THE LIFE OF ADAM.  
Written in Italian BY GIOVANNO FRANCISCO LOREDANO, A Venetian Nobleman.  
AND RENDERED INTO ENGLISH By J. S.  
LONDON, Printed for Humphrey Moseley, and are to be sold at his Shop, at the Prince's Arms in S. Paul's Churchyard. 1659.   

TO THE INCOMPARABLE LADY, THE LADY S. B.  
Madam,  
YOur Incomparable Beauty, and exemplary Virtue, so justly entitle you to the services of all those whose happiness it is to know you, that your interest in this Dedication is rendered unquestionable; coming from him who may, without vanity, profess himself best acquainted with the Power of the one, & Sublimity of the other. Nor let any judge the concealment of your Name to proceed from other than the experience of your exact Modesty which declineth all public applauds: together with a consciousness of the vast disproportion which this trivial Present beareth either to your Merit or my Duty. And for its subject, as being the History of the First of Men; it could not make a more proper, or more honourable, Address, than to the Best of Women: In which quality you shall ever be acknowledged and obsequiously admired by,  
Madam, Your most constant and most devoted Servant T. S.   

TO THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS LORD PIETRO MICHIELE.  
My Lord,  
I Have readd and readd again the ADAM of the most illustrious Lord Gio: Francisco, with excessive delight. O what Wit▪ O what a happy hand he had! But it was necessary it should be no less, for the making of an Adam: nor is it fit that any one should write the life of the first Man, but one of the first Writers of the Age. The alteration of the style in some places hindered not, but that without seeing the name of the Author, I should easily have known this Work for his. I hold it not fit that, because Adam used to cover himself with leaves, he should therefore be decked in flowers. All dresses become not all matters a History extracted out of holy Writ, is not to be trimmed like Plays, and Romances. Noble Loredano was desirous to give us not only the history, but together with it also the true manner of writing it. Doth your Lordship require my thought of it? Adam, in my opinion, will receive no less grace from these lines, then from the ruddy earth of which he was form; yea, somuch the greater, inasmuch as then he was a sinner & mortal; and here he is revived, sanctified, & immortal. We must needs acknowledge him very ingrateful that will not render perpetual applauds to that pen, that hath so learnedly, in this Treatise, eternised our Common father. My Lord. I remain of your most Illustrious Lordship.  
The most partial Servant Nicoló Crasso.   

Reader,  
I Have at length, (more to gratify friends, than to comply with any humour of appearing in public) exposed to thy view these indigested productions of a few vacant hours: & after the approval of some, esteemed competently judicious, shall not go about to court thee into a liking hereof; but freely remit that to thy censure without any solicitude how thou receivest it, which was not so much intended to please thee as to satisfy others, whose power over me, could only have induced me to this publication: Farewell.  
J. S.   

THE LIFE OF ADAM.  
BEhold, O Ambitious man, thy first original! Thy pride and stateliness, which contendeth for reverence with the sovereign power of God, came from a vile mass of clay. And thou, o Sensual man, that debasest thyself in adoring a face, so much the more unworthy of Love, by how much the more unchaste; consider how thou renderest thyself odious in the eyes of that God that condescended to give thee a being; and contemptible to that divine hand, which hath vouchsafed to form thee of Nothing  
God had, with Ideas suitable to his own omnipotence, compiled the machine of Heaven and of the World. The Chaos retained no longer either confusion, or darkness. The Elements, though proud of their variety of qualities, united themselves for the conservation of the Whole. The Sun and Moon received light and did impart it. Herbs, Plants, Birds, and the sensitive appetite, and which procure pain and torment; perceiving himself to excel in beauty above all things created, with an infused knowledge that enabled him to understand all sciences; knowing perfectly the nature of all Plants, Stones, Herbs, and animals; and understanding the virtue, and properties of the heavens, elements, and stars; perceiving himself, finally, to have the sceptre of dominion over all creatures, possessing the World and Paradise: after he had a good space beheld the Heavens with admiration of that cognition, he threw himself at the feet of his Creator, and thus began to thank and praise him;  
O Lord, I did not return thanks for so many gifts, because I would not diminish them, seeing contemplation cannot arrive to comprehend them. By how much the more is the admiration, by so much the greater is the silence. What tongue, although made by God, can worthily extol the works of God? the greatness of God? the gifts of God? Of what expressions shall I make use to praise that God, which hath been pleased to communicate his Divinity? Lord I ought not to praise thee, because all praise would fall short of that Omnipotence, which is the more incomprehensible, whilst that a mouth so much obliged confesseth itself uncapable to sing thy wonders He that attempts to commend thee, O Lord, either knows Thee not or else is unworthy to know thee. To say that thou art greater than the greatest, is the most that my voice can express, but yet the least that thy greatness can admit. The greatest attributes that my judgement can invent, would not express the Sovereignty of that God that is greater than all things. I would make thee an oblation of my being, but I know not what to offer thee that is not thine, and that I have not received from thy bounty, who hast pleased, with an incomprehensible benignity, to make a gift of myself to myself. That part therefore of myself, over which thou hast granted me dominion and superintendency even that I offer thee. Disdain, it not, o Lord, because it conserveses the impression of thy image. I cannot offer to thee any thing greater than the resemblance of thyself. The excess of thy liberality permits me so much; for otherwise I cannot dispose of the air that gives me breath. And as I am what thou wast pleased to make me; so I will be what with thy commands thou art willing I should be.  
God willingly lent his car to the words of Adam; for being the workmanship of his own hands he could not but love him; and loving him, harkened▪ to him with such a tenderness as a father hearkens to the voice of his children. And thus, in all likelihood, he answered him:  
Adam, I rejoice in the inclinations of thy heart, and I forbore to prescribe man any other laws than those of the will, to delight myself in the affections of man. See here the Fishes, Birds, and other animals, form to be at thy sole disposal. These shall always receive laws from thy pleasure, and motions from thy beck. Nor shall their velocity, nimbleness, or terribleness be able to render them contumacious to thee. Give them names as thou pleasest, that so they may the more willingly obey thee, and may be the more strongly obleiged to thy commands. In reward of all this that I have done for thee, I demand no more but a bare acknowledgement. I have given thee the Monarchy of the Earth. I may well therefore reserve to myself the Supremacy, with a small tribute, as a badge of my superiority and thy obedience. Therefore suffer not the allurement of thy taste to persuade thee to eat of the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil: for if thou dost thou shalt feel the severity of death.  
God first named the Fishes, and afterwards all the other Animals, to teach those in Authority, to have a more especial care of the irremotest Subjects, as those who may be more easily oppressed by their Ministers, and Officers; or to give them to understand, that they take those into protection, which like the Fishes are naked, and cannot speak.  
His divine Majesty forbade Adam the fruits of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, because having the power over all things created, he should not excercise the same with pride and ambition. God would have Adam command with the curb of being commanded. There being nothing will more moderate the Stateliness of a Prince than his subjection to Law. Or else, the fruits of this tree having a virtue to make Man know the misery of Mankind, God forbade Adam to taste of it; both because he would have him free from all those inquietudes which did accompany the necessities of the body, and because he would have him employ all the ardour of his affections, in a careful solicitude for the welfare of his soul.  
God gave Adam a Prohibition to eat of the fruits of the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil, although he knew he would not observe it, to show that Laws are necessary, notwithstanding they may be abused. And again how could God triumph in the excesses of his mercy, in the extremes of his goodness, in the trophies of his justice, if he should not permit man to sin, and if he should favour all universally with efficacious grace? God threatened Adam with death as the punishment of his transgression, because Death is the extremest of all evils, and the greatest of all terrors. All other evils, all other pains had somuch of bitterness, as they had affinity & resemblance to death. Death is the Centre in which all the lines of worldly passions meet. His Divine Majesty might have prescribed him Hell; but he would propose a chastisement, of which there was no retraction by repentance: and with all because he knew, that humane affections were more to be moved and amated with the certain knowledge of a small evil, then with the incertain belief of a greater,  
His Divine Majesty made all Birds and other Animals of the earth to come before Adam, that from him (who had received from God the knowledge of their Natures) they should receive their Names. The Lord did this, to make Adam see by comparison how much he was obliged, in seeing himself so different, and so upright above all other Creatures. Or, because God having created Man Prince of all creatures, would have him know his vassals and the Animals reverence him as their Prince. Or else, he permitted that he should name the creatures according to their natures to show him what a gift of wisdom he had bestowed upon him, that so sinning, he might not excuse himself with ignorance.  
The animals came by two and two, with an obedience moved by the divine will to receive their names. Adam, sitting in an eminent place, with a face so full of splendour, that, breathing Majesty, it taught veneration; he gave them names proper to their natures, calling them one by one in the Hebrew tongue, which was the universal language until the confusion of tongues.  
The Fishes came not, either because they could not live out of their element; or because they could no way be serviceable to man, not as yet used for food: or else because God would thereby give us to understand, that Grandees in Progresses, should not expect the attendance of their poor vassals; who cannot stir from home to accompany their Lord, or to attend him at his beck.  
God permitted, Adam should give names to all creatures, but not to Himself, to give him to understand that, as all other creatures, were his inferiors having taken their names from him; so on the contrary he should acknowledge God for his Lord, seeing he had been named by him.  
In the mean time, his Divine Majesty considered that it was not good for man to be alone, for there's little contentment in those delights we receive without other's participation. Or else it was, that God foreseeing that the height of his glory consisted in acts of Clemency and Mercy; would not have man to be alone: those faults seldom proving either great or frequent, which have not company for spurs & incentives.  
He would therefore provide him of a fit Companion in his own likeness, that so he might love her the more and she might be more capable of assisting him.  
Whereupon he cast Adam, into I know not whether, an exstasy or a ravishing slumber.  
It was God's pity that he should be asleep, for he knew that in the company of woman, he should lose his sleep. Or else, He made him shut his eyes, to show that he would have men blind in understanding Divine operations. Or else it might be, that he cast Adam into a sleep, as if he feared that he would contradict him; whilst with the spirit of prophecy given him, he might foresee the mischiefs accrueing to mankind in the making of Eve. And besides, men are with much difficulty persuaded to part with any thing of what they have, though thereby to receive the greater profit. Whereupon God would bereave him in his sleep of that which, perhaps, he would not have consented to have parted with, of himself.  
