"be not sensible, then there was no fountain, and then no "river; if no river, then no such four heads or branches, " and then not any such river as Pison, or Gehon, Tigris, "or Euphrates; no such fig-tree, or fruit, or leaves; Eve "then did not eat of the fruit, neither was there any Adam, 66 or any man; the truth was but a fable, and all things es"teemed are called back into allegories." Words to the same effect hath St. Hierome upon Daniel; Conticescant eorum deliramenta, qui umbras et imagines in veritate sequentes, ipsam conantur evertere veritatem, ut paradisum et flumina, et arbores putent allegoriæ legibus se debere subruere: "Let the dotage of them be silent, who following "shadows and images in the truth, endeavour to subvert the "truth itself, and think that they ought to bring paradise, "and the rivers, and the trees, under the rules of allegory." Furthermore, by the continuation and order of the story, is the place made more manifest. For God gave Adam free liberty to eat of every tree of the garden, (the tree of knowledge excepted,) which trees Moses in the ninth verse saith that they were good to eat; meaning the fruit which they bare. Besides, God left all beasts to Adam to be named, which he had formerly made; and these beasts were neither in the third heaven, nor near the circle of the moon, nor beasts in imagination: for if all these things were enigmatical or mystical, the same might also be said of the creation of all things. And Ezechiel, speaking of the glory of the Assyrian kings, useth this speech; 9 All the trees of Eden, which were in the garden of God, envied him; which proveth both Eden and paradise, therein seated, to be terrestrial: for the prophets made no imaginary comparisons. But Moses wrote plainly, and in a simple style, fit for the capacities of ignorant men, and he was more large and precise in the description of paradise, than in any other place of scripture; of purpose to take away all scruple from the incredulity of future ages, whom he knew (out of the gift of prophecy) to be apt to fabulous inventions; and that if he ¶ Ezech. xxxi. 9. had not described both the region and the rivers, and how it stood from Canaan, many of the unbelieving Israelites, and others after them, would have misconstrued this story of mankind. And is it likely there would have been so often mention made of paradise in the scriptures, if the same had been an Utopia? For we find that the valley wherein Sodom and Gomorrah stood, (sometimes called Pentapolis, of the five principal cities therein,) was before the destruction (which their unnatural sin purchased) compared to the paradise of the Lord, and like to the land of Egypt toward Zoar: in like manner was Israel resembled to the paradise. of God, before the Babylonians wasted it: which proveth plainly, that paradise itself exceeded in beauty and fertility, and that these places had but a resemblance thereof; being compared to a seat and soil of far exceeding excellency. Besides, whence had Homer his invention of Alcinous's gardens, as Justin Martyr noteth, but out of Moses's description of paradise? Gen. ii. And whence are their praises of the Elysian fields, but out of the story of paradise? To which also appertain those verses of the golden age in Ovid: $ Ver erat æternum; placidique tepentibus auris The joyful spring did ever last, And Zephyrus did breed Sweet flowers by his gentle blast, Without the help of seed. And it is manifest, that Orpheus, Linus, Pindarus, Hesiodus, and Homer, and, after him, Ovid, one out of another, and all these, together with Pythagoras and Plato, and their sectators, did greatly enrich their inventions, by venting the stolen treasures of divine letters, altered by profane additions, and disguised by poetical conversions, as if they had been conceived out of their own speculations and contemplations. But besides all these testimonies, if we find what region Heden, or Eden was; if we prove the river that ran out of it, and that the same afterwards was divided into four branches; together with the kingdoms of Havila and Cush; and that all these are eastward from Canaan, or the deserts of the Amorites, where Moses wrote; I then conceive, that there is no man that will doubt but that such a place there was. And yet I do not exclude the allegorical sense of the scripture; for as well in this there were many figures of Christ, as in all the Old Testament throughout: the story being directly true notwithstanding. And to this purpose saith St. Augustine, Tres sunt de paradiso generales sententia: una est eorum, qui tantummodo corporaliter paradisum intelligi volunt: alia eorum, qui spiritualiter tantum, id est, ecclesiam: tertia eorum, qui utroque modo paradisum accipiunt; that is, "There are three opinions of para"dise: the one of those men, which will have it altogether "corporal: a second of those, which conceive it altogether spiritual, and to be a figure of the church: the third of those, which take it in both senses;" which third opinion t St. Augustine