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information we have, upon fo important a point, it will become us to be thankful that we have been told fo much, rather than to murmur because we have been told no more; and, instead of lamenting the obscurity of the Mosaic account, to try whether, by diligence and attention, that obfcurity may not be, in part, difpelled. For though Mofes hath only given us a compendious relation of facts (and facts of the utmost importance may be related in very few words), that relation is ratified and confirmed in the Scriptures of both Testaments, in which are found many references and allufions to it. By bringing these forth to view, and comparing them together, we may poffibly be led to fome agreeable fpeculations concerning the fituation of Adam in the Garden of Eden, the nature of his employment, and the felicity he there experienced.

On a fubject fo remote, and confeffedly difficult, demonftration will not be expected. Much of what is advanced, must be advanced rather as probable, than certain; C 4 and

DISC.

II.

DISC. and where there is little pofitive informa

II.

tion, the candour fo often experienced will accept of fuch notices, as can be obtained by inference and deduction.

When we think of Paradife, we think of it as the feat of delight. The name EDEN authorizes us fo to do. It fignifies PLEASURE; and the idea of pleasure is infeparable from that of a Garden, where man still feeks after loft happiness, and where, perhaps, a good man finds the nearest refem-. blance of it, which this world affords.. "What is requifite," exclaims a great and original genius, "to make a wife and a

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happy man, but reflection and peace? "And both are the natural growth of a "Garden. A Garden to the virtuous is a "Paradife ftill extant; a Paradise unloft.' The culture of a Garden, as it was the first employment of man, so it is that, to which the most eminent perfons in different ages have retired, from the camp and the cabinet, to pafs the interval between a life of action, and a removal hence. When old

e Dr. YOUNG-Centaur not fabulous, p. 61.

Dioclefian

II.

Dioclefian was invited from his retreat, to DISC.
resume the purple which he had laid down
fome years before,
before, "Ah," said he, "could
"" you
but fee those fruits and herbs of
"mine own raifing at Salona, you would'

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never talk to me of empire!" An accomplished statesman of our own country, who spent the latter part of his life in this manner, hath fo well defcribed the advantages of it, that it would be injustice to communicate his ideas in any words but his own. "No other fort of abode," fays he, feems to contribute fo much both to "the tranquillity of mind, and indolence "of body. The sweetness of the air, the

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pleasantness of the smell, the verdure of plants, the cleannefs and lightness of food, the exercise of working or walk"ing; but, above all, the exemption from "care and folicitude, feem equally to fa"vour and improve both contemplation "and health, the enjoyment of fenfe and

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'imagination, and thereby the quiet and "ease both of body and mind. A Garden "has been the inclination of kings, and "the

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DISC. "the choice of philofophers; the common "favourite of public and private men; the

II.

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pleasure of the greatest, and the care of "the meaneft; an employment and a pof"feffion, for which no man is too high, "nor too low. If we believe the Scrip"tures," concludes he, "we must allow, " that God Almighty esteemed the life of "man in a Garden the happiest he could

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give him; or elfe he would not have "placed Adam in that of Edend."

The Garden of Eden had, doubtless, all the perfection it could receive from the hands of Him, who ordained it to be the manfion of his favourite creature. We may reasonably prefume it to have been the earth in miniature, and to have contained fpecimens of all natural productions as they appeared, without blemish, in an unfallen world; and these difpofed in admirable order, for the purposes intended. And it may be observed, that when, in after times, the penmen of the Scriptures have

d Sir WILLIAM TEMPLE, Gardens of Epicurus.

occafion

II.

occafion to describe any remarkable degree DISC. of fertility and beauty, of grandeur and magnificence, they refer us to the Garden

of Eden.

"He beheld all the plain well "watered as the Garden of the Lord". "The land was as the Garden of Eden "before them, but behind them a defolate "wilderness f." The prophet Ezekiel, at the command of God, for an admonition to Pharaoh, thus portrays the pride of the Affyrian empire, under the fplendid and majestic imagery afforded by vegetation in it's most flourishing state. "The Affyrian "was a cedar in Lebanon, fair of branches, " and with a shadowing shroud, and of an

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high ftature, and his top was among the "thick boughs. The waters made him great, the deep fet him up on high, " with her rivers running round about his plants, and fent out her little rivers to "all the trees in the field. Therefore his

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height was exalted above all the trees of "the field, and his boughs were multi

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plied, and his branches became long, be"cause of the multitude of waters when

Gen. xiii. 10.

f Joel ii. 3.

"he

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