St. Augustine, Of the citie of God vvith the learned comments of Io. Lod. Viues. Englished by I.H.

Of the Paridise wherein our first parents were placed, and that it may be taken spiritually also without any wrong to the truth of the history as touching the reall place. CHAP. 21.

WHerevpon some referred that (a) Paradise wherein the first man was pla∣ced as the scripture recordeth, al vnto a spiritual meaning taking the trees, to 〈◊〉〈◊〉 •…•…es, as if there were (b) no such visible things, but onely that they were 〈◊〉〈◊〉 signifie things intelligible. As if there were not a reall Paradise, because 〈◊〉〈◊〉 vnderstand a spiritual one: as if there were not two such women as Agar 〈◊〉〈◊〉, and two sonnes of Abraham by them, the one being a bond woman and 〈◊〉〈◊〉 〈◊〉〈◊〉 free, because the Apostle saith that they signified the two Testaments: 〈◊〉〈◊〉 〈◊〉〈◊〉 the Rocke gushed not forth in water, when Moyses smot it, because that 〈◊〉〈◊〉 •…•…ay prefigure Christ, the same Apostle saying the rocke was Christ! No man 〈◊〉〈◊〉 that the Paradise may be vnderstood, the blisse of the Saints the (c) foure 〈◊〉〈◊〉, foure vertues; prudence, fortitude, temperance and iustice: the trees, all 〈◊〉〈◊〉 •…•…sciplines: the tree of life, wisdome the mother of the rest: the tree of the •…•…edge of good and euill, the triall of transgression, for God decreed a pu∣•…•…nt for sinne, iustly, and well, if man could haue made vse of it to his owne 〈◊〉〈◊〉. These things may also be vnderstood of the Church, and that in a better 〈◊〉〈◊〉, as prophetique tokens of things to come, Paradise may be taken for the

Church, as wee (d) read in the canticles thereof. The foure flouds are the foure Ghospels: the frutefull trees, the Saints: their fruits, their workes: the tree of life, the holy of holies, Christ: the tree of the knowledge of good and euill, free elec∣tion of will, for if man once forsake Gods will, he cannot vse him-selfe, but to his owne destruction: and therefore hee learneth either to adhere vnto the good of all goods, or to affect his owne onely, for louing himselfe, he is giuen to himselfe, that being in troubles, sorrowes, and feares (and feeling them withall) hee may sing with the Psalmist, My soule is cast downe within me: and being reformed? I will * 1.1 waite vpon thee O God, my defence. These and such like, may be lawfully vnderstood by Paradise, taken in a spirituall sence, so that the history of the true and locall one be as firmely beleeued.

L. VIVES.

PAradise. (a)] Augustine super Genes. ad. lit. lib. 8. recites three opinions of Paradice: 1. Spiri∣tuall onely: 2. locall onely: third spirituall and locall both: and this he approues for the like∣liest. * 1.2 But where Paradise was, is a maine doubt in authors. Iosephus placeth it in the east, and so doth Bede, adding withall that it is a region, seuered by seas from all the world, and lying so high that it toucheth the moone, Plato in his Phaedo placeth it aboue the cloudes, which o∣thers dissalow as vnlikely. Albertus Grotus herein followeth Auicen, and the elder writers al∣so as Polibius, and Eratosthenes, imagining a delicate and most temperate region vnder the equi∣noctiall, gainst the old Position, that the climate vnder the equinoctiall was inhabitable. The equinoctiall diuides the torrid Zone in two parts, touching the Zodiacke in two points, Aries, and Libra. There did hee thinke the most temperate clime hauing twelue howers day, and twelue night, all the yeare long, and there placed hee his Paradise. So did Scotus: nor doth this controull them that place it in the east, for there is cast and west vnder the equinoctiall line. Some say that the sword of fire signifieth that burning clymate, wherein as Arrianus saith, there is such lightning and so many fiery apparitions, where Paradise was, Hierome thinketh that the Scriptures doth shew, and though the Septuagintes translate in Eden, from the east: Oriens is a large signification. Hierome saith thus for Paradise there is Ortus: Gan. Eden * 1.3 is also Deliciae, pleasures, for which Symmachus translateth Paradisus florens. That also which fol∣loweth Contra Orientem, in y^e Hebrew Mikkedem. Aquila translateth 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉: we may read it, from the beginning Symmachus hath 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, and Theodotion, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 both which signifie beginning, and not the east, whereby it is plaine that God had made Paradise before he made heauen and earth, as we read also in the Hebrew. God had planted the Paradise Eden from the beginning. This out of Hierome. (b) No such.] No man denieth that Paradise may be spiritually vnderstood, excepting Ambrose in his booke De Paradiso. But all the Fathers professe that Paradise was a reall pleasant place, full of trees, (as Damascene saith) and like to the Poets imaginary Elizium. Away with their foolery (saith Hierome vpon Daniel) that seeke for figures in truthes, and would ouerthrow the reall existence of trees, and riuers in Paradise, by draw∣ing all into an Allegory. This did Origen, making a spirituall meaning of the whole hi•…•…ory, and placing the true Paradice in the third heauen, whither the Apostle Paul was rapt. (c) Foure riuers.] Nile of Egipt. Euphrates and Tigris of Syria; and Ganges of India. There heads are vn∣knowne, * 1.4 and they run vnder the Ocean into our sea: and therefore the Egiptian priests called Ni•…•…, the Ocean. Herodot. (d) Read in the.] Cant, 4 12. My sister, my spouse is as a garden inclosed as a spring shut vp, and a fountaine sealed vp, their plants are as an orchard of pomegranates with sweete fruites. &c.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Psal. 42. 6. Psal. 59. 9.
• * 1.2

  Paradise.
• * 1.3

  Eden.
• * 1.4

  The riuers of Paradise.