Whilst Adam was taken up with the dulcity of repose, rejoicing in those phantasms with which he was honoured, of the most abstruse secrets of secular adventures; the power of God, which hath no impossibility that can prescribe it bounds, took, with a delicacy which is to be supposed in a Divine hand, a rib: of which he form Eve, filling up the void place with flesh.  
God was pleased to make Woman of Man, to show the union, & affection that ought to be in Matrimony: or to admonish women to acknowledge with obedience the cause of their being.  
God made choice of the rib taken from the left side, to advert us that the woman ought to be the heart of the man and not his head. Or God took a rib of Adam in the making of Woman, because being about to form a body worse haply than all the others he had hitherto made, he would permit that man should concur thereto. And Woman being to bring to man a sinister fortune God, would have her to have her original from that side.  
In the Terrestrial Paradise did God form Woman, having created Man in the Field of Damascus; that she might have no occasion, to complain of being inferior to Man, whilst she surpassed him in the nobility of her place of birth. If, haply, he would not advert her, that she should not lend her ear to the lies of an odious Serpent, that had been nobly created in Paradise: or, to persuade her, that enamoured of the beauty or delight of that place, she should avoid sin for fear of being driven from it. If peradventure it was not, that she deserved to be created in Paradise, who was to be the Paradise of her husband's Eye,  
God for the more expeditious population of the World, could have made many men, & many Women, but would, that all should descend from one Father, and one Mother, to the end Men should conserve Love, peace, and concord amongst themselves.  
And who knows, that, making but one only woman, he might not instruct the married to content themselves with one alone. Or else, he would not permit Adam multiplicity of Wives for that he might not thereby multiply his miseries: there not being that thing, that more destroys the quiet, nor that torments the patience of Men more, than that which for the most part Wives do occasion.  
Scarce was Adam released from the power of sleep, when he fixed his eye on the beauty of the woman, The observing, admiring, loving her, was in him but as one entire act, done in one and the same time. She cariied in her face so singular endowments, that not to appropriate them to himself would be rather an effect of stupidity than of prudence. Beauty hath a strange virtue. It, with a sweet Tyranny introduceth subjection into noblest minds and stoutest breasts.  
Adam stood stupefied in contemplating two Suns under one pair of eybrows, whilst he saw no more but one in Heaven. Nor satiated he himself enough in re-beholding those Charms, and those Graces, that ravished him from the contemplation of so many objects, by his opinion believed more considerable, but not more amiable.  
He observed a gravity so full of tenderness that it necessitated his heart in the same instant to Resistance, and to Love.  
The by-Nature-plaited tresses, so nearly resembled Gold in tincture, and purity, that they pleaded Adam's excuse, if he did not refuse so honourable a prison, The dishevelled hairs trembled on the head of the woman, and it seemed as if the gently breathing Zephyrus would have made a prey of so many riches.  
Her flesh appearing like a lovely composure of scarlet and milk, although at the touch it would be taken for marble. Her age was about the fourth lustre, (accounting five years to a Lustre) proper for a woman in reference to Procreation and Love. In short, she was such as the malignity of Envy would have woven her Encomiums.  
The woman on the otheside, although modesty should have restrained her desires, gave notwithstanding liberty to her eyes; thereby with furtive glances to enjoy the beauty of him, who was destined for her companion. His looks represented a robustuous youthfulness, the more desierable to Women, in that they desire not to be overcome in effeminacies. She observed that in that face nature had not affected to bestow her Curiosity. She admired those years which having past their adolescence, that rendereth the mind sickle and inconstant, promised her maturity of judgement, and effects of prudence.  
Whilst her mind was ravished with the delights of her eyes, Adam was about to have adored her as a Goddess. For but only that it was infused into him by revelation, that the woman was a part of himself, doubtless disobedience should not have been the first of his sins.  
Not being longer able to refrain the tongue from discovering the resentments of the heart, with those sweet expressions which use to abound in the mouths of Lovers, after many caresses, he thus broke silence.  
Oh most dear, and most beloved part of myself, Bone of my bone, Flesh of my flesh, Soul of my soul. I would say more, if the tongue were able to express the sentiments of the heart; I here offer myself, to love and serve thee, seeing that we are to unite our minds and wills, being made of the same matter, and springing from the same original.  
But for the time to come I will, that all call thee part of man. I clearly foresee, that those that shall take original from us, shall forsake the interests of their Families, the affections of Fathers, the tendernesses of Mothers, to cleave to a Female, to live with a woman, which shall be destined him for Wife. Women shall do the same, and with greater ardency by how much the more inconstant their desires are than men's.  
Here stay I entreat thee, oh Reader, and consider the debility of our humanity. Adam was but newly come out of the hands of his Maker. God himself studiously contributed to his heart's delight, yet nevertheless at the single sight of a Woman, he lost all that remembrance which should have entirely fixed him in the contemplation of his Divine Majesty. He called her alone his delight, her his content, her the sum of all his desires. To be short, Women have derived from heaven so sweet a Tyranny into their faces, that the denying them the subjection of all hearts, is an effect rather of stupidity than of prudence. He that can resist the enchantments of a femine beauty, either is no man, or is endued with qualities superior to those of a Man.  
Yet the goodness of God which expressed a complacency in this tenderness with which Adam smothered the impetuosity of his affections, with the excesses of his accustomed beneficence, he estranged not himself in the alienations of Adam, but said unto them:  
Children see here the Herbs, see here the Trees that shall administer food to you! With these ye may refresh and recreate your bodies, whilst I have put nourishment and sweetness into them. All things here are fruitful, all exposed to your pleasures, all are produced for your contemplation, I have so copiously provided for you, that there is not only sufficient for your occasions, but also to serve the birds, beasts, and other living creatures. The providence of God diffuseth itself over all things. He that knew how to create you, hath also provided for your necessity, and for your conservation. I bless you, foreseeing the propagation of that seed that is to populate the World. Increase and multiply; for from your posterity the earth expects her population.  
His divine Majesty assigned man, for food, all the herbs, all the Trees; to show us that in the time of Adam's Innocence, all Trees were fruitful all Herbs were healthful. Sin that brought the maledictions on earth, hath empoisoned the herbs, hath insterilized the plants.  
And who knows that God in assigning Adam for food the fruits of the earth, intended not to teach us what our viands ought to be? knowing very well, that the clouds of the air, nor the gulfs of the Sea, are not secure from man's Gluttony.  
After that sense, in Adam, had given place to reason, and that delight had in a great measure seated and rebated the edge of his appetite, the woman was adverted by Adam, not to touch that Fruit which was so mortiferous in its effects to the eater. Such, saith he, my Dear, is the commandment of God. The transgressing it, would be ingratitude, and impiety, & would ravish us of all these delights, and our Empire over the Creation. It is unworthy of the affection of great ones, that know not how to part with their obedience; and if obedience is necessary to all, how much more doth it beseem us, that have a God so prodigal of his bounties, that he hath vouchsafed to us, together with his image, a part of his Divinity.  
The Woman became at those prohibitions the more curious. To forbid a woman, is to increase her appetite. He that denies the any thing, adds a spur to that desire, which is ardent in all things; but, in things prohibited, insatiable.  
The Woman therefore, transported by those impatiencies, that interposed between them and their felicity, left Adam; desiring to enjoy without testimonies, and without check, the sight of that fruit, which being forbidden, was to be supposed the more exquisite.  
The Woman, the more distant she is from her Husband, the more adjacent she is to Sin; and, whilst alone, is in peril of destroying herself, because she gives encouragement & opportunity to any one to tempt her. A solitary Woman is exposed to the temptations even of Serpents. The Moon is eclipsed by the vicinity of the Sun. The Woman on the contrary commonly finds her honesty eclipsed in the absence of her Husband.  
Having found the tree, she beheld the fruits with somuch curiosity, that it induced the Devil to tempt her.  
He that takes away opportunity from the Devil, takes away his strength, he can do little harm to those, that do not give him access. Curiosity is the mother of sin, and daughter of disobedience.  
Amongst the infinite forms of animals there was a Serpent with the face of a Damsel, which God had replenished with all subtlety. In sagacity, and in craftiness there was not that creature under Heaven that could match him. This the Devil chose for the instrument of his wickedness; envying the felicity of Man, because (created after him and of a more ignoble substance) he triumphed with the Dominion of the World and the possession of the favour of his Divine Majesty.  
He served himself of a serpent, that had the face of a Damsel; to advertise us, that treacheries always mask themselves with the pretexts of simplicity, and mansuetude Or because the Devil believed himself unable to deceive a Woman, if he did not make use of a mouth, or face like that of a Woman.  
The Devil would tempt the Woman and not the Man, because he knew her more facile of belief and more feeble of resistance. He began from the inferior part that so with order he might come to possess himself of the whole. He knew that men seldom give credit to promises; and fall easilier by yielding to the errors of others, than being deceived in their own.  
This enemy of Mankind first suffered the eyes of the Woman to convey to the heart the desire of tasting that forbidden Tree. And then with a smile, which nourished and confected the poison, he said unto her;  
O fairest Woman, the miraculous gift of Heaven, to bless the eyes of your beholder, I do for my part believe that this Garden can only so far boast the name of Paradise as it enjoys your presence, which hath efficacy to imparadise not only the affections of all hearts, but also the insensibility of all plants & stones. But be pleased to honour me with the solution of one doubt. Why are you prohibited by God to taste of all the fruits of this Garden, since they are prostituted to the desire, even of the vilest animals; and are so delicate, that it sufficeth to say that they are of Paradise?  
Did it not suffice God to have subjected you to the law of nature, and moreover to have added the supernatural; without imposing the yoke of a positive law upon you, to which the irrational Brutes themselves are not obliged! This God is too severe that prohibits you the very fruition of the Trees of the earth. And too parsimonious, in that he would reserve those fruits, which were given by the seasons. I compassionate your condition, restrained within so narrow bounds, that to observe them is of necessity to contend with impossibility.  
How great is the malice of the Devil! God had prohibited the fruit of one only Tree, but he, making the commands of God difficult by aggravating them, demands, why they were not forbidden all. As if the greatness of precepts excused and warranted in some part their nonobservance, and disobedience.  
The woman wondered not, to hear a Serpent which articulated his voice and pronounced words; either because she believed it a miracle of the Sovereign power of God; or because Women, when they are once ravished by any appearance, regard not the very impossibility of Nature herself.  
