further showed.  These two the first and last Proportions are. 
This fully explains, that the Circular proportion hath reference to the Superior part of the body, the Triangular to the inferior, calling them the first and last proportion.  The one Immortal, Perfect, Masculine. 
Now in the first Superior or half Circular proportion, which is from the head to the Navel, is properly seated the Soul, (although virtually it opperates in all other parts of the Body) and therefore is called the Immortal, Perfect, Masculine part.  The other Mortal, Imperfect, Feminine: 
In the last inferior or Triangular part, which is from the Nave to the feet (alluding to the flesh) is nothing but Corruption, Imperfection, and the excrementitious parts of Nature, and may justly be called the Mortal, Imperfect, Feminine.  
And 'twixt them both a Quadrate is the Base,  
Composed equally by Seven and Nine.  
The Exterior extensive parts of Man being thus composed and described by a Circular and Triangular form, here he shows the proportion both of Man and Woman: for for as Hercules his whole body was delineated by making use only of his Thumb, so may every man's (the exact length of his Face being once known:) for every body is eight, nine, or ten times as long as his face, according as he is nearer or further from a true proportion. But the most famous Arcists agree, that the exact length of a man ought to be but nine faces, of a woman but seven: that is, the body of man from the Chin ought to be eight times as long as the face, and of a woman six times. And lest the Error of the face should give an Error to the body, the face ought to be so composed, that from the top of the forehead to the dint of the Nose, and from the dint of the Nose, the length of the Nose, and from the bottom of the Nose to the turn of the Chin, should be of an equal measure and distance. And so likewise from the dint of the Nose to the exterior parts of each Eye, and from that part of the Eye to the setting on of each Ear of the same distance; the rule for the proportion and measure of which distance ought to be from the top of the thumb to the second joint of the thumb. Then his breadth stom side to side, and thickness from back to stomach is answerable. And this symmetry is not only in the outward Lineaments, but in the inward; for the Guts of Man do also confirm this proportion of seven and nine, being nine or seven times the length of the body. Had not this exactness been observed, the sixteen Italian Artists had never agreed; who resolving each man to make a sixth part of a Man, without seeing each other, or any model given, but what was apprehended by them to be the just proportion of Man, when each of them brought their part to be joined together, it seemed as the Act of one entire Artist and Workman, and not of many. And 'tis not only thus in number and measure, but in weight; for the Heart as I have showed elsewhere (by the Conjectures of some, for it cannot otherwise be demonstrated) weighs two strains at the Birth, and increaseth to fifty grains, and then decreaseth by two grains as he declines in years to his Infant Age, if the Almighty thinks fit to give him such a Continuation. And not only man, but woman is made by this Geometrical proportion of seven and nine, which numbers being conjoined make sixteen, that is, a Quadrat, a Quadrat number being that which is form of its own parts: and there is a proper and improper Quadrat, because it consists of odd parts; as three times three is nine, which is an improper Quadrat; but four times four is sixteen, which is a proper Quadrat, because it consists of equal parts, which is the Quadrat here meant; and this Quadrat is called Base, which if it be meant according to the English word Base, (id est, vile or beastly) this Conjunction of Man and Woman so improperly used, or with such immoderacy, that thereby we weaken or abuse our Castle of Alma, or Temperance, it is most base, sordid, and beastly: Or if from the Geometrical or Musical word Base or Basis, which is most significant; then if this groundwork or Foundation, or Musical Key be compacted by a divine, chaste, and solemn compact, we make a proper Quadrat and perfect Diapase.  
Nine is the number set in Heaven's place,  
All which compacted make a goodly Diapase.  
And this compact is made when nine stands in Heaven's place; for Man being understood by nine, consisting (as I said) of nine parts, is oft called God; and as God being himself a Trinity governs Man; so Man (an Inferior God, having in himself a Triple Trinity nine, or three times three) should govern the Woman, by keeping the proper distance above seven, (of which proportion Woman consists) which God hath allowed him, that is two, (seven being so many short of nine;) rather allowing her one to make her even with him, then either by too much subtracting from himself, and giving her a number above him, or robbing her of less than she should have. But this fair compact by allowing her one out of his number, God himself allowed when he made her of one of his Ribs; by the addition of which one, the seven becomes eight, so there is two eights, which makes the goodly Diapase. The sweetest, the most Harmonious and Mystical concord in Music, as we see by two Lutes or silver Bowls, the one being struck, the other answers an eight without striking. Thus numbers from oddness become even; when Circles, Triangles, Genders, Perfection and Imperfection, Mortality and Immortality concurred and were combined in so Divine a Work.  
But to return to the word of our Translation. The Lord God  
Made. Translators do promiscuonsly render these words, viz. 
§ 3.  Made, Form, Framed, and Created: But where the word Created is used after the general Mass of Creation (as in the zith. verse, God created the Whale; and in the 27th. verse, God created Man) it is to be understood, that God created some singular and more eminent Piece, besides the original Mass; and so saith the Targum of Jerusalem, Creavit eum duabus creationibus, i. e. He created Man by two singular and universal Creations. Now the word Made signifies a Temperament of that singular Creation with the universal; Framed relates to the proportions; and Form to the Life or Soul of the thing created: so that Man was created with other Creatures out of the main Mass; then he was created with some peculiar additions; after which he was made into Quantities and Qualities in gross; then Framed into certain regular dimensions and proportions; and lastly Form, or (as the Schools call it) informed with a Soul. Now whether God did all this in order of Time I shall not dispute; for in tespect of Gods Works they have no distinction of Time, but in respect of Man we may so apprehend them (without offence;) because otherwise God's Omnipotency cannot clearly be conceived by man's capacity.  
But as to these words made, framed, and form, (as they are notionally didst inct from Created) they may be thus considerable, viz. made into a Vegetative (intimated by the dust of the Earth) framed into a Sensitive life (intimated by the breath of Lile) and form into a rational life (intimated by a Living Soul:) so that in this notion we may apprehend also our similitude to God by a Trinity in Unity. And that these words ought to be distinctly understood, appears from the words in the second Chapter, verse 2. And God rested from all his works which he had creaded and made; and likewise in the fourth verse, These are the Generations of the heavens and the earth, when they were created, in the day that God made the earth and the heavens. And the words framed and form are used in other places in different senses; but I conceive the word made is most proper to be used here, because it is only applied to Creatures of the greatest Eminency, and that nine times. 1. To the firmament. 2. To the two great lights. 3. To the stars; and four times in the second and third verses of this Chapter, where the word is expressed by way of Enumeration, of what was created and made: and then it is twice more named by change of the number, as in the 27th. verse, Let us make; and in the 18th. verse of the second Chapter, I will make: Let us make denoting either the Trinity or Angels, or the composition of his Qualities assimilating God; And I will make denoting his peculiar care. But however here 'tis said, The Lord God made man; which are plural appellations, though the verb be singular; so that Let us make, and the Lord God made, do answer each other as to the Trinity, or what concerns the eminency of man's being made.  
Man. If David asked the question, 
§ 4.  Lord, what is man? so many hundred years after he was made, and answered himself, that man is altogether vanity, or is nothing, and his days as a shadow; what can we imagine man to be before he was made? he was nothing as the word Creation implys; and being made, he was made of little more than nothing; for he was made of the dust of the earth, and yet still continuing in this Compact of dust, he is still but vanity or nothing. And so we may Collect from his four names, for he is called Adam, Enoch, Ishe, Chebor; the first name Adam signifies earth, or red earth, that seems to have some colour of a substance; and yet when we see how changeable it is into other Elements, the earth itself is but a momentary something. Secondly Enoch, which signifies sickness or calamity, we feel something of that, and yet that vanisheth; for pain or calamity may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. The third is Ishe, which signifies crying or laughing, both of which are so oft expressed in one wind (as the Proverb saith) they are scarce distinguishable. And for the last Chebor, signifying Excellency, it is said that man being in honour hath no understanding, but is compared to the beasts that perish. So that we may well conceive these four words signify the four Elements of which he is Compacted; Adam, Earth, the grosser part of his body: Enoch, Water, the redundancy of which causeth sickness and deluges of Rheums: Ishe, Air, from whence also unds are procreated: and Cheber, Fire, which is the most excellent of all the Elements, and so is either common and culinary, or supercelestial, consisting of Love, or au intellect, or such properties as belong to an Angelical Nature.  
Of the dust of the ground. Man is said to be made of the dust of the ground; and in the ninth verse 'tis said, Out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree; and verse 19th. Out of the ground the Lord God form every beast, etc. Out; here it is merely out of the dust of the ground, to show that there was a difference between Man and other Creatures in their making; so that by the dust of the ground is to be understood the superficial part of the earth, of which man only was made; for all Creatures are said to be made out of the ground, but not of the dust of the ground; but Man of the dust of the ground or earth. Now whither this dust was made by a peculiar omnipotent Calcination, or other Rarification is not demonstrated; but we may conceive it of the most attenuated part of the earth, and therein the more Noble part, because capable of the most activity; for if we consider our commondust, it flies like Atoms over the Surface of the earth, ofttimes being raised into as many dry Clouds as there are moist, and by the co-operation of these two, dry and wet, those varieties of Naturals and Preternaturals (which are so oft showered down upon us, and seen among us, as Moths and other flies, Mice and other Vermin) are produced. And mostly they are Agile creatures, whether we respect their volatile or reptile, or aquatic natures; which I mention to show, that if the ordinary dust produceth such agile Creatures, we may collect that our Creator hath adapted to our more agaile body (in relation to our Souls) far more agile dust the to other Creatures. For the Targum of Jerusalem adds to our honour, that we are made ex palvere Sanctuarii, i. e. of holy dust, differing from all other dusts: which should raise this Contemplation in us, that as we are not like beasts or other Creatures in our Temperaments, they made of the ground, that is, of the faeces or dregs of the Earth, we of the Superficies (or of some peculiar sanctify'd dust;) so ought the habits of our bodies to be sublime, and always ascending to an higher sphere, and not to be alloyed and turned into various Corruptions.  
And breathed the breath of life. 
§ 6.  God at first breathed upon the face of the waters: this was the first universal Vegetative and Sensitive life and motion which he infused into the Mass of Creation, of which Man was also partaker. But this breath which God breathed into man, was of a higher nature, not only giving life and motion (for Man had that by universal breath, but by this man became a living Soul.) And as our blood within us (for all things have a blood or spirit of the nature of blood) is said to be the Vehicle or Conveyor of the Vegetative or Sensitive life; so the Air without us, in which is the universal breath, may be said to be the Vehicle of that life into us; and the spirit or life is the vehicle of our rational life, or of that divine Soul which flows into us; for God works all things by fit Instruments: so that our Soul is conveyed to us by this spirit or breath of life; the spirit of life passes by air, the air, by blood (and other parts adapted for such receprions;) so traversing the whole body by Circulation, returns again to the place from whence it came; for we see when the blood and air (which are more evident to us) meet with any obstructions either by nature or accident, the Soul thereby is deprived of all its faculties.  
Into his Nostrils. 
§ 7.  The egyptians were wont to signify a wise and prudent mind by the figure of a Nose, and of strength to his wisdom by the extension of the Nostrils; for here it is that the breath of life first enters, and consequently wisdom and strength. The Anatomists call them Nares, because the Spirits of the air do Nare or Swim continually in them; nor is the mouth or pores fitted for such receptions. The three properties of Inspiration, Expiration, and Respiration, being peculiar only to the Nostrils; for if the Nostrils be not clear, the mouth will be foul, the breath stinking, and the pores unapt for sudation: for the Nostrils having through its little hairs sucked in the air free from commixtures, it passeth from thence to certain spongy bones, and from thence into Mammillary processes, or things like the teats of Udders, and so immediately to the Brain, where the commonsense sits as Judge, and resolves to pleasure the body with what is fit for the senses, or by certain perforations does again distil into the mouth, or throws them out by efflations as obnoxious. Now it is certain (as Anatomists find) that there are two Nervous inductions, which go from the nostrils to the very middle of the brain, whereby the Life and Soul first enters by the help of the air into the Nostrils, and thence to the brain, and from thence by the breath of life is virtually transfused into all parts of the body; but the Nostrils must have the honour of the first ingress of life, and of the first infused Creation, or Created infusion of the Soul.  
And Man became a Living Soul. 
§ 8.  The Arabic renders it a Rational Soul, which properly distinguisheth it from the Soul of other Creatures. But the word Living is sufficient: for all Creatures have a share in the breath of life, but Man only is said to be a Living Soul, or a Soul which is always Living: It lives here under a notion of Mortality in respect of the body, but lives here in respect of itself under a certain notion of Immortality, dying as to the body, but always living to its self. The blood returns it through the brain and nostrils to the spirit of life, that universal spirit of life to the peculiar spirit of humanity, to be disposed into individual Glorifications.   

Cap. 2. Ver. 8.  
And the Lord God planted a Garden Eastward in Eden. 
§ 9  The garden here is not merely to be understood in our usual phrase, a place of Flowers, or Orchard for Plants, but a place which contains all sorts of plants and Flowers from the Hyssop to the Cedar, from the least to the greatest, as the Seminary and Nursery for all future Plantations: and this place was Eastward, which the Sun saluted in the morning; to set us an example of our duty to all orderly motions. A place where no Edifices were to hid our lazy or surfeited bodies; a place where was no bed to repose on, but the lap of our Mother Earth; no Valences or Curtains but the shade of trees; no covering to innocent nakedness, but their leaves; no mixtures to heighten our tastes; all pure simples; no Pencils to deceive or flatter our eyes; all true natural, and a perfect representation of what a Country life should be. And this is as the word signifies the true Garden of Eden, in which happy solitude or safe pleasure, see what Adam enjoyed; He had every tree that was pleasant to the sight, or good for the taste, but principally a tree for Life, a tree for knowledge. There was also flowing and enriching Rivers: Besides there was gold and precious stones enough to satisfy a contented mind, not Avarice: And above all he had opportunity there to express a harmless industry (it seems one of the pleasures of Paradise)  
And there he put the Man whom he had form. 
§ 10.  Not the man whom he had Created out of nothing, and by mere Creation could do nothing; but being form, or a Soul infused into that lump of Creation, he was thereby impowered to act; and that he might have some materials to work upon, he was there put or placed. And certainly not only Adam, but every man hath his native Paradise, every part of the World hath its varieties, and may afford us satisfaction for the body and the mind. And it is either the original Itch in us, or want of true Education or Instruction, or curious ambition, or an uncontented mind, or a continued punishment upon us mortals, that no place, no station where we are, can hold us, nor no Paradise or pleasure retain us from further inquiries. It is not said he put the Man there whom he had created, or made, or framed; but the Man that he had form, to show that the Mind or Soul of Man wheresoever placed with the body might make any place contenting, if it transgressed not its Rules and Boundaries.   

Cap. 2. Ver. 9  
And out of the ground. 
§ 11.  Man (as I shown in the seventh verse) is said to be made not only of the ground, but of the dust of the ground; and here every tree is said to be made out of the ground, but not of the dust; so that Man hath a Constitution by himself, and yet as made of the ground, he partakes of all plants; for homo est Arbor inversa, i. e. man is a tree inversed: and is called homo, because he is ex humo, or ex humida parte terrae, i. e. out of the humid part of the earth. He hath his dust and moisture, i. e. he is agile and apt for motion, yet fixed in his materials; whereas plants are not so they are fixed in the ground, and have no motion but of Vegetation, except what is said of the Mandrake and the feeding Lamb; 
Perkinson, p. 118.  yet they also die if the fibras that oblige them to the earth be cut asunder. And Man hath very little advantage, when we consider that in all his postures, sitting, lying, or standing, still he is fixed to the earth or to some materials made of the earth, (swimiming in the water, leaping in the air, being but forced motions, and of no continuance.) And this is called our Vegetative life; although in a plant there is also a sensitive life, 
〈◊〉  as is seen in the sensible and other known plants of that nature. Now as man is made of the dust of the ground, plants are more proper out of the ground, and they have two advantages over Man, first in their height above ground, 300 foot and more high; and next by perforation in the ground, some conceiving that the sap root of an Oak will run 9 foot perpendicular downward, which is as I conjectured is in solid earth the uttermost Orb of the Liquid Element: But Man by his ingenuity mounts the highest and mines the deepest rooted plants.  
Now the other part of the earth further from the superficies is more compact and solid, affording Quarries, Mines, and Precious Stones; but yet all varieties of colours, tastes, odours, Instruments of Harmony, and indeed all things which please the senses, are produced out of this superficies of the humid part of the earth, being in the middle between air and Minerals, which have their colours and virtues only by attraction, than consolidation.  
The Lord made to grow. 
§ 12.  That is, they had their energy of growth from his humid part; for we must distinguish between Creation and Generation, the one being an existency out of no p●● efficient matter, the other the motion or operation of that existency, according to the several natures of several kinds, adapted for various Operations, always moving in the universal Soul, being the spring of the World, which makes the wheels to move in order, if we consider the whole; but if we consider the parts, 'tis more difficult to apprehend the Connexion of all things as it were in one: but we can look on it no otherwise then as a Watch, the spring giving motion to every wheel, where the nimbler motion of the balance is as considerable as the Majestic gradation of the great wheel, both serving to one end. Thus the little Mite of the Cheese hath its proportioned use, as the great Crocodile produced out of the slime of Nile; the little Wren, as the Ostridgae or the great bird Ibis; the harmless Lamb, as the Elephant, or the great beast that devours Countries; the Pigmy, as the Giant; the Hyssop as the Cedar; the pleasant Southern air, as the the great Diapason of Saturn, (accounting the motion of this lower air to move harmoniously with the other seven Orbs.) So that in the whole Creation this growing is no other than the motion of the universal spirit diversified by various Organs for several uses to one common end.  
Every Tree. 
§ 13.  We must apprehend this garden called Paradise to be greater than Geographers do allow it; or else we must (as Sir Walter Raleigh doth with the beasts that went into the Ark) confine them to their original kinds, and then less ground may be affigned; or otherwise the whole Earth is but sufficient to contain the several Species: for if we admit of such exuberant Plants as some Author's mention, few trees might fill such a Garden: for the Jewish Targuns tells us, that the tree of life therein was 500 years' journey high (the breadth they mention not, 
* Cujus altitudo erat Iteneris quingentorum annorum. Targ. Hier.  but proportions therein must be also admitted.) And others 
† Sir W. Raleigh.  speak of an Indian Figtree, which extends itself in some Countries twenty or thirty miles: nor need we much doubt of the latter, in respect it is possible by art of several inlaying to make a Vine, or any other exuberant Plant to extend as far. But we may suppose here was the Seminary of all beneficial plants; from whence the rest of the world had their Seeds, Cions, or Transplantations by winds or birds, or exhalations to convey their seeds into other Regions; and after by nature, art and industry, diversified into Plants preternatural to their originals.  
That is pleasant to the sight, 
§ 14.  or good for food. The Eye is the noblest part of man, being the Index of the Soul; and food is not only a subject or sustentation of our whole, but especially our Ocular part. The Eye is the first discoverer of want or supersluity of sustenance; the eye is the first Judge of what is offensive or inoffensive to our appetite; for if the eye dislike, we refuse, if approves, we eat, though it proves our poison; for the stomach oft surfeits by the pleasure of the eye, when the appetite takes its dimension from what the eye fees, and not what the little bag of the stomach contains; for nature is content with a little, if that little be good. And since nature hath confined herself to certain receptacles for food, it were against its rules to fill those with the unlimited appetites of the eye, unless we make our stomach to imitate our eyes, which are merely satisfied with outward objects; yet something must be to support their spirits. And therefore the eye may be pleased with what it sees, the stomach satisfied not with what the eye sees or pleasant to the sight, but with that which is good for food or sustentation.  
The Tree of of Life in the midst of the Garden. 
§ 15.  I do not apprehend this tree to be planted in the midst of the garden, as the Centre to a Circumference, but rather as virtue is said to be in the midst, or to consist in the mean or mediocrity, or temperance. To show that if Adam could have been so temperate as not to aspire to life till it were revealed to him what kind of life he should enjoy, or what Knowledge he should know, he had been happy; for we shall find by the subsequent, that God imparted life and knowledge to him by degrees. Or possibly in the midst may be taken for the chief, namely that among all the trees of the garden the tree of life was the chief; the garden being an Emblem of our bodies, our Heart being as is thought the seat of life in the midst of our body. But it may well be said also in the midst, because a tree of that stupendious height, as to be 500 years' journey to the top as before mentioned, must needs be seen in all parts of the garden, the proper and true distance undiscernible to the eye.  
And the tree of knowledge of good and evil. 
§ 16.  This was not placed in the midst as the tree of life, but as it were concealed till God thought fit to impart the knowledge of its virtues, or forbidden the use of it as he did: And though Adam did eat of it, yet it produced no such Science as was satisfactory; for by eating he knew good and evil so confusedly, that he and we know not how to distinguish them, many things being good or bad according to doubting Inteations or Commands. But I conceive as the virtue of one tree was to enliven, a Man to a sound Constitution, the other was a fruit of a marvellous, luxurious nature, and provoked Adam to the evil of Concupiscence and Carnal desires and actions; and so by eating knew both good and evil, that is, good whilst they knew not Carnality; evil in the knowing Carnalty: and Man hath the reward of his Libidinous disobedience, his body being so full of Diseases and Infirmities, that the means of propagation seems to beget more Diseases than Children.   

