en the sun rise or set, who was but newly born, and thoroughly
inexperienced. Certainly, a person who had so great a price set upon her
head, as the salvation of all mankind, might well have deserved a guard
of angels. Aye, but perhaps (you will say) the woman ought to have taken
care not to violate a law established on pain of death. 'The day you eat
of it you shall surely die,', both you and yours; this was the law. Die!
what does that mean, says the poor, innocent virgin, who as yet had not
seen anything dead, no, not so much as a flower; nor had yet with her
eyes or mind perceived the image of death--viz., sleep, or night? But
what you add concerning his posterity and their punishment, that is
not all expressed in the law. Now no laws are ever to so distorted,
especially those that are penal. The punishment of the serpent will also
afford no inconsiderable question, if the Devil transacted the whole
thing under the form of a serpent; or if he compelled the serpent to do,
or to suffer things, why did he (the serpent) pay for a crime committed
by the Devil? Moreover, as to the manner and form of the punishment
inflicted on the serpent, that from that time he should go creeping on
his belly, it is not to be explained what that meant. Hardly any one
will say, that prior to his catastrophe the serpent walked upright, like
four footed beasts; and if, from the beginning, he crept on his belly
like other snakes, it may seem ridiculous to impose on this creature as
a punishment for one single crime, a thing which, by nature, he ever had
before. But let this suffice for the woman and serpent; let us now go
on to the trees. I here understand those two trees, which stood in the
middle of the garden, the tree of life, and the tree of good and evil.
The former so called, that it would give men a very long life, although,
by what follows, we find our forefathers, prior to the flood, lived
to very great ages, independent of the tree of life. Besides, if the
longevity, or immortality of man had depended only upon one tree, or its
fruit, what if Adam had not sinned? how could his posterity, diffused
throughout the whole earth, have been able to come and gather fruit out
of this garden, or from this tree? or how could the product of one tree
have been sufficient for all mankind?"

Such is a condensed abstract of Dr. Burnet's seventh chapter of
"Archaeologia." The eighth chapter equals the above in boldness; but far
exceeds it in breadt