She started not at the sight of a Serpent; for seeing it resemble herself in countenance she rather rejoiced then feared; it being natural to joy in those things which resemble us. Or else, because in the primitive state of Innocence, all creatures obeyed man; and as they had not power nor poison to offend, so much less did they retain any thing of terror to affright.  
This was the will of God, who would not permit, that any grievance or annoy should occur to man, unless he was first provoked to it by sin,  
The Woman answered to the Devil; The command of God is not so restrictive, as thou sayest. We may enjoy all Trees at our election having a Dominion over all: The fruit of this alone, that is in the midst of the Garden, is forbidden us. God hath commanded us not to taste, nor to touch this, because perhaps it would subject us to death. The fear of Death hath power to refrain all desires. Nor am I such a fool to desire by a wicked transgression to provoke and irritate the wrath and judgements of God.  
His Divine Majesty had commanded only that they shoved not eat of the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil; but the Woman moreover adds the Touching it: because as a Woman she could not discourse without aggravating or overreaching.  
Or, it may be, she was thus advertised by Adam, who knowing the frailty and weakness of his Wife would also remove the occasion: for when sin gets into the hands, it's almost impossible but that it should at last to the mouth. To touch with the hands, the things forbidden to the mouth, is either a voluntary meeting sin, or a presuming too high upon ourselves.  
The woman put the pain of the transgression in doubt, saying, Perhaps we shall be subject to death; because we feign those things always easy, and of little danger which we most desire: and put the Judgements of God ever in uncertainty: so much the more, in that incredulity is the particular defect of the Woman.  
The Devil animated by the lie, and incredulity of the Woman, began to hope for victory, persuading her to violate the precept of God. He endeavoured therefore with admirable artifice to remove the fear of the punishment, menaced by his Divine Majesty, & to allure her with the hope of that good which is the most desirable to man. Wherefore he said unto her;  
Comfort yourself, o Woman; your fears are vain, for death is an imaginary subject, to terrify the simplicity of the more weak. How can a thing die, that is the immediate production of God's hands. It would be too great a disparagement to the divine workmanship to say, that his labours could be subject to death. Works that have took their qualities from God cannot dissolve without the dissolution of God himself. He hath intimated death unto you; as being an ordinary thing in them that command to menace their vassals with impossible chastisements, for to be served with the more blind obedience. He prohibited you to taste of this fruit, because he feared, that ye should be equal to Him. And he that hath Supreme authority can very hardly be persuaded to admit of Competitors. Envy is of the quality of thunder, that smites the sublimest things. Her fangs exempt not Divinity itself. God knows very well that, with tasting these fruits, you shall open the eyes of your understanding, and obtain the science of good and evil. And what is it that renders God considerable? what makes God admirable? what maketh God GOD, more than this knowledge?  
These words of the Serpent were false, impious, absurd, and incredible. He made God a Liar, and Envious. He would persuade that a Tree had power to communicate Sapience, and that men with this should equal themselves with God; and this, by taking the fruit to eat.  
The woman not adverted of this, so impious, and so impossible a falsity, was deceived by his promises. The Ambition of becoming equal with God, and the desire of tasting the Apple forbidden, deprived her of judgement and reason.  
What thing more contrary to sense, and possibility, than to style truth falsehood, and clemency envy? and to say that by tasting this fruit, we should gain the Sapience and similitude of God? Yet, in the opinion of the Woman these things passed for truths, because when Women treat of their interests, they take shadows for substances.  
The Woman might have said to the Serpent; If thy words be not masked with deceits, wherefore takest not thou of that fruit, and givest that to thyself which thou promisest to me? How came I to merit so much of thy affection that thou shouldest desire, that I should first obtain a benefit so great, a prerogative so rare, as to be divine? Eat thou first, and testify whether thy promises are true? If God, envying our state so great a felicity, did prohibit us this Tree, why did he not rather not create it, or having made it, extirpate it?  
The unfortunate woman believed all for truth, because she desired all to be true. She did not contradict him, because she reputed it a less crime to sin with the hazard of acquiring divinity, than by not sinning to lose the hope, though impossible, of obtaining it.  
Howbeit the words of the Serpent were full of fallacy, and ambiguity. The [not-dying] might be understood of dying presently upon the transgression, or of the death of the soul. The [opening the eyes] referred to the misery & confusion in which man should be after the sin. The resemblance to God, might signify the Devil. Lastly the knowledge of good and evil, might be meant by the privation of good and the experience of evil. How subtle a Sophist, is the Devil!  
The Woman had beheld the Tree before with some curiosity; but after the words of the Serpent, she betook herself to contemplate it with ardent desire of tasting it. Her eyes misled her soul, and believing, that the beauty of that plant must needs produce births equal in goodness, contracted in that all her complacencies and affections.  
It is probable, that the debt of obedience, and loyalty, which liveth in those souls that have vowed their genius to rebellion, might administer to the Woman these conceits;  
Woman, kerb thy vain curiosity. Thou shouldest yield obedience to that God, which, after he had conferred upon thee thy being, hath also given thee the dominion over all things created. It's ingratitude, its impiety, to controvert those commands, which deny thee nothing but the fruit of a Plant. All the fruits in Paradise are permitted thee, but only that of the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If therefore all the others be perfect, and you know the good, why will you eat of this Apple to know the evil also? Seek not to know that which is not fit for thee. The knowledge of evil is not knowledge but ignorance. Keep thyself from the things prohibited, that thou lose not those that be already granted. That Plant which thou beholdest with so much curiosity, and with so much complacency, compriseth in its fruit, together with thy death, the perdition of all mankind. To what end do you look upon a thing, which cannot be tasted, without offending God. The hands commonly follow the delight of the eyes. It's true, thou art not forbidden the sight, but the tasting of this Tree. Yet nevertheless, though the beholding it be no sin, yet it is the beginning of sin, it is the occasion of Sinne.  
Give no credit to those promises which that they are deceitful it sufficeth to know, they are the promises of a Serpent, the most sagacious of all beasts. With giving thee an Apple, he would rob thee of Paradise. He treats thee with simplicity, to take thee with Apples.  
But inspirations avail not in a soul, that suffers itself to be transported by promises: and he cannot but sin, who fixeth his eyes with immoderate delight on sin. The Woman took the Apple, and with a disobedience, so much the more inexcusable, by how much the more unjust, gathers it, and makes it serve for food. The woman had sinned with Sloth, Lying, and Gluttony, whereupon she would Seal so many evils with the violation of the law of God, because when prevarication gins in a soul, there's no end of sinning.  
She called not Adam to eat of the Apple before her, as was the duty of her subjection; because believing divinity to be reposed in that fruit, she would not admit any to have the precedence of her. In sum; Self-interest destroyeth all the laws of the will, and of nature.  
The woman having essayed the dulcity of the fruit, and absolutely obliged her credulity to the lies of the Serpent, whilst she found in some measure made good his promise, in securing her from death, she gathered one of those Apples and ran with much haste in quest of Adam. The love she bore him made her impatient, to communicate to him so many benefits. Scarce did she see him, but she, making her laughter and looks accompany her language, said unto him.  
Sir, see here an argument of the love I bear you. They know not how to love, that know not how to give and gratify. And by how much the greater are the gratuities, by so much the greater is the affection. I bring thee in this Apple the Divinity that God denied us, because the Great, desire no equals in their Grandeur.  
This is the fruit of the forbidden tree, which for sweetness & dulcity ravisheth the applause of perfection from all the others. The punishment that was prescribed us in tasting it, is not to be feared; for I have eaten and am alive.  
Adam interrupted her and vesting his countenance with somewhat of severity, said;  
Dear Companion, Content yourself with having yourself alone transgressed the commands of God's law. Desire not company in evil. Led not others into your precipices. I am your companion, I am your Lover; but will know how to be your Enemy, if you will not take your laws from my will.  
What can we promise ourselves from her, that knows not so much as how to obey her God? What may we not question, in the vanity of your affections, whilst you rebel from the obedience of him that hath created you. I love you as much as your beauty merits; and as much as a human heart can, and knows how to do: but I ought not to like, nor adulate your errors. He that punisheth not faults, approveth them; and they deserve greater chastisement, who assent to the sins of others, than they which sin.  
The only answer the woman gave to these reprehensions, was sighs and tears, the wont artifices with which women betray the honour, liberty, and safety of men.  
Casting therefore her arms about the neck of Adam, she so besieged his constancy, with her glances, caresses, and kisses that, after some small resistance, he yielded himself overcome.  
What cannot women do in an amorous soul! What fortitude will not she conquer, what constancy will not she subdue, what Will will not she pervert, what impossibility will not she effect? He that, loving, is able to resist the violences of a Woman, is either a God or hath the power of a God.  
Adam knew very well, that the eating of the Apple was a particular offence against God; but either seeing that the woman was not dead, and therefore, that the punishment assigned by God for the disobedience was made for terror; or persuading himself the divine justice was less severe in a matter of so small importance; or else, imagining to excuse and justify his error by showing that he had done it to gratify the companion that he had received from his Divine Majesty; he took the Apple and began to taste it. O wonderful! A woman did that which the Devil wanted courage to attempt!  
Scarce had a small part of this fruit received Sepulchre in the throat, when remorse (the invisible companion of the greatest crimes) with the sting of Conscience assailed the soul of Adam. He perceived suddenly, together with his wife, that they were naked, whereas before, covered with innocency, they knew not the necessity of clothes.  
Their eyes were opened, not because they were blind before, but because before they regarded not that nudity, whilst lust had not ability to suscitate sensual affects, without the consent of Man. Nor had yet the flesh to reprove their disobedience discovered its inclinarion & property. They, poor wretches, hitherto only perceived themselves to be naked, in that devoid of grace they observed their members to rebel against their wills.  
Or else now they open their eyes, since they know that, which through their great desire of sinning they could not see. They saw the treachery of the Devil, the malignity of sin, and the vicinity of punishment. When Man sins, he is always blind. Now he sees that, the sin consummate, he remains full of blushing, remorse, and confusion. Now he seethe that conscience armed with zeal, reprehends and condemns him.  
nudity before the fall wrought the same effect in Adam and his Wife, that the discovery of the face and hands doth in us. They were like to children, who, before they arrive to the use of reason, care not to cover themselves. When they come to the knowledge of good and evil, and they enjoy the fruition of freewill, they blush at nakedness. That which befalls children in regard of age, happened to them in regard of original righteousness.  