Cap. 2. Ver. 10.  
And a River went out of Eden to water the garden, 
§ 17.  and from thence divided into four Channels or Heads. Adam had seen the pleasure of the Heavens in their glorious ornaments, and the pleasures of the Earth in its various tapestry, whose odoriferous influence offorded also a most pleasing breath; he was now showed the pleasures of the waters in Eden, where was a pregnant River, or rather Fountain, which issued forth such abundance of delightful waters, that they divided into four Channels, Heads or Rivers; the Earth gave way to their gentle motions, and as it were left the rich valleys for them to dance upon whilst itself still risen higher and higher into Hills and Mountains merely to overlook their pleasures. And it is to be observed here that four is the next number repeated after 1.2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, as being the first Quadrat number of great use in Physical proportions; and possibly these three, Gold, Bdellium, and the Onyx, were only mentioned, & no more to make the four streams in the same Narrative seven, to show the perfection of this Fountain. But some allude the four Channels to the four parts of the Earth, Europe, Asia, Africa and America: But doubtless they were neither known nor so divided in Moses time, certainly not in adam's. Others allude them to the four Cardinal Virtues, but virtue was then so entire, that there needed no distinction; for pure virtue is not divisible; for he that is truly just, must be Stout, Temperate and Prudent; and he that is stout must be temperate, and prudent must have the other virtues. True virtue can admit of no separation from itself. The streams of virtue come out of the Spring Head in Eden; and though it may seem to divide, yet every stream is contiguous to the Fountain, and so is virtue. Now where this Eden may properly be placed, and from whence these waters flow and return, I shall afford a larger Discourse something different from former notions both in History and Philosophy, and yet I hope rational.   

Cap. 2. Ver. 11.  
The name of the first is Pison: 
§ 18.  that is it which compasseth Havilah, where there Gold. See my Introduction in my Book called Fodinae Regales.   

Cap. 2. Ver. 12.  
And the gold of that land is good: 
§ 19  there is Bdellium and the Onyx Stone. I remember not my Author who saith that there are three eminent stones in the nature of Minerals, which were known to Adam; the one is a stone that hath a virtue of transmutation of Metals, and possibly this may be meant by gold; the other hath a virtue to discover the quality of all Sensibles and Vegetables, and this may be meant by Bdellium; and the third of a more transcending nature, by imparting to us all Angelical operations, and this may be meant by the Onyx: But whether or no there were or are such stones by nature or art, the fruitless labours of others shall cease my further inquiry. I confess there are such admirable qualities in such as are of common use, that I can run very high in my Credit, that in respect of their solid temper they are more fit to retain such Excellent virtues: As in the Loadstone for Navigation and Intelligence, the Saphire against Poisons, the Vitriol against Corruptions; and above all the Bolonian stone which upon Calcining receives and the beams of the Sun, and constantly after affords a soft light like the Gloworm. But whatever this Bdellium was, which Sir Walter Raleigh saith was a tree bearing Gum and Pearl, or what the Onyx or Beril were, the Text saith, the gold was good, and if ever since there hath been in Man such a Sacra fames auri, a sacred hunger of gold, I hope it is only to get that gold which Pison embraced, which gold only is said to be good; 'tis good whilst it is here, but whether it be good to be got or carried from thence is the question: but admit we have it, 'tis still good so as it be not adulterated by the bad use of it. In short, it is the Cordial to all humane Commerce, and therefore said to be near a River, as more fitted for transportation; for as Adam was to labour at home, so upon the increase of his Posterity he was to traffic abroad. And it may be observable upon the number 3, that as Gold, Bdellium, and Onyx, were the first Jewels that nature offered to Adam before his fall; so Gold, Myrrh, and Frankincense were the first offers which were made to the second Adam; the first by a wise God, the other by Wise men.   

Cap. 2. Ver. 13, 14.  
And the name of the second River is Gihen: 
§ 20.  the same is it which compasseth the Land of Aethiopia. The name of the third River is Hiddekel: that is in which goeth towards the East of Assyria: And the fourth River is Euphrates. Though the Scriptures differ in the names of the Countries where these four Rivers are, as the Land of Havilah, called also Evilat, and Indies, so Aethiopia called Chush, and what those Countries contains; viz. Gold, which some adjutively call Bonum & Electum, and others Electrum (which is the richest composition of Gold:) and for Bdellium, which some esteem a tree yielding sweet Gum, others render it Carbuncules, and Oniones, Pearls: and for the Onyx, others render Beril, Lapides Chrystali, or Crystal, and Diamonds. And though they differ as much in the Rivers Hiddekel (which some call Tigris and Diglath) and Euphrates (Perath;) yet these seeming differences are but noble invitations to the Study of Geography, Hydrography, and other Sciences, thereby to learn the Wonders of the Land and Deeps; insinuating also to us the richest Minerals, Plants, and Precious Stones; and that the natural progress of Creation may easily conduct us to them, for the Fountains direct us to their Streams or Rivers, those Rivers to the Seas, the Sea carries us into and from other Creeks by Fluxes and Refluxes; and so the Art of Navigation is known and improved, and Merchandizing thereby enencouraged: and it may not be amiss to think that those Names and Places of Territories, Rivers, Minerals, Plants, and Precious Jemms, and Stones, were purposely rendered ambiguous, that we may not be lazy in our Inquiries after them; for mistakes are many times clews to guide us into certainties; and therefore it may be enquired whither the four great Rivers (as Ortelius tells us) which come from the Artic Pole, and are the origin and source of all Seas and Waters, were not those four Rivers here intended; and whether the circle of those impassable Mountains about that Pole was not the defending Angel to the place of Paradise, the Sun keeping always an equal distance and heat from that Pole or Point; and though it be called the Frigid Zone, and the Antarctic the Torrid, yet those are but as imaginary as the Circles.  
This Text also teacheth us the East Point of the Compass; which though certain to every Country, yet every Country hath a different East from another according to its position, from the first appearance of the Sun upon their several Orisons: The next Point is West, Gen. 12.8. which is opposite to every East or Rising of the Sun to that Horizon where it appears. And Verse the 9th. the South is mentioned, which is the middle Point when the Sun is at its height between its appearance or Ascension, and disappearance or Descension, upon any Horizon. Then in the 13th. Chapter verse 14. the North, which is the opposite Point to the South, is mentioned, and placed before the other three as the most principal and certain Point, viz. Northward, Southward, Eastward, Westward; that is, toward the North, South, East, West. For I question whether Moses then knew the exact Points (as now we do by the use of the Loadstone) which now are also taught us from the natural inclination of all things to that North point by Plants, other Stones, Birds, Fishes, Waters, etc. though possibly they might know the Load Star or North Star, yet I do not find that the Use of the Compass was known till about Christ's Time, as I collect from the 27th. of the Acts verse 12. where the South-west and Northwest are mentioned; by which time they had got two Points more of the thirty two, which Compass now is the Seaman's Alphabet. However we have sufficient hints from this Text to traverse the world for the better manifestation of our Creator's glory, by the insight and benefit of his various and wonderful Operations and Products in the Elements.   

Cap. 2. Verse 15.  
And the Lord God took the man, 
§ 21.  and put him into the garden to dress it, and to keep it. God knew that Idleness corrupts the best natures, and therefore Man was employed in that humble vocation; 
 coleret legem & observaret mandata ejus. Targ. Hier.  for though God did at first create the kinds of all Plants, yet doubtless man had and yet hath an honest Allowance to procreate a Diversity of Species by Transplantations, Ingrastings, Inoculating, and other various Cultivations, which were Incestuous in other Creatures; but as I conceive allowed from the words here to dress and keep it.  
Nature is of herself rude in Exuberancies, so that if Art do not polite it, even the Winds, Frosts, Birds, and Beasts do supply their Prune. And 'tis not only thus in Plants but other Creatures: the Eagle with her art breaks off her overgrown Beak, and renews her age; and Man himself would scarce be discerned from Beast, if Art and Care did not preserve his Excrescencies from defacing him. Nature is dull and idle; Art is the Soul of Nature; and Sedulity the Spirit or Mind that unites them. It is Motion that keeps all things Celestial and Sublunary in order; should that cease, 'tis thought the upper World would be in a flame, and our lower World a rude Chaos. That which we call Quiet is only the result of a Lazy Mind, true Quiet is only our Contentment in all orderly and allowable motions, to the improving and preserving Nature in her best form, whither considered as to Individuals or Generals.   

Cap. 2. Verse 16, 17.  
And the Lord God commanded the man saying, Of every tree, etc. thou mayest eat, 
§ 22.  but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat. Besides the Law of Nature, whereby God had fixed to every Creature its order, as the Sun to rule the Day, and the Moon the Night, and Man next under God to have the Dominion of all Terrestrial Creatures, God did think fit to exhibit to Man a Law of Trial, or rather a Command of Reason; for what needed God to command whenas there was nothing could have power but from him to disobey? yet that Man might not think all things so tied to the order of Nature without variation, as that his Posterity, which were not to have such immediate conversation with God, might easily judge by the rule of Trial or Reason what was expedient for such a Creature to perform to a Creator. And therefore did God command this Law of Trial or Reason, for it was but reason that God should be obeyed (even in seeming Trivials) seeing Nature itself, which he hath constituted, invites us to the same. 'Tis true, sin came not till the Law: Now the Law is but the Memorials of Nature, which are that every thing should be kept in order, Servants obey Masters, Wives Husbands, Children Parents, Subjects their Superior Magistrates; (accoeding to several orders:) and for want of which, Rebellions in States, Commotions in Families, do arise. God did know Man would disobey, and God permitted him to disobey, that by Adam's example all his Posterity might see the effect of Disobedience to the Law of Reason; for it was most rational and just, that Man should obey whatever God imposed, especially seeing God had given him such a latitude, and so small a limitation.  
And though we may think this Law of Reason too strictly imposed upon us, yet upon due inquiry we had no other way left us in our Creation to express our gratitude, but by this Law of Trial or Reason: for though we know not exactly what God hath impowered us to do or not do, what to act, or what to forbear; yet now by the rules of Reason we may judge what things are not fit to be done, and as much as in us lieth retire our Wills, Desires, or Acts from them. As for example, Adam might thus have discoursed: I may eat of all Fruits except one or two; I have sufficient by this freedom to please my taste and sight; why should I be so ambitious by eating of the Tree of Life to live another life, whereas that wherein I live enjoys so many varieties? Why should I be so curious to know more by eating of the Tree of Knowledge, whenas already I know so much as God thinks fit to impart, and I find that he is still instructing me? And thus may every man judge by the Law of Reason whether he disobeys God or no. The first examination is from the rules of Nature in the point of Obedience, and therefore 'tis said, that Obedieuce is better than sacrifice: for those Rules which we have of Morality or Christianity are but the Product of the Rules of Nature form into rational Doctrines. I do not here include the Rules of Faith, and yet these are Rules of Trial and Reason; for what can be a safer Trial then to believe because he commands? and then in reason how safe is it to believe that which may be hazardous to our Souls if we do not believe? And even here do we follow the Dictates of Nature, rather in obeying what is said to be his command, then in disobeying in those things wherein we have not his command; but especially in such things wherein both in Nature and Reason we find Natural, Rational, and Christian Injunctions. So that God's command (how mean soever the command may seem) was but to show, that besides the Law of Nature he did exhibit unto us a Law of Reason; and unless we return to his commands as well a rational subjection as a natural, we submit as Irrational Creatures, but not as Men: and though possibly we cannot do otherwise then what is decreed, yet to will, to desire, to endeavour the doing what we are commanded to do, or prohibited from doing, cannot but prove an acceptable sacrifice.   

Cap. 2. Verse 17.  
For in the day thou catest thereof. 
§ 23.  I cannot but admire that the God of Union should ordain Disunions, seeming Sympathies and Antipathies, Evening and Morning, Day and Night, Light and Darkness, Life and Death, Good and Evil: But when I consider, that the Morning could not be known but by the terminating it with the Even, or the Day but by terminating it with Night, or the Light but by terminating it with Darkness, or Life but by terminating it by Death, or Good but by terminating it with Evil; I find that these terminations were agreeable to our knowledge: for the several appellations of Light had been infinite, and thereby not fitted for a manifestation to us; and we must in their knowledge have been made coequal with God in glory and eternity, if they had not been thus manifested. But these appellations of Darkness were the Foils to set off the splendour of the Creation, and Evil was no other than as the evening to the morn, or as night to the day, or as darkness to the light; nor was death any other than the smooth transition to immortality, without fear, pain, or trouble, or only a sudden rapture or exstacy in the ineffable change from terrestrial contentments to supercelestial beatitudes. But from the breach of this command ariseth the evil of evils, death of death, evening, night, and darkness. It is wonderful that Adam should so much err in the first trial which God made upon his obedience, and it is as wonderful that God did command Adam to forbear that which was the best piece of Mankind, the Knowledge of good, and the termination of it; which was all the evil which then could be called evil: But Man was forbidden it doubtless that he might not conceit within himself that he had attained Knowledge from the virtue or nature of that Plant, but from the immediate gift and instruction of God; for certainly God did inform him of the whole system of the Creation, (by what we may collect by the foregoing and following verses) which was a sufficient Knowledge; so that the Knowledge he had by this Tree was only a Knowledge of Intoxication, and Knowledge of the termination of Life, and a confused Knowledge of Distinction between good and evil, (which Knowledges were forbidden;) his Knowledge before being a complete Knowledge consisting of a perpetual blessedness: for his Knowledge thereof was only this, that goodness did now terminate by his disobedience, and that life should have a period or termination, which was a death; for by this Knowledge he got a Critical Knowledge, as we find by Eves Dispute, that Disobedience was the extreme of Obedience, Death the extreme of Life; whereas whilst he was under Gods teaching and instruction, he knew nothing but a quiet obedience, and an innocent life, free from thoughts of disorder, or fear of what should happen; but now he knew the termination of that life, and that sentence, In the day thou catest thereof thou shalt surely die.  
Thou shalt surely die. 
§ 24.  If it be true what some Divines affirm, that Adam continued but six hours in Paradise, three before the eating the Fruit, and three after; I should wonder how Adam should be made sensible of death, seeing before his eating he was in a perfect and immortal condition; for a Blind man cannot understand a Colour, nor he that had never seen the separation of Soul and Body know the effects of it; but certainly God did either show him the Horary Plant, (or other Creatures of the like nature) that hath its birth, flourish, and close, in an hour, and is never seen after; or else taught him the way of Sacrificing Beasts, and by their expiration to know his own, in case he disobeyed this command; or else the nature of the Death was represented unto him, not as an immediate separation of the Soul and Body, (for we find he lived many hundred years after) but his death, feretold here was a certainty of a future dying.   

Cap. 2. Verse 18.  
And the Lord God. 
§ 25.  God is seven times repeated in the first Chapter, and the eighth time in the 26th. verse; but in the second Chapter verse 7. where the Narrative of Man's Creation is more fully described, it is expressed that not God alone, but the Lord God said. And so here concerning Woman, the words Lord God are also used to testify, that in the Creation and Making of both of them God did assume another Title to himself then the single word God; God seeming to be a name relating to all his Creatures, but Lord more peculiarly to Man and Woman, as before is hinted concerning Man only.  
Said. 
§ 26.  This word said is repeated seven times in the first Chapter, viz. verse 3, 6, 9, 11, 14, 20, and 24. Now where it is thus expressed that God said, Let there be, we must apprehend rather as an act, than a discourse or deliberation; for though we discuss before we act, proceeding from the imperfection of our Knowledge, and want of power to act (things being known to us only in the abstract) and when we do know them, we are uncertain of our Abilities to put them in action; yet God knows all things in the concrete, and his perfect Wisdom and Power requires no discourse or deliberation: so that it must be understood in the seven other places, that God said and did at one and the same instant; but in the eighth and ninth places the word said is not to be understood as a fiat only, but as a word of deliberation rather than action, which is inferred from the words Lord God, and Let us, and I will: for in all the entrances of the other parts of Creation it is said only Let there be; but in the 7th. and 18th. verses (being the eighth and ninth time) the Lord God said, Let us make, and I will make.  
It is not good for man to be alone. 
§ 27.  Man is a noble and sociable creature; a secluse and monastic temper neither becomes him, nor was safe in the primitive and most eminent time of Adam, much less in ours: for it oft produceth such prodigious Copulations, or contranatural Restrictions, as Nature is as much injured in the one as in the other; therefore to be avoided as being not good for Adam nor his Posterity. And of all Societies surely that is most complacent that consists of suitable Tempers.  
Yet some of the Father's hold, that Man is never alone when he is alone; Angels or Spirits that attend his most private meditations are such contenting Companions, that though he converseth with no other body, yet his Mind hath the fruition of an ineffable Society: so that in respect of the Mind it is good to be alone, but in respect of the Body it is not good to be alone. And therefore to prevent that solitariness or other beastial society, God did make the Woman to be the Wife or Consort to Man. And it is not good for either to be separate, as to leave the other to be alone; he or she that doth it is guilty of the breach of that originally instituted good thus provided for them by a Conjunction: for when it is said, They shall be as one, that is, of one society; he is not to be alone, nor she alone, but both to make an unseparable society, so as to leave all other Relations or Interests to be two, all one, or two alone, and yet not alone so long as they two concentre in an happy and affectionate Unity.  
I will make an help meet for him. 
§ 28.  That is, I will make him into such a posture or condition, that a meet help shall be extracted from him, and so to be to him as his Companion.  
Here I must observe, that in all the Works of Creation the words Let there be, and Let us, seem to be results of plurality, and may relate to the Trinity or Angels, or some subordinate Instruments; but in making Woman God speaks it in the Singular Number, I will make; to show, that God did more appropriate to himself the making of Woman than any Creature of the whole Creation; for she cannot but be apprehended the most singular and unexpressible piece: for when Adam had seen the Light, Firmament, Waters, Earth, with all their Ornaments, and all the varieties of Fowl and Beasts, and could discourse with them in their own Dialects, (and doubtless some of them might have afforded a satisfactory contentment in a Conversation;) yet (I say) none of those glorious Creatures (either Celestial or Terrestrial) were thought fit Helps for him: and therefore the Lord God said, (it must be so implied) I will make a more excellent piece then all my former pieces, a Woman; which shall be a more meet Help for Man then all those glorious things which I have created: and God seems to appropriate the Woman's making more peculiarly to himself; for fecit (he made) is applied to the universality of all Creatures; faciamus (let us make) applied to Man; but faciam (I will make) applied only to Woman. I shall add this, that the productive Mass of all Creatures was made out of nothing, and Man in his Elementary Parts was made out of that Mass which was made out of nothing, and Woman was made out of him, who was made out of them, that were made out of nothing: so that Ex nihilo nil fit; she, and we, and all Creatures in their most beauteous appearances, are still but appearances, mere nothings; and yet nothing is, nothing ought to be, more helpful to Man then Woman; for whilst that nothing is something, she is to be a meet Help, 
Faciamus ei mulierem, ut sit sustentaculum in adversa ejus. Targ. Hier.  a Help meet, for him for whom she is made, & to whom she is conjoined, and that is her duty; and to this end woman was made, to be a Help meet for him, (adjutorium) an helper, a delight and ease to Man, and that in the most meet, apt, fit, and agreeable manner. The Arabic add to adjutorium (e regione ejus) that is, an Help, but still such an Help as should keep within the bounds, limits, or region of Man's government: and that certainly was the intent of Gods making of her. And if she proves otherwise, methinks I hear God say, I will make her to be a meet Help for Man; if she will not, she shall know more sorrow then Eve. And certainly the Man is to take care that he lays no servile (or such other) Impositions upon her, than she is able to bear: she is to be a meet Help, to go hand in hand in helping and supporting their mutual Interests. This is all the difference I can observe; an help does imply that one is to be assisted, so that it is his part to give the first motion to all affairs, and she is to help without dispute, and not to run away or separate from the burden.   

