fome Purpose, as if he began to grow weary of his crea ting, and was refolved to have his Work over by the Week's End. For, to fet afide this naming of the Animals, which, to confider the Nature of each, and to adapt them a Name to it, would require no fmall Time; let us fee what a hurry there muft be, for the Tranfaction of other Matters. In the firft Place, there were so many Thousand of Animals created, then there was a Counfel called for the Creation of Man, who had at firft a Body formed out of Clay, and a Soul breathed into it by God; then Adam falls afleep, and had a Mistress formed out of one of his Ribs; when he wakes, he performs (as muft be fuppofed) fome Ceremonies of Courtship to the newfound Lady, gains her Affections, and celebrates an extemporary Marriage; the Woman leaves her new Hufband, and falls a parlying with an ugly Serpent, or the Devil, about an Apple; after a deal of arguing Pro and Con, the Woman yields to the Beaft, cats the Apple, tempts her Husband, makes his Mouth water, and he eats too; then their Nature is altered, they lofe their Glory and their Senfe, find out one another's blind Side, are afhamed of their Nakednefs, commence Tailors extempore, few Fig-leaves together and make themselves fine green Aprons. Then God in the Evening comes into the Garden; the guilty Criminals hide themselves in the Thickets; God fummons them, they appear, there is a fair Hearing of the Caufe, they make their Excufes, and after a full Examination, God decrees to the Man, Woman, and Serpent, the Punishments they had merited. Then they are drove out of Paradife, two Angels with brandifht Swords are fet Centinels at the Garden-door, and poor Adam and Eve are forced into the Woods, to take up their Lodging among the Beafts. So that here is almost the whole Opera of the Creation of the World performed this Day; and there is but a very little Time left, for Adam's making his Vocabulary, and reading his Philofophy-Lectures. I am unwilling to teize you with Abfurdities I could raife from all thefe Particulars, but one Thing I muft needs tell you lies cross my Throat mighti ly, ly, which I can never fwallow; and that is to confider what a nimble March the grave Elephants must make from India to Eden; and what a ftrange Rendezvouz there must be of Getulian Lions and Greenland Bears, of Guinean Monkeys and English Mastiffs, and all to travel fo far at fo fhort a Warning, and in fo little a Time. Pray, good Credentius, help out a poor Unbeliever, in the midst of thefe Difficulties. Cred. But fuppofing, Philologus, we should deny all No confuthis which you take for granted, that the Matter of all fed Huddle this Relation was tranfacted in one Day, and that the Ani- in the Relation of mals took fo long a Journey to wait on Adam; then all the fixth this fine Harangue falls to nothing. And indeed I do Day'sWork. not fee any Thing in Scripture to countenance it; it is only the general Opinion of the Schools, who fuppofe the Fall of Man to have happened the first Day of his Creation; and this is grounded upon an Argument, which I fee nothing in; which is, because otherwife Adam might have begotten a Child in his Innocency, and then would not have traduced his Guilt to his Pofterity. I fhall not trouble my felf to confute this Argument, because it is only a wild Suppofition, and which may be anfwered by twenty Suppofitions as probable on the other Side. My Business I undertook with you is, to vindicate the Autho rity of the Scripture, and not the Schoolmen's Hypothe fes; and I do not here find any Abfurdity in that, whatever your Suppofition may bring along with it. For, may The Lapse of Man, not tion. ift, Here is not a Word in Scripture of the Lapfe happening the fixth Day of the World's Creation, or the first of Man's; and therefore you ought not to impute any the first Day Abfurdities to the Mofaical Account, which of follow f his Crea= from that Opinion. Indeed thofe Difficulties, which you have urged out of Mr. Gataker, fhew, that all these Things could not be tranfacted in one Day; but if they were done in many, the Authority of the Scripture remains entire; and truly the Arguments of that learned Man (which he has brought to confute the Opinion of the Schools, and you have borrowed to expofe the Mofaical Account) to me feem very conclufive. But befides, I have other Reafons H 2 Reafons to think, that the Lapfe of Mankind did not hap pen the first Day; but that there did a confiderable Time intervene before this unhappy Miscarriage. I doubt not but that Adam before the Fall was endowed with an extraordinary Degree of Knowledge; for I can never agree with the Socinians, that he was fuch a poor ignorant Idiot as they would make of him. But then I am apt to believe, that this Knowledge inclined more to the Angelical and Intuitive, than to the Experimental and Difcurfive one. For it proceeded only from the extraordinary Influence of the divine Grace, and not from his own Deductions, Experiments and Difcourfe. So that tho' Adam were ever fo wife a Creature, I much queftion whether he had the infpired Power of Speaking, as the Apoftles had. For Words are pure placitory Things, and depend upon the mutual