The woman perceived not herself after the sin to be naked but only after the fall of Adam; either because the woman in satiating her disordinate appetite, forgot her own shame; or to give us to understand that his Divine Majesty punisheth with greatest rigour, not him that sins, but him that makes others sin.  
God would have it that our first parents were naked in Paradise, because their clothing suited neither with nature nor art. Not with nature because it agreed only with Brutes, as skins, feathers, and wool, to resist the rigours of Winter, or the ardours of Summer; and man now partaker of every good, commanded, not obeyed the seasons. Those virtues, which might be produced by art, brought along with them, employment and trouble; and it was no reason that he that received felicity from God should think on labours, and toiling.  
Or God would have them naked, to clothe them with the splendours of his grace & to make them like the Angels which are so covered with light, that they leave to the eye nothing but confusion and astonishment. Sin stole this blessing out of the hands of God.  
Adam, agitated by the fear of God's indignation, thinking perhaps to cover his sin, clothed his obscene parts with Figg-leaves.  
Oh effects of sin, that depraves the reason, and obfuscates the understanding! Scarce had Adam sinned but he became ignorant, desiring to cover that which cannot be hid. And who knows, but that, seeing himself naked, he would, out of excess of envy, dispoil the Trees also?  
He used Fig leaves, either because the Fig tree being of the nature of Laurel, to preserve from thunder, he thought perhaps to escape the stroke of divine vengeance. Or else the root of the Figtree having a power to cleave marble, he flattered himself with a conceit of being able to break the hardness of God's wrath.  
His Divine Majesty, in the mean while, walked into Paradise, receiving those Zephyries, that grow strong in the declension of the day, to show that man's sin disquieted him, and that to assuage the heat of his just indignation he went fanning the gales, now that they became greater, and were more temperate. Or to teach us that when God will punish sin he doth not run but walk, and delights that all things should hinder him.  
Adam, by the walking of God, soon remembered the deserts of his own inconstancy, which deprived him of eternity. The pleasing airs that accompanied his Divine Majesty, fraze his heart the more, clouded with a thousand terrors; & the approaching setting of the Sun, made him perceive that the darkness of chastisement was near at hand: whereupon not being able to suffer God's voice (who hitherto was meditating a reproof) and to endure the guerdon of his crime, he hide himself and his wife under a Tree, which, enriched with an infinity of boughs, seemed to thrust forth those arms to defend every one from the dartings of the Sun's rays.  
He had good reason to run to the umbrages of Trees that was not able to withstand the heat of sense. How blind are the counsels of humane reason? Adam perhaps pretended that if a Tree had administered to him matter of sin, a Tree also would cover it. But Adam hide not himself to fly from God, but for that he could not sustain the sight of God; whilst he heard the checks of Conscience upbraiding the demerits of his disobedience, ingratitude, and rebellion: because, We cannot brook the sight of those whom we have offended, and who can punish us.  
Or, it being the proper effect of sin to take away the judgement and blind the understanding, he pretended to be able to hid himself from the sight of God.  
Foolish Adam! that begged security from a Tree that was the instrument of his perdition.  
God now articulating his words, though hid to the eyes of Adam, said unto him, Adam, Adam, Where art thou?  
God said not this, for that he was ignorant of the place where he was, since the sight of God hath no prescription of place, nor obstacle of impediment; but, to invite him to confess his crime with repentance and implore his pardon with humility. It was the voice of a Pastor and Father, that called back his strayed Sheep and Son. God perhaps with these words would declare the infelicity of Adam; whilst by the fault committed he was in such manner departed from God, that he knew not where he was.  
Or he would say, Adam Where art thou? whither hath thy disobedience carried thee? Hast thou lost thy primitive felicity? Who hath led thee into the Gulf of misery? where is thy pristine tranquillity of heart, thy security of mind, and thy peace of Conscience? Where are the effects of thy hopes, the fruits of thy pretensions, the promises of the Serpent?  
God would say, poor Adam, to what a plunge art thou brought? from what good, from what beatitude, from what grace art thou fallen? Thou hast lost eternal life, art made subject to the miseries of death, and art become a Sepulchre of errors.  
Adam was hid under that very tree, that had been the occasion of his sin. Therefore God sought Adam with anxiety, scarce being able to imagine that a wise man as Adam should be so imprudent, as to approach so near that occasion, which had brought upon him the extremity of his miseries. He strove (to speak with reverence) to deceive himself, in seeing Adam to beg shelter from that Tree which had deprived him of the Divine Grace.  
Or else God would give us to understand, that sin makes us lose the shapes of men, and therefore though God saw Adam, he called him with a replicated voice, as if he knew him not, to show us that sin had transformed him, even in the eye of God himself.  
God called Adam and not the Woman; Or, because he had been the last sinner and his crim was nearer; or, not to provoke the woman to new errors; lying being too natural to her sex.  
He called not the Serpent for the same reason, because being accustomed to lie, he would have denied every thing.  
Adam answered; Lord, My nakedness made me fly from thy face. I could not suffer that thy Divinity should fix its eye on these members, which I could not till now cover.  
Poor Adam grieved and lamented more for his nakedness, then for having offended God & lost his favour. Thus we have derived from Adam this weakness of human nature; to be more afflicted with the incommodities we receive in our persons or estates, then with the injuries done to his Divine Majesty, or the loss of Heavens enjoyments.  
Who gave thee, ingrateful Adam, replied God, to understand thy nakedness, unless thy disobedience? Thou hast woven thy own miseries, and contrived thy own infelicities. Thou wouldst not at present receive such horror at the presence of him that honoured thee with a being, if thou hadst not tasted of the forbidden fruit.  
God would understand from Adam the truth of his sin, as if he knew it not; to teach us, with what accurateness and with what diligence men ought to proceed in judging others crimes, and condemning others errors; whilst God himself, that enters into the secret corners of the heart; questions and inquires with somuch circumspection. Or else, he intended to make Adam to diminish his punishment by the blushes of Confession.  
Adam persuading himself that silence would be an aggravating his sin, whereas the case may in great part obnubilate the fault, instead of imploring the mercy of God, with supplications and tears, grown confident in his own merits, he subjoins;  
Lord, I have sinned, without sinning. My Error hath been promoted by the prayers and solicitations of others. Who can resist the power of beauty? The commands of her, that thou gavest me for a Companion, hath in such manner tyrannised over my reason, and intellectuals, that I have not power to dispose of myself. That her right hand which brought me the fruit, was a snare, that captivated my mind; and it seemed to me, that, lifted up, it menaced its displeasure, in case I should not obey. I have a heart too tender in its affects. He that can withstand the importunate solicitude of the fairest piece that ever came out of thy hands, either knows not how to Love or deserves not to be Beloved.  
The sins of my inadvertency though they be very great, yet they are not mine. That Companion, Lord, which thou gavest me, hath corrupted the acts of my obedience, and contaminated the devoirs of my fidelity Alone I should not have known sin, for bad-company is a fomentor of the greatest sins. Lord, turn against her thy reproofs and chastisements. The woman alone hath sinned in my sin. My consent, obliged to the will of Thy Divine Majesty, hath not in the least part strayed from the laws of its duty.  
Oh bold conceits! Oh rash expressions! fruits of guilt, which transports men into extremes. No sooner hath man sinned but confident of himself, he despiseth all and fears not his forfeiture of Heaven's favour.  
How interest altars affection? That Adam who professed himself so passionate a Lover of the Woman, that to call her part of himself he believed was the least argument of his Love; now makes her guilty before the justice of God, of all his crimes. When we speak in excuse of our own faults, we spare not so much as those whom we most love. Adam that refused not to be a companion in the sin, shuns to be a companion in the punishment.  
His Divine Majesty, though he saw Adam's sin arrived to a supreme degree, whilst to the exterior, and interior consent, and consuetude, he adds also his excuse and apology: and though the temerity of Adam retorted the crime on his Maker, so that God seemed the Author of such a fault, yet continuing in the exercise of his wont Mercy, he turned to the Woman and said;  
Woman, Chosen by me for a Companion and Comfort to Man, why hast thou been the instrument of a sin, somuch the hainouser, by how much the more unjust? why hast thou deceived thy Husband? Why hast thou not obeyed thy God?  
The woman suffered not the words of His Divine Majesty to be ended, but she replies; My simplicity, Lord, hath been deluded by the subtlety of the Serpent.  
He knew so well how to dissemble his words, that I believed he had neither wit or power to betray my credulity. I could not persuade myself that there were treacheries in Paradise, nor deceits in the face of a Damsel. Thunder therefore, O Lord, thy punishments upon the Serpent, as upon the author of all evil.  
Gild is a weight, that superfluously aggravates every one. Happy doth he think himself, that, to quit himself, can accuse either the innocence, or guilt of others.  
God, who had all this while been so full of patience, and goodness, in citing Adam, in attending to his defence, and in harkening to the excuse of the woman, no sooner hears the Serpent to be the Author of so much evil, but presently without hearing him, he hastened to punish him.  
O the wonderful mercy of God that makes the punishment of all things precede man's punishment. To Serpents, that is, to Devils he shows not any mercy.  
Hence we may argue, that those who are men, namely that prostitute not their reason to sense, always find God exceeding in new benefits. The Serpents on the contrary, namely those obstinate sinners, which know not how to leave grovelling in the dust of sin, receive their punishment, before they be arraigned of their offence. It admonisheth men to be men, and to keep themselves men.  
Because, (said God in cursing the Serpent) thou hast been the Author of the breach of my precepts; because rhou hast deceived Innocence; because thou art opposite to the execution of my commands and desires; and because thou hast been so bold as to be tampering with my image; I will make thee accursed among all the beasts of the earth. Thou thyself shalt be a burden to thyself, always going upon thy belly. Dust shall be the sustenance of thy life. There shall be an antipathy between thee and the woman, and enmity between her seed and thy seed. The treachery of thy stingings, shall be rewarded by her heel, which by Crushing thy head, shall take away thy Life.  
In short, the means of sin become the instruments of punishment. The serpent had lift up itself in tempting the woman, and now God commanded him for ever after to creep upon the earth. With a thousand promises had he got the favour of the woman, and now God condemns him to a perpetual enmity with her.  
