Pilgrimage, Book 1 · Chapter 3
CHAP. III.
Of Man, considered in his first state wherein he was created: and of Paradise, the place of his habitation.
HItherto we hauehave spoken of the framing of this mightie Fabrike, the Creation of the visible World, leauing that inuisible to the spirituall Inhabitants, which there alway behold the face of the heauenly Father, as not daring to prie too farre into such mysteries, aCol 2.18.Rashly puft vp with a fleshly mind: This whereof we treate they need not, as finding all sufficience in their Al-sufficient Creator: The inferiour Creatures (which hitherto hauehave been described) know it not, but content *Bernard. sup. Cunt. Serm.5.themselues with themselues, in enioying their naturall being, mouing, sense, OnelyOnly Man, in regard of his body, needeth it, and by the reasonable power of his soule can discerne and vse it. Man therefore was last created, as the end of the rest, an Epitome and Mappe of the World, a compendious little other world, consisting of a visible and inuisible Nature, so resembling both the worke and the Worke-man: the lastin execution, but first in intention, to whom all these Creatures should serue, as meanes and prouocations of his seruice to his and their Creator.
Man may be considered, in regard of this life, or of that which is to come: of this life, in respect of Nature of Grace: and this Nature also sustaineth a two-fold consideration, of integritie and corruption: For bEccles.7.vlt.God made man righteous, but they sought to themselues many inuentions. His first puritie in his Creation, his fall from thence by sin, his endeuour to recouer his former innocencie by future glory, either in the by-waies of superstition, which Nature (a blind guide) leadeth him into, through so many false religions; or by the true, new and liuing way, which God alone can set him, and doth conduct him in, is the subiect of our tedious taske; the first two more briefely propounded: the two last historically and largely related.
In that first state, his Author and Maker was Iehouah Elohim, God in the plurality of Persons and vnitie of Essence; the Father, by the Sonne, in the power of the Spirit: whereunto, he did not only vse his powerfull word as before, saying, let there be Man, but a consultation, let vsus make Man: not that he needed counsaile, but cQuia rationalis creatura, quasi cum consi…lio facta videretur. Iunilius in Genes.that he in this Creature did shew his counsaile and wisdome most apparantly. The Father, as first in order, speaketh vntounto the Sonne and holy Ghost, and the Sonne and holy Ghost in an vnspeakeable manner speake and decree with the Father; and dSocrat. lib. 2. cap.25.the whole Trinitie consult and agree together, to make Man: which *Cyril. Al. cont. Iul. lib. 1.for Mans instruction, is by Moses vttered after the manner of Men. The manner of his working was also in this Creature, singular; both in regard of his bodie, which, as a Potter his clay, he wrought and framed of the dust into this goodly shape; and of his soule, which he immediately breathed into his nosthrils.
Thus hath Man cause to glorie in his Creators care, in himselfe to be humbled, hauing a bodie framed not of solid earth, but of the dust (the basest and lightest part of the basest and grossest element, ePsal 62.9.So vaine a thing is man) his soule of nothing, lighter then vanitie, in the infusion created, and in the Creation infused, to bee the dweller fIob 4.19.in this house of clay, and habitation of dust. Yea not a house, but a g2.Cor.5.1.tabernacle continually in dissolution. Such is the Maker and Matter of Man. The forme was his conformitie to God, after whose Image he was made. Christ onelyonly is in full resemblance, the hCol.1.15.Image of the inuisible God, iHebr.1.3.the brightnes of his glory, and the ingraued forme of his Person. Man was not this Image, but made ad imaginem, according to this Image, resembling his Author, but with imperfection, in that perfection of humane Nature.