approveth, and of which Suidas giveth this allowable judgment: "Quemadmodum homo sensibilis et intelligibilis simul conditus erat; sic et hujus sanctissimum nemus sensibile simul et intelligibile, et duplici specie est præditum; that is, "As man was created at one time, both "sensible and intelligible; so was his holy grove, or garden, "to be taken both ways, and endued with a double form." 66 66 SECT. IV. Why it should be needful to intreat diligently of the place of paradise. BUT it may be objected, that it is needless, and a kind of curiosity, to inquire so diligently after this place of paradise, and that the knowledge thereof is of little or no use. To which I answer, that there is nothing written in the scriptures but for our instruction; and if the truth of the Aug. de Civit. Dei, 1. 13. c. 21. "Suidas in verbo Paradisus. story be necessary, then by the place proved, the same is also made more apparent. For if we should conceive that paradise were not on the earth, but lifted up as high as the moon; or that it were beyond all the ocean, and in no part of the known world; from whence Adam was said to wade through the sea, and thence to have come into Judea, (out of doubt) there would be few men in the world that would give any credit unto it. For what could seem more ridiculous than the report of such a place? And besides, what maketh this seat of paradise so much disputed and doubted of, but the conceit that Pison should be Ganges, which watereth the east India, and Gehon, Nilus, which enricheth Egypt and these two rivers so far distant, as (except all the world were paradise) these streams can no way be comprised therein ? Secondly, If the birth, and works, and death of our Saviour, were said to have been in some such country, of which no man ever heard tell, and that his miracles had been performed in the air, or no place certainly known; I assure myself, that the Christian religion would have taken but a slender root in the minds of men: for times and places are approved witnesses of worldly actions. Thirdly, If we should rely, or give place to the judgment of some writers upon this place of Genesis, (though otherwise for their doctrine in general they are worthy of honour and reverence,) I say that there is no fable among the Grecians or Egyptians more ridiculous: for who would believe that there were a piece of the world so set by itself, and separated, as to hang in the air under the circle of the moon? or who so doltish to conceive, that from thence the four rivers of Ganges, Nilus, Euphrates, and Tigris should fall down, and run under all the ocean, and rise up again in this our habitable world, and in those places where they are now found? which lest any man think that I enforce, or strain to the worst, these are Peter Comestor's own words; Est autem locus amænissimus, longo terræ et maris tractu a nostra habitabili zona secretus, adeo elevatus, ut usque ad lunarem globum attingat, &c. that is, "It is a most plea "sant place, severed from our habitable zone by a long "tract of land and sea, elevated so, that it reacheth to the "globe of the moon." he, 66 66 66 66 And Moses Barcephas upon this place writeth in this manner : * Deinde hoc quoque responsum volumus, paradisum multo sublimiore positum esse regione, atque hæc nostra extet terra, eoque fieri ut illinc per præcipitium delabantur fluvii tanto cum impetu, quantum verbis exprimere non possis; eoque impetu impulsi pressique sub oceani vado rapiuntur, unde rursus prosiliant ebulliantque in hoc a nobis culto orbe: which have this sense; "Furthermore," saith we give this for an answer, that paradise is set in a region far raised above this part which we inhabit; "whereby it comes to pass, that from thence these rivers fall "down with such a headlong violence, as words cannot express; and with that force so impulsed and pressed, they are carried under the deep ocean sea, and do again rise " and boil up in this our habitable world." And to this he addeth the opinion of Ephram, which is this: Ephram dicit, paradisum ambire terram, atque ultra oceanum ita positum esse, ut totum terrarum orbem ab omni circumdet regione, non aliter atque lunæ orbis lunam cingit; which is, “That "paradise doth compass or embrace the whole earth, and is "so set beyond the ocean, as it environeth the whole orb of "the earth on every side, as the orb of the moon doth em"brace the moon." To the end therefore that these ridiculous expositions and opinions do not bring question unto truth itself, or make the same subject to doubts or disputes, it is necessary to discover the true place of paradise, which God in his wisdom appointed in the very navel of this our world, and, as Melancthon says, in parte terræ meliore, “in "the best part thereof," that from thence, as from a centre, the universal might be filled with people and planted; and by knowing this place, we shall the better judge of the beginning of nations, and of the world's inhabitation: for near unto this did the sons of Noah also disperse themselves |