It's not to be doubted but that His Divine Majesty, in the serpent understood also the devil, but cursed nevertheless the Serpent only; because he would not too much perplex the minds of Adam and the woman, who as yet knew not that there was any other incorporeal spirits in the Terrestrial Paradise but only God himself; and it's a divine Maxim not to offer new occasions to those who are apt to err.  
The Devil goes upon his breast, and on his belly, to advert us, that he two ways betrays the state of innocence; With Pride, which is emblematically figured by the breast, which is the seat of the heart; and with Luxury which hath its residence in the belly. Or it teacheth us that the irascibles being seated in the breast, & the concupiscibles in the belly, he moveth man's affections with these, to precipitate and hurry him into sin.  
He is condemned to eat the dust; which is as much as to say, those men only, who having consubstantiated themselves with terrene vices little differ from the earth or dust.  
God to punish the Devil the more in cursing of him, threatens him perpetual enmity with the woman; either because he knew her malice was implacable; or to hint that he had overcome the woman with treachery, and not with open war.  
After the maledictions of the Serpent, God turns to the Woman, and saith; And thou Woman, for thy credulity, for thy concupiscence, and for having seduced others into thy sin, thy griefs and thy sorrows shall be multiplied to thee according to the multiplicity of thy births. With the bitterness of those pangs which shall make thee desire death, shalt thou give unto thy children life. Thou shalt be always subject to the Man, and he shall excercise over thee a perpetual command. It was with reason that three sins should receive three punishments, Namely for overmuch credulity, multiplicity of births; for the pleasure of the palate; the pangs of the belly; and for the imperious and scandalous seducing the man, obedience and servitude.  
It seems indeed a great felicity, the multiplicity of children, yet nevertheless God intended by this multiplicity to curse the woman; Because on many births attend many abortions, many pains, and many perils. It is, again, to contend with an impossibility that amongst many children, there should not be some monstrous either in manners, or else in wit, or else in life, the which is insupportable to the Parents. Let us add that the number of children disquiets the affection, and the desire of the Fathers, either in their education, or in their vices, or in their misadventures. In a word, the more fruitful the Woman is, the less fortunate is she to be esteemed.  
If, haply, with a contrary meaning we may not say, that God intended by this sentence to curse the Woman obliging her to pains, and to bless her, making her fruitful; to denote to us that God in the rigour of chastisements themselves is not forgetful of the excess of his Mercy.  
The throws of childbirth are natural to women, but God in the state of innocency with admirable and supernatural power, would have eased her of the pain and anguish. All is easy, all is possible, to the omnipotence of an Almighty God.  
God came at last to pass Sentence upon Adam. Perhaps the love he bore him was so ardent, that he would make him the last that should prove the effects of his just anger. Or, he chastised him last, because his sin was greater than others; that so he might receive greater terror and greater torment, in beholding the punishment of the others.  
The expectation of chastisement is, haply, a greater pain than the enduring of it. He that is punished, knows the worst of his sufferings He that waits for punishments fears them to be much greater than they are. A Hell, to a soul that hath proved it, shall be no greater, nor more horrible. To one that dreads it, the torments and stripes represent themselves centuplicated.  
Because, saith God, thou hast bend thy ear to the flatteries of thy wife, touching and tasting the fruits of the forbidden Tree, I will, that thy labours curse the earth instead of cultivating it. With the sudors of thy industry shalt thou spend thy days. Thorns and thistles shall overrun thy fields, and like a bruit thou shalt be constrained to take herbs for thy sustentation. Thou shalt not be able to eat without employing thy hand, or sweeting thy brows. These thy miseries shall determine with the ultimate period of thy life, for I will for thy disobedience that thou return to thy beginning, and that earth become earth, and dust dust.  
How unexplicable is the mercy of God Adam sins, and transgresseth the precepts of his Divine Majesty, and He in pronouncing the sentence of condemnation curseth the Earth. What will not love make one do! What share had the earth in the faults of Adam? With what demerit had it irritated the indignation of its Lord? Unless perhaps it was cursed by God, for that it did nor suddenly open a gulf to swallow him, who had not known how to obey his Creator. Or unless, that God would have it cursed, because it was always to serve the serpent for food.  
It argues also the goodness of the Lord, to remember Adam of the end of his miseries, whilst in minding him of his death he sets before him the period of his infelicity.  
And although Death is the wages of sin, it proves notwithstanding profitable and necessary; that so man's miseries and misfortunes become not immortal. Merciful God, that blessest even when thou chastisest us! Indeed death was a necessary act in the world, that so the fear of losing the life, should spur man on to all good actions and refrain him from all bad.  
What would not man dare, what would not man attempt to do, if death should not cut the thread of his sensuality, of his ambition! How would he despise the death of the soul, and his last damnation in the fall of the world, that dying every moment should nevertheless pride himself in a hope of immortality? It would not doubtless be the least of his rash attempts, with the union of the mountains to attempt a scalado upon Heaven.  
Let the goodness of God therefore be for ever praised, that, to preserve the soul from perpetual damnation, and to interrupt a lethargy of vices, which would determine only with the termination of time, hath decreed the dissolution of this mass of humane flesh, and permitted that a momentary pain, that is circumscribed by the brevity of a groan, should deliver us from an eternal torment, accompanied with such dolours, as the just anger of God is able to produce.  
Scarce had the Sovereign Monarch pronounced the punishment for the sin of Adam, but making, either by virtue of his Divine power, or by means of the Angels, certain garments of beasts skins, he therewith covered the nakedness of Adam, and Eve; who stupifyed with God's displeasure, knew not so much as how with pardon to beg the mercy of his Divine Majesty.  
This also is an argument of the wonderful beneficence of God, in that he would not permit, that sinners, thrust out of Paradise, should for all that be wholly deprived of his providence, as to the necessity of covering their bodies. Because divine favours are of the nature of the Sun, which participates its heat, and its light even to those that despise it.  
God rendered the bodies of these wretches so miserable, that without clothes they could not suffer the violences of the seasons, nor cover that part of the body which is unworthy of the eye. He would have these clothes of skins, that so they might daily wear about them the emblematical tokens of their mortality, which being of slaughtered beasts should daily remember them of death, and advert them, that they dwelled under the intemperancy of a Heaven, that would have dealt with them as with beasts.  
And who knows but that God, in vesting our first Parents with skins, intended to describe what ought to be the habit of wise and just men condemning silks and purples which denote only effeminacy and pride.  
Unless, perhaps, he would give us to understand, how full of blindness are the counsels of men, that have not recourse to God in their miseries, since the vesture, composed by Adam, covered not all his nudity, nor defended him from external incommodityes, and was inconvenient, pricking the flesh, and bringing pain and trouble.  
Adam being clothed, God began to upbraid him saying, Behold Adam thy hopes obtained, behold thy pretensions determined! Thou art made just like Us, omnipotent, wise, and all composed of goodness, and holiness. Behold, thou art become of a nature immortal, not obliged to any, needing of none, and blessed in thyself! Behold, thy enjoyment of the knowledge of good and evil, so much coveted by thy incredulity. Get thee packing therefore out of the Paradise of delights, and fix thine abode where thou wast form, cultivating that earth from whence thou hast derived thy being.  
It was one of the wont effects of God's benignity to drive Adam out of Paradise, because, if he had continued amongst those delights without enjoying them, he would have received too much torment; there being no greater punishment to be found then to be in the midst of felicities and to be denied the fruition. Or he was dismissed from Paradise, because, What could God hope from him, that had not power to show himself continent, no not with the very Trees.  
More out of an effect of fear, than disobedience it was that Adam stood , when God by force took him from thence, appointing him a station wherein he might command with the eye all the delights of Paradise; that so, daily beholding the loss of his happiness, his penance should become more severe, and his repentance more sincere.  
It was goodness in God to thrust Adam out of Paradise, for that he thereby removed the occasion of sinning anew; there not being a greater incentive to a relapse into sin, than the being in the place where the sin was before committed, Those remembrances are no other than stimulations, which enkindle the desire, and hurry the will to new faults.  
What Adam's condition was, expulsed Paradise, many be easier imagined then described. His eyes pregnant with tears, his mouth full of sighs were the least expressions of his grief. His Wife, instead of comforting him augmented his torments, not so much for her having been the original of his sin, as for the griefs which he received from her afflictions.  
Poor Adam! that didst not scarce one whole day enjoy the gifts of God's favour. His felicity being shorter than that of an Ephemeris.  
About three of clock he was brought into the Garden; at six a clock, he sinned; and in the Evening, was expulsed.  
In a word, Humane felicities are no other than moments. They for the most part find their Coffin in their Cradle, and their death in their birth.  
Whilst he was departing, the Sun retired to shroud himself in the Ocean, as if external darkness should have seconded the spiritual of sin. An Angel increased the grief and terror of his sadness, which, armed with fire and sword, kept the entrance into Paradise; in that he saw himself wholly excluded from all hope, who, flattering his sorrow, might be able to promise a return to his lost delight.  
In placing an Angel with fire and arms in his hands, his Divine Majesty intended to impede the entrance of Men and Devils into Paradise. And to teach us, that to enter into Paradise we must pass through the fire and sword of penitence, with the consent of the Angel, which is Christ. Or else, represented to us an Hieroglyphic of Hell; the sword signifying the pain of guilt, and fire the pain of sense.  
Adam, not omitting his sighs and complaints, gave the woman the name of Eve, which signifies Life; because she was to be the mother of all Living. Or, oppressed with his own sorrow, he would allude to the voice of infants, which they make when they cry: She being the cause of tears, and through her all mankind having occasion of weeping. Or else, would call her Life, because seeing nothing but emblems of death, he hoped to comfort himself with this name. Or, it may be, haply, that he did as men now a days; who having death before their eyes, speak of nothing but life.  
He could not nevertheless so abstain through grief, but that the sense misled him with its allurements. As often as he was encircled in the embraces of Eve, who manifested herself an interessed companion in his misfortunes, he received no small content. And it's probable that she some times served herself of such like sentiments as these;  
It's not necessary (Adam) because thou must repent, that therefore thou must despair. Let us not undervalue the mercy of that God, who with so gentle a hand hath so favourably punished our enormous crimes; by showing more of cowardice than contrition in our tears. Let not him sin that hath not courage to undergo chastisement. And its true, that the soul dissolved into tears, though it should evaporate by the eyes, would not be able to remove the misery of our loss, and it is withal an effect of a great prudence, to conform one's self to those things, which have no other remedy then sufferance.  