This Image of God appeared in the soule properly, secondly in the bodie (not as the kEpiph h…r. 71.Anthropomorphite Heretikes, and *Papists picture the Trinitie, the creation, &c.Popish Image-makers imagine, but) as the instrument of the soule, and lastly in the whole Person. The soule in regard of the spirituall and immortall substance, resembleth him which is a Spirit, and euerlasting: to which some adde the resemblance of the holy Trinitie, in this, that one soule hath those three essentiall faculties of Vnderstanding, Will, and Memorie, or (as others) of Vegetation, Sense, and Reason. In regard of gifts and naturall endowments, the soule in the vnderstanding part receiued a Diuine impression, and character, in that knowledge, whereby she measureth the heauens, bringeth them to the earth, lifteth vp the earth to heauen, mounteth aboue the heauens to behold the Angels, pierceth the center of the earth in darknesse to discerne the infernall regions and legions, beneath and aboue them all searcheth into the diuine Nature: whereby, lGenes. 2.Adam was without studie the greatest Philosopher, (who at first sight knew the nature of the beasts, the originall of the Woman) and the greatest Diuine, (except the second Adam) that euer the earth bare. The will also, in free choice of the best things, in mEphes. 4.24.righteous disposition towards man, and true holines towards God, was conformed to his will, for whose willes sake it is, and was created. The body cannot so liuely expresse the vertue of him that made it, but as it could, in that perfect constitution, ( nPsal. 139.14.so fearefully and wonderfully made *Pronaq…, cum spectent animalia caeter a terram, Os homini sublime dedit, &c. Ouid.) and as the organ of the soule, whose weapon it was to righteousnes, had some shadow thereof. The whole Man in his natural Nobilitie beyond, & Princely dominion ouer the other Creatures (that we mention not the hope of future blessednesse) sheweth after what Image Man was created, and to what hee should be renued. The end whereunto God made Man, is God himselfe, who hath made all things for himselfe: the subordinate end was Mans endlesse happinesse, the way whereunto is religious obedience.
Moses addeth, oGen. 1.27.He created them male and female, thereby to shew, that the Woman in OEconomicall respect is p1.Cor.11.7.the image and glorie of the Man, being created for the Man, and of the Man, but in relation to God, or the World, She as a Creature, was also framed after the same Image. As for that monstrous conceit of the Rabbins, that the first Man was an Hermaphrodite, it deserueth not confutation or mention. The order of the Womans creation is plainly related. God qGen. 2.21.finding not a meet help for Adam, in his sleepe tooke one of his ribs, whereof he built the Woman. This in a mysterie signified that deadly sleepe of the heauenly Adam on the Crosse, whose stripes were our healing, whose death was our life, and out of whose bleeding side was by Diuine dispensation framed his Spouse the Church. This may be part of the sense, or an application thereof, as rM…tak de S…riot. quest. 5.some say, to this mysterie; or the signification rather of the s… … … op…ic…lat … qui…d… … … Si… diffe…, q…d in cop…um per …ba quae recitantur, de rebus qibusdam agitur: quae rursum res, viceverbo rum, ad signification aciarum rerum propan…tur. Hugo de S. Vict. to. 1.thing it selfe heere declared, then of the words, which properly and plainely set downe the Historie of a thing done, after the literall sense to be expounded.
According to this sense, Moses expresseth the Creation, the making and marrying of the Woman. The Maker was God, the matter a ribbe of Adam, the forme a building, the end to be a meete helpe. The Man was made of dust, the Woman of the Man, to be one flesh with the Man, and of a ribbe, to be a helpe and supporter of him in his calling, which requireth strength: neither could any bone be more easily spared, in the whole bodie, which hath not such varietie of any other kind: nor could any place more designe the Woman her due place, not of the head, that shee should not arrogate rule; not of the feet, that the husband should not reckon her as his slaue; but in a meane betweene both, and that neere the heart, in which they should (as in all Diuine and Humane Lawes else) be fastioyned. The building of this bodie of the Woman was, in regard of the Progenie, which was in that larger roome to hauehave the first dwelling. The soule of the Woman is to bee conceiued, tNe animū …d…ertas externo homini; integumentum est h…: sane & anima …lis est: in v…lamin…us differentia est. Basil.as the soule of the man before mentioned, immediately infused and created by God, herein equall to man.