Cap. 2. Verse 19, 20.  
And out of the ground the Lord God form every beast of the field, 
§ 29.  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 , and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field. Man being made of a clear intellect and insight into all Creatures under his subjection, God as a perfect Workman having made so exquisite an engine to put in motion those various parts of Creation, tried how those excellencies with which he had endowed him would operate; for the model or framing of any piece to such an end as it was designed, shows only its outside and not its virtue, till it doth operate to that end. And certainly as Adam was so qualified in his Intellects, so are we in some proportion; for could we but follow old Bias his Rule of Nosce teipsum, Know thyself, we should find by Anatomy the perfect composure of all mechanic engines: For instance, by the circulation of the blood (more clearly discovered to us by Dr. Harvey then in former ancient Authors) which circulation must not be understood as moving by the rule and just proportion of a circle, but rather by retrogressions; for very few are circular, but rather perpendicular obliqne, etc. and those who will busy their brains about a perpetual motion, may sooner obtain it for sixty or eighty years from perpendicular and obliqne motions of our blood for so many years, then by any circular motion to perpetuity. And if I have time to digest my notions into practical rules, I doubt not but to make as evident a System of Philosophy as Aristotle, (who makes the Sun go round, and the Earth stand still;) or Copernicus (who makes the Sun stand still, and the Earth turn round;) and therein show that the cause of Fluxes and Refluxes of the Sea, and the Circular motions of the Planets, are mostly deceptions, and those caused from perpendicular and obliqne impressions forcing their vertiginations. Also by this inquiry into ourselves we may learn the use of the Almbecks, and all sorts of distillations, and indeed all the Seven Liberal Sciences, and Seven Mechanic Arts. And those who are so large in their Constitutions, as to drive at a more universal knowledge of Creatures, may by a due inspection into them gain the whole Body of Philosophy; which doubtless were sooner obtained if we could be informed of the true primitive Names of all Creatures, and the mystical Interpretations of theose Names; which some say Selomon attained to as far as concerned Plants, and thereby understood the nature of them even from the Cedar to the Hyssop; which Book of his is mentioned in the Holy Writ, but is either utterly lost or concealed, (which is equal to us) and is the great error of Mankind in not communicating what we know; for by wanting these impartments we make most things diabolical which are only Secrets of Nature unrevealed: and thus we wilfully banish ourselves out of the Paradise of Knowledge, either by not seeing, trying, or enquiring into the nature of ourselves or other Creatures, or not freely imparting what we do know, or foolishly condemning or censuring the kind and laborious impartments of others. And hereupon even some of the pious Fathers of our Church were condemned as Heretics for asserting the Antipodes, which no Geographers now dispute: and hence the Loadstone, and other marvellous effects of the natures of other pieces of Creation, were at first esteemed Witchery, which now are safely allowed: and hence came the loss of those Impartments, of which Pancirollus hath writ a Book called De rebus perditis.  
Some are of opinion, that if the Original names of those Creatures were known, we also should know their primitive and intrinsic natures; which Adam did know when he first fixed their distinct and different names. And herein did God as it were entertain Adam, and enrich his Knowledge by all the ways and progresses of the Creation, teaching him the nature and constitution of all things: so that there was no need of any addition but what God himsest imparted; the other (as I said) was but Intoxicated Knowledge, or a Fruit that would rather blind his Knowledge then improve it. And yet for all these impartments and society, God did not think Beasts fitting Companions for Man, for he was to have the dominion over them, and therefore not fit to be equal or meet Helpers to him: so that (as it were upon further consderation) God saith again, But as for Adam there was not found an Help meet for him. So then in order to such an Helper:   

Cap. 2. Verse 21.  
And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, 
§ 30.  and he slept. Here seems to be a supernatural and a natural sleep; the supernatural (which Adam fell into being caused by God for the end which was designed, the producing of Eve;) the natural sleep, and he slept; sleep being as adequate to nature as night to day, or darkness to light. In our natural we have Dreams, in our supernatural Revelations; and every such Revelation (when true) is an Eve, or an Helper either in our Devotions or Actions. But all the difficulty is to judge them; and certainly they ought to be as evident and manifest to us, as Eve was to Adam after he awaked: for Fancy does so deceive men, that we take those representations which we have in our sleep to be real, which are but imaginary, and the recreations which Nature affords us during the recess of our Spirits to be Divine Revelations, which in truth are nothing but Chimaeras. I cannot say but God may impart such truths to us; but then they will be always attended with some real and warrantable subsequences: But here we find  is lessened Adam's Perfection, after a nap he lost a Rib, to show that sleep in our best Constitution takes something from us in the abbreviation of our Lives.  
And he took out one of his ribs, and clesed up the flesh instead thereof. The curiosity of Anatomists concerning our Ribs is not to be a rule to our belief in the Text; or whether we should dispute of the truth from the number of those which remain, for it is impossible to know what the Original of the number of Ribs were. 
Deus accepit unam ex costis ejus, illa est costa decima tertia lateris dextri. Targ. Hier.  Galen affirms, that Man hath now but eleven, but according to the Jewish Targum Adam had thirteen; and then the odd Rib being taken out, twelve remain: now Eve being made like to him, she had then twelve Ribs also, equal in number to those were left to him; but accounting her whole self one Rib, she had thirteen. But to pass this; the more general Anatomists hold that Man hath twelve Ribs, whereof five are called true or perfect Ribs, because they are Circular; seven bastard or imperfect Ribs, because they want that proportion. Now there may be made a question, Whether Eve were made of one of those which were perfect and circular, or those which were imperfect; for had he not parted with some of his perfection, he could not so easily have fallen into error. On the other fide, had she been partaker of his perfection, she would not so easily have been tempted; or rather by dividing their perfection, both of them became subject to imperfection.   

Cap. 2. verse 22.  
And of the Rib, 
§ 32.  which the Lord God had taken from Man, made he a Woman. The Latins use the word aedificavit, or built, to show that she was to be an house, or mansion place; but the English translators use the word made. And it is here observable, that she was not said to be created as Man, in the Image of God, or after his likeness, nor form, nor framed; but Made, a word of a lesser signification, relating to the temperament of her body only. Nor was she made of the dust or purer part of the Earth, but of a Bone, which is the hardest, driest, coldest, and most terrestrial part of Man, according to Physics. Nor had she the Breath of Life breathed into her Nostrils, but that Life Eve had went with the Bone. Nor is it said she became a Living soul, her soul being as it were the same, or a Ray of his: the truth is, she was abstracted either out of a soporiferous temper, which is all Fancy, or from some suparnatural effluvium; or that she was like him in his Creation, unlike after the separation. But this may be observed, that when God made Eve he took a Rib from Adam, and of it made Woman; so that he could not but fall, being lessened in the perfection of his Creation. Now when Jesus was born of a Virgin, God took that part from her which the woman had before from Adam, so he became perfect; as by this, God did in a manner bring forth such a substantial revelation from Adam's sleep, that it seemed to be a continued divine Apparition. But (as I said) that there are two sorts of sleep, so there are two sorts of Women, the one Snpernatural and most civinely qualified, the other mere Natural, Fantastical, and Quelque choose: the first a revealed blessing from God, the other only disturbers of the mind, and distraction to man's quiet sleep and reposement.  
But she was made of a Rib; from whence it happens that man's, heart which was surrounded all with Bones, now lies open; so that all its Loves and desires had no fence against her; for we see even Adam, when God brought her to him, so soon as he saw her was immediately transported: and Adam said with a divine implicit asseveration, 
Hac tempore non rarsus creabitur mulier ex viro. Targ. Higher  This glorious piece which thou hast brought to me is Bone of my bone, and Flesh of my flesh. As if he should have added, this is she that (like my Bones) is to be my helper, and supporter to all my regular motions; she that (like my bones) ought to give stability, rectitude, and form to all my actions; This is she that (like my flesh) is to be the Pillow of my Body; this is she which is to be as a Wall or Safeguard to all my Vital functions; this is she that according to the property of Flesh, is to allay the rage of all my natural heats. Now it is here to be observed, that God brought all Beasts to Adam, who only gave Names to them, but no Instructions, they being uncapable of reason; but when God brought the Woman to Adam, Adam began first with instruction, and taught her her duty towards him, which was in short, that Look of what ever use the bone is within us, or the Flesh without us, she is to act these parts for man's preservation.  
And brought her unto the man. 
§ 33.  From hence probably came the Jewish and Roman Customs, to lead the Spouse between two to the Nuptials: and the Latins still continue the phrase of ducere uxorem, which we call Marrying, and is a kind of tacit compulsion on her part, more to represent her modesty towards that ceremony, than any disinclination of Nature in operating to a mutual contact, there being a certain Sympathy lodged in the progresses of propagation, which tends to coition, which future, times have made more ceremonial, restrictive, or coercive.   

Cap. 2. Ver 23.  
And Adam said, 
§ 34.  this is now Bone of my Bone, and Flesh of my flesh. Anatomists reckon 302 Bones in Man's body; so that this Rib it seems was the bone of all these bones, or the spring of all the rest; and they are the most inflexible of all the parts of the body; and therefore to assist that temper he adds, that she was also flesh of his flesh (though there is no mention of any flesh taken from him.) Now the Flesh is the most soft and tender part, consisting of a pleasing ruddy colour, to show that she should not only be steady in her affections, but tender, compassionate, gentle, and amiable in all her proceed towards him.  
And when he had thus declared her Constitution, he gave her a name, and said,  
She shall be called Woman because she came out of Man. 
§ 35.  She was not named like to the beasts, 
Hanc deus vult vocare viraginem quia ex viro desumpta est. Targ. Higher  who had names given them without any reason given for imposing their names upon them; but here is a reason given, i. e. she shall be called Woman, saith he, Because she came out of man: And this was to teach her her original, and also how she should demean herself towards him. It shows Man's superiority to the Woman; because that which is derived cannot be equal to that from which it was derived: it shows also her usefulness by obedience; and this is not an humane, (as some Woman would have it) but a mere Natural, or rather a divine imposition upon the sex; for the Bone cannot but move when it is incited, nor the Flesh cannot but expose itself to outward accidents; so those pieces of natural Kindnesses which we call Obedience, (and 'tis pity any Woman should stumble at the word) are but the Instruments of Nature, & would prove easy and natural if it were not for a wilful resistance which destroys the Fabric, Harmony, & Cooperation of the Union between Man and Woman, as is between the whole Man and his Flesh and Bones. From which disunion the English Proverb comes, that Woman is a Woe to Man; but the Latin conceit is more kind, and makes Mulier quasi Mollior, a more soft, tender, and delicate Creature than Man; and the Hebrew Eva, signifying Viva or Vivens, being as it were the life or living part of Man, that is, when they execute the Duty which belongs to the preservation of Man, and when they do thus perform their function.   

Cap. 2. Ver 24.  
Therefore (or for that cause) a Man shall leave his Father and Mother, 
§ 36.  and cleave to his Wife, and they two shall be one Flesh. This seems to be spoken in an exstacy upon Adam's beholding of her Excellencies; 
S●perabitur ex domo ipsius cubilis patris sui & matris suae. Targe Higher  for Adam had no other Father but God, nor no other Mother but Earth, both of which he forsook when he was tempted by her to Eat the Fruit which God his Father had forbidden to eat, and neglected his Mother Earth, which he should have been dressing and keeping, when he spent his time in desputing the question with her and the Serpent. But this was intended rather for a Law to them that were to succeed him, for neither he nor we are to make our Kindness to a Wife superintendent to the Commands of God: we own a Native duty to one, Conjunctive duty to the other. For though 'tis said the man and his Wife shall be one Flesh, yet the Father, Mother, and Child are one flesh also. The mystery that is to be enquired is, which hath the greater Unity of Flesh, the Parent and Child, or the Man and Wife; the Child is but the effect of the Woman, the subject of propagation, and when the effect is effected, the cause, Ligament, and virtue of producing the effect, is as it were lost and Consummated in the substantials of the effect; but the Husband and Wife, so long as the Union Continues, have constant desires to produce the effects of their desires; and desires, so long as they are in any ability to effect, are far more strong and fervent, than those are which have received the end or satisfaction to their desire. So that upon the continuance of this Love or desire they may justly be said to have a more proper conjunction and unity, of Flesh than Parents and Children, and God and Nature ties them to a more secret affection than can be had to Father and Mother. And that which may fitly be added is, that man is not to forsake his Wise with his affections, nor his Parents which his obedience; and this Command to Man belongs to the Wowan also; for we may see a sad example not only in Adam but Eve, in forsaking God and his precepts; for although the man was only forbidden to eat of the Fruit, yet they two being one, the Command to one was the Law to both; nor did the Serpent so much as tempt her with this Argument. And this may be added, that the Latin calls Flesh Carv, and Chara (Deer) in the Adjective; and Charitas, which is a relative word to them both, shows that this deareness or fleshly affection between Man and Wife ought to consist of perfect Love and Charity towards each other.   

Cap. 2. verse 25.  
And they were both Naked, 
§ 37.  and were not ashamed. Shame (as I conceive) proceeds either from Pride or sense of outward or inward imperfections: Now they had not the Armour of the Rhinoceros, nor the Furs of the Ermine, or Wool of the tender Lamb, or the variety of Plumes which adorn the Fowls of the Air: But they had a perfect reason to continue naked or covered according to the nature of situation, from which the other could not departed were they never so burdensome, when ere they changed their Climates.  
Adam well knowing that those outward cover were but the Excrements of their tempers, so that Adam and Eve could not be ashamed in the want of these superfluities, nor could they be guilty of imperfections being perfectly form; their mind could represent nothing to them but harmless thoughts, their shape nothing but exact proportions, the motion of their Blood was according to the Course of nature, no obstructions from the spleen, or diffidence of their mutual goodness, to raise or alter the Current of nature (to a blush, or dejection of their eyes, filled only with the Beams of Innocency and constancy to God and themselves.) A Condition of life apt to meet with envious and subtle disturbers of so happy a Calm and quiet: they were united in perfect Innocency, and being made Male and Female, Moses renders them to us in the most eminent expression, 
Et erunt ambo ipst Japienties. Targ. Higher  as in the first Chapter, to which I return for the Reasons in the Proem.   

Cap. 1. Vese 27.  
So God created Man. 
§ 38.  That is, after he was made, 
sed non morari fuerunt in gloria. Targe Higher  framed, and form out of nothing, he was said to be Created, the matter or form, or both, of which he was made, being peculiar to Man, or more eminent in him then in any other Creature: for the word Created is mentioned but to 3 operations; 1st. to the Heavens and the Earth, next to the Whale, and 3ly. to Man; and they that would advance the invocation of the Trintiy in the Consultative part of Man's Creation from the words Let us in the 7. Verse, may be assisted from this consummative Verse (where the word Created is three times repeated, viz. so God Created Man in his own Image, (referring to the first person;) 2ly. In the Image of God Created he him, (referring to the second Person;) 3ly. Male and Female Created he them, (referring to the Holy Ghost.)  
In his own Image. 
§ 39  After his likeness, as in the 26. verse, being here left out; which shows that it intended one and the same thing. Now what this Image or Likeness is I may borrow from Plato, who saith, that there was a certain Idea, platform, or inward representation of all things in God before they were; according to which the matter being created, the forms by which things were distinguished were also made: so that this Image and Likeness signifies not otherwise, than that Man should be made like to that Idea or imagination which God designed to that Creature; or as I conceive that this World (as Spagnetus, in his Enchiridion Physicae) is nothing but God manifested, and so saw himself as in a Glass; & Man the little World is his Image or Likeness in the Epitome of that great Image or manifestation of God, Tanquam in minori speculo; but to conceit any Figuratine or Lineamentive Image of God St. Agustine saith, Let him be cursed that referreth the Deity of God to the Lineaments of man's Body; and Philo saith, That God is not partaker of humane forms, nor can humane bodies be partakers of the form divine: but as Sir Walter Rawliegh saith from some other, that if any thing comes near the similitude of God, it is more the virtue that is in Man then the figure. Right Reason is the Image of God, and Man hath in his mind a certain similitude of God; and this is safe to believe, safe to continue in by a virtuous & good life. But according to the Context of the words, So God created Man in his Image, may be considered that he was Created according to his Geometrical Image in all things consisting of number, weight, and measure. In his Image, even of the dust, being within the Image of the representative World: In his Image, participating of the universal breath and peculiar soul: In his Image, by participating of his general manifestation and enjoyment of all Creatures: In his Image, by a social and Communicative nature: In his Image, by a peculiar Love to his Elect: And in his Image, by multiplication and dominion: So that God is Man in great, and Man is God in Little.  
Male and Female Created he them. 
§ 40.  Some do from hence conceit: that they were Created Hermaphrodites; but whoever consults rightly with Physics will find almost an impossibility in that Conceit, for the intent of Male and Female was propagation, which would rather be hindered then advanced by such improbable Copulation, where the Agent and Patient must at one time naturally have a mutal operation or desire with each other; and by this preternatural form which are in some, they would make a perfection of the imperfection, or rather exuburancy, which happens to others of Humane race. So that by Male and Female is to be understood, that Man was made the Male, or Masculine, or Agent; Woman, or the Wife, the Feminine, or the Patient: And though it is said that God created them Male and Femane, yet Grammarians know, that where an Adjective hath relation to two Substantives (apt for life) of the singular number, and different genders, the Adjective shall be of the plural, and of the gender of the most principal word; so it is said, Creavit eos, not eas; they were not both Created Males and Females, but man was Created male, and Woman the female, and so created he then. And here is to be observed, that the word Created is applied to the Woman, though in the whole order of her production it is only said that she was made; which shows, that when she was united, and made one with man as man and wife, she was adopted into that title of Creation, and that not single but united; for Creating is a Masculine word, making or Production femine: And God did think fit to Crown the Conjugal union of Man and Wife with the Title of Creation, when as she being not joined must be content without that Title; yet this may be said for her, that Man by Creation was made out of nothing, or at most out of the dust, but she was made out of something, or Dust enlivened.  
The Jews in one of their Targums are most exact, who say, that God made Man in his Image, according to the similitude of God Created he him, with 248. members, and 365 Nerves, and covered him over with a Skin, and filled it with Flesh and Blood, Male and Female created he them; in noble form, & distinct sexes, of whose excellency and geometrical proportions I have writ in the preceding Chapters; but being created, made, framed, form, whether in that manner which I have mentioned, I shall not dispute.   