Let's endeavour to recover what we have lost by the procuring of children. Slight comforts in our infelicity, but yet necessary, because God hath commanded them. Let's sin no more in disobedience. Replicated sins, as they admit not of excuse, so they provoke Mercy itself to anger. Let us endeavour the procreation of mankind; for so we shall conform to the will of God. If Death triumph over this mass of flesh, we shall survive in despite of him in our Children, Nephews, and the memory of our Progeny. I intent not by all this that we should leave off our tears. The sorrow for my sin shall die with my heart, which I believe shall be the last part of me alive. I speak it, that we may not incense with a new transgression that God, in offending whom I know not which is greater, the danger, or the impiety.  
Adam, with a smile begot by the stimulations of sensuality, thus replied;  
I need no longer now to fear your company (my Eve) since you become to me an incentive to good. To persuade me that I bemoan not the miseries into which sin hath brought me is to desire me to assume the quality of flocks and stones. I have lost too much ever to fear weeping. It's an effect of stupidity and not of prudence, not to accompany great losses with great griefs. It is yet true that there is a necessity to cheer up the sense, to propagate Nature, and obey God.  
Thus saying & with glances, and kisses having thrown his arms about his wive's neck they gave themselves wholly up to delight, which peradventure for the time begot in them an oblivion of all the accidents past.  
There is not any thing more estrangeth the soul from afflictions, than the complacencies of sense. In that act, a man not only communicates himself, transforms himself, but goes out of, if not besides, himself. Griefs give way torments vanish, discontents are forgotten, in those amorous games, which admit of no other companions than laughter, sport, and audacity.  
Till this instant Adam had been kept a Virgin, to intimate unto us that Matrimony fills the earth, but Virginity Paradise.  
Scarce had Eve satisfied the instinct of nature, and appeased in part the allurements of sense, when with the signs of pregnancy, she was assaulted by repentance, the indivisible companion of fleshly delights.  
Here I will not mention the extremes of her passions, in loathing, and longing for every thing; in the burden of her belly, in her vigils, and in the acerbity of those pangs, the more grievious, by how much the more strange: because the most that I can speak, would be the least part of what they were. Much less will I speak of the sufferance of Adam; because it is known that to have a wife, and a wife pregnant, is a species of martyrdom.  
In the end, with all those pains that accompany the gravidnesse of women, the time of delivery drew near, Adam playing at one time the parts of the Midwife, Nurse, and Husband. Eve brought forth two births, Ca●n was the name of the male, and Calamana that of the female.  
Adam full of joy, and with eyes big with tears, betook himself to praise and return thanks to his Divine Majesty.  
Lord, said he, thy goodness be praised, who, not altered a jot by the injuries of my sin, hast condescended, that I continue a man. Merciful God, glorious God, immense God; since thou ceasest not, to do good to those that offend thee. I acknowledge that I merited, (grown odious to the air, earth, and all creatures and lost amongst the clouds of oblivion) to be made my own sepulchre, as not being able to imagine a viler place. Thou, on the contrary, giving me a power of using all the elements, vouchsafest me to be the father of mankind, and permittest me to live ever famous to the memory of all Ages. Lord I will not go about to commemorate all thy favours for they are infinite. I beseech thee only to continue unto me the assistance of thy grace, that so I may not fall into those sins which have made me to deserve death.  
Eve afterwards bore Abel, and Delbora, whereby she increased the joy of Adam. Children are doubtless the delight of their Parents; the father's seeing their lives renewed in their children, whom they look upon as their other selves grown young.  
Poor Adam had nevertheless little cause of rejoicing, whilst he saw borne more subjects of humane misery. Yet he might withal receive a more than ordinary content, since it is a great part of felicity to have companions in infelicity. Abel was elected in the beginning of his adolescence to the care of Flocks, and Cain was destinated to the tilage of the ground; the prudence of the Parents being bound to set their children to some employment. Youth bears a resemblance to wax, which is pliant to every impression: so that he that engageth it not to callings, wherein worthily to employ either the mind, or body, lazily wanders out of the right path, and consumes, or looseth it in idleness. Those exercises grieve not, disquiet not, that, being learned in the more tender years, come to be held almost natural.  
Adam saw himself ●n the mean while daily consume under the burden of labour, whilst without incessant culture he was denied sustenance. The earth would not yield him obedience, unless it was struck, and opened with a thousand wounds, or won with the profusion of seed. And with so much the more difficulty did he produce his harvest, in regard that humane wit had not as yet, introduced into use ploughs, harrows, mattocks, and, other rural instruments,  
It was a very admirable sight to see the Proto-Monarch of all the world to labour for his living in the most just and lawful employment, I might add also, the most vile, had it not been honoured by the sudors of so many Regal fronts.  
Adam, not content with what the Earth repaid him with interest for the seed received, employed himself also in continual grafting. He transplants wild trees into the meliorated, makes the sterile fructiferous, and dulcorates the insipid,  
He transmutes one species into another, and inoculates many species upon one sole stock.  
Poor Adam sheltered himself (necessity constraining him) in certain Caverns, the palaces of Nature. Necessity itself furnished him with the means of building certain petty Cottages, which were afterwards augmented by industry, and according to occasion.  
He learned, for his greater shame this first Architecture from the Swallow: in that, though he was endowed with all the degrees of wisdom, he was forced to receive from irrational creatures the instructions for his convenience and safety.  
When he would recreate himself after his greater toils, he betook himself to Hunting not so much for the delight he took in the flight and destruction of beasts; as for the benefit accrued to him from the exercise itself, and from the getting of vestures.  
To say the truth, there is not an exercise more noble (for a man not obliged to any other calling then that of Hunting.) Generous souls are stimulated by this Royal exercise, whilst they accustom the body to hardship, the life to dangers, and the hand to conquests. The Chase is a war in times of Peace, so that he that triumphs in this, is so much the more commendable by how much the more right he hath over beasts than over men.  
Cain and Abel were come to that age, which makes men capable of reason, when Adam spoke unto them to this or the like purpose;  
Children, though I know, that, as the light of reason and the instinct of nature point you to the knowledge of one sole God, Lord and Maker of all things; so also they teach and command you the veneration of this great God, with all the acts of humility, and adoration that may possibly proceed from internal and external operations; yet nevertheless, as the Production of God, and a Father, I cannot but satisfy myself, though I had no regard to your necessity Children, acknowledge God; first out of an effect of gratitude, and obligation of thankfulness; and afterwards, for the interests of your being, and for your own safeey. The not-acknowledgement of benefits, is towards every one ingratitude; but towards God that hath blessed you with a such excessive mercies, it is impiety. The slighting of favours provoakes our equals to hate us: Imagine then, what it will do to a Superior to a God, whose power is equal to his will? Take heed, my Sons, that you provoke not the formidable anger of his Divine Majesty, by your ingratitude for his favours. As for the displeasure of God, take it upon my report that have experimented it. If you be wise, learn from my evil to prevent your own; from others harms, extract arguments of safety, and resolutions of sublime prudence. God is your Lord, and King, your Monarch, and your All. Strive to acknowledge his Sovereignty and your vassalage, by the offerings and sacrifices of the first incomes, and first fruits. He will multiply your substance, & shower all felicity upon your heads. Believe me, my sons, that without the good pleasure and mercy of God, we cannot avoid those things that afflict us, nor obtain those goods which our minds desire, nor arrive to that eternity of life, that is promised to us in eternal beatitude. I have spoke this, my Children, not that I doubt of your judgements but to satiate a desire which I have of your good, and the Glory of God.  
With these or the like conceptions Adam instructed his children, who remembered all his examples and commands and admonitions, & with all possible reverence adored his Divine Majesty. But the malice of the Devil empoisoned these holy operations, being the cause of the Earth's polluting itself with the first humane blood.  
God was pleased with the sacrifice of Abel, both because he had chosen the fattest firstlings of his flocks, as also because at the same instant he offered his heart together with the Victim, The offerings of Cain on the contrary, who brought the fruits of the earth, were not honoured by the eye of God; whereupon together with his remorse, a tormenting envy seized upon his heart.  
Envy is really a great evil. That soul discards reason and disbands all judgement, that hath not strength to resist its assaults. It's a Serpent which not only empoisons, but stupifies. It is a vice so execrable, that it brings into the hearts of the envious, the torments of a thousand Hells. The Sacrifices of Cain please not God, who offered the fruits of the earth; to denote unto us, that his divine Majesty aggradeth not those things which proceed from the Earth, for all the actions of wicked men savour of the Earth. And who knows if God intended not by this act to detest Avarice, since that Gold lies in the bowels of the Earth, and God rejected those sacrifices which are produced from the earth: it becomes execrable by having gold, and treasures in its bosom: Or else, haply, it might be for that it was accursed, the Lord not being pleased to receive the fruits of a thing, which once had incurred his displeasure. What then can that sinner hope from his prayers, and his sacrifices, who hath by his sins many and many a time provoked the maledictions of God?  
It is not recorded that Adam sacrificed; perhaps because it was against reason that he being the original of sin, there should also first be found in him the beginnings of Piety and Religion. Or, because the sacred history stays not upon the rehearsal of those things that contain not in them memorable accidents.  
Cain, in the mean time tormented by the fury of Envy, which had begot in his mind an hatred against his brother, found no rest in himself. Envy resembleth fire, which is always in action. By the ashes of his face he presaged the flames which he nourished in his breast. He held his eyes ever fixed on the earth, ruminating on matters of cruelty.  
One day he was advertised and admonished by God with these or the like words;  
Whence, O Cain, proceed thy discontents? What means this thy paleness? Why are thy looks so dejected? Know, that he that beholds the earth, learns only things terreene. And if anger transport thy heart into some execrable sin, consider, that it will enslave the to that blind complacency. This therefore shall always represent unto thee thy guilt, and continually burden thy Conscience, and forever prepare thy punishments. The Good knows not how to produce any thing but good, as all evils come from the Evil. He that sins is void of reason, in that of free, he makes himself a slave. And what greater unhappiness then to be a servant to sin, and a vassal to vice?  
But these holy admonitions had no influence upon the perfidious Cain, for he retained his downcast look. Seldom do God's advertisements avail with those who look not upon his Divine Majesty. He ought to behold heaven that desireth help from heaven. It is as it were to contend with the impossible, for him to sin that holdeth his eyes exalted towards God.  