Being thus made, she is married by God himselfe vntounto Adam, who brought her vntounto him, to shew the sacred authoritie of marriage, and of parents in marriage: A mutuall consent and gratulation followeth betweene the parties, least any should tyrannically abuse his fatherly power. And thus are two made one flesh in regard of one originall, equall right, mutuall consent, and bodily coniunction. And thus were this goodly couple glorious in nakednes, not so much in the ornaments of beautie, which made them to each other amiable, as of Maiestie, which made them to other creatures dreadfull: the Image of God clothing that nakednesse, which in vsus uApoc. 3.19.appeareth silthie, in the most costly clothing. God further blessed them both with the power of multiplication in their owne kind, and dominion ouer other kinds: and gaue them for food xGen.1.29.eueryevery herbe bearing seed, which is vponupon all the earth, and eueryevery tree, wherein is the fruit of a tree bearing seed. He doth (as it were) set them in possession of the Creatures, which by a charter of free gift he had conueyed to them, to hold of him as Lord Paramount.
But least any should thinke this but a niggardly and vnequall gift, whereas since the sloud more hath been added, and that in a more vnworthinesse through mans sin: let him consider, that, since the fall, yGen 3.17. Gen.9.3.the earth is accursed, whereby many things are hurtfull to mans nature, and in those which are wholesome, there is not such varietie of kinds, such plentie in each varietie, such ease in getting our plentie, or such quality in what is gotten, in the degree of goodnes and sweetnes to the taste & nourishment. Which had they remained in this sickely and elder age of the world, we should not need to enuie Cleopatra's vanitie, or Heliogabalus his superfluity & curiositie. And had not man sinned, there should not hauehave needed the death of beasts to nourish his life, which without such stay should hauehave beene immortall: the vse whereof was after granted, rather to supply necessitie, when the Floud had weakened the Farth, then to minister a greater abundance then before it hand: and least of all to satisfie the greedie and curious appetites of more then beastly men.
Liberall and bountifull was Gods allowance, which yet as man abused in eating the forbidden fruit, so whether any sinfull men did transgresse by eating the flesh of beasts, as iniquitie increased, it is vncertaine. And yet it is likely, that when the earth was yGen. 6.11.filled with crueltie, as men escaped not beastly but chery, so beasts escaped not but cherly inhumanity: and men, that stay not now for commission to eate mans flesh, would then much lesse aske leaue to feede on beasts. Then did the godly Patriarches liue many hundred yeeres *The Fathers did not eate flesh before the floud. Origin Gene. hom. i. Chrysost. hom. 27.Genes.without such foode, whereas now wee reach not to one with this helpe, that I speake not of those which by abuse heereof are as cruell to themselues, (in shortning their dayes by surfeits) as to the Creatures, making their bellies to become warrens, fish-pooles, shambles, and what not, saue what they should be? Had not man bin diuellish in sinning, he had not bin beastly in feeding, nay the beasts had abhorred that which now they practise, both against their Lord and their fellow-seruants. zEs. 11.6.The Woolfe should hauehave dwelt with the Lambe, the Leopard should hauehave lien with the Kid, and the Calfe, and the Lion, and the fat beast together, and a little Childe might leade them. *Eas.hex. ho. 11. lunil. in Ge. Pererius relateth the opinions of Bonauenture, Tollatus, Ephrem, Isidore: Also Vadianus, Goropi', Beroaldus in Chronico, Iunius & others hauehave largely handled this question of paradise.And this in the time of the Floud appeared, when all of them kept the peace with each other, and dutifull allegeance to their Prince in that great family and little mooueable world, Neahs Arke.