Cap. 1. Verse 28.  
And God blessed them and said, 
§ 41.  Be fruitful and multiply. I have observed that the word Created is used only in the universal Creation in the works of the 5. days, and in the 6th. day in the Creation of Man; so here I observe, that this Benediction is only used in this place, & in the 5th. day's work, and in no other parts of the seven days, but only in the seaventh day, where 'tis said, God blessed & sanctified it. The reason of this is, that all the works of the other days either produced no suitable species, as the Sun, Stars, etc. or if they did, yet it was by a natural production, without any Local action or copulation, as Trees, Herbs, etc. but Fish, Foul, and Man have Local and active motions of production, one only natural, the other natural and voluntary. Now to the seventh day or Sabbath there is a benediction or sanctification, but not the addition of fructification or multiplication for rest; or the Sabbath doth only quiet and preserve the Creation, but Action continues it with multitudes of species.  
However this was the first Joint Commission which was given to man and wife, and if we may believe the Jews, Adam and Eve had in their chaste Wedlock 30. Sons and 30. Daughters; whereas extravagant tempers seldom enjoy such a multiplying Condition: and we see that in those countries, where Laws of Wedlock are sacredly observed, the people are more numerous then in other Countries where there is a greater Liberty; for the Womb is quickly vitiated, by Commixtures, and either destroyed by heat, or over cooled by diversities.  
And replenish the Earth, 
§ 42.  and subdue it. In the Syriack it is, Fill the Earth instead of replenish; and in the Arabic, Possess it instead of Subdue it; which are better than the other, for replenish signifies a filling of that which was once full and now empty, and subduing that which was once conquered and rebelled again, which here could not be, if we believe that there was no Man till Adam, or Cultivations till he practised them; or else it must be thus understood, that besides the productions of nature (I mean as to terrestrial things) there are productions of Art; the productions of nature are those properly which were at first created, the productions of Art are those with which man's Industry (under the title of tilling the Earth) Adam did, and man since doth, replenish the Earth; as by Sowing Seed and Planting Trees he caused Herbs and Trees to grow, which is a replenishment to the first Creation; and by ploughing, digging, dressing, etc. of grounds, he may be said to subdue the Earth, or conquer those extravangancies of nature, which otherwise without man's assistance would destroy those Vegetables which are most profitable for man's use; and thus he replenishes and subdues it, or thus fills & possesseth the earth. And this was the second joint Commission to Adam and Eve, wherein both were enjoined from Idleness; the Man was not to work alone, nor the Woman alone, but he to set on the work, and she to help and assist him in prosecution of it.  
The third clause of their Commission was, to  
Have dominion over the Fish of the Sea, 
§ 43.  and over the Fowls of the Air, and over every Living thing that creepeth or moveth upon the face of the Earth. The word Dominion signifies the chief authority or power of ruling or taming, all which man hath over all other creatures; God did not give them a natural power to resist, but man either by his superior reason, ingenuity, or strength persuades or forceth them to a subjection. When they endeavour to violate this original supremacy given to Man, they may for a time fly, run, swim, or creep from his Commands; but he hath a Stand for the Eagle, a Toil for the Lion, a Hook for the Fish, and a Spade for the Mole: or when he desires to make his Sovereignty a pleasure, he sends the Hawk to fetch the Hern and the Partridge, the Hound to bring the Wolf, the Hart, and the Hare; the Cormorant and the Otter to fetch the Fish, and the Ferret the Coney; so that they are not only submissive to his will, but obey all his subordinate commands. I conceive at this time the domination did not extend, that they should be food for man: This, extravagant appetites brought into use; and when they begun to make Gods of men, they offered these creatures to their bellies God, which were designed for sacrifices to the only true God and Creator.  
And it is observable, that the Earth, and all that moveth in the Sea, Air, and Earth, were given to man's dominion; but not the Sea, nor the Air, nor so much as mention of Fire. One Element is sufficient for us, the other three have a dominion over us, yet subordinate to God's dispose; and therefore why should we too much wade in their Curiosities, or be troubled like Aristotle at our ignorance of them, seeing they are not within our Commission.  
The fourth Joint Commiffion was for their sustenance, and for that,   

Cap. 1. Ver. 29.  
God said, 
§ 44.  Behold I have given you every Herb bearing Seed, and every Tree bearing Fruit; to you it shall be for meat. Herbs and its seed, trees and their fruit, in which are Comprehended all Roots, afford so great varieties to please the  and fill the Appetite, that we need not seek for any other natriment; especially under those Climates where their virtues are more excellent. And when at first that food was assigned to our Forefathers, it was sufficient, and I conceive there was no edible use made of living Creatures, but only for sacrifices, till after Noah came out of the Ark; and I am apt to think that God was angry with Cain (not as Josephus saith; for offering things extracted from the ground) but for offering the fruit of the ground to God, which God himself had clearly disposed off to man, having appropriated beasts to be sacrifices to himself, as may be collected by Abel's offering of the Firstlings; which was therefore so acceptable, because God reserved them for himself; but cain's was not accepted, because they were given to man: so it was a mere breach of God's disposure. We are not to cross God's order; those things which he separates to himself ought to be devoted to him; those things which he allows us, are not so fit for him: we are neither to rob Peter that we may be enabled to pay Paul, nor to satisfy God with the fruits of our worldly employments, and omit the offering of those oblations which are more peculiar to himself.  
But whether this was cain's offence or not I shall not dispute with Josephus: I do not find that man's dominion did, extend to the eating of Flesh till after Noah went out of the Ark, and then it was permitted: but certainly if we could return to our Primitive diet, that life we should live by that food would be more full of health and vigour. But I will say no more to this Point, lest I offend the Chemical Doctors; only that man and beast did participate of one food, Man's with a pleasurabe industry (for so it was doubtless before the fall) where 'tis said, God put man into the garden to dress it and to keep it; but beasts with ease only, without industry. And therein man had the advantage; for what food man produced by his industry, satisfied his knowledge equal to his appetite; & certainly the knowledge of the nature of productions, and then the use of them to please all the senfes with their nutriture & medicine, was a gift as magnificent as reason is beyond insenfibility.     

PARS SECUNDA.  

The Text of the second Part.  

Cap. 1.  
ANd to every beast of the earth, 
Verse 30.  & to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat, and it was so.   

Cap. 3. Verse 1.  
Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made, and he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?  
2 And the woman said to the Serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:  
3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.  
4 And the Serpent said unto the woman, Yea shall not surely die;  
5 For God doth know that in the day you eat thereof then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as God knowing good and evil.  
6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also to her husband with her, and he did eat.  
7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sowed fig leaves together: and made themselves aprons.  
8 And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool (or wind) of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.  
9 And the Lord God called to Adam, & said unto him, Where art thou?  
10 And he said I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself.  
11 And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee, that thou shouldst not eat?  
12 And the Man said, The woman thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.  
13 And the Lord said unto the Woman, What is this that thou hast done? and the Woman said, The Serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.  
14 And the Lord said unto Serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all the , and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life.  
15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.  
16 And to the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrows and thy conception; in sorrow shalt thou bring forth Children, and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.  
16 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened to the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of the which I commanded thee, saying thou shalt not eat of it: Cursed is the ground for thy sake, in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the day: of thy life.  
18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herbs of the field.  
19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken, for dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return.  
20 And Adam called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.  
21 Unto Adam also and his wife aid the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them.  
22 And the Lord God said, Behold the man is become like one of us to know good and evil; and now lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life, and live for ever.  
23 Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden to till the ground from whence he was taken.  
24 So he drove out the man, and he placed at the East end of the garden of Eden Cherubims & a flaming sword, which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life.   

Cap. 4. Ver. 1.  
And Adam knew his wife, and she conceived and bare Cain; and she said, I have gotten a man from the Lord. And she again bore his brother Abel, and Abel was a keeper of Sheep, and Cain a tiler of the ground.   

Cap. 5. Ver. 3, 4, 5.  
3. And Adam lived a hundred and thirty years, and knew his wife again, and begat a son in his likeness, after his Image, and called his name Seth, for she said, God hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.  
4. And the days of Adam after he begat Seth were eight hundred years, and he begat sons and daughters.  
5 And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years, and he died.    


Cap. 1. Ver. 30.  
And to every Beast of the Earth, 
§ 1.  and to every Fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the Earth, wherein there is life, I have given every Green Herb for meat. Beasts & Man being created as is supposed much about one time, their food also was appointed the same; there is only this differance, that we find not any food assigned to them, until Man was first served; and then to show the difference of their Appetites, it is said to Man, Behold, I have given you every herb, etc. But to Beasts, Fowls, and creepers, every green herb; to show that Beasts were led to their Food by Sense, but Man by his Intellect. If the virtue of the Plant do not satisfy his knowledge of it, the Colour is not to entice, the Eye is not to be judge of his Appetite, though allowed to Beasts.  
This Green is the first Colour that is mentioned in Scripture, and this properly the first place; and indeed no colour is so pleasing to nature, and so stupifies the understanding, it being impossible to find out why nature should mantle herself more universally with this colour then any other; unless it be admitted that the beams of the Sun on the sudden reflecting upon Earth, do usually produce a Yellow colour, which being mixed with the Azure colour of the Air, and contemperd with the Liquid part of the Earth, sends forth a Green: For the mixture of Yellows and Blues produceth Greene's. And where it is denied to the superficies of the earth by shades or otherwise, it unites its force, and runs into the bodies of trees, & after asecret ascension mounts to the highest branches with a more sublime verdure. And these green Vegetables were to invite the appetite of Beasts without inquiry; it was Man's part properly to know their Natures and virtues.   

Cap. 3. Verse 1.  
Now the serpent was more subtle than any Beast of the field which the Lord God had made. 
§ 2.  It is conceived that beasts were made the Evening before man, being the very forerecited piece to Man, so as they had the very assimilation of man by way of approximation to his creation; and doubtless they did understand each others Dialects, and God had them in so great regard above other Terrestrial Creatures, that when he gave Dominion to Man, Cap. 1. Verse 28. It was over Fish, and Fowl, and creeping things, but not over beasts, so that that Now, whilst there was this Amity, this conjugation of Tempers and Disposition between Man and Beast, even Now, That is, Then The serpent was more subtle, etc.  
Whether this mass really a Serpent, 
§ 3.  or the Devil in the Serpent's shape, I dispute not; but conceive the Temptation might be by either: for those who writ of Serpents, make some of them (even known to our age, as the Basilisk and Scytala) so beautiful and cunning, that by their beauty, splendour, and subtlety, entice many into destruction: and there is an other sort, as the Lizard, that are so affectionate to Man, that is preserves him from all dangers. As for the first sort, it was not likely that Eve in the state of Innocency should meet with such Nocent creatures; and as to the other sort, their nature disposeth not them to nocency. But possibly the fruit being pleasant, and the serpent discursive, the one might allurethe other, persuade her to eat out of no evil intention, but as incredulous that God would deny Eve the eating of so delicate a fruit. But if it were the Devil in the Serpent's shape, than indeed he was Serpens Versatilis, as the Vulgar read it; that is, Viro subtilior, and consequently the subtlest Beast of the field.  
And he said to the woman, 
§ 4.  Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? What Language the Devil or Serpent spoke is not material, but that which was natural to either was understood by both: For it seems by the Text, that that which was said by the Serpent was but as a reply to the Woman: For saith the Serpent, Yea, hath God said (as you tell me) that you are not to eat of every tree of the garden? So we see here were discourses tending to a temptation, and she must be more Innocent than Eve in her Innocency who admits of such. For methinks I hear the serpent say, Hath that God who hath made you so beautiful, endued you with all perfections, given you all pleasures for your senses, placed you in so sweet a garden where nothing is wanting to content your Mind, or recreate your Body; and can that God be so unkind after all his kindness to forbid you the Eating of a fruit so inconsiderable? Yea, hath God said so? surely I will not believe it. And so she takes the Devil's Argument as granted, without consulting her husband, (to whom the Command was given, though inclusively to both:) By which means the Temptation went gently on. Now though this discourse of the serpent may seem strange to remoter Ages; yet I apprehend that in that time of Perfection Man could not be a stranger to the Dialect of all Creatures, I mean in the highest considerations of comparing the Chaps, and the Lips, or other Tendons, with inward intentions or desires; and this is done by the judgement of the Eye. But for that which we use by the judgement of the Ear, we read that some in every age have attained to such diversities of times, calls, cries, expressing the mirth, assistance, acclamations, joys, or sorrows of several Birds and Beasts; that Men, Birds and Beasts have enjoyed a mutual intercourse of affections: And the meanest Capacity finds, that every kind of Creature which affords a sound, is known not only in its distinct kind by its tone, but every individual species of each kind is also known by their Guttural, Labial, Dental, or Rostral sounds. Nor is it prodigious to me, that the Serpent should afford such persuasive discourses, finding by Common observations that all Beasts, Birds, etc. have a certain Raticination, and a Language to express it; the Horse speaks for his Provender, the Dog for his meat, and the Bird in the Cage for its seeds.  
But I wonder more that Eve having doubtless a more perfect reason as yet in her unspotted Innocency, could be persuaded by a beast (or the Devil himself) from neglecting her husband. But they that will suffer their senses to master their Reason, Love, and Obepience, will quickly prove wholly rebellious: And therefore without her husband she replies,   

Cap. 3. Verse 2. & 3.  
2. And the Woman said to the Serpent, We may eat of the trees of the garden: 3. But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the Garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat thereof. 
§ 5. See Part 1. Sect 15.  I Observe that the Command was given to Adam before Eve was made of his Rib, but it seems Adam had imparted that Command to Eve, and that Command and in unction was sufficient for her to say, that We may eat, or we may not eat. The wife's obedience (implicitly) depending upon the husbands: He is to obey God, and she him; and in that she hath a double reward from God and him: But when she strays from her husbands dictates (for she had none from God) we see what a curse she brought upon herself, and on her tender and complying husband, yea and upon the serpent which (if not the Devil.) It may be meant only a piece of Courtship to her. And therefore it is dangerous to admit of Temptations against positive Commands.  
Neither shall ye touch it lest ye die. 
§ 6.  Here she gave the Serpent (or Devil) the first advantage by a false reply: For first, God had Commanded Adam that he should not eat of the tree, cap. 2.17. and no mention in that Text of the fruit. Secondly, Nor did God ever command that he should not touch it Thirdly, the tree of life was said to be in the miost of the garden, which was not forbidden; but the place of the tree of Knowledge is not mentioned; and he had Liberty to eat of the tree of life, but not of the tree of Knowledge: So that the Serpent had sufficient Advantage by the Mistake of the command. Whereupon,   

Cap. 2. Verse 4.  
The Serpent said, 
§ 7.  Ye shall not surely die. You shall not die, either for eating the Fruit (which was not mentioned) or for touching the tree (which is not Commanded) or for eating of the Tree in the midst of the garden (which was the Tree of life) and not forbidden. And when the Serpent had thus possessed her, that she should not die for eating or touching of that which was not forbidden, he returns to the truth of punishment, yet depending upon the former asseveration, and saith, ye shall not surely die. For the Serpent had got so much advantage by the discourse with Eve, and understanding the Nature of her death, not to be a separation of the Soul and Body, but a deprivatian of God's Love, did tell her to this effect; so good a God would not inflict so rigorous a punishment upon her; for she should not die, but Live, and live now with far more satisfaction: For her eyes which were only as Senses, shall then represent all thing in their perfect Knowledge of them, For ye shall be like Gods knowing good and evil. But in this discourse hitherto both the Devil and Eve left out one expression in that command, namely, In the day thou eatest; they were both willing it seems to omit the point of time. And well may Procrastination continue as a punishment upon our humane Nature; she thought God would not be so punctual to a day, or it may be she did not understand what a day was, or it may be she had too various opinions of it, and not Considered as intended in Puncto temporis, either 12. or 24. hours, or a year, according to the Natural motion of the Sut: But it may be she conceived the day to be a Thousand years, which are but as a day with God. So that the day she should die should be a thousand years after the Eating, or a time undeterminable. Some of these Conceptions might make them omit the day; for it is certain, he neither sinned the last day of his life, nor died the first day of his death. So that we may understand it to be a death Contracted, but not instantly inflicted; and in stead of Morte Morieris, we may read Mortalis eris; Thou shalt die the death, that is, thou shalt be Mortal, or have a daily disposition in thee to death.   

Cap. 3. Verse 5.  
For God doth know, 
§ 8.  that in the day you eat thereof then your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be like God's knowing good and Evil. Now the Devil boldly mentions the day, when by his subtle intangling discourses he had gotten the day of the Woman: But (poor soul!) it proved her night; Their Eyes which till now were open to see all sorts of Felicity, are now dimmed with the shades of ensuing Mortality; so that though they have Eyes, yet they can see nothing, but the effects of their Ambition. For that knowledge of goodness which they had in perfection, by continuing in obedience to God's Commands, is now turned by their disobedience to an imperfect knowledge, which is the greatest Evil attend human Nature: For by this imperfection we scarce know what good is to be followed, or what evil to be shunned. Regions, Climes, Tempers, Accidents, and even Laws of Nations, giving Latitudes or Circumscriptions enough to puzzle the devoutest souls; and doubtless this is no similitude of a Divine knowledge, or to know as God, who I presume knows Evil no otherwise, then by suffering our Knowledge to be puzzled in attaining the unspeakable Mystery of goodness. And therefore the Targum of Jerusalem being tender, I suppose, in ascribing the knowledge of Evil to God, instead of you shall be like Gods, knowing Good and Evil; say, you shall be like the great Angels, who are endued with Wisdom to determine good and evil. And if the Planets and Spheres have their operations from the Angels, than the astrologians have the advantage of knowing good and evil by Collection: however, it is an equal infelicity not to know the distinction of good & evil, as not to be able to improve the one, or prevent the other. And the Chaldee Paraphrase says, Ye shall be like Princes; as if Princes were to be the Judges of Good and Evil: For good or bad things (which some call indifferent) are made good or bad according to the Nature and obligation of their Command.   