Therefore Cain being no longer able to endure the corrodings of hate, and envy, invited his brother to go walk with him into a barren field, called afterwards of Damascus, which is as if one should say, A mixture with blood.  
With reason did Cain call Abel into a Barren-field, because being to commit a fratricide he made choice of a place which brought forth nothing. And where could he slay a Brother, but there where fruitfulness was wanting? As if nature in presage of so detestable an act, had made barren that place, depriying it of her gifts, since that it was to receive the blood of an Innocent. If, haply, he did not make choice of it, the better to conceal his sin, in that he shunned the testimony of plants and herbs. Not imaginning that Innocent blood would implore Divine Justice.  
Cain could have slain Abel in his own house, but God would not permit it, because it supplied the place and bore the form of a temple. Teaching us the veneration which ought to be borne to the Church, since God would not suffer it to be contaminated, no not by the most impious and execrable sinners.  
Cain being come thither he began to say full of fury; There is certainly neither Judge, not Justice. He that believes a reward to the just, and judgements to the wicked deceives himself, God's mercy neither hath created, nor doth govern the world.  
A vain fear hath inplanted in our hearts a conceit that there may be a God omnipotent, which I will not for all that believe, for it cannot be. An accidental benefit of nature, (for just such is our life,) merits not adoration. Chance rules and governs all. By this Chance, thy sacrifices have had the precedence.  
Abel, all confounded at the hearing of those blasphemies that at the same time astonished his made and his ear, replied to him with something a discomposed voice, for so the zeal of God's honour commanded; which we ought to defend, though with the certain hazard of our lives.  
You speak brother (said he) against reason because you speak against the prudence, goodness, justice, and omnipotence of God. My sacrifices found Divine acceptance, because I offered the heart. And if thou leavest not these impious conceits I shall renounce thy brotherhood.  
He had not wholly uttered these words, when treacherously smitten by Cain, and transfixed by many wounds, he miserably lost his life.  
Cain was a perfidious man, that could learn from himself a villainy never before practised, and that it may be wickedness itself would never have introduced. The virtues are learned from others, and that with difficulty; and the vices on the contrary are invented by our malignity, and are borne with ourselves.  
He stood, Abel being dead, full of stupefaction, in beholding the Corpse, either because he received horror from such a sight, or because the novelty of the accident (he having never till then seen a dead man,) filled him with wonder. Capital villainies terrify even those that commit them, and affright the eyes many times at the attempts of the hand. After he had turned him many times, and shaken him by the head, and by the hands not without suspicion that he might revive, (for fear makes one believe impossibilities) he said;  
Rejoice heart of mine, that thy enemy's triumph shall never interrupt thy victories. I will no longer endure superior, that may rob me of my honours and glories. My soul deserves not the torments of any envious agitation. Envy is an argument of inferiority. I neither could nor ought to be inferior to my Brother, & for that end have with reason slain him. So much the rather because he, with his modesty, hath incensed the fury of these hands; now let his zeal restore him to life. Let the sacrifices he boasts of, return his soul.  
But anon after, anger having a little yielded to reason, he perceived his own error, and so much the more, in that those objects which obfuscated the sight, now seemed testimonies that convinced him of vile wickedness. Terrors increased the remorse of his Conscience, by the consideration of the anger and reprehensions of his Parents, & sisters; therefore making a grave he covered the dead body with earth, as if in that manner he would bury his sin.  
Scarce had he with a pious act (though not directed to that end) covered an impious fact, when God asks him, Where was his brother Abel? Merciful God Good God that interrogatest sinners, to the intent they should call to mind their sins, and beg pardon for their Errors.  
His Divine Majesty would have men confess their sins; both because confession is a great part of contrition, and to have the greater occasion to excercise the extremity of his goodness, and the excesses of his beneficence. The blushes of confession mitigate in great part the severity of the Judge; as on the other hand, all the acts of pity itself are incensed by the obstinate presumption of one that denyeth.  
But he that hath committed a sin always seeks to hid it. He that hath hands polluted with innocent blood, hath commonly a lying tongue irreligious, mendacious, inhuman, and cruel. Cain answered God; What know I of my brother? Am I his Keeper? Vile wretch (replied God)! what is it thou deniest? The Innocent blood of thy brother Abel invoketh vengeance upon thy impiety, so much the more execrable by how much the more unusual Get thee gone, thou cursed, for the earth having been contaminated by the wickedness of thy hands, shall deny thee its fruits, and thou shalt become a fugitive and vagabond. Cain, full of confusion, and of fear confessed the whole fact, but to little purpose, since he did it out of season. He departed therefore with his wives & children, having received from God for a mark that none should kill him, the continual trembling of the head. And with reason ought his head to be punished; that had slain Abel, the head of the Church.  
God permitted that Abel should be slain by his brother, it may be to chastise their parents: Fathers not meeting a greater affliction, then in the death and depravity of their children. Or else, it was to instruct us that just men, and the true servants of God, are always subjected to the persecutions, and cruelties of ungodly men.  
Adam, having discovered in the flight of Cain the death of Abel (for he that flies, gives no signs of any thing but ill) after an infinite of tears, and sighs, that well-nigh deafened the air, turns himself to God, and, inspired with passion and grief, expressed these or the like conceptions.  
Lord, hath not my sin yet received punishment equal to its desert? Do they still importune thee to pay the debt, contracted by my disobedience? Is it possible that my tears have not obtained from thy mercy a perfect absolution? If this be true, my God, why enjoy I this light, why receive I the respirations of this air? Earth, why dost thou not entomb me in thy bowels? Heaven, why dost thou not slay me with thy thunders? Doth divine justice want judgements? Is the hand of God disarmed? But if my repentance be not able to cancel the debt of my crimes, if my sins admit not the excesses of thy pity; if my transgressions contend with the infinity of thy Goodness; what part, O Lord, hath the innocence of my poor son in the defections of my heart? Wherein hath that Abel offended, who in his sacrifices hath had the honour of the Divine Complacency? Oh miserable wretch, reduced to a misfortune beneath the condition of brutish animals, which in their kinds produce births, that kill not one another by fratricide; which with the only instinct of nature spare not only such as are related to them in consanguinity, but also in their species. Wicked Adam! These are all effects of thy sin: Good God, permit not the population of the world in my descent, for from a bad root nothing can proceed but worse fruit. And thou, vile Cain, that hast rendered thy hands accursed abusing the goodness of thy brother, not being worthy thereof; what wilt thou do? Hated by God, by Men, and by thyself, whither wilt thou go? Unfortunate father, deprived in one and the same instant of two sons! Constrained much more to bewail him which remains, then him which I have lest.  
He would not here have ended his complaints, if the shrieks of Eve, that introduced pity even into the insensibility of stones, had not necessitated him to consolate her in the midst of her tears, Love making a separation of ourselves from ourselves.  
Eve, said he, there is a necessity of accommodating the affects of our hearts to the will of of God, which in his works always includes secrets, impenetrable by our humanity. All that which in this vale of the World, hath the resemblance of evil, is good with God, who worketh diversely from our understanding. What doth tears profit, which are, always, of small moment; but, for the dead, vain and unprofitable? If by weeping we could retract that fatal point of God's decree, I would say, Let's dissolve ourselves into tears. But if this be a vain hope, and an impossible supposal; Why should we with new sorrows aggravate our old miseries? And in regard it is true, that, discovering by the death of the more just, that thou wilt not, O my God, accept of the propagation of mankind from me, I promise and swear unto thee never to know Eve more. Lord I will no longer believe the Divinity of thy essence; if, I infringing this promise, thou dost not fulminate against me the thunder of thy wrath, and make me to prove all the effects of thy displeasure. Eve presently with an oath confirmed the will of Adam, and daily dieting upon tears, they ceased not to bewail the hurt of such a loss. All griefs admit of some consolation; that of the loss of children is insupportable, for it will make patience itself out of patience. He that loseth a son loseth more than a part of himself. For in himself a man dies daily, but in the life of a child he goes forward to immortality.  
They many years continued their continence and their condoleing, sacrificing all their affections to the passion of such a loss; when, behold, at length a Messenger of God admonished Adam, in words of this or the like purport;  
Adam, It is now time to dry up thy tears: Continual sorrows are not pleasing to God, who desires that in our misadventures we submit to his divine will. Comfort thyself that Almighty God will in another son restore thee all that which thou lamentest in the loss of Abel. This son shall, in his successors, revenge thee of him who hath been the cause of all thy miseries. From him, after some ages, shall be borne God-man. Fear not again to touch thy wife; for I by the will of his Divine Majesty do free thee from thy vow, and absolve thee from thy oath.  
Adam, humbly thanked God for his compassion, and imparted all to Eve, making her gravid a little after, begetting a son, whom he called Soothe: saying, The mercy of God hath furnished me with an Issue, which shall repair the loss of the death of Abel. In the Education of this son, what pains Adam took, may be understood by the success. He merited from people the attribute of Divine; having given names to the stars, and invented the Hebrew-Characters. With piety and goodness he ravished the affections of all, and was an example to posterity, and a glory to his parents.  
In the mean time, generations multiplied to that multitude, as that men were forced to separate, to cultivate new grounds, the first not being sufficient to maintain them.  
Upon this occasion Adam exercised the talents he received from God. He made certain laws, with which he taught, and commanded that which was good; Vices being already so increased that they had great need of reformation. Adam, not being able in regard of the distance of places, to prescribe remedies to those evils which multiplied to infinite, made use of Laws; which make the Prince always present, though he be fare distant.  
There is the Law of Nature, and the Written Law. That of Nature is a sentiment, born with the Reason, which enableth the Conscience to distinguish good from evil. But in wicked minds corrupted by a depraved consuetude, this Law is either not known, or else despised: The Written Law therefore is necessary, which dividing itself into Divine, Civil, constitutes the true foundation of all humane societies. The Laws of Adam were all directed to the union, and conservation of the people, to the correction, and direction of manners; to the maintenance of obedience, and fidelity towards the Prince; and to the acknowledgements, and devotions towards God. Yet Adam would not divest himself of the gift received from God Almighty, of the universal Empire over all things created; so that he reserved to himself, the reformation, alteration, and interpretation of his Laws. He knew very well that all garments, and all meats agreed not to men of all ages. The beginnings, augmentations, and declinations of a disease are not cured with the same remedies. With the alterations of times, there's a necessity of varying the institutions.  
