the figure of the serpent, whose crooked windings were a lively image of the dangerous insinuations, and fallacious devices of the evil spirit, God shows our mother Eve her enemy vanquished, and points out to her that blessed seed, by which her conqueror's head was to be bruised, that is, was to see his pride abased, and his empire destroyed, over the whole earth*. This blessed seed was JESUS CHRIST, the son of a virgin; that JESUS CHRIST, in whom alone Adam had not sinned, because he was to spring from Adam in a divine manner, and to be conceived, not by man, but by the Holy Ghost.

But before the Saviour should be given us, it was fit mankind should by a long experience know, the need they had of such a succour. Man was then left to himself, his inclinations became corrupt, his epormities went beyond all bounds, and iniquity covered the whole face of the earth.

Then God meditated a yengeance, the remembrance of which he resolved should never be blotted out from among men: that of the universal flood, the memory of which accordingly still lasts in all nations, as well as that of the wickedness which occasioned it.

Let men no longer fancy, that the world moves alone; and that what has been, shall always be, as being of itself. God, who hath made all things, and by whom all things subsist, is about to drown all ani mals, and all men, that is, he is about

*Gen. iii. 14, 15.

to destroy the most beautiful part of his work.

He needed nothing but himself to destroy, what he had made by a word: but he judged it more worthy of himself to make his creatures the instrument of his vengeance, and he calls the waters to ravage the earth, now overflowed with wickedness.

There was found in it, however, one just man. God, before he saved him from the deluge of waters, had preserved him by his grace from the deluge of iniquity. His family was reserved again to people the earth, which was about to be only an immense solitude. By the cares of this righteous man, God preserves the animals, that man may understand, they are made for him, and subjected to his dominion by their Creator.

The world is renewed, and the earth once more rises out of the bosom of the waters; but in this new world there remains an eternal impression of the divine vengeance. Until the flood, all nature was stronger, and more vigorous; by that immense body of waters, which God brought upon the earth, and by their long continuance on it, the juices it contained were altered; the air, clogged with an excessive moisture, strengthened the principles of corruption; and the first constitution of the world being thus weakened, the human life, which before ran on to near a thousand years, gradually decreased: herbs and fruits had no longer their former strength,

and there was a necessity for giving men a more substantial food in the flesh of animals.

Thus by degrees were to disappear and wear out the remains of the primitive institution; and nature, changed, gave man an intimation, that God was no more the same to him, since he had been provoked by so many crimes.

Moreover, that long life of the primitive men recorded in the annals of the people of God, has not been unknown to other nations*, and their ancient traditions have preserved the memory of it. Death advancing, caused men to feel a speedier vengeance; and as they daily plunged deeper and deeper into wickedness, it was fit they should be likewise, so to speak, daily plunged deeper in their punishment.

The single change of diet might have intimated to them, how much their state was growing worse, since by becoming weaker, they at the same time became more voracious and sanguinary.

Before

the time of the deluge, the food men found without violence in the fruits, which fell of their own accord, and in the herbs, which also dried so fast, was, doubtless, some remainder of the primitive innocence, and of the mildness to which we were formed. Now for our nourishment we must spill blood, in spite of the horror it naturally excites in us, and all the refinements we

* Maneth. Beros. Hestiæ. Nic. Damas. & al. apud Joseph. Ant. 1. 4. Hesiod. Op. & di.

make use of to cover our tables, are scarce sufficient to disguise to us the carcases we must devour to satisfy us.

But that is only the smallest part of our misfortunes. Life, already shortened, is still more abridged by the violences introduced among mankind. Man, whom we saw in the primitive times sparing the life of beasts, is now accustomed not even to spare the life of his fellow men. In vain did God, presently after the deluge, forbid the shedding of human blood: in vain, to preserve some vestige of the original gentleness of our nature, while he allowed them to eat the flesh of beasts, had he reserved the blood*. Murders multiplied without measure. It is true, that before the flood Cain had sacrificed his brother to his jealousy t. Lamech, sprung from Cain, had committed the second murder, and we may believe that more were committed after those damnable examples. But wars were not yet invented. It was after the deluge, that appeared those ravagers of provinces, called conquerors, who, incited by the sole glory of command, have exterminated so many innocent persons.

Nimrod, a cursed descendant of Ham, who was cursed by his father, began to make war, merely to establish an empire for himself §. From that time ambition has sported with the lives of men without reserve: they are even come to kill each

other, without animosity: the height of glory, and the most noble of all arts, has been to put one another to death.

Such were the beginnings of the world, as the history of Moses represents them to us: beginnings happy at first, but afterwards full of infinite evils. With respect to God, who makes all things, ever admirable; such, in short, that we learned by revolving them in cur mind, to consider the universe and mankind to be always under the hand of the Creator, brought out of nothing by his word, preserved by his goodness, governed by his wisdom, punished by his justice, delivered by his mercy, and always subject to his power.

This is not the universe philosophers have conceived it, formed, according to some, by a fortuitous concourse of original particles; or which, according to the wisest of them, furnished matter to its author, which consequently neither depends on him for the source of its being, nor its first estate, but confines him to certain laws, which he himself cannot violate.

Moses, and our forefathers, whose traditions Moses has collected, give us different notions. The God he hath declared to us, hath a very different power: he can do and undo just as he pleases; he gives laws to nature, and abrogates them when he will.

If, in order to make himself known in times, when the greatest part of men had forgot him, He wrought astonishing miracles, and forced nature to recede from her most constant laws, He, by so doing, con