Cap. 3. Ver. 6.  
And when the Woman saw that the Tree was good for food, 
§ 9  and that it was Pleasant to the Eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise Here we see the foundation of disobedience: We first argue from necessity, It is good for Food; and without Food we cannot sustain Nature: and who hath more reason to be Careful of that than ourselves? And why did God exhibit us the view of Food, yea and good food, if we may not be our own Carvers? Then we argue from Pleasure; does God (say we) Create in us organs of sight, and those attended with such Agents, that we are pleased and displeased according to our objects; & seeing content gives life to every fruition why should we not enjoy what is most pleasurable? and at once please our taste and sight? And then steps in Ambition, and says, We shall not only please our senses, but our Intellectuals: We shall be wise as God, Angels, or Princes; that is, as any of our superiors. And thus by these insinuations we give ourselves Latitude to our own destructions; and this is the ground of ruin to Families as well as to States: The Servant would evade the Master's Commands, the Wife the Husbands, the Subject the Princes; Judging the Commands to be of small consequence, and so the breach easily forgiven, or advantageous to ourselves, and therefore naturally dispensibe. But doubtless the less the command be the more we are obliged to perform, because the performance seems more in our Power; and the more advantageous it is to our private Capacities the greater affront we give to the public by our disobedience, and engrossing that which should be either common or restrained, by so being persuaded and resolved to disobey.  
She took of the Fruit thereof, 
§ 10.  and did eat. This Fruit which Eve did eat is commonly taken for an Apple, but I cannot tell for what reason, unless that Malum is Latin for an Apple, as also for Evil. And then the next doubt is (for none knew the original of Latin) whether Eve did speak Latin in Paradise. But the small reason that I have heard for the Apple is, because if one Cut an Apple cross the Core, that is, beteen the stalk and the top, the Beds of the Seeds are just ten in number, representing the ten Commandments; all which Eve did at once break by eating the Apple, and that Fruit continues still which those ten marks. But whether it were an Apple eaten, or any other Fruit, as Ficu● Indicus, etc. is not meterial; the breach of a command is that which is denoted to us, and our Ambitious Curiosity in meddling or inspecting such things, though seeming trivial, yet are the Arcana Imperii, and not to be touched but by God, or Angels, or Princes themselves. Let the tree of Knowledge alone; 'tis meat only for our superiors: you who are Subjects be content to plant your Gardens, and sow your Fields, and converse with the innocent Beasts thereof, The Woman must not prattle herself into temptations, nor be courted by the subtlety of those who would beguile her into forbidden Actions. We see the Consequence; her disobedience breaks the Conjugal Bond of obedience, and proves to be both the ruin of herself and her Superior. And as 'tis in private Families, so in States, Schisms beget Faction, Faction Sedition, Sedition Rebellion, Rebellion Wars, Wars Murders, Depopulations, and even ruin to themselves and the whole Fabric of which they are Composed. So that certainly the great sin against God and Nature is disobedience, and the greatest Ignorance is not to know the true Nature and dependences of obedience, from a Child to his Parent, from a Servant to his Master, from a Soldier to his Captain, from a Wife to her Husband, from a Subject to his Prince; and not to be enticed, or go out of the Limits of either, till the guidance of Superiors directs us; wherein God is to be served in the first place, Princes in the next, and the other degrees according to subordinations. Yet the great deceit in these gradations is, that we are apt to say, That God would not have done what our Superiors Command, or would have done what they forbidden. Wherein the safest and justest Rule is, Not to think ourselves wiser than our Superiors, for they and we have our very orders and stations from God; and Angels, Princes, and Superiors are nearer to him in their several degrees, than those who are subordinate to them. And he is a dangerous Casuist, who undertakes to cleave a Hair between a Superiors positive Command and his own private Judgement, of what is fit or not fit to be done therein. For the Orders of all Men, yea even of all Creatures, are so Known and ascertained, that it is only a Criticism tending to Rebellion, when by subtle persuasions of others, which is meant by the Serpent, or our own inclinations, we are diverted from that harmonious Method which God hath constituted in the Government of the World, and more especially of Men: And it is much better to err in the Obedience, then in the Repugnancy. If any one in his own time makes but a due Collection of what Rewards he hath seen to the one, and what inflictions to the other, he shall need no other argument for the one, or dissuasions from the other.  
6. 
§ 11.  And gave also to her Husband with her, who did eat. What Moral man can say, but Eve was a kind Wife to let her Husband partake of the pleasures of her Eye, taste, and great expectation of Knowledge? For with these three arguments did Eve present to him the fruit: And it was from a Wife, whose very Beauties (she being then in perfection) were temptation sufficient to receive a meaner Present from so fair a hand, whose kindness was so full of duty and goodness, that he could not doubt of incurring the least prejudice from the tenders of her Love. And how could he, who had the command to forsake Father and Mother and cleave to his Wife, be so unkind, as to make the least expostulation or denial of the Testimonies of her affection? And possibly, (if the story be not altogether Allegorical) as some Fathers would have it, or Chemical, (according to Paracelsus) the Serpent might whisper in the Ear of Eve to this effect: Well, you think Adam Loves you, when possibly he only pretends this Commnnd from God merely to deprive you of so great advantage as you may have by eating that fruit, and thereby be equal in Knowledge with him. Or it may be he is Jealous of you, because I have been so long discoursing with you; and therefore it may be he will deny you, because I have persuaded you to it. Upon the whole matter, it is an evident Testimony of his want of Love to you if he deny you so Kind an offer, or the grant of that wherein there is no trouble, but seeming advantages to you both by your Condescension.  
Who at her persuasion did eat. 
§ 12.  It is a riddle to my thoughts, when I consider that the fulfilling of the Law, and the breach of the Law, have both of them their foundation from Love. And in those the Jews were so Critical, that they accounted the number of the Mosaical Precepts to be seven hundred ninety and three, whereof four hundred twenty and eight affirmatives, which were what we should do; and three hundred sixty and five Negatives, which were what we should not do. And the Moralists call those Virtues, and these Vices. And the truth is, in these there are no distinctions Real or formal; for even Lust and drunkenness, etc. are but the Excesses of Love: so that the same God, who bids us Love, and gives us Variety of amiable enjoyments, Bids us also forbear Love. Now, how can the Temper of one Man give Law or proportion to the temper of another, and make that Lust which is but a discharge of a different Temper; or that Drunkenness, which is but the natural satisfaction of thirst? And therefore are to forbear too severe a Censure, for every Man hath a proportioned Love, some but sparks, some Coals, and some Flames; and it is (or aught to be) the wisdom of every Man to know the Temper of his own Love, and not thereby to bound or limit another's; & his own (once known) not to suffer his Love either to injure others by a breach of Commutative Justice, or prejudice himself in not giving a true balance to his affections, by making that necessary to his Constitution, which is but adventitious either by habit, or admitting temptations, or wilful provocations. But herein we show our true Love, when our Love is fixed in obedience to the Law's superiors, and by restraining our Appetites to subordinate Loves, and bringing our Tempers to observe superior Commands: for God commanded Adam that he should not eat; so the delights of the Eyes, the pleasures of the taste, the Enticements of the Woman ought to have been subservient Loves to the love of his command; and though there are certain natural and inherent Loves, as to see, and taste, even things desirable in themselves; yet he is most happy that can make his Negative Loves subservient to the affirmatives of higher Powers, and such Law as are made intentionally equal.   

Cap. 3. Ver. 7.  
And the eyes of them both were opened, 
§ 13.  and they knew that they were naked. We must not think that Adam and Eves eyes were shut in their Perfection, and opened by their transgression; for before they saw each other in their full Accomplishments of Nature, and had no cause to blush or be ashamed: But being now sensible of their Disobedience, and not knowing how to blame one another, her for tempting, and he for yielding, they now not only blush, and are ashamed of their Disobedience, but like the Beast, that by hiding his head thinks his body undiscerned; so they by making themselves Garments thought that their fault should not be discovered. And it still continues in the Nature of Man to find out shifts, cloaks, and umbrages for his offences.  
And they sowed fig-leaves together, 
§ 14.  and made themselves aprons. It is probable Adam made choice of these fig-leaves rather than any other, both for the breadth, substance, and excellent qualities of repelling all tumors; but whether of them they made Aprons, Coats, or Girdles, or Breeches, Tranflators differ: But the Targum of Jerusalem saith, Nudati erant a veste Onychina, in qua creati erant; that is, They were disrobed of their Garment, which in the time of their Perfection was made of the Onyx stone. For there are stones in Italy of which they make most curious threads, and those spun into Cloth resembling our finest flexen Linen: and the like might be made of this. Now this Onyx stone hath a peculiar quality (as Authors writ) to strengthen the Spirits, and heighten Venery: And whether their offence was Venereous, adumbraged under the name of forbidden Fruit, may be Considered on. And great Reason had God to be Angry, if they enjoyed that forbidden Fruit, till God (as it were) had fully considered whether it had been more advantageous to Man to arise from the ground like the Mandrake, or the Sensitive Lamb, or like Barnacles from trees or shells) or that there should have been Incubents and Succubents to dispose of their Nocturnal ejaculations or decostations, without pain to Male or Female: like that of Adam and Eve, he only in the loss of a rib, she in being one.   

Cap. 3. Verse 8.  
And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the Garden. 
§ 15.  This voice and walking is not to be Considered in an humane sense, but every inclination to good, or declination of what is evil, is a voice from God to incite or prohibit; And every Motion which tends to an act of goodness, or deviation from evil, is within the Compass of God's perambulation. He walks in this world as his Garden, where we enjoy all pleasing objects to the Eyes, and other senses, and by our senses we improve our Knowledge, both in Moral and Divine Concerns; his Voice still attends, and his Motion gently persuades us. And yet miserable Men as we are, we see and approve of the best things, but pursue the Worst. And it seems a strange Condemnation to be punished for our inquisition and trial of all things, whenas by sacred Writ we are advised so to do; and that those things which are good for us to enjoy, yet are made destruction to us, by (as it were) a secret Inhibition. So that our Trial of all Things consisteth even of Nothing but Circumspections, lest in the most seeming Innocent Actions we should offend: For our Eating, Drinking, Sleeping, and inquiries into Lawful Knowledge, have in them almost undeservedly both a Necessity and Offence: And therefore the Apostle might justly tell us, that we are to work out out Salvation with Fear and Trembling. And it is remarkable, that as God is said to be walking in a Garden, where Adam Committed his offence: So Christ himself (as Religion teaches us) was walking in a Garden, and as Man he was Crucified for that sin in a Garden. And he that will observe the Divine Motion of punishment shall find (both in Sacred and Profane Histories) Examples enough to teach, that God is (as it were) punctual in his punishments, both as to Time, Place, and Circumstance, even to the third and fourth Generation of them who hate him; which Third and Fourth I take to be a septenary time. And as Adam & Eve consists of seven Letters, so their ensuing punishment was upon the seven Ages of mankind, whether Considered Individually to Man, or Generally to the seven Ages of the World.  
Walking in the cool of the day. 
§ 16.  God is said to be the Lord of hosts, to show his courage; and a God of anger; and yet a God of patience, though provoked every day. And even now when Adam had offended, and his offence known, yet he shown not his anger, but walked without any seeming passion in the cool of the day. And it is of great use in Morality, when we know our temper to be inclined to wrath, or that we have just provocations thereunto, that we endeavour to allay them by some outward or inward temperament; by walking, that is, by a private discussing of the matter; or by arguments of Forbearance, to mould our thoughts from anger or revenge. And in a garden, that is, by Diversions; and in the cool of the day, that is, by mollifying or refrigerating of that heat, unto which the Sun of Passion would otherwise incite us.  
And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 
§ 17.  I wonder that Adam and Eve, who had so lately eat of the tree of Knowledge, should so soon lose their Knowledge, to think that God's Omnipresence could be sheltered by the shade of trees. And we are more foolish in following their steps thus; when we have done amiss, we run as it were from God's presence, and instead of imploring his forgiveness or assistance, we study which way to umbrage our faults, and mix ourselves with the society of others; as if either the innocence of others should be a plea for ourselves, or the diversions which Company affords should obliterate the sense of our transgressions.   

Cap. 3. Ver. 9  
And the Lord God called to Adam, 
§ 18.  and said to him, Where art thou? It is said that King Mithridates understood seventy two Languages, yet he had thousands more to learn: for every individual Creature hath a language, and that language (though diversified by Organs) is universally the same, for if several men of several Nations stand near a Tree, which by the force of the Hewers is ready to fall, the universal language is Take heed. And though men differ in Letters and Articulations, yet we differ not in the sense which the Tree kindly speaks to us, and the Standards by are Interpreters. And thus upon all occasions the voice of God by his several Organs calls upon us, and his voice is labial, dental, and guttural, even as ours; for if he speak from his lips, that is, things pleasing to us; or from his teeth, that is, things displeasing to us; or from his throat, that is, things indifferent; yet still in all he affords an intelligible voice to us, which Adam well understood before God said in express terms, Adam, where art thou? And doubtless the invisible expostulations between them were to this effect: How now, Adam? Thou, whom I created from nothing; thou, whom after Creation I made superintendent of all Creatures, and for whose sake I made them all to be a pleasure to thee; thou, who wert to Prune & Dress those delicacies which I had Planted in the Garden; Thou, who hadst the freedom of Art to imitate and embellish what I had fixed in the nature of each Plant; Thou who hadst the Knowledge of all Creatures, and a more particular, nearness to the Creator; must thou so seclude thyself, that I must say, Where art thou? Art thou performing thy duty? art thou enjoying what I allow thee, or doing what I Commanded thee? And to this effect did the voice of God speak to Adam; who answered;   

Cap. 3. Verse 10.  
And Adam said, 
§ 19  I heard thy voice in the Garden, etc. It is not enough to hear Gods reproving voice, but Divines say, that to repentance there belongs Confession, Contrition, and satisfaction. He confessed his fear, but not his fault; nor was there any Contrition, but for his Nakedness, not his Crime: and for satisfaction, it was impossible, for he having disobeyed in eating what was forbidden, he could not satisfy by uneating what he had eat. Vomit is not a discharge of drunkenness, but an additional Crime. Charitable Actions do not satisfy for extortion, but rather adds a greater Crime, by getting and dosposing of that which ought not justly to be at his disposition. So that he heard God's voice, and shown his Terror, but no Confession, the discovered his guilt, but no Contrition; he gives Excuses, but no satisfaction to a God who had been so kind, so liberal, so indulgent to him.  
And I was afeard. The proper English word expressing Fear is afeard, not afraid; for afraid comes from Fray or Fraction of that Unity which ought to be with men; but afeard is from auferre, or a supposition that something shall be taken from us. And the Latin word for Fear is timor, that is, a present apprehension te mori, that the object of fear will produce death to the event: for though we do not discoursively (as here) dilate upon the Circumstances, yet whatever happens to a man by loss or cross, yet the result is immediately in the breast of man, timor, or te mori, that such an accident will occasion death. And I find it in the Syriac, (of which I have writ in my Preface to the Proverbs) where 'tis said, The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; 'tis translated Timor Mortis, The fear of death is the beginning of wisdom. And this was the beginning of Adam's Wisdom in his imperfections; for whilst he was in Perfection he neither feared nor was ashamed of his Actions, or that Death would ensue: And Doubtless the nearer our Actions are done to such uprightness, the nearer we are to his primitive perfection: But sin, or disobedience, either to God or Man, causeth both shame and fear. Now the reason of his fear is given;  
Because I was naked. 
§ 20.  He was deprived (says the Chaldee) De veste Onychina, of his garment of virtue which was restrained to obedience, in not eating the Fruit, or forbearing to do what was forbidden; in not dressing the Garden, or pursuing just, honest and beneficial employments to himself and others; and thereby not doing what was Commanded, and being sensible that he had divested himself of his garment Perfection, and that he had no defence for his disobedience, he tried what the Shades of the evening and the trees would do.  
And I hide myself. 
§ 21.  The Text saith not in what manner he hide himself, but it is much that neither the Tincture of his former perfection, nor the fear of God which is the beginning of Wisdom, which certainly he knew as well as Solomon. And we may see by this Text, that he had the fear of the Lord, yet it did not teach him David's lesson, If (said he) I ascend up to Heaven thou art there; if into the deep, thou art there also, etc. For than he could not have been, so ignorant of God's omnipresence, as to think that a few trees, or bushes, or caves, or the night could hid him. For my part I think his hiding an additional sin equal to the eating the Fruit: first, by distrust of God's kindness, who might have pardoned him, if he had not fled from the offence; for this in our Laws Consummates the Crime: and next as great a distrust, that God could or would not  him in his nakedness. And it continues still an Error in his posterity, who (in Want, or Poverty, or in our offences) betake ourselves to subterfuges, which aggravates the crime even with God and Man.   

Cap. 3. Ver. 11.  
And God said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? 
§ 22.  Hast thou eat of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? This word Who might be an argument for the Prae-Adamite; as if there were some other man to converse with, had not God explained himself in the sequel of the question, Hast thou eaten of the tree? etc. To show, that even dumb Creatures may convince us of our errors, and the virtues which are in them correct us of our vices. Things which are of a sanative nature tell us our charitable duty to others; things of a destructive nature tell us we are to avoid the doing of what is prejudicial to others. And it seems this tree had a double nature; it had a virtue to tell him the goodness he had lost by his disobedience, and an evil quality to teach him excuses. And 'tis no wonder this tree should have this double quality, when we see the Bee suck out of every herb Honey, full of good and medicinal virtues; and supplies her sting with a matter poisonous, hurtful, and evil. And the truth is, not this Tree only, but all individual Creatures have their good and evil in them. The good of the Tree was in the present pleasure to the eye and taste, the evil was in some poisonous quality, which not only infected him and Eve with all their infirmities, but by a traductive quality hath made us desire and do those things we should not. Nor need we wonder at this continuing quality, when we see the Gums of Trees continue a Balsam for an hundred years: And the Italians hold, that the longer some Poisons are kept, they are the more efficacious. And both of them have not only power over the Body, but the very Mind, (which is very near of kin to the Soul.) So that the virtues of some things make men good by rectifying their tempers, the vicious quality of the same intoxicate, and make men mad or worse: Nay, the virtues of the same individual Creature restores to life, the vicious part a present death. But that which is more considerable, is the Nicety between good and evil things; many times good things prove poisons by their ill use, and Poisons or ill things prove sometimes the best Antidotes.   

Cap. 3. Ver. 12.  
And the man said, 
§ 23.  The woman thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree to eat, and I did eat. Disobedience is the Nurse of Ingratitude, and Ingratitude of Impudence. Thus Adam instead of thanks for his Meet helper implicitly reviles God, who gave her; not considering that she was given rather to help then advise; or if to advise, yet he had the deliberative part in himself, to do or not to do, as he thought most prudent; but without debating that with God, he with impudence told God as it were, that it was God's fault to give her to him; and since he had given her, and that he was to show all expressions of kindness unto her, who had recommended it to him, he thought himself obliged rather to observe her then him: and thereupon without any more circumstance or excuse heard, She gave it me, and I did eat.   

Cap. 3. Verse 13.  
And the Lord God said to the woman, 
§ 24.  What is this that thou hast done? God said to Adam, Where art thou? though he knew where he was; and to the Woman, What hast thou done? though he knew what; yet neither of these kind Questions could beget a civil or confessive answer, but the Man said, the Woman gave it to me; and the Woman said, the Serpent beguiled her: but neither of them, though they knew they had done the fact, would acknowledge their own disobedience in doing it; for then possibly God would have raised some Antidote from that, or some other tree, without a future Saviour, to have Cured the infection of the Evil, and to have fixed the benefit of the good. But she ungrateful and Impudent as he, Replies, that the Serpent beguiled her, and she did eat.  
And the Woman said, 
§ 25.  The Serpent beguiled me. There need no inquiry into the History of Nature, to know what kind of Serpent that was which beguiled Eve, when as we see every Man is daily subject to be tempted by the same or the like Serpent. Pride is this Serpent that tempts us to Ambitious actions; Covetousness this Serpent that tempts us to injure others; Luxury this Serpent that tempts us into forbidden Embraces; Wine this Serpent that steals into our veins with arguments of Colour and Taste, Improving the spirits, and solacing our dejections, until at last it so Captivates our Reason, that when God asks where we are, we cannot answer; or what we have done, we can only say with Eve, The Serpent hath beguiled us. Certainly it is a great punishment on our Natures that we cannot Judge; or if we do, that we cannot refrain from Excuses, and make those offences, which in themselves are none. For Ambition rightly placed is a virtue, Covetousness Frugality, Luxury (if derived from the Constitution) is but a more natural desire, Wine a Comforter. He is happy who can carry a Balance always in his Mind to weigh his intentions and actions: And what is thought or done, not to be too Censorious of himself or others. For there are certain positives wherein our Judgements cannot err, and therein to say the Serpent beguiled, is no justifiable Excuse, but in things indifferent. 
Ecel. 5.  Solomon's Rule is very good, My Son, let not thy mouth accuse thyself of sin: make not those things sins which are, more; and Commit not those, which Certainly are.   

