II.

came into being in full ftature and vigour DISC. of mind as well as body. He found creation likewise in it's prime. It was morning with man and the world.

We are not certain with regard to the time allowed him, to make his obfervations upon the different objects with which he found himself furrounded; but it should feem, either that fufficient time was allowed him for that end, or that he was enabled, in fome extraordinary manner, to pervade their effences, and discover their properties. For we are informed, that God brought the creatures to him, that he might impofe upon them fuitable names; a work which, in the opinion of Plato', must be ascribed to God himself. The ufe and intent of names is to express the natures of the things named; and in the knowlege of thofe natures, at the beginning, God, who made them, must have been man's inftructor. It is not likely, that, without fuch an inftructor, men could

1 Τα πρώτα ονόματα οι Θεοι έθεσαν In Cratylo.

VOL. I.

D

ever

DISC. ever have formed a language at all; fince
II. it is a task which requires much thought;

and the great masters of reafon seem to be
agreed that without language, we cannot
think to any purpofe. However that may
be, from the original impofition of names
by our first parent, we cannot but infer
that his knowlege of things natural must
have been very eminent and extenfive; not
inferior, we may fuppofe, to that of his
defcendant king Solomon, who " spake of
"trees, from the cedar to the hyffop, and
"of beafts, and fowl, and creeping things
" and fishes." It is therefore probable,
that Plato afferted no more than the truth,
when he afferted, according to the tradi-
tions he had gleaned up in Egypt and the
eaft, that the first man was of all men
Dihoropararos, the greatest philofopher.

As man was made for the contemplation of God here, and for the enjoyment of him hereafter, we cannot imagine, that his knowlege would teminate on earth, though it took it's rife there. Like the patriarch's ladder, it's foot was on earth,

but

II.

but it's top, doubtlefs, reached to heaven. DISC. By it the mind afcended from the creatures to the Creator, and defcended from the Creator to the creatures. It was the golden chain, which connected matter and spirit, preserving a communication between the two worlds.

That God had revealed and made himfelf known to Adam, appears from the circumstances related; namely, that he took him, and put him into the garden of Eden; that he converfed with him, and communicated a law, to be by him obferv ed; that he caufed the creatures to come before him, and brought Eve to him. In these transactions, God probably affumed fome vifible appearance; because, otherwife than by fuch affumed appearance, no man, while in the body, can fee God. And we find, by what paffed after the fatal tranfgreffion, that "the voice or found of "the Lord God walking in the garden," was a voice or found to which Adam had been accustomed, though guilt for the firft time had made him afraid of it.

DISC. If there was at the beginning this fa

II.

as

miliar intercourfe between Jehovah and
Adam, and he vouchfafed to converse with
him as he afterwards did with Mofes,
ἐσ a man converseth with his friend," there
can be no reasonable doubt, but that he in-
structed him, as far as was neceffary, in the
knowlege of his Maker, of his own fpiri-
tual and immortal part, of the adversary he
had to encounter, of the confequences to
which disobedience would fubject him, and
of those invifible glories, a participation
of which was to be the reward of his obe-
dience.

When God, in after times, selected a peculiar people to be his church and heritage, to receive the law from his mouth, and to be the guardians of his promises, he "chofe one place to place his name "there;" to be the place of his refidence, where he appeared and was confulted. He gave directions for the conftruction of a temple, or house, in a particular manner appropriated to him, and called his; which though

II.

though composed of worldly elements, was DISC. fo framed as to exhibit an apt resemblance, model, or pattern of heavenly things; to ferve as a school for inftruction, as a fanctuary for devotion. Might not the Garden of Eden be a kind of temple, or fanctuary, to Adam; a place chofen for the refidence and appearance of God; a place defigned to represent and give him ideas of heavenly things; a place facred to contemplation and devotion? Something of this fort seems to be intimated by the account we have of the garden in the fecond chapter of Genefis, and to be confirmed by the references and allufions to it, in other parts of the Scriptures.

With this view we may obferve, that though Paradife was created with the reft of the world; yet we are informed, the hand of God was in a more especial manner employed in preparing this place for the habitation of man. "The Lord God

planted a Garden eastward in Eden. And "out of the ground the Lord God made