Agreement of the Speaker and the Hearer; and therefore 'tis most reasonable to think, that Adam and Eve coined their own Words themselves. The Difference between the Apoftles and them was very wide; because the Apoftles fpake to Men who underftood thofe Languages; but if Adam had spoke to Eve Hebrew, or Greek, fhe could have no more understood him, than if he had held his Tongue. They, that maintain this Opinion, must have Recourse to Infpiration upon Infpiration, and Miracle upon Miracle; there muft be one Infpiration for Adam to fpeak, and another for Eve to underftand; there must be the immediate Affiftance of the Holy Ghoft for every Word and Syllable, and that too with a double Efficacy, not only for the Information of the Hearer, but to make the Speaker underftand his own Words. It remains therefore, that the first Parents framed a Language for themselves, which must be a confiderable Time a compofing; fo that whereas we find them readily difcourfing at the Time of the Lapfe both with God, the Serpent, and themfelves, it muft follow that not only the Fall, but the naming of the Animals muft be at fuch a convenient Distance of Time from the Creation, as might give them Leifure to frame the Language. Which Time cannot be fuppofed to be over long, long, because their extraordinary intellectual Capacity, they were then endowed with, would mightily facilitate their Invention of Words, and proper adapting them to Things. And 2dly, We may draw another Reafon, that the Lapfe did not happen upon the first Day from Gen. iii. 8. from their being acquainted with the Voice of God walking in the Garden in the cool of the Day; which implies they were ufed, and much accuftomed to the divine Prefence, or Shechinah, that they were able to know it fo readily, which they could not be fuppofed to do in one Day. And lastly, The fame Verfe informs us, that they hid themselves among the Trees of the Garden, which fhews they were better acquainted with it, than they could be in an Hour or two, fo as to find out the darkeft Thickets and Umbrages of it. 2. There is another Thing which you take for granted in this Suppofition, that is not fo very certain; and that is, that in the fixth Day's Creation, there were Animals created all over the World, and placed in those diverfe Parts of it, we find them in now. The World might be very well ftocked by a Pair or two of each Kind created about Eden, and their Breed might increase as Mankind multiplied. And if fo (as the Scripture fays nothing for it, or against it) Adam might name all those Animals with Eafe enough, and not trouble them to take fuch long Journies as you fuppofe. 3. If we fhould grant that the Animals were scattered at first all over the Earth, fome peculiar to one Country, and fome to another; yet it does not follow from the Words of Mofes, that Adam muft give Names to all these. It is fufficient, that he named those Animals, that were feated in that Part of the World where Eden stood. For it was to all Intents and Purposes fufficient for him to know, what to call thofe Creatures, which he was to be converfant with, and was to make ufe of; but it would fignify very little, for him to make a Vocabulary of a Number of Animals, that were to refide fo many thoufand Miles from him, and which he was never like to fee again, after his Nomination. So that truly, Philol» まる gus The Ridi gus, I do not fee any of these formidable Difficulties you Cred. I thank you for your Complement. But I will beg culousness leave to add a Word or two more, in Favour of the Moof other Nations faick Account of the Creation. And that is, that of all Account of the Accounts which in all Nations have been pretended the Creati- to be given of the Origin of the World, this is the wifeft on, compa- and moft philofophical. Which to me is a confiderathe Mofai- ble Proof of its divine Revelation; efpecially confidering red with cal. at what a low Ebb Letters and Philofophy ran in the Jewish Nation: So that I am apt to believe the Jews were no more able to invent fuch a wife and intelligible Syftem of the World, than they were able to make the World it felf. And this we may be the better convinced of, if we reflect a little upon the Accounts which other Nations give of it. What a wretched Account was that of The Egyp- the Egyptians, and which the Epicureans borrowed from tian and Græcian. them, of Men growing out of the Earth, like Pumkins and Onions? What ftrange Stories does the Gracian Theology tell of "Ougar and T, and Jupiter and Saturn? What fad Work do their ancient Writers make, when they form Men out of projected Stones, and a Crop of Dragon's Teeth? Neither are other Nations more hap py, in their pretended Originations of the World. No one can with Patience read the Abfurdities in the Maho The Maho- metan Phyfiology, and Account of the World. They tell us of the firft Man's being created, like a Magpie black and white; and this gave the different Colour to Men in the diverfe Parts of the World: That God made at firft the Throne of God, Adam, Paradife, and a great Pen, with which he wrote his Decrees: That this Throne was carried about upon Angels Necks, whofe Heads were metan. fa |