Cap. 3. 14.  
The Lord said unto the Serpent. 
§ 26.  The Serpent is called the subtlest Beast, yet doubtless every Creature hath a proportionable understanding of God's voice. Psal. 19 The Heavens declare (or speak) the Glory of God; (which he first Communicates to them) the Firmament speaks his handy work: one day tells another what is to be done the next, & one night certify another what deeds are done therein, there is neither speech nor Language but their Voice is heard through the world. Every individual thing either in its operation or virtual Communication speaks that to others which God speaks to them: For speech is not only that of which the Ear participates, but the other senses do (as it were) hear it equally with the Ear. We see the flowers speak their various colours; this flower says, I am Red, another Yellow, a third Mixed; and we do but repeat their speech in saying what Colour they bear. And besides, what individuals do afford our senses, they also administer discourses to our Reason and Judgement; how this or that is to be virtually applied: from one we get a letter, from another a syllable, from a third a word, from a fourth a sentence, from a fifth an effectual speech. And all Creatures, though we know not how they understand their proportion of speech which God speaks to them, yet they understand it, and only Man hath the disputative part granted to him; for though the Serpent was the subtlest Beast, yet God would hear none of his subtle replications or Evasions. But God said to Adam, Where art thou? And, Who told thee that thou wert naked? And, Hast thou eaten? etc. To which three questions Adam gave three answers; Thou gavest me the Woman; she gave it me, and and I did eat. Then he put but one Question to Eve, What hast thou done? To which she made two answers, The Serpent beguiled we, And I did eat: to show that she also was Limited in her tongue, though she would give two answers to one question. So that by this Text we see, that Man may enjoy a certain discourse, or ratiocination with God (for this was after Adam's fall) but the Woman a very little. But other Creatures are Subject to his Voice without ratiocinating, for without Answer from the Serpent The Lord said to the Serpent,  
Because thou hast done this, 
§ 27.  etc. It is not sufficient to refrain from Evil ourselves, but we are not to tempt others to it either by precept, suggestion, or Example. That this Serpent had a Cunning wit the Text shows, that he was Beautiful, some Writers affirm; Whether he eat or not let Commentators agree; for if considered as a Serpent, what good was the knowledge of good to him? if Considered as the Devil, the eating could not add to his Knowledge of goodness, because he knew more in his Primitive perfection than could be added to him by secondare means. However we may believe, either by remembrance of his former Condition, or by eating this, he knew goodness notionally, not practically; but the Evil he not only knew, but tempted Eve to the Knowledge of it. And this by his subtlety and Beauty, two such temptations to that sex, that their virtues must seem to resist the harmony of Nature by resisting of them, especially when they meet in one Persorn. And herein methinks Eve was more excusable than Adam, for here was a Lovely Serpent, a delicate Fruit pleasing to the Eye, delightful to the taste, and of a promising virtue; What Woman could well resist those Temptations? Now Adam had no more to tempt him, (as appears by the Text) than an implicit Love and Kindness to his Wife, for she gave it him, (without any persuasive induction that we read of) and he did eat. Now God did justly begin the punishment with the first offender (the Serpent) and gave sentence on him for tempting before he did it on those that were tempted, one being a premeditate, wilful and affronting act, against his positive Commands, the other occasional.  
Thou art Cursed. 
§ 28.  Cursing is an intentional Revenge, and Revenge is mine, saith God. But because 'tis sweet and pleasant to the taste, and indeed hath a relish of Ambition, we Mortals) who have only power to intent, and not a positive power to act revenge) do Lavish our spirits into execrations, which is an affront to the Deity, as high as can be given; and it is oft seen, that by them they heap Coals of fire on their own heads; for when there is such a Concretion of Evil spirits (as attend Curses) summoned together, they must fix somewhere, and (saith Solomon) A curse causeless shall not take effect where it was intended: And then it must necessarily fall upon him that did intent it, which is but suitable to Divine Justice; and therefore in things provoking our passions we must follow God's Example herein, who first examined the fact by these Interrogatives, Where? Who? What? and those acknowledged, he gave his Curse, and not before: we are not to be guided by provocations, but deliberations; and the Targum says, God called these three, viz. Adam, Eve and the Serpent into Judgement before he gave his sentence; and we see that a Curse is a thing of that transendent Nature, even Man and Beast, and the Earth itself, have felt th'effects of it. And though David (a Man after God's heart) did abound with them, as we may read in his Psalms, and imprecated God for their performance, and many of them granted; yet upon perusal of the History of his life we shall find many of them to take no effect on those he desired, and some of them Retorted on himself and family. God knows his own disposures best, and that many times the success of our Curses would be the greatest Curse to ourselves, for he will execute them his own way. So that we show our duty and piety towards him in forbearing, and our greatest folly in pronouncing them.  
Above all , 
§ 29.  and all beasts of the field. By  is meant tame Beasts, and by Beasts of the field, wild beasts. (as I have shown elsewhere.) Now in the first part of the third Chap. the Serpent is said to be the subtlest of the wild beasts, and consequently more subtle than the tame, for their want of fears, and their having (by a domestic Attendance) almost all things necessary provided for them, they have need of that subtlety or craft which is requisite for the wilder. However the Curse seems first to descend on the tame beasts, which in our Translation is rendered instead of , Cursed be thou above thy fellows; to show that the tame were his fellows, for therein was part of the Serpent's subtlety, to be too subtle for the tame, by his dissimulation of his tameness; and more subtle than the wild, by Contriving more inventions. I must confess I am posed at the Almighty's severity herein, unless it were because they were such fools to associate with a Beast of such a subtle and treacherous nature; and it ought to be a Caveat to all innocents', to be circumspect in their intermixture with such dangerous Companions; yet this daily happens both in Families and States; which can carse be prevented but by a sedulous care of ourselves and actions, and well weighing the nature and inclinations of others; seeing it is our Fate to be intermixed with such, we much abstract the wisdom of the Serpent from his subtlety, and be as wise as he, and retain that innocency wherein we are Constituted, whether it be like the Dove, or Lamb, or such other Creatures, whose gentle natures ought to be our examples.  
On thy Belly shalt thou go, 
§ 30.  and Dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy Life. The Targum of Jerusalem adds, Thy feet shall be cut off, and thou shalt cast thy skin every seven years, and there shall be de●ly poison in thy Mouth. Here the Targum explains this Curse by reading, that his feet should be cut off, and that he should cast his skin, and his mouth be full of poison which intimates, that he had feet, and that his skin or beauty was permanent, and that his breath was sweet and pleasing before the curse. Now it was not the want of feet that made the curse, for many creatures have the like want, as Snakes and Infects, yet are accounted perfect in their kind: Nor the eating dust, for most do so; for what creature in some proportion doth not daily eat it? For though 'tis said the Chameleon lives by Air, yet it is the Atoms or dust in the air that nourisheth it: Nor casting the skin, for most creatures do so every seaventh year; and Physicians hold that the skins of serpents and Snakes so exuviated are very Medicinal, nor having poison in their mouth; for most Creatures in some proportion afford the like, both Man and Beast; but the changing of that due frame, proportion and constitution to another which is worse, and that was, and still is the curse that hangs on us: For if our Eyes be made perspicuous, our Ears Musical, our Touch delicate, our Taste distinctive, our smell preservative, our Limbs straight, and our Mind pure and serene, in bodies harmoniously Composed; yet if we dim our Eyes, deafen our Ears, vitiate our touch, taste, or smell, obfuscate our minds by the ill contracts or habits of our bodies; These are the curses upon the use of forbidden fruits, that is, the use and habit of Evil Actions; for to use our sound and perfect constitutions otherwise then God by Reason prompts us to, is a decurtation of our feet, and an exuviation of our Constituted beauty, which sills us with such venomous qualities, that even our very Breathes are infections to those who are more virtuous.   

Cap. 3. Verse 15.  
And I will put Enmity between thee and the Woman, 
§ 31.  and between thy seed and her seed, and it shall bruise his Head, and thou shalt bruise his Heel. The Targum of Onkelous reads the latter part of this verse thus, Ipse Recordabitur, He shall remember thee, and what thou didst to him from the beginning, and thou shalt observe him in the end.  
The Targum of Jonathan renders that part thus; Et erit, And it shall come to pass, when there shall be Sons of the Woman which obey the precepts of the Law, they shall use their endeavour to strike thee at thy head: but when they shall forsake the precepts of the Law, thou shalt study to by't them in their heels; but to them it shall be a medicine to thee, because they applied the medicine to the heels in the days of the King Messiah.  
This Text is of an ambiguous nature; but because Jews and Christians make it the first Prophetic Text concerning a Messiah, and having written something of the Diversity of Religions, I shall refer this to some other place, to be discoursed of more at large. And though my Notions herein may differ from other Writers, yet without prejudice I hope to Christian Religion.   

Cap. 3. Ver. 16.  
And to the woman he said, 
§ 32.  I will greatly multiply thy sorrows in thy conception, and in sorrow shalt thou bring forth children. The Targum reads it, I will multiply thy affliction and pains by the blood of thy virginity and conceptiou: which shows, that as the Virgin Mary without fraction of any Membranes, which causeth that virginate effusion of blood, and consequently pain; and also without pain in conception or eduction brought forth a child: so should every woman ('tis supposed) have enjoyed the like benefit, had not this curse come upon them. I confess, 'tis scarce conceivable how fractions or extensions of parts could be without pain, but we see how Oils and other Arts prove Emunctions and Lenitives. And we need not doubt of the Almighty's power and kindness in imparting unto them such knowledge, whereby they should have enjoyed a progeny with pleasure, both in Admission; Ejection, Conception, and Emission, without that Philosophical doom (not only upon Man but other creatures) that all creatures after Coition are sad; which I will not dispute whether it is because the pleasure is so short, or some intermixture of pain concurrent or expectant; so that there is an immediate and inexpressible sense of the departure of some Animal Spirits from them, which are to supply another body, as it were robbing them of their Native properties. But for her complying with the Serpent, and thereby disobeying God and Man, she is justly doomed to those pains, which certainly are not way compensated with those pleasures which Tirisius tells us of, for those pleasures which are, are rather Inductives, and ensnare into pains and tortures, than any real pleasures: for we may observe, that those who enjoy the most, are loaded with Diseases and Distempers, either in Youth or Age, able to restrain the most Libidinous from enjoying their Fancies more than Realities.  
And thy desire shall be to thy husband. 
§ 33.  Our Translation in the word Desire follows the Hebrew; and Desires are in Latin Desideriae, derived from Sydera, the Stars; in which formerly, and now in this Age, we place such an efficacy, as to think they have a power over, or virtue to guide our actions: and such a desire aught every woman to have towards her husband.  
Other Translators call Desire Cupiditas, from Cupid, which is Cuipio: that is, that our desires should be to such, as to whom we may attribute a Piety or Goodness: and upon the like account the wife ought to have her desires towards her husband.  
Others render the Latin for Desire Amor, that is, a morte: that she is to believe, he is of power to preserve her even from dying by his vigilant care over her: and therefore she ought to have her desires towards him, even for her own preservation.  
Others read Desire Conversio tua, etc. that she is to turn and move according as her husband thinks fit to govern: for going two ways can never be successful and is opposite to a Conjugated Love.  
Others read Necessitus tua; that is, Necessasesse; that is, there is so perfect a necessity in obedience, that it must be performed by the wife, lest she cease to be, or at least to enjoy any contentment to herself or husband.  
The Targum reads it Appetitus tua, (a petione;) that is, whatever she desires of her husband must be in a submissive and petitionary way.  
Now though our Version saith only Thy desire shall be to thy husband, it doth not exclude his to her, even in the same senses as before recited: for doubtless as the question is undecided, whether we see by Extramission or Intromission: so it is in the desires between Man and Woman, whether the object of him attracts her desires, or the object of her attracts his; or whether it be an unexpressible uniting of visuals in a moment; (by visuals I mean the form and figure of what is seen, as well as that which sees.) And it is hard to find out this Attraction by other demonstration than this or the like Experiment: Take a piece of Iron untouched by a Loadstone, and such an other piece of Iron as hath been touched, of an equal weight with that which is untouched; lay these upon two pieces of Cork of equal weight, and float them upon the edges of a vessel of water: then fix a thread from side to side of the vessel, at an equal distance from the two Irons, mounted on their Corks opposite to each other, and the Irons with their Corks will by an equal pace swim towards the thread or centre to meet each other, and then both will join with an amicable embrace, as if neither would yield to an Attraction, but by a stately, easy, and equal motion, so mutually move to an union at their centre. And though 'tis said, her desire shall be to her husband, yet he is not to hid or retract his mutual and reciprocal love and desires; but to let them meet in one centre and conjugated affection.  
And he shall rule over thee. 
§ 34.  Regulabi● in our Translation; that is, he shall be as a King to guide thy public affairs: & dominabitur, says another; that is, he shall be a Director also in thy domestic concerns. Both which we translate, He shall rule over thee; that is, be a rule or guide to thy actions. Or, as Stars are supposed to guide inferior bodies by their influence; so by his piety and exemplary life to direct and guide her to an upright conversation, and in all hazards of life and death to cherish or prevent them. And were this disposition in husbands, and that imitation in wives, the curse would be a blessing; but the curse is still in refractoriness of obedience. And women are still subject to repeat what the Serpent taught, viz. that they may eat: that is, that they may taste of forbidden fruit, and take irregular courses, thinking to gain experimental knowledge, and that they shall not die, or be accused thereby for disobedience.   

Cap. 3. Ver. 17.  
And to Adam he said, 
§ 35.  Because thou hast harkened to the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree the which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it. It is the voice that gives the chief distinction to the several kinds of living creatures, and the species of those kinds are also distinguished by it; so that there is scarce any individual of any kind, which hath not some audible found or voice different from each individual of the same kind; and though each kind agree in the intention of their voice appropriate to each kind, so that they understand each other, as the Horse his kind, the Sheep his; yet Man, who is the rational Judge, doth perfectly apprehend (even in his imperfect station) that the individuals of each kind have different voices: even the Nightingales differ, though not in their Notes, yet in their Keys, some higher, some lower. But in all creatures which have Musical voices Man undertakes the Umpirage: and in respect of his own race, there is no creature to whom he attributes so much pleasure, as to the voice of a Woman; and the more if he hath some additional Affection for her person: for 'tis known, that their very speech hath captivated some men, not for the Rhetoric of what she speaks, but the mere Phantasm of her voice. And if we do this whilst we are under this state of Imperfection, who almost could blame Adam whilst he had the perfection of Judgement, and she the accomplishment of what could make her a perfect voice, so far to indulge his harmonious mind as to hearken to it? So that certainly God was not angry with him for this, but is was for his harkening to her voice of temptation, to such a voice as did not only please the appetite of Adam's ear, (for that was dispensible;) but such a voice as provoked him to an inordinate act, in doing what he was forbidden; for our delights and contentments ought to be guided, not by what is simply pleasurable and contenting to ourselves, but what is just and suitable to God's commands.  
Cursed be the ground for thy sake. 
§ 36.  We had need to take care of our actions, whenas we say by the Text, and daily see how many Innocents' suffer by our misactions. The Targum saith, that the ground was cursed because it did not warn Adam of this transgression. And it may be the Lord Bacon had his Fancy from the Targum, that the Earth was a great animal, and that the breath thereof was the Sea, which caused the Ebbing and Flowing. If so then, as it had knowledge within itself of all God's commands, so it ought to have admonished Adam, and not doing it occasioned this curse.  
In sorrow (or tears.) 
§ 37.  Tears and Sorrows are synonimous, for we do not express our sorrows so effectually as by tears; for groans and sighs are but evaporations of our troubled spirits, but tears are a more condensed and contracted evidence of our sorrows, as if recollected and distilled from all the suffering parts of Man. And therefore David prays, that God would imbottle his tears; of which I have spoke more in the Chapter of Immortality.  
And though we  shed tears for joy, yet they give such a compressure to all parts, that they seem to be derived rather from the cistern of sorrow than joy, because there usually follows such an immediate discomposure both to the body and mind of those who shed them.  
Shalt thou eat thereof all the days of thy life. 
§ 38.  The Chyle that feeds us in the womb, the Milk when we are born the varieties of food in our Youth and Age, is but a nimble transmutation of the Earth, so little, that the greatest part in few hours naturally turns to earth again; and that which stays longer, (our Blood, Flesh, and Bones) is still but earth in various forms and colours, even every minute subject to accidental alteratioas into its original mass: this is our Curse. But what food we should have had void of such transmutations or corruptions, nor Schools nor Human Reason can inform us, only our Faith believes, that when the days of life are ended, that our corruption shall put on incorruption, and our mortality immortality: in which state we shall be above the use and decay of Elements, because that Beautifical Vision which we expect will make us perfect, without any other supplement but itself, which consists not in fullness of any matter, but unexpressible Illuminations.  
Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee. 
§ 39  We may observe that God's curses upon those Innocents' have some mixture of blessings; for the Earth is made part of our Human bodies, and Thorns and Thistles have their sanative virtues on us, as well as prickles to hurt us. Spina signifies as well the Backbone, wherein our strength and health consists, as those prickles which offend us. And Joseph of Arimathea's Staff was transformed into a Thorn rather than any other Shrub, as a Signal of his Profession. And Tribulus (a Thistle) may as well be called Tri●bulla, a threefold Ornament, intimating the Trinity, which should be more discovered to us, as Tribulations or Trouble. And these Tribuli (or Thistles) have their virtues too as well as their offences: and it is remarkable, that one of the kinds of these Thistles is called Christ's Thistle by the Herbalists, upon supposition that the Crown wherewith Christ was in part crucified, was made of the pricky substance of that Thistle. So that as the Earth was cursed in bringing them forth, yet they had some kind of honour to be made use of upon so signal an occasion. And Thorns are of that great use in this part of the world, as that whereas before things seemed to have a Community, now by Enclosures and Fences made of them each man enjoys his own propriety with more secureness. And the Thistles give a testimony of the rich'ness of the ground where they grow and by Transplantation turn to an effectual nourishment, as Artichokes, etc. Thorus and Thistles do not exclude more pleasant Plants, for amongst God's curses there are blessings, and his mercies flourish with his justice.   

Cap. 3. Ver. 18.  
And thou shalt eat the herb of the field. 
§ 40.  Soon after Man was created, in the 29th. verse of the first Chapter, saith God to Adam, I have given you every herb, and it shall be to you for meat: there the Injunction was upon the Herb, that it should be for the food of man; but here 'tis said, Thou shalt eat the herb of the field, and here the Injunction was upon Adam to eat. He was at some liberty before to eat, but now his food is restrained; and therefore some do question whether we do not multiply Adam's transgression by our continued eating of other creatures, which were not then allowed to us: for if we consider the numerous living creatures, whose blood is shed to fill our Appetites, we have nothing almost to plead for the doing so but Custom, or some necessity to lessen the number of those creatures, lest they should grow so numerous as to destroy those herbs of the field that should feed us; or their Carcases by death be more offensive than the Ordure which we extracted from them. So that by this extravagancy of food we seem to continue our curse, in that we cannot frame and comply our Appetites to that which doubtless would be most beneficial to our tempers; especially if we consider the virtue of herbs, either in their flowers, brauches, or roots, not only sanative, but more safely nutrimental to our health then any other food.   