The place of Adams dwelling is expressed by Moses: And the Lord God planted a garden Eastward in Eden, and there he put the man whome he had made, Gen.2.8.Maruell it is to see the confusion which sinne bringeth, which appeareth not onelyonly in the body, soule, diet and other prerogatiues of our first parents, but in this place also, then a place of pleasure, a Paradise and garden of delights: after, a place prohibited, and kept by the blade of a sword shaken: now the place cannot be found in earth, but is become a common place in mens braines, to macerate and vexe them in the curious search hereof. *Ambrose in his long Treatise de Paradiso leaneth too much this way.Some doe conuert this History into an allegorie, as did the Manichees, and the Originists, confuted by Methodius, as aEpiphan.libr. Ancor. & contr.baeres.libr.2.Epiphanius witnesseth. Hierome in 'Dan.10. saith, that seeking for shadowes in the truth, they ouer-turne the truth it selfe. Vmbras & imagines in veritate quaerentes, ipsam conantur euertere verit atem, vt flumina & arbores & paradisum putent allegoriae legibiss se debere subruere. Such mysticall Mist-all and Misse-all Interpreters are our Familists in these times, by vnseasonable and vnreasonable allegories, raising mists ouer the Scripture-sense, which thereby they misse and cannot finde. bDe Gen.li 8. ca. 1.& de Ciu. Dei li.12 ca. 21.Augustine relateth three opinions, that allegoricall, which hee confuteth: the literali, and that which followeth both the one and the other, as himselfe doth. The cAug.de Haeres.Hermiaens and Seleucians are said to deny, that there was any such place: And the naked Adamites accounted their Church to be Paradise. Others are as prodigall, and ascribe hereunto all the Earth, which was a Paradise, til sinne brought in a curse. Thus holdeth dWolfg. Wissenburg praefat. ad Dom.Nig. Gor.Bec. Becces. Ioac. Vad.de Paradiso. Likewise Hugo de S. Vict. reckoneth this opinion totam terram suturam Paradisum, si homo non peccasset: totam factam exilium per peccatum. Annot.in.Gen.Wolfgangus Wissenburg, Goropius also, and Vadianus are of like minde, That mans exile was but the alteration of their happy condition, that the fiery sword was the fiery Zone &c. A great while it went for currant, that it was a pleasant region, by a long tract of sea and land separated from our habitable world, and lifted vp to the circle of the Moone, whereby it was out of the reach of Noahs floud. This hath eHistor Scholast.Petrus Comestor and Stratus: and many trauellers in old times hauehave trauelled with this conceit, but brought forth a lie, as appeareth by their Legends. fLeg.aurea.That saint Brandon sailed thither from Ireland, is as true as that he met Indas in the way released from his paines, (as he was alway from Saturday to Sunday Euensong:) or that they made fire on a fish (supposing it to be an Iland) which if he could once get his taile into his mouth, would ouerturn the world, as that Legend telleth. It should seeme the man in the Moone called him, and shewed him the way to this Paradise. Others place it Eastward, in the highest top of the earth, where the foure Riuers, mentioned by Moses, hauehave their originall, whence they runne, and are swallowed vp of the Earth, and after rising in diuerse places of the world, are knowne by the names of Nilus, Ganges, Tigris, Euphrates. gHugo Annot. in Genes.Hugo de S. Victore and Adrichomius *Adric. Chron.are of this opinion: yea the great Cardinall Caietane *Caictan.in Genes.7.and Bellarmine, *Bell.de Rom. Pont.lib.3.ca.6. & de grat. primi hominis.place Henoch and Elias in earthly Paradise, yet liuing there vntil the time of Antichrist, which wood he cannot see (being in the middest of it) for trees. But the discouery of the World by Trauellers, and description thereof by Geographers, wil not suffer vsus to follow them (to the want of which Art, I meane Geographie, such phantasies may bee imputed) whereby also is confuted the opinion of them, which place it vnderunder the Equinoctiall circle, as Durandus and Bonancntura.
hPhil.Melanc, & Carion.Others account so much to Paradise, as those foure Riuers doe water, euen the chiefe part of Afrike and Asia: and some confine it in streighter limits of Syria, Arabia and Mesopotamia, as if Adam had beene so couetous as his Posteritie, or so laborious as to husband so large Countries. The salfe interpretation of those Riuers to be Nilus, Ganges &c. was the cause of this errour, the iIn Es.23.3. & Iere.2.1.8.Septuagint translating in stead of Sichor (which is Nilus) Gihon the name of one of these streames.
Moses as it were of purpose by an exact chorography and delineation of the situation, doth meete with those errors, and with other the like, which I doe not heere relate. Neither is their opinion to be followed, which drowne all altogether in the deluge, seeing that after that time Moses wrote this. Franciscus Iunius in his readings on Genesis *See also, Annot. Trem.& Iun.in Gen.2.hath largely and learnedly handled this matter, and added a Mappe also of Heden in which it stoode, and the course of the Riuers with the Countries adiacent. In him the Reader may finde satisfaction. He sheweth out of Curtius, Plime, and Solinus, the miraculous fertilitie of that part of Babylonia, which Ptolomy calleth Auranitis or Audanitis, easily declined from Heden, the name given by Moses, mentioned after Moses time, 2.Rag.19 12. and Es.37.12.
