A discourse of the terrestrial paradise aiming at a more probable discovery of the true situation of that happy place of our first parents habitation / by Marmaduke Carver ...

CHAP. I.

The Opinion of Junius concerning the place of Paradise proposed.

THE Opinion of Junius concerning the place of Pa∣radise (which is almost ge∣nerally followed by all In∣terpreters since his time, not Protestants only, (both Lutherans and Calvinists) but even the most ingenuous and learned Papists) is, that it was situated in Chaldaea, in the Re∣gion which Ptolemy calleth Auranitis, which he supposeth by the change of a let∣ter to have been corrupted from Audanitis or Edenitis. The River watering it he takes to be the main stream of Euphrates,

which toward the end of his course divideth it self into four branches. The first to∣wards the West, which divideth betwixt Chaldaea and Arabia the desert (which Mose's calleth the land of Cush, or, as we (with o∣thers) Aethiopia) is that which Ptolemy calleth Baar-sares, Strabo Maar-sares, Am∣mianus more corruptly Marsias, Abydenus 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, because it emptieth it self into certain Fens abounding with Frogs, which the Chaldaeans call Akrukan: and this he sup∣poseth to be that which Moses calleth Gi∣hon, the signification of their names so well agreeing, which in both is as much as Alve∣us, foss atúmve deductum atque distractum. The second branch is that which runneth through Babylon and Otris, and is by Am∣mianus 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 called Euphrates, and therefore without straining supposed to be Moses's 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The third is that which Pliny saith the Assyrians commonly cal∣led Armalchar, Ammianus (more truely) Nahar-malca, Abydenus by a Metathesis 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, and is the very same put into Greek which Ptolemy calleth 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. This he conceiveth to be Pishon, which breaking from the main stream at a Town (taking name therefrom) called by Ammianus Macepracta (or, as he would

have it read, Maja-prakta) by Pliny Massice, and running into the River Tigris at Apa∣mea, not onely mingleth his water, but his name with it, which from thenceforth is called Pasitigris, or Pisotigris, and entring the Persian Gulph at Teredon, watereth by the way the whole Region of Havila, where there is Gold, Bdellium, and the Onyx-stone; that is (as he expoundeth it) the Country of Susiana, where all those precious things are to be found. The fourth and last branch, called by Moses Hiddekel, he supposeth to be that Rivolet mentioned (but without name) by Ammianus, which being drawn out of Nahar-malca, emptieth it self into Tigris at Seleucia and Ctesiphon,, and so runneth Eastward toward Assyria, as he rendreth Moses words, Gen. 2. 14. These four Heads, all drawn from the same River, suiting so handsomely with the description of Moses, besides the incredible fruitfulness of the Eastern part of this Region, (where he conceiveth the very Garden-spot to have been) so highly extolled by divers Authors of good credit, work over the exact judg∣ment of this learned man to so firm a be∣lief that this was the very place created by God for the habitation of our first Parents, that he doubteth not to conclude his exact

and elaborate Discourse with this confi∣dent close, Atque hic quidem Hedenis situs, qui meâ sententiâ tam manifestus est, & documentis certis confirmatus, ut à nemi∣ne in dubium vocari possit. Comment. in Gen. c. 2.