Some have made this _Tree of Life_ a Representation of _Christ_, and if so, here, as in a Glass, darkly Man saw his Saviour before he stood in need of him: The Tree of Life planted in the midst of Paradise, was to preserve _Adam_’s Life, and without doubt had done so, if he had not rebelled. According to a Learned _Jew_, the Tree of Life represents Piety; and that of Knowledge, Prudence[345]. Some of his