For the foure Riuers he sheweth them out of Ptolomey, Strabo, Plinie, Dion, Marcellinus &c. to be so many diuisions of Euphrates, whereof Baharsares or Neharsares is Gihon, that which passeth through Babylon is, for the excellency, peculiarly called Perath or Euphrates; Nehar-malca or Basilius, Pishon; Tigris, *Tigris is both the greater riuer and a smaller which runneth out of Euphrates into Tigris, which is heere meant.Chiddekel. For the fiery Sword he obserueth out of Pliny li.2.ca.106. a certaine miracle of Nature in Babylonia, where the ground is seene burning continually about the quantitie of an acre. But this place will not serve to dispute this poynt. If those Rivers doe not now remaine, or have altered either channell or names, it is no new thing in so old a continuance of the world. It is more then probable, that heere in these parts Paradise was, although now deformed by the Floud, and by Time consumed and become a stage of barbarisme.
Neither hath the place alone bin such a pitched field of Opinions, but the fruit also which Moses expresseth to be the instrument & occasion of Adams ruine, hath set some mens teeth on edge, who tell vsus what it is, as if they had lately tasted of it, a certayne signe indeede, and fruit, of that once vnlawfull tasting. kGoro. Becan. Indoscythica.Goropius a man addicted to opinions, which I know not whether hee did holde more strangely, or strongly, though he enlargeth Paradise ouer the world, yet he maketh Adam an Indian (maruaile he placeth him not in Dutch-land, for that was his language, if Becanus be to be beleeued.) About the riuer Acesines betwixt Indus and Ganges (saieth he) groweth that admirable Figge tree, which hee at large describeth out of Plinie, Theophrastus and Strabo, whose branches spreading from the body, doe bend themselues downewards to the earth, where they take hold, and with new rooting multiply themselues, like a maze or wood. One told lCar.Clus.Exoticorum.Clusius that hee himselfe had beene one of eight hundred or a thousand men, which had hidden themselues vnderunder one of these trees, adding, that some of them were able to couer three thousand men.
Strange is this tree, and Becanus is with conceit hereof ravished into the pleasures of Paradise. This tree mLinschoten lib. 1.ca.58.Linschoten describeth growing about Goa, and (to bring vsus out of Goropius Paradise) saith that it hath no fruit worth the eating: but a small kind like Olives, which is food only forbirds. He telleth vsus *c. 55.of another Indian Fig tree, growing rather like a Reede then a Tree, a mans height, a spanne thicke, the leaves a fathome long, and three spannes broad: The Arabians and Indians suppose this to be that dismall fruit. The cause of this opinion Paludanus in his Annotations vponupon Linschoten ascribeth to the pleasantnes of the smel and tast. Being cut in the middle, it hath certaine veines like a Crosse, whereon the Christians in Syria make many speculations. Yea the same Author telleth of a hill in the Ile of Seilan, called Adams hill, where they shew his foot-print, to prove that he lived there: of which reade our discourse of that Iland, lt. 5.ca.14. Boskhier in his Ara coeli citeth out of Moses Barcepha, That wheat was the Tree of knowledge of good and euill; and so doe the Saracens hold: so curious and vaine is blinde Reason without a guide.
But I thinke I have wearied the Reader, with leading him thus vp and downe in Paradise; small fruit I confesse is in this fruit, and as little pleasure in this Paradise, but that variety happily may please some, though it be to others tedious. And for a conclusion it is, I thinke, worth the noting, that M. Cartwright an eye-witnesse, uThe Preachers trauells.by the counsel of the Nestorian Patriark at Mosul or Niniuie visited the Ile of Eden, stil so called, and by them holden a part of Paradise, ten miles in circuit, and sometime walled: which if it be not part of that garden-plot mentioned by Moses, yet it seemes, is part of that country somtime called Eden, in the East part whereof Paradise was planted, and not far (according to Iunius Map) from that happy vnhappy place.