OF SERPENTS, i8i 



III. THE Laws of Paradife were inforced by a "very awful 

 SanBmi, viz. Life and Death: The one expreifing fomething 

 moft terrible, the other implying fomewhat vaftly dehghtful. 

 Threatnings were neceffary Cautions in Paradife : How furprizing 

 this! The firfl: day of Man's Life, Man was put in mind of 

 Death, of which the Tree of Life was a Memento. If you eat 

 the Fruit of it, you forfeit your Life, die you muji without Re- 

 medy. This Menace of Death, in the Defign of it, was to guard 

 againft Sin, as that which only could be the Caufe of Death. 



IN the day thou eatejl thereof, dying thou flialt die ; or, die 

 the Death. Behold here ! as in a Cloud, the firft Alarm of Mor- 

 tality, the firfl: Inftitution' of Funerals, and the melancholy Office 

 of Grave-diggers. Bells from the Pinnacle of the Temple, pro- 

 claim it aloud to Man, T)iift thou art, and unto Duf thou Jhalt 

 return. In this paradifaical Scheme of Government, we find 

 Death to be a near Neighbour to Life : Both the Trees grew near 

 to one another. 



Some have made this T^ree of Life a Reprefentation of Chrift^ 

 and if fo, here, as in a Glafs, darkly Man law his Saviour before 

 he flood in need of him : The Tree of Life planted in the midft 

 of Paradife, was to preferve Adam\ Life, and without doubt had 

 done fo, if he had not rebelled. According to a Learned Jew, 

 the Tree of Life reprefents Piety ; and that of Knowledge, Pru- 

 dence *. Some of his Countrymen tell us ridiculous Stories about 

 the Tree of Life, 'viz. That it was of prodigious Size, and all 

 the Water of the Earth gufli'd out at its Foot, ^c. 



I T is from the Hiftory of Paradife that pagan Poets took their 

 NeBar and Ambrofa, which were faid to be the Meat and Drink 

 of the Gods ; upon which fome put this Conftrudlion, viz. 

 NeSlar fignifies young ; Ambropa, Immortality ; intimating, that 

 in a State of Innocency, the Vigor of Youth v^'ould have been 

 immortal. 



The Heathen were not without fome Idea of the Mofaic 

 Creation, and Fall of Man, and of a Woman that brought Sor- 

 row into the World; envying, that a Fire, which is the Light 

 of Knowledge, was hid from them .... and alfo of Old-AgCj. 



brought in by the Counfel of a Serpent. ■ 



P A R A- 



* Vhilo J II da: us. 