Adam divided those primitive people into many Cantons, or Corporations; to each of which he assigned for Superintendent one of his sons, both because he would ease himself of so many employments, as also because he would perpetuate the sole command in his own line. It is then no marvel, that this desire is innate in the minds of the Greatest, since it is an evil that hath extracted its original from the first Man of the World.  
Though the command was parted amongst his sons, he nevertheless reserved the Supremacy of all to himself; partly to restrain the licentiousness of his sons, and partly that he might not seem to despise that gift of the universal Empire, received from God, which is the most desirable in the world. He that renounceth Command, confesseth himself, for the most part, either unable to exercise it, or unworthy to retain it.  
In his latter days, Adam understood the progress of his son Cain. He had news that he lived in the Oriental parts, and that he had built a City, calling it by the name of his son Enoch. But he rejoiced not, knowing very well that building of Cities, could only proceed from a soul very timorous, or excessively ambitious.  
Adam considered, by his own example, how dangerous it was for one to hid himself. He knew full well that the nature of Cain was tyrannical, and inclined to extort the goods and wealth of others, and bend upon the murder and destruction of people. No less than a City, is sufficient to secure a wicked man.  
All these considerations disquieted the mind of Adam, so that his long life was but a daily death. He grieved to see that the more men increased in number, the more they multiplied in vice: That justice was abandoned of those in particular who ought most to love it: That goodness was only known for an imaginary thing: That Avarice was the first of man's affections: That Luxury, accompanied by the most infamous debaucheryes, triumphed in all hearts; upon which occasion, it is more than probable, that he many times with more than ordinary sentiments supplicated his divine Majesty, to take him out of this torrent of the world, wherein there was nothing but Sin and Misery.  
Adam was ready to pay the last debt to nature, having now seen the seventh generation, when he called to him all his sons and daughters, which were many in number, and taught them what they were to do for the service of God, and salvation of their souls.  
Children, saith he, the time is approaching that I must pay the Earth its tribute. These hoary hairs tell me, that I am in the Winter of my life: These limbs, that can no longer sustain themselves; that I must shortly fall. Thus my fin hath resolved, and thus That God hath decreed which commandeth that all things return to their principles. Before, therefore, that I depart, from you, I will leave you, in testimony of my affection, all those records that conduce to the good either of your souls or bodies. Nor think that my words are overswayed by my affections, since he that speaks is a dying Father. My Children, above all other things remember to love one only God, Trine in person, and One in essence. You are obleiged to this not only by your duty, but by your interest. He either is no man, or deserves not that name, who consecrates not all his affections to that God, who hath given him a being, and that daily communicates to him temporal and spiritual blessings, and who always appropriates punishments to vice, and rewards to virtue. Know, that he requires sole adoration; and for this very thing, I foresee that he will shower down miseries upon my posterity (yea, blind progeny) an infinite of miseries; foolish posterity, that shall so far dote, as to adore the things which thou thyself hast form. The Idolatry I say that shall come into the world, shall snatch the thunderbolts out of God's hands, and violently force his mercy to the punishment of infinite generations. As also lasciviousness dishonesty, and luxury. These, Children, are sins that will constrain the fire to forsake its sphere, not only to chastise sinners, but also to root out the memory of them. Keep yourselves, my Sons, keep yourselves from Anger, which is an undomable passion, that hurries the hands to imbrue themselves in the blood of innocency itself. And these homocides how displeasing they are to God is evinced in the example of your brother Cain. Though the blood of the slain be not polluted, yet it contaminates the hands and consciences of the murderer. And to show how execrable a thing murder is, note, That even he is culpable that kills those who implore death. Corn, and Cattle, and other the more esteemed sorts of things you ought not to steal, no nor covet; for from this is engendered that cursed serpent of Envy, which hath been the chief cause of all humane misadventures. See that ye do not too much flatter the inordinate appetites of your senses with a complacenciall indulgence, for they will lead you into a thousand cursed sins. The senses are for the more part fallacious guides, negligent sentinels, and the ruiners of the soul. These teach you pride, the first of all sins, and a crime so execrable, that it hath polluted heaven with its filthiness. They teach you covetousness, which is an insatiable desire, that, depraving faith and goodness, openeth a door to all wickedness. They teach you Luxury, which is a furious passion, that, perverting the reason, makes man rebel against himself. They teach you Superfluous Gluttony, which is a concatenation of a thousand Vices. This transports the will, fomenteth love and hatred, extinguisheth the memory, distracteth the understanding, and is the high way to all evils. In short, he that obeys his senses, cannot be a lover of God. The senses affect only their own delight; and many times rave, giving credit to themselves alone.  
My sons, the mercy of God, which will have his Advertisement precede his Chastisements, illuminating your souls, commands that I denounce your miseries. The vengeance of Heaven, my Children, shall set open the Abyss, and shall drown the earth, the waters shall surmount the Hills, fishes shall possess the places of birds▪ in brief, all mankind (except a small number of the good) shall be the victim sacrificed to God's anger. You have no way to avoid these evils, but by loving, serving, and obeying God. Stupid people! why do you not employ yourselves in those works which promise you beatitude? Is it happily so great a toil to exercise the works of temporal and spiritual Mercy? Children, please God, please God; for else, you are near to destruction. Educate your Children in his fear, that happily with their righteousness and your penitence, you may be able to divert the impending judgements of Divine Justice. I know, that these my words will not prevail upon those minds, who have devoted themselves to ambition, jollity, dishonesty, thievery, murder, and dissoluteness. But the grief I conceive for your calamities, urgeth me to speak, though it may prove ineffectual. I comfort myself nevertheless, that if you observe not all these my precepts, yet one shall fulfil them for you all. I see in the more hidden Arcana of God, that She shall spring from the Loins of these, who, being a Virgin and a Mother, shall break the Serpent's head, bear God into the world, and open Heaven to the Just.  
Adam was heard with more admiration than success: for all his sons, except Seth, were maculated with a thousand enormous vices. His prophecies were derided; because That is with great difficulty believed that is not desired; and it is the property of Sin to bereave men of reason, and understanding.  
To Seth, who by his virtue merited all his Affections and Benedictions, Adam familiarly imparted all the particularities of the past and future eveniences, which with the gift of Prophecy had been communicated to him by God. He foretold him the Ruin of their posterity, the birth of the Virgin Mary, the passion and death of God, the delivery of the righteous souls from Hell, and the Institution of new Laws. He advertised him to instruct his posterity, laying up these memorials in two Towers, whereof one to be of a matter that could bear out the impetuosity of water, the other resist the violence of fire.  
He commanded him above all, that he should never permit any of his children to marry into the family of Cain.  
Vices are ever transmitted to posterity, and it would be a great benefit to the world that wicked men were deprived of Issue. Wolves-bane, and Hemlock, grow not on wholesome roots. Serpents bring forth only Serpents.  
Thus Adam, being arrived to his Nine hundred and thirtieth year, oppressed either by infirmity, or old age, departed this life, bequeathing his soul to his Maker, and his body to the Earth; there to remain till the Resurrection, when all the Holy Patriarches shall be freed from the prison of the Grave. It is the opinion of many that he died on Friday the 3d of March, being the day on which he was created to hint that misery comes in the very instant of our felicity.  
He was of very great strength according to the Giant like stature he was of. We may believe that he was proportionable of person, and very handsome; for coming out of God's hands, he could not be otherwise.  
He was buried in Hebron, in a Sepulchre of Marble, and was afterwards transported to Calvary, to the very place where Christ died. It was so decreed by God, that so the innocent blood of a God, should wash away the guilty ashes of a Sinner. Oh excess of Love! Oh stupendious Mercy! And hereupon I am of opinion that a death's head is always affixed to the feet of the picture of Christ's Crucifixion, to show us that it is the head of Adam.  
Of Eves age the Scriptures make no mention; perhaps because we ought not to know the death of her, that deserved to die before she was born; all the miseries of mankind taking rise from her. It's probable that she was oppressed by age, and passion, for Adam's death. It pleased his Divine Majesty, perhaps, that she should survive Adam to double her punishment, in beholding the death of the dearest part of herself.  
This (Reader) is the Life of the first Man, first Father, and first Saint. He possessed all those benefits which were vouchsafed by nature, or acquired by industry. He was endowed with all Sciences, was the inventor of all Arts. He preceded all mortals in Wisdom, and the perfect knowledge of all natural things, both because it depended on the cause, not on the effects; and because he could not lose it with the state of innocence.  
He found in advancement downfall, and in downfall glory. He was then most infelicitous when he was in the height of all his felicity, because he could not keep himself so. I know not whether be greater, the hurt he hath done his posterity in necessitating them to die, or the benefit in occasioning the most wonderful Love of God, to put himself upon it to undertake our humane nature.  
And, Reader, consider in this Relation how vast difference there is between God and man. Man brooks no parity nor equality in riches, dominion, nobility, honours, nor virtue: God, on the contrary, is so full of benignity and so free from envy, that he hath been pleased to form man almost equal to himself. And in every way that man resembled God, God in every of those ways hath been like Himself.  
Consider that God hath given the dominion over all creatures to man as being endued with the light of reason, to teach us that the superior part of man wherein is the mind, and reason, (the particular attribute of a man,) ought to precede over the inferior, to wit the senses and affections, which we have common with beasts.  
Consider, that the greatest felicities last not long, resembling lightning, which the more it abounds with light, the sooner it vanisheth and leaves behind somuch a greater darkness; as Adam in the Terrestrial Paradise, passed in a moment from Paradise into Exile.  
Consider, of what small avail are the favours of Nature, the gifts of Wisdom, the Divine admonitions, and the Proximity of God himself, whilst a depraved will tyrannizeth over the reason, enslaves the understanding, and resolves to idolise vice.  
Consider, that the greatest errors proceed from the greatest wits, in that the wisest man in the world fell; and that so much the more inexcusably, in as much as it was easy not to have sinned.  
Consider, that it booteth not to confide in riches, honours, empire, nor the love of great ones, when an error of disobedience hath involved us in the extremity of misery, and in the hatred of Him that hath given us a being according to his own similitude.  
Consider, lastly, Reader, how much Children and Grand children and Posterity lose in the sin of their Progenitors and Ancestors, in that all Ages pay a perpetual penance for the transgression of Adam.  
FINIS.