A C E T A R 1 A. ,si

ctions and Prohibitions.about the legal Uncleannessof Animals ; ’Plants ,ot what kind soever, were left free and indifferent for every one to chusewhat best he lik’d. And what if it was held undecent and unbecom-ing the Excellency of Man’s Nature, before Sin entred, and grew enor-mously wicked, that any Creature should be put to Death and Pain forhim who had such infinite Store of the most delicious and nourishingFruit to delight, and the Tree of Life to sustain him? Doubtless therewas no need of it. Infants sought the Mother’s Nipple as soon as born;and when grown, and able to feed themselves, run naturally to Fruit ,and still will chuse to eat it rather than Flesh; and certainly might sopersist to do, did not Custom prevail, even against the very Dictates ofNature: Nor question I, but that what the Heathen f Poets recount j Mctam i ;of the Happiness of the Golden Age , sprung from some Tradition they Fab,iii.&xv.had received of the P aradisian Fare, their innocent and healthful Livesin that delightful Garden. Let it suffice, that Adam , and his yet (in-nocent Spouse, fed on Vegetables, and other Hortulan Productions,before the fatal Lapse ; which, by the way, many Learned Men willhardly allow to have fallen out so soon as those imagine, who scarcelygrant them a single Day, nay, nor half a one, for their Continuance inthe State of Original Perfection; whilst the sending him into the Garden;Instructions how he should keep and cultivate it; EdiSt and Prohibiti-on concerning the Sacramental Trees; the Imposition of * Names, so * Gen. xi. 19,apposite to the Nature of such an Infinity of Living Creatures (requi-ring deep Inspection;) the Formation of Eve, a meet Companion to re-lieve his Solitude; the Solemnity of their Marriage ; the Dialogues andSuccess of the crafty Tempter, whom we cannot reasonably think madebut one Assault; and that they should so quickly forget the Injunctionof their Maker and Benefactor ; break their Faith and Fast, and all o-ther their Obligations, in so few Moments: I lay, all these Particularsconsider’d, can it be supposed they were so soon tranlactcd as thole dofancy, who take their Mealure from the Summary Moses gives us;who did not write to gratify Mens Curiosity, but to transmit what wasnecessary and sufficient for us to know.

This then premis’d ( as I fee no reason why it should not) and thatduring all this Space they liv’d on Fruits and Sallets ; ’tis little proba-ble, that after their Transgression, and that they had forfeited theirDominion over the Creatures (and were sentene’d and’exil’d to a Life ofSweat and Labour on a curled and ungrateful Soil) the offended Godshould regale them with pampering Flejh , or so'much as suffer them toflay the more innocent Animal ; Ot, that if at anytime they had Per-mission, it was for any thing lave Skins to cloath them, or in way ofAdoration, or Holocaust for Expiation, of which nothing of the FlejbWas to be eaten. Nor did the Brutes themselves subsist by Prey (fho’pleas’d perhaps with Hunting, without destroying their Fellow-Crea-tures) as may be presum’d from their long Seclusion of the most Car-nivorous among them in the Ark. '

Thus then for Two thousand Years, the Universal Food was Herbsand Plants', which abundantly recompens’d the want of Flejb and o-ther luxurious Meats, which Ihortned their Lives so many HundredYears ; the * juctxefi&J'mm, of the Patriarchs, which was an Emblem * Gcn ' ix -°f Eternity as it were ( after the new Concession ) beginning to dwindleto a little Span, a Nothing in Comparison. I know well what the late

' 6 L Claudius