THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 297 



many topics have been maintained fuccefsfnlly upon much 

 more flender grounds. God, the author of life, and the bed 

 judge of what was proper to maintain it, gave this regimen 

 to our firft parents — " Behold, I have given you every herb 

 " bearing feed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and e- 

 " very tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding feed : to 

 " you it fhall be for meat *. " And though, immediately after, 

 he mentions both beads and fowls, and every thing that 

 creepeth upon the earth, he does not fay that he has defign- 

 ed any of thefe as meat for man. On the contrary, he 

 feems to have intended the vegetable creation as food for 

 both man and bead — " And to every bead of the earth 

 " and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that 

 "creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given 

 " every green herb for meat : and it was fo f ." After the 

 flood, when mankind began to repoffefs the earth, God gave 

 Noah a much more extenfive permifiion — " Every moving 

 " thing that liveth ihall be meat for you ; even as the green 

 " herb have I given you all things J." 



As the criterion of judging of their aptitude for food 

 was declared to be their moving and having life, a danger ap- 

 peared of mifinterpretation, and that thefe creatures fliould 

 be ufed living ; a thing which God by no means intended, 

 and therefore, immediately after, it is faid, " But flefh with 

 " the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, fhall you not 

 " eat §;" or, as it is rendered by the bed: interpreters, ' Flefh, or 

 members, torn from living animals having the blood in 

 them, thou fhalt not eat.' We fee then, by this prohibition, that 



Vol. III. P p this 



Gen. chap. i. ver. 2Q. \ Gen. chap. i. ver. 30. i Gen. chap. be. ver. 3. § Gen. chap. ix. v. 4, 



