planted by the hand of God in Eden, for the residence of our first father, lay on the single river formed by the united streams of the Tigris and the Euphrates.

It is added in the sacred text that Paradise was situated eastward in Eden. It could not be the design of Moses, after stating that the garden was planted among the rivers of Babylon, to inform his people, that it lay toward the east from Midian or the promised land; for of this they could not now be ignorant. His intention certainly was, to point out that part of Eden which had been honoured with the seat of primeval innocence; to intimate, that it lay in the easterly part of that highly favoured country, and by consequence, since "the river which watered it ran through that province before it entered Paradise," on one of the great turnings of this river from west to east; and, in the opinion of Dr. Wells, at the easterly end of the southerly branch of the lowest great turning, taken notice of in Ptolomy, and expressed in the map belonging to his Geography.a

The primitive idea of the terrestrial Paradise was long present to the imagination, and dear to the heart of the oriental nations. It was the pattern of those curious gardens, which their nobles and princes caused to be fabricated of the most precious materials, and at a vast expense; the costly memorials of departed innocence. Such was that garden of pure gold, valued at five hundred talents, which Aristobulus king of the Jews presented to Pompey, and which the Roman general afterwards carried in triumph, and consecrated to Jupiter in the capitol. The garden of Eden seems also to have

a Well's Hist. Geog. vol. i, p. 24. Bocharti. Phaleg. lib. i, c. 3, p. 12-28.

b Joseph. Antiq. b. xiv, chap. 3, sec. 1.

been the prototype of those gardens of delight, conse crated to Adonis, which the Assyrians and other nations in the east planted in earthen vessels, and silver baskets, in order to adorn their houses, and swell the pomp and splendour of their public processions. It furnished the enraptured poets of Greece and Rome with the neverfading verdure, the perpetual bloom, and the fruits of burnished gold, with which their glowing imaginations clothed the Fortunate Isles, or enriched the garden of the Hesperides.c

But what is of much greater importance, the inspired writers of the New Testament have borrowed some of their most beautiful figures from the terrestrial paradise. In the glowing description of the millenium, with which the apostle John closes the book of Revelation, it is easy, to discover a number of allusive passages. The nations of the redeemed shall wander on the banks of a pure and majestic river, and drink of its refreshing streams; they shall repose under the shade of the tree of life, and feast without restraint on its rich and various fruits; no flaming cherubim shall obstruct the way of the returning sinner to its shelter, and no serpent shall inflict a wound which its leaves cannot heal. But the delights of paradise apply with still greater force and beauty to the land of everlasting rest. The same writer therefore enforces his call to the church of Ephesus, to repent "and do the first works," with this declaration: "To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God; and the dying Saviour cheered the last moments of the penitent thief with this most consoling promise, which in one word conveyed

John Edward's Perfection of Scripture, vol. i, p. 104, 105.
Rev. xxii, 1, 2, 3.

e

Chap. ii, 7.

to his mind the most vivid conception of celestial happiness; "To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise."

Adjoining to the land of Eden, lay the country of Nod, the place of Cain's exile, and the scene of his wanderings. Unable to bear the presence of his father, whom he had so deeply injured and so grievously afflicted; stimulated by the accusations and forebodings of his own guilty conscience; and required, it is probable, by an express mandate from Heaven,-he forsook the fruitful and pleasant fields of Eden, which he had polluted with a brother's blood, and directed his course to the neighbouring desert. Here he endeavoured to forget the agonies of remorse in the engagements of active life; and to secure himself and his family from the dreaded resentment of his irritated brethren, he built a city; and yielding to the dictates of parental affection, called it after the name of his son Enoch. It is extremely probable that the term Nod, derived from a Hebrew verb which signifies to wander, was not the proper name of the country, but only an appellative, denoting a fugitive or vagabond, in allusion to the wandering life which Cain was doomed to lead during the residue of his days.

The true situation of Nod is also involved in much obscurity, which the most celebrated geographers have endeavoured in vain to dissipate. The imperfect resemblance of one name to another, and the corresponding situation of ancient cities, are insufficient to guide the cautious inquirer to a satisfactory conclusion. It is extremely improbable that the city of Enoch which Cain built, was able to resist the shock of the deluge. Like the garden of Paradise, it was certainly swept from the face of the carth, without leaving a single vestige behind

f Luke xxiii, 43.

to mark the spot where it once stood. And were the opinion of Huetius admitted that Anuchtha, the name of an ancient city in the province of Susiana, is the Chaldee form of Enoch, and that Ptolemy was right in placing it on the east of Eden, it will not follow that it was the city built by Cain; for the inspired writer mentions another person of that name, the son of Jared, and father of Methuselah, so remarkable for religion, that God, as a signal reward to him, and an encouragement to others, translated him to heaven, without subjecting him to the common lot of our fallen nature. From which of these persons the city of Anuchtha might take its name, cannot now be determined. The probability is, that it derived its name from neither, but was built in honour of some person who bore the name of Enoch in ages long posterior.

That the murderer was compelled to remove to a greater distance from the scene of his wickedness than Huetius supposes, is rendered extremely probable from the terms of his sentence: "And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brothers blood from thy hand. When thou tillest the ground it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth." These words, addressed by the Judge of all the earth to the blood-stained criminal, certainly refer not to the fertile regions that, except toward the west, encircled the land of Eden, but to some barren and ungrateful soil, from which his utmost exertions should scarcely procure him a scanty subsistence. It was not then in the pleasant and fruitful country of Susiana, where Ptolemy places the city of Anuchtha, that the fratricide was compelled to wander, but in the thirsty

and sterile deserts of Arabia Petræa, a region admirably adapted to the purposes of punishment or correction. This part of Arabia extends to the western boundary of Eden, and by consequence, in relation to the place where Moses resided, is strictly and properly before or over against it; which greatly corroborates the opinion, first suggested by Grotius, that those frightful deserts received the condemned fugitive.

These circumstances considered, it is probable, that the land of Nod was situated somewhere in the eastern extremity of Arabia Petræa, extending its border to the western limits of Eden. But no traces of the name are now to be found to guide the researches, and reward the labour of the enquirer. Nor can it be ascertained whether the word Nod is to be taken for a proper name or an appellative. It cannot, however, admit of a doubt, that it alludes to the exile of the fratricide.

CHAP. II.

THE MOUNTAINS OF ARARAT, UPON WHICH THE ARK OF NOAH RESTED.

Ararat, a range of mountains in Armenia.-Embraces, according to some writers, the whole range of Taurus, as far as Caucasus.-Ark of Noah rested on the Gordiæan mountains; not on the summits of Caucasus m Particular mountain on which the Ark rested, the Baris.Before the deluge, Noah probably lived in the land of Eden.

In what country these mountains are situated, and on what part of them the ark rested, are the objects of our