Cap. 3. Ver. 19  
In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, until thou return unto the ground. 
§ 41.  As Tears proceed from the motions of Joy and Sorrow, and seem to be extracted from the most internal parts, and so distilled from the eye, the most delicate part of Man: so Sweat by labour or pain is the extraction of the outward parts into a liquid matter, passing through the Pores, to ease itself by discharging that oily and watery substance. Now some parts are more apt than others to vent it, and such in Physic are called the Sudatory parts, as the Armholes, etc. because being naturally kept more warm, the Pores are more passable: Now the Brow or Face being more bony than those, yet do as quickly send forth that humour as the other parts, and the rather because the Spirits run towards the Brain, and that Pan hath many Sutures about it, through which that humour is more quickly vented. And there is some relation to the word Sudor Sweat, and Suturae Suitors; for through those the Brain doth more easily purge itself by Sweats; and they more commonly upon the Brow, near which the Sutures are, than any other part.  
Thou shalt eat bread. 
§ 42.  It is not probable that Bread (as we now take it) was known in Paradise; therefore the word Cibum is more used by Translators than Panem: that is, whatever food he should eat for the future, he was to labour and take pains for it, and that must necessarily produce sweat to the brow or face.  
Until thou return to the ground: 
§ 43.  for of dust thou wert made, and to dust thou shalt return again. Concerning these read my Discourse of Immortality. The Targum adds, And from dust thou shalt rise again, that thou mayest give a reason for all things thou hast done in the day of the great judgement.   

Cap. 3. Ver. 20.  
And Adam called his wife Eve (or Eva) because she was the mother (filiorum) of all (the sons of men) living. 
§ 44.  If we will give credit to the History of other Nations, there were other people then in being, and many years before; but the Children of Adam and Eve (say they) were the select people from which God did derive that Church, which hath spread over the greatest part of the world; first by them, than the Patriarches, than the Jews, than Christians: and the Turks and Jacobines assume an Interest, and do as hardly admit us as we them to the undeniable Progeny of those two Ancestors. But all agree, that at one time or other we came from the earth both by Father and Mother; and by experience we agree thither we shall return again: and most agree to a Resurrection of rewards or punishments for our virtues or offences.   

Cap. 3. Ver. 21.  
And to Adam and his wife the Lord God made coats of skins, and clothed them. 
§ 45.  Our English cannot render the words better than coats and clothed; though we cannot suppose that there were either coats or clothes in the infancy of the world, unless we will make it an argument for the Praeadamites: but according to the Arabic they were clad with the Hides of Beasts. But the Targuim of Us saith, God took off the Serpent's skin which tempted them, and put it on them: and it was but just that the Tempter should be so served; and 'tis wished those garments have not infused such a continued subtlety into their successive Generations, that the most part of the world consists of Subtlety and Cheats even to this day, and their former garment of Onyx or Virtue is now scarce known to us but by its name.   

Cap. 3. Ver. 22.  
And the Lord God said, 
§ 46.  Behold, the man is become like one of us, to know good and evil: and now lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and live for ever. The tree of good and evil, and the tree of life, have been discoursed of in the precedent Sections: that which may be added concerning the tree of life is, that it should have such virtue as to make Adam by his eating thereof live for ever. It is much that Eternity should so puzzle the world, whenas we see here that it had been gained merely by the sense of tasting or eating; for certainly even the best things we know or can attain to come first to our Senses, then to our Reason and Intellect; yea, even the greatest Notions of Faith have their original from some Sense, because by being sensible of things which Sense illustrates to us, we believe greater that are not so sensible: And Eternity itself is apprehended by us with the contemplation of a Beatifical Vision, which we see comparatively by those glorious creatures of light, etc. which with variety of contentments we daily behold; and so by the gradations of whatever we see, touch, taste, hear, or smell, the Contemplative man may mount them to such a pious degree, that every sense will as it were enjoy a present eternity, which doth not altogether consist in an undetermined continuance, but in a continuance which infolds all imaginary contentments, which can be gradually supposed by the most elevated senses. And though Adam was debarred from eating of this tree, yet our Divines say, that we now eat it Sacramentally; & without a Manducation there can be no Sacramental Faith. So that Sense is the first act which leads us to an ineffable higher sense, communicated to us by that tree of life of which we so eat; and this gives us so perfect a sense of eternity, that this thin shadow of Mortality cannot keep even the present fruition from our senses, and those senses wrap us in their present enjoyment. For we see in common Experiments, that Salts (and things of such agile natures) pass with ease through several Mediums: so may our Seases if they will employ their activities otherwise then to carnal uses. Which Adam not doing,   

Cap. 3. Verse 23.  
Therefore the Lord God sent him forth to till the ground, 
§ 47.  from whence he was taken. It appears by the seventh verse, that Adam was made of the dust of the ground, not within the circuit of the Garden or Paradise; and in the 15. ver. that he was put into Paradise, and there to dress and keep pleasurable what God had made pleasant to him: but here in this three and twentieth he is put out of the garden to till that ground from whence he was taken; and there by tilling to add Art to Nature, to change his pleasure into labour, and his ease into industry. He, who was the first man, had but a small enjoyment of felicity; and we, who are his successors, feel the momentariness of our contentments here; they pass away like a flash of Lightning, which vanisheth with its sight. Advancements to Honour do but tumble us so many degrees lower, Riches fill us with cares, Plenty with diseases, Pleasures with sorrows; and the same dust that in the Sunshine of Prosperity is raised beyond its centre, is by the Showers of Adversity turned into mire and dirt, and made so contemptible, that all passers by do shun it. And thus by a circular motion we are made, exhaled, depressed, and involved in the restless common mass of earth, undistinguishable from all things. But in our souls, which seem to have nothing to do here, but to attend the motions of our dust, and to give an account of every atom thereof, when the Cherubims shall be permitted to admit us into that heavenly Paradise, which we believe is reserved for us.   

Cap. 3. Ver. 24.  
So he drove out the man, 
§ 42.  and he placed at the east end of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life. The Arabic Translation saith Angels instead of Cherubims, which word Angels in a general notion includes all the Degrees of Angels: now the Schoolmen agree that there are nine Orders of them, viz. (according to Dionysius) Seraphims, Cherubims, and Thrones, Archangels, Angels, and Virtues; Dominations, Principalities, and Potestates. Yet they do not all agree in the ranking them; for some place Cherubims in the last Order but one: but whether first or last, we find the Order of Chetubims only appointed to this service. And as for the Flaming Sword, the word Versatilis is used here for Turning every way, and is the same word which described the Serpent that tempted Eve, viz. Serpens versatilis, and thereupon it may well be conjectured, that by this flaming sword, etc. is meant an order of evil Angels, appointed also to guard the way to the tree of life. For as there are Nine Orders of good Angels, so the Schools make nine Orders of Evil Angels, viz. Belzebub, Diabolus, and Belial; Asmodeus, Satan, and Merim; Abaddon, Asteroth, and Mammon. Now of these Merim (the sixth Order) is called Daemon Igneus, and is that Order (say they) which guides the Lightning and Thunder, and all ignital motions: and the study of Divination by fire is called Pyromancy. So that this Tree being kept by Evil Angels, Intimates to us that Immortality should not be gained by any of the race of Humanity, until God thought fit to open the way to it, and dismiss those Guards, and then the Good shall eat of that tree of Life, and the one thereby enjoy their endless felicities, and the others their endless miseries, if origen's Opinion be not more favourable to the latter. But concerning Angels I have written elsewhere.   

Cap. 4. Verse 1.  
And Adam knew his Wife, 
§ 49.  and she conceived and bare Cain, and she said, I have gotten a man of the Lord. The Arabic Translation saith Coivit instead of Cognovit; however both words signify the Doing the Act of Generation, which is still but a Tilling of earth, according to command. For how many have died in the very act, either by suffocating of the Spirits, or too violently transmitting them? But I observe, that the word Cognovit is used by almost all Latin Translators, and I conceive justly rendered from their Original, which comes from Cognitio, Knowledge. And therefore we need not wonder that so many Philosophers did contend, that the Venereal Sense should be ordained a Sixth Sense, because (as I suppose) all our Knowledge is made Derivative by that act. Besides, the commixture of Spirits in Coition make such Congratulatory expressions to each other, that their very souls seem to be in an Extacy, whilst the spirits are thus in Communication, and mutually imparting, as it were the Method of Creation, now in the instant to be traduced into a procreation. By the way I observe 'tis said, that God drove out the Man, but the Woman's expulsion not mentioned; yet here she shown the first example of her goodness and kindness, without Cumpulsion to follow and accompany him in all his labours and misfortunes, which is the most excellent property of a wife: yet she was no sooner come into the wide world, but she shown her Ambitious mind; for the Targum of Jerusalem reads this, and Adam knew his wife, who desired an Angel: and that Targum saith, that she Conceived and brought forth Cain and said, I have got a Man, or Angel of the Lord; from whence that opinion might arise, That men's bodies were only prisons here below for Angels, and that which we call souls are no other than imprisoned Angels, and that after this Confinement they return again to the Beatifical vision. However her ambition was punished in her production of Cain, who set the first bad example of Cruelty and Imhumanity.   

Cap. 4. Ver. 2.  
And she again bore his brother Abel: 
§ 50.  and Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a tiler of the ground. We find nothing in this Text of the Education of Adam's two sons in their Infant years; but so soon as they were fit for employment, Adam's discretion guided the choice, and Eves fondness did not obstruct it, (which is a good rule for mothers:) He saw the mild nature of Abel, and robustous nature of Cain, (as is evident by their story.) And it is said here by the Septuagint, Fact us est instead of Fuit; Abel was made, that is, Abel by that nature which God had infused into him was made fit for that Employment: And Adam perceiving his sons temper pursued it, and made Abel, that is, employed him in that calling which was suitable to his nature. And the like Adam did by his son Cain, according to his nature. We cannot force the temper or natural inclinations of our children, but when we know them, we should rather improve then divert their honest inclinations; and certainly these two Employments, as they were at first insused into the two sons of Adam, so there is room enough for all their posterity to take a share of them. For if we consider the Pastorul life of Abel, which is not only restrained to Sheep, for pastor is as well a Herdsman as a Shepherd, but hath a latitude of inspection into all such Creatures as keep together in Flocks and Herds; which indeed is most usual in tame beasts: and from thence we learn Wisdom, Sagacity, Sobriety, Temperance, and almost all Moral virtues; by them we come to know Government, the effects of Union, which keeps them from danger; and indeed almost all Physical Notions, as well Terrestrial as Celestial: and therefore it is no marvel that a Pastoral life hath such real and universal Encomiums, seeing it affords not only all the varieties that Contemplation can afford or administer to us, but withal so multifarious a mixture of the Active life, that nothing can be more satisfactory to us; especially if we consider the Products of those Creatures which are under their Tuition, whether alive or dead, by their Wool, Hair, Ordure, Teeth, Fat, Entrails, etc. (of which I have writ elsewhere.) Next, if we consider the Agricolist from Cain, where Industry, Art, and Nature do concur; how many various Productions there are to encourage Labour and Art by several Grains, Trees and their Fruit, Quarries, Minerals, and Earth's, we may safely conclude that there is no Constitution but may be fitted with a suitable Employment, both advantageous to themselves and others. Neither can any Parent be to seek in their election and recommendation of Employment to their Children, because their Infant years seem as it were to be allowed to the Parent, during that time to weigh and consider of Employments adequated for them. Now those other Professions, which fill the world with Contests, are not the proper Employments which were transmitted to us by Abel and Cain, but rather adventitious and intrusive; and we may see by their stories how dangerous it was and hath been to admit a Diversion from those Original Rudiments, especially in making Religion their pretence, as will be shown in the next Discourse between Cain and Abel.   

Cap. 4. ver. 3. to 17.  
A Digression concerning Cain and Abel.  
And Cain offered to the Lord of the fruit of the ground, 
§ 51.  and Abel of the firstlings of his flock; and the Lord accepted Abel's, and not cain's. Whereupon Cain was angry, and upon dispute with Abel slew him, for which God was displeased, and banished him. But yet Cain seemed to repent of the fact, whereupon God in favour set a mark upon him that none should kill him: and he went and lived in the east of Eden, where he begot children, built a city, and called it by his son's name. What had Cain to do with a voluntary oblation of his labours, (for as yet we see no order therein from God) as if he took a pride in them? Abel had as much reason to begin as he, but Abel did not meddle in such matters, till Cain set him an example: and this may be the chief reason why Cainn sacrifice was rejected, whatever Josephus affirms; for hereby he did intrude to that which did not concern his vocation, and afterwards as it were to sit in judgement with God Almighty, by disputing what Sacrifice was acceptable, and what not, and why God refused one and accepted the other, and which should be best the Contemplative or Active life. In which controversy methinks I hear Cain (as discontented at God's refusal) say to Abel; Is this that just God our father Adam tells us of? Was it Justice in that God, think you, to punish him so severely for eating a little fruit; whereas he that had power to make him, had as much power to hinder him from committing that offence against his Creator? Was it Justice, think you, to banish him from all felicities, and make him the subject of all miseries, who but a little before was made his Image and similitude? How can it consist with a Divine Power to be so inconstant? Or was it Justice towards me, that seeing we were commanded to till the ground in the sweat of our brows; and according to that command I have digged and delved, and from my industry, and merely from a pious mind, have dedicated my Labours to him as an acceptable sacrifice; was it Justice in him to refuse my sacrifice, and accept of yours, brother Abel? for you lead a mere Lazy life, and offered nothing as the Issue of your sweeting Labours, or worthy to be esteemed a sacrifice; yet doth this God accept of your Laziness, and reject my Industry. And therefore (saith Cain) I understand no more than this, (which is the Targum of Jerusalem) that there is a God that created the world; but yet he governs without any relation to good works, and is merely partial; for else why should he accept thine, and not accept mine? And the Targum of Jerusalem makes him more passionate, and affirms, that there is no judge of good or bad, nor no world to come, nor reward for the just, nor punishment for the wicked, nor that the world was created or governed by his mercy, because (saith he) my offering is not accepted, and thine is. But Abel was as positive (in which the Targums agree) who replied and said, There is a God; that he is no accepter of persons; that there will be a day of Judgement; and that he is a Righteous Judge; and that there is another world to come; and that there is a reward for the just, and a punishment for the wicked: and this affirmative was sealed with Abel's blood; for in this heat of contest Cain slew him, and thereby made him the first Martyr for Religion. And thus we see how the Disputes of the Ceremonial parts of it introduced the questioning of the Fundamentals, (as at this day:) and here we see Disputes turned into Passion, Passion to Rebellion, (the younger Brother, that is, the inferior against the elder or superior;) Rebellion to Murder, and almost the highest Murder, Fratricide. And yet it is a Riddle to us, how God disposeth of his Justice; for notwithstanding Cain's great offences against God and Man, by murdering his Innocent Brother, by his rugged answer to God, (Am I his Keeper?) and by his despair of God's Mercy; Yet I say, Cain, being convinced (as appears by his acknowledgement) that he had finned both in shedding blood, and denying God's Power, Goodness and Justice, order and disposure; and that his sin was beyond forgiveness, and greater than he could bear; God was so merciful as to set a mark upon Cain, to keep him from danger: and Cain had so much glory in the world as to build a City for a Monument to his posterity; whilst innocent Abel never obtained any higher Memorial than a great stone called by that name, 1 Sam. 6.8. and that blood which lay weltering in the dust, was called the blood of Righteous Abel, Mark 23.35. near 4000 years after the shedding of it. From whence it may be observed, that unless we know the time, circumstances, occasions, and secret reasons and designs of God's disposures, we cannot make any true collections who are good or bad by outward appearances, actions, or accidents; for the good endure Miseries, and are punished with infamous death; the bad go free from impunities, and enjoy felicities, Titles, Honours, Preservations, and pass in quiet to their graves, and both good and bad have sometimes a share of both. Nor is it possible to make a Judgement or these Rewards, because no man can punctually know the exact time of another's Conversion or Perversion; that secret is only known to God himself, and we are not to doubt of God's Power or Justice from the Consequences of humane felicities or infelicities; or think that present Rewards are Gods approbations, or infelicities his inflictions: nor ought we to trouble ourselves with the Method or differences of other men's devotions, but we are to mind our own quiet or industrious Employments, there being sufficient choice (as I said) out of those principles of Pasturage and Agriculture to busy all sorts of ingenious Natures and Tempers, without meddling with any Controversy in Devotions, or questioning of God's acceptation of what we or others do, being done with outward Conformity of worship, and inward clear intentions to please him. For the business of Religion is a particular Employment not pertaining to Pasturage or Agriculture, which, as I said, contains all Temporal Employments. And when men did multiply, God did think fit to set up Melchisedeck, which was thought to be Seth, because men for the future should not make their voluntary Oblations without directions from such a function as was properly ordained for it. And after him the Levitical Order, purposely to direct and instruct men in their duty of Devotion and Spirituals. And as Cain and Abel were punished for intruding into their Function (which may seem to be then dispensible, in respect there were none ordained to it,) so it is as inconsistent and dangerous for that Order to meddle with the Functions of Cain and Abel, unless it be by way of inspection, or contemplation of God's Creatures, but not of occupation or mixing of Functions; for by one the State is destroyed, by the other the Church. And I further observe, that the first Priest we read of was King of Salem, to show that the directions in that function did proceed from the King or Government, which is best able to judge of its own Method in offering to God what is fit and consonant to its constitution: and the Order of Priests are to give their suitable instructions, so as these different Vocations may neither interfere nor encroach on each other, as properly belonging to the supreme Magistrate to keep them in a true Balance.   

Cap. 5. Verse 3.  
And Adam lived a hundred and thirty years, and knew his wife again, 
§ 52.  and begot a Son in his Likeness, after his Image, and called his name Seth. For she said, God hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew. I observe that these two exemplary Parents did not torment themselves with passion for the murder of their eldest, and deprivement of their youngest son; or that they (as it were) lost them in the prime of their youth, when they had been instructed in civil and Religious duties, and were Capable of such Employments (as may be collected by the Text;) or for the want of such associates and assistants to their enjoined Labours: None of these (I say) did promote a passion in them, or any reluctancy against their Creator's disposure, it seeming equal to have no Children, or to have them with the care of Education and the anxieties in the loss of them, or the discontents which may happen by their ill deportments; but with patience and silence they undergo what God thought fit to permit, and a blessing did follow it; for he had another son in his Likeness after his Image, which (saith the Targum) was like him in features, and like Abel in goodness of disposition; for as Abel was a keeper of Sheep, and Cain a husbandman, this son Seth (as is conceived by some) was that Melchisedeck, as I said, who was a Priest of the Living God. And thus in some measure every man's Patience and submission begets some Reward, which hath a similitude to his expectation.   

Cap. 5. verse 4.  
And the days of Adam after he begat Seth were eight hundred years, 
§ 53.  and he begat Sons and Daughters. According to some Rabbins Adam had thirty sons and thirty daughters; and though it be said here, he begat sons and daughters; yet it doth not exclude such daughters as were begotten before Seth, which those Rabbins say were two, Calmana and Deborah, and that they were the Wives of Cain and Abel, and if so, then probably when Abel was slain Cain took them both to be his wives; and then admit that they were all four born within four years of Adam's Expulsion out of Paradise, then within thirty years they might be all four capable of procreation, and have Children; so that the pre-Adamite needs not seek for the assistance of another Nation to People the Land of Nod, or the City of Enoch, since upon an easy multiplication in less than one hundred years, they and their progeny might easily produce and carry thither above five thousand persons.   

