him, he would as yet not have thought of;) nothing herein was proposed to him so complex, as that his first thoughts could be in any confusion about it.

The next incident may indeed seem an embarrassment, if we suppose it to have been transacted as it is commonly conceived; but this, I think, I have already obviated. There was no assemblage of the living crea tures of the world for Adam to name them, nor could he at any one time make a survey of them; it would have been a work too large for him. But though Adam had heard the voice of God, yet he had not, at this time, made any one word of his own for himself; and we may allow, that the fact of his naming the creatures, as Moses truly states it, shews us very naturally, how the man, having been enabled to understand the words which God had spoken to him, was introduced to begin and exercise himself to make further words for the occasions of his life. The naming one creature taught him how he might name another; and the making names for the creatures gradually apprised him how he had it in his power to name and to speak of all kind of things, for him and Eve to begin and improve a conversible life. In this easy and natural manner, that (to use the words of the author of the book of wisdom,) it was granted to them, to speak as they would of the things which were given them."

Before Adam had proceeded far in naming the crea tures, it pleased God to cause him to fall into a deep sleep, wherein no sensations from without gave him

* Wisdom vii. 15.

$ Gen. ii. 21.

any interruption. He had, however, a clear and disimplicated perception of the manner in which Eve was taken out of him; and therein learned to name some parts of his own body, a rib, a bone, his flesh; and from what he had perceived concerning her origin, to name the woman also according to it. And,

After he had received the person made for him, and given her a name reconsidering her extract; He who made them both, said unto them; the voice of God spake what he intended should be the strict and indissoluble union of man and wife in their lives. Relations of life were indeed here suggested, of which Adam and Eve as yet could not have any judgment; for it seems that Adam did not yet know that Eve was to be a mother, or himself a father. It may be observed, that as soon as he knew she was to be the mother of all living, he gave her a name accordingly, and thereupon called her name Eve; but this was not until after the fall, and after the sentence of God passed upon them." However, it may be apprehended, that what God here said must strike their minds, charged as yet with only few things; and be so remembered by them, that when af terwards they came to be a father and a mother, and in time had children grown up to be husbands and wives, they might consider and instruct them, what in the beginning had been said unto them; and how, according to God's original design and commandment, man and wife were inseparably to live together in the world. Before the close of this their first day, God blessed

u Gen. iii. 20.

w Ibid.

Vide quæ sup.

them, and said unto them, be fruitful, and multiply and replenish the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.*It does not seem, I rather think I may affirm, that our first parents had not yet looked beyond their garden; they had not seen the compass of the world, nor taken account of the numbers of the creatures that were there in. They had not been on the sea shore; nor could they know the inhabitants of the floods, whose paths are in the waters; so that it would be unnatural and absurd to think that the words now spoken to them, were any further understood, than to give them a general expectation of seeing and becoming acquainted with a various and extensive scene of things, far beyond what was yet beheld by, or known to, them. Their garden was the enclosure which at present surrounded them. But they were now informed, that a whole world was to be opened to them; that they should find innumerable living creatures on the land, in the seas, and in the air ; and that they themselves should be fruitful and multiply, should replenish the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over, and be, as it were, proprietors of all the living creatures that were created; that there was sustenance provided for all living things, in the fruits of the ground; which were all given without exception or restraint, the one limitation only observed, of one tree in the garden, of which Adam and Eve were not to eat. These intimations were now given them; but

* Gen. i. 28, &c.

y Gen. i. quæ sup.

they were in no wise instructed by them to know the things spoken of, so fully as every day after more and more led them to understand. What God now spake to them had only this general effect; that, as the world opened to them, nothing in it was so absolutely unexpected as to surprise or confound them; for, remembering what had been said to them, they might, as new things presented themselves, gradually proceed to name, distinguish, and daily grow acquainted with them, to consider how they could use their power over, and make them useful or agreeable.

I might add further, that how much soever of these things was told them, it appears to have been provided for them, that they should not hurry too fast to look into, and after the many things in the world. The day ensuing was to be a Sabbath, a day of rest, to be set apart to recollect and consider all that had been said and shewed to them; that before they proceeded, they might have all the instruction which a repeated review of it could give, distinct upon their hearts. And when the Sabbath was over, they were not instantly at liberty to wander at large over the earth; for their first busi;. ness was in their garden; where God had given them employment; to dress it, and to keep it. Their duty here, if attended to, would so far confine them, that the world would not break in upon them, nor they go into the world faster or farther than they might become gradually able to receive and digest that knowledge of things which would arise from it. In this manner

a

z Gen. ii. 2.

a Ver. 15.

VOL. IV.

Moses represents God as having given our first parents the beginning of their lives: and whoever will duly examine the sentiments which he sets before us upon this subject, and compare them with what other writers have fancied and represented; will find none so likely to captivate us as our Milton. I say, whoever will compare Moses with other writers upon this subject, will find, that he deeply entered into the real nature of man; and will be brought to say of him above all others,

Quanto rectiùs hic

b

His account speaks itself to be fact, and not fable; and though our first thoughts may not fully comprehend what he has written; yet a careful examination of it will shew us, that they who have thought it fable, have not taken pains truly to understand it. I have only to observe, before I close this chapter, that from what has been said we may reasonably conceive, that our first parents were not hurried into any scene, either of things or sentiments, larger or sooner than they were able to form, as they should want them, all such words as the incidents of their lives would call for, over and besides those which God already had, or did afterwards speak to them.

Paradise Lost.