Cap. 5. verse 5.  
And all the days of Adam were nine hundred and thirty years. 
§ 54.  Eternity is so Circular, that a thousand years are but as a day, and a day but as a thousand years; our knowledge of it is in the Abstract, and therefore there is framed to us some Epoches and progresses by which this Eternity moves in its Circle; and to pass by Minutes, Hours, and those smaller gradations, we come to days, weeks and months, and years; and we make the Year to consist of Months, the Months of Weeks, and the Weeks of days. Now those who are not guided by those proportions, do make a diversion from these equal paths wherein Eternity would guide us; and those who seem to be confounded in their various Commensurations; for some accounted four weeks or eight and twenty days to be a year, others seven months or eight and twenty weeks; others accounted their years by Winters, others by Summors; some by Nights and Days artificial, supposing I presume the Winter to be the dead time of the year, and the Night no part of our life, and therefore ought not to be Computed within the compass of the Living year. But in later Ages the year was settled according to the Natural day, consisting of four and twenty hours, and the Sun and Moon dividing it into twelve Months, or thirteen Moons, or fifty two Weeks; within the year contained three hundred sixty five days; but there happening six hours over in the year (to supply all defects by way of Intercalation) they have added one day at the end of every fourth year, which is called the Bisseztile or Leap year, because in that year by that addition of one day there happens two days which must necessarily be called Sextilis Calend arum Martii, by reason of the interposition of that day, consisting of the forty six hours interposed; so that all those lesser Computations of the year being reconciled to my hand, I may go clearly upon the Literal sense (as I have hitherto done in these discourses) and affirm, that Adam lived Nine handred and thirty years, accounting the years either according to the Julian or Gregorean Settlements, one being but 186. days more than the other in 930. years: For were it months or quarters, Mahalael and Enoch, who begat children at sixty five years, would not have been out of their Infancy when they are said to beget Children: nor do I see any ground why we should doubt that they lived so many years (accounting according to our Computations) when as they were nearer to the original perfection wherein Adam was made, and knew the sanative virtues of all things; nor had they those temptations of Exorbitancies which grew up with the exuberancy of the world. Besides, we see even in our times to what great Ages Men and Women have arrived even to two and three hundred years, though Climes, constitutions, vitiations by food, and other inordinacies do distemper that harmony of nature, by which our forefathers did subsist.  
Now nine hundred and thirty years want but seventy of a thousand, and a thousand are but as a span; the span is but what it can grasp, and why should we labour to grasp that which (whether we hold or not) is equal at present, but disadvantageous not only in the riddance of Anxieties, but also procrastinating those happy Expectations, which even Common Reason guides us to believe. For though there is no mention made in our Translations how Adam was disposed of after he died, yet the Targum of Jerusalem says, Mortuus est, & collectus fuit e medio Mundi: And it is sufficient he was taken out of the midst of the troubles and anxieties of the world. And there can be no doubt, but that he who was imprisoned here nine hundred and thirty years for his offence, and had worn the badges of mortality in the skins of dead Beasts for his clothing, and digged his grave so oft in cultivating the Earth, as a reward for his frugality and industry (after his death) enjoyed such quiet felicities as I hope will be given to all such as shall live and die here in a clear submission to our Creators Will.  
And he died. 
§ 55.  We read of three sorts of death; the Violent, which befell Abel; the Natural, Adam; and the Transmutative, Enoch: yet these distinctions relate only to the manner, for death is the same to all; and as the Poet saith, there are a thousand ways to it. If it be forced, 'tis still a death; or transmuted, (which is a kind of insensible force) it is still a death; or according to the extent of Nature, when she or the soul being weary of the confusions of this life, retires and hides itself from performing any further offices to the body; it is still a death. And though Adam is said to live nine hundred and thirty years, which is three hundred thirty nine thousand six hundred thirty six days, (in which I compute the Bissextile days) and if those days be accounted by hours, and those hours by minutes; yet it may truly be said, that so many minutes as he lived, so many minutes he died; for the Casualties which occasion death are as many as those which attend our lives, and therefore he which lives longer than another, passeth by only so many more Casualties; his life is not the longer, though prolonged, because death hath still an Interest in every prolongation, and is so clearly concerned, that 'tis not to be judged, who is living or who dying. At our Birth we break the Prisons of Death, and lie at the mercy of Midwives, or other Keepers for our Evasions; in our Infancy, Nurses and Tutors; in our Youth, our Extravagancies; in our riper years, our discretion and indiscretion, madness and sobriety, are equal attendants; in Age, diseases and infirmities are ready to usher us to the Grave (a more severe Prison;) and yet with little difference, for the grave of the womb gives life to us, and the other by our death gives life to multitudes of vermin; they by Corruption enrich the Earth, the Earth by that fertility affords us food, that food supports life: And so there is a Circulation of Generation and Corruption; and those possibilities being in either, 'tis hard to judge which is living which dying. And it is not only thus in Terrestrials, but even in Celestials: The day dies, the night produceth another, that dies again. And so in those glorious Creatures in the heavens there is also a visible Rotation of living and dying, and our life and death is but as night and day. And it seems an incivility towards God, or rather an affront to his disposure, to desire a long life, as if we would afford no room to our successors, or permit God to be seen by any but ourselves in his unexpreffible variations. And therefore the most consonant way to our Immortality is to live in a continued mortification: For so we shall live by dying, and die by living.    

Of Life, Death, Resurrection, and Immortality: As also of the Chemistry of Nature operating in our souls and bodies by which they are forced to rejoin.  
1 Cor. 15.22.  
FOr as in Adam all die, so in Christ (the second Adam) all shall be made alive, or have resurrection from the dead. The joint operation of man's soul and body is called Life; the Cessations of those joint motions Death. The operations and constant exchanges which Nature admits of are perplexities; for nothing in life is pleasure but the enjoyment of an equal and contented mind; knowing ourselves totally, or in our particles, to be every minute hurled about with the vicissitude of Constitutions; the Cessation, (or at least our want of knowledge what is done in the grave) seeming to be our quiet: But how far, or how long it continues 'tis hard to judge, seeing our corrupted parts are hourly traversing into various Productions, of which we consist, and into which we return again. But by reason of this Cessation or seeming separation (not only of soul and body, but of the parts of the body into millions of forms) we (to support our belief in the union of our parts) seek after the progresses and inclinations of other Creatures to theirs, (notwithstanding their several Contingent obstructions;) and therefore I think fit to set down several observables. And in the first place that Experiment of reviving a Plant out of its ashes is a noble piece of Chemistry, 
Dr. brown's Religio Medici.  and serves well to this purpose. And though such a revived Plant may want some of its Accidents, yet the very revivification of it, if it gains not a full satisfaction to Immortality, yet it affords us a fair testimony of the possibilty of our Resurrection; for then all the Accidental defects of nature shall be volatile, but the virtues and perfections of nature fixed. Indeed if we could find out by art a revivification of Vegetables in all their accidents, we should make Immortality too common: it is enough if a man can make any experimental inducement to his faith, and give an imitation to future perfection.  
The whole Art of Chemistry, what is it (as I conceive) but to dissolve the nature of a Creature, and to recollect it again, if not into its superfluous accidents, yet into a noble Evidence of its virtues? And this is done not so much by the force of Arts, as by the secret instinct and greediness of its own disposition to unite its scattered nature. And that which is worthy of obfervation for our use in this Art is, Let the gross body of any Creature be dissolved or dissected into many parts, that remaining part which is visible to us, after its dissolution, may by art be made to represent the form of itself whilst it had an entire being. This may be seen from the distillation of Plants, (that is, the Extract of them:) As for example; Make of Rosemary such a Liquor as we call the sulphur, by some the essence or spirit of it, and put it into a Viol or glass closed up, as Chemists do, after a little settling it shall by a certain kind of vapour or mist represent to the eyes the very shape of Rosemary.  
And this may be more easily illustrated by another Experiment: About the spring time (when the bark gins to run,) take a young Ash, and saw it off about a foot from the ground; then make a Concave hole in it, and cover it, and the sappy juice or blood of it will rise up and fill the hole: then Lave out so much water as rises in it, and put it into a glass, and stop the glass, as Chemists do, by closing the Metal of the glass, and every spring you shall discern in the glass as it were an Ash tree. Now I cannot tell whether the Mist mentioned in Genesis was the Essence with which God then endued all Vegetables, making them conspicuable to Man, which before was not. And by this we may judge of the rational and vegetative soul; this had perfection of information from this Mist which watered the Earth: The other from the breath of the Almighty. And whether by this breath is meant a misty and waterish humour (if with reverence we may so conceive of the divine breath, or according to my former opinion) is uncertain: But if either, than the Operations of the one may well advance the belief of the other. And if this Experiment should hold in man's body as in Vegetables, how easy is it to conceive the manner of man's resurrection, when by God Chemistry the Essence of each man in an instant represents to God (or to Man, being made capable of such a sight) the true Effigies and proportion of his body?  
And in this notion, why may not I make use of that Metaphorical Speech of David? Put my tears into thy bottle, O Lord; which tears were the tears of Compunction and sorrow for sin, proceeding from a Contrite heart, and a devout brain, not from the Redundancy of a salt humour: so that I may call such tears the very Liquor of life. Now whether such Cordial tears, if they were put into a glass, would represent Man, David (that understood the secrets of God) knew best. And the experiment were not unworthy the Trial by a Penitent Christian, to weep till he saw himself in his own tears. But because there is seldom in man that true distillation or extract of tears which there ought to be, the experiment may be fallible.  
But that which may more easily be tried, is to take a Starling, and cover it with two wooden hollow dishes, and it will weep itself to death; and that Liquor were a fit subject for the Experiment of sensitive souls, till we can meet with a more certain one for the rational. But to go a little further with some notions or fancies concerning our Resurrection.  
If by a Cabalistical Geometry it could be found out how many humane bodies the Earth could afford out of its bulk, of which men's bodies were at first, are still, and shall be (as it were) remade, allowing to each humane body, such a proportion of its mould or dust as will make it suitable to the most perfect pattern, (for the best Divines hold we shall rise with perfect bodies, and of such perfect dimensions as I have writ in a former Chapter in this book) I believe the general resurrection might then be known. If also by an Historical Account it might be given in how many such parts of the Earth have been already informed by souls, and how much still remains to be informed. But because Art may be fallible in so great a work of Fancy, we must submit to Faith; by which I believe, that when the whole Earth shall be disposed into bodies, that which we call the General Resurrection will follow: And that when Heaven and Earth shall pass away, the bodies of the wicked shall remain in the place of the Earth, which shall be their Hell; and the bodies of the just in the place of the Celestial Orbs, which shall be their Heaven.  
This kind of Resurrection or resumption of our Earth doth not cross the Scriptures, but confirm them; which says, the Earth shall be no more, and that it shall be Consumed by fire: for by this resumption or transformation, the Earth shall (as it were) be turned into nothing, because its parts shall become another thing. And there is a necessity that fire should do this, for we see how metals will admit several mixtures with other metals; but let fire come once to dissolve them, and they will all run with violence each to his proper kind. Now seeing this, I can easily believe that each body (though divided into Millions of parts) in the general Conflagration will run nimbly through all mediums to that soul, which once in one bulk they owned, and which I still believe with a diffusive virtue constantly hovers over it in its dissections. And in this dissolution or mutation (to confine my speculations to what our Divinity imparts) the godly, being of a more refined metal, shall run one way, and the ungodly (as David says) shall be put away like dross.  
Now that our Terrestrial bodies shall not be consumed or annihilated by this fire, I have seen experimented in Iron Kilns, (where the Iron stone is dissolved) there you shall very often find large pieces of Charcoal fall down with the Liquid Iron into the Furnace, 
This Charcoal is made of the Withy-tree, which grows frequently in Worcestershire, where I first observed it.  and from thence, when the Iron is let forth, it will swim out with it, but floating on the top of the Iron; and those pieces of Charcoal the fire hath no power over, or doth not consume.  
But that which gives a more delicate relish to the soul is another trivial Experiment, that if a Combustible matter be joined to that which is not so Combustible, the less Combustible will preserve the Combustible from destruction. As for example:  
Take a piece of Thread, and tie it close about a piece of Iron, and the flame of a Candle will never burn it; so out bodies (though combustible) being then joined to our souls of a spiritual and uncombustible matter, will be preserved from destruction and power of the Fire.  
And though these Conclusions by Fire be pertinent to the manner of our resurrection in so many variations, yet because the reunion of our parts is the knottiest piece of our belief, I shall assist mine with two Observations, concerning the Magnetic and concatenating virtue of most Creatures, either entire, or in parts; by which may be seen their inclination to union. As in the greedy society of men to men, and sometimes fat men to lean, and lean to fat, either to supply the defect, or deduct the superfluity of either; beasts to beasts, Fowls, Fishes, Trees, Herbs, and Stones, to their kind; or in the dismembering or dividing of most of these, how sensibly the parts divided seem to covet and fly to a Rejunction: as may be experienced in our dismembered parts, but more fully in Snakes, Eels, Worms, (whose divided parts will run to each other.) The Experiment is more eminent in two pieces of raw Beef (cut from one Beast) put into a pot of water, wherein adding a competent proportion of Comfrey, let them boil a while, and they will close together; but if the flesh be from two beasts, the Comfrey will not cement them. But the Demonstration is more noble in Metals, of which take several pieces of Gold, Brass, Silver, Iron, Tin; make them into the shape of Pins, two of each sort, and lay them gently upon water in a Basin, (and if it be carefully done they will not sink;) then you shall perceive, that as they float, they will naturally hunt about to find each its proper kind; As Brass to Brass, Tin to Tin, etc. and drawing near to their own, will seem to embrace with a certain joyful violence. The second observation is of water: Take of that which runs through several Minerals, and distil it, and when the liquid part is evaporated, the fixed matter that remains will lie in distinct parts, according to the number of Minerals which the water hath passed through. Thus our bodies, like several Liquors of different weight, (though jumbled together) will of themselves return to their due place, and position; and though they be promiscuously tossed and used for the present by the several contrary and obliqne course of the spheres, and other interposures, yet the first mover once ceasing and giving stop to the rest, all nature will return to a quiet harmony, and every Genius to embrace its own individuals: Or else I conceive that the Composition of Man (in his secundary productions since his Creation) being merely compacted of variated or corrupted Elements; which makes some incline to Philosophy, others to Rusticity; some of the disposition of Birds, others of Beasts. Having thus past through the whole nature of other Creatures, as Trees, Flies, Worms, Birds, Beasts, Earth, Water, Air, and Fire, etc. All substances, from whence innumerable species are derived, shall at the last Conflagration or general Resurrection be dissolved into humanity, to make each man more or less intelligible, according to the natures of those individuals of which he hath had an ingrossment or participation.    

Epilogue.  
THese several Philosophical Notions support my Faith in the belief of Divine Matters. If there be any man of so steadfast a faith, who cares not for the use of Reason, Sense, or Fancy, in the conceiving of these and other Mysteries, I commend and admire him; he may in time remove Mountains: for my part, God hath made me a Rational Creature, and in Divine matters, what cannot be comprehended by my Reason, I shall implore his grace to give me faith to believe the possibility of them. In the mean time I shall be humble in my Enquiry after them, and if I may borrow something from Nature, and from Fancy, from Sense, or Reason, to instruct me in such Mysteries I shall not neglect them: But I shall study by not knowing them, to keep my Devotion, 
For the Etymology of Phansee is no mere than I would fain see.  rather than to lose it by too curious a speculation. My Knowledge in Nature, my Fancy, Sense, and Reason, shall be all subject to Faith; not doubting but Faith will afford them all such a supernatural Light as shall be profitable to their dull constitutions. The knowledge of Nature is fallible; Sense, Fancy, and Reason, may be deceived; but true Faith cannot: Therefore they shall always follow my Faith. In which pursuit if they meet with any stop, I will give them leave to stay awhile, but not too long, lest they lose her way, her guide, and her object.  
FINIS.   

The INDEX.  
A. 


ADam, pag. 149.  
Affections, 139.  
Angels, 154, 157.  
Apparel, 150.  
Appetite, 138, 141.  
Art, 82.     
B. 


BAse, 15.  
Beasts, 96, 130.  
Birds, 96.  
Breath, 13.     
C. 


CArnality, 35.  
, see Beasts,  
Circumspection, 131.  
Coition, 156.  
Colours, 96.  
Contentment, 27.  
Creation, 1, 2, 17, 28, 30.  
Cupidity, 137.  
Cursing, 129, 133, 142.     
D. 


DArkness, see Light:  
Day, 49, 98, see Years.  
Death, 51, 98, 173.  
Desire, 137, 138.  
Disobedience, see Obedience.  
Devil, 93.  
Dominion, 84.  
Dust, 21, 29.     
E. 


EArth, 144.  
Eye, 33.  
Education, 158.  
Evil, see good.     
F. 


FAith, 171, 187.  
Fear, 118.  
Felicity, 153.  
Food, 144, 146, 148.  
Fruit, see Trees and Plants, 102.     
G. 


GArden, 26.  
Garments, 111  
God, 28, 52, 53, 112, 117.  
Gold, see Minerals, 19, 20, 40.  
Good, 100     
H. 


HErbs, 95, 96, 146.  
Hermaphrodite, 79.  
Husband, 140.     
I. 


INdustry, 43. 152.  
Image, 77.     
K. 
KNowledge, 58.   
L. 


LAW, 45.  
Life, see Soul and Trees, 54, 158, 172, 176.  
Light, 49.  
Love, 108.     
M. 


MAn, 9, 10, 20, 21, 29, 76, 79.  
Marriage, 70, 72.  
Messiah, 134.  
Midst, 34.  
Minerals, 34, 185.  
Months, see Years.  
Multiplying, 82.     
N. 


NAkedness, 75.  
Names, 58.  
Navigation, 41.  
Necessity, 138.  
Noses and Nostrils, 24.  
Nothing, 57  
Numbers, 8, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 36, 38, 52, 53.     
O. 
OBedience, 45, 57, 97, 98, 100, 102, 109, 123, 136, 140.   
P. 


PAradise, see Garden.  
Passion. 114.  
Patience, 168.  
People, 169.  
Plants, see Trees, 29, 32, 34, 144.     
R. 


REason, 151, 187.  
Religion, 161.  
Resurrection, 176.  
Rib, see Bones, 16, 63, 65, 68  
Rivers, 36, 40.     
S. 


SAcrifice, 87.  
Serpent, 93, 94, 124.  
Sin, 124, 128, 129, see Virtue and Vice.  
Sleep, 62.  
Sorrow, 143.  
Soul, 18, 25, 133, 176.  
Speech, 126, 127.  
Spirit, 26, 31.  
Stones, 38, 40.  
Sweat, 147.     
T. 


TEars, 143.  
Temptation, 95, 96.  
Time, see Years.  
Trees, 34, 35, 40, 45, 48. 52. 116, 151. see Plants.  
Trials, 112.     
V 


Virtue and Vice, 121.  
Voice, 140, 112.  
Voluptuousness, 137.     
W. 


Wife, 107. See Marriage and Man and Obedience.  
Woman, 55, 56, 57, 65, 69, 70, 80, 128, 135, 137. See Man.     
Y. 
Year's, 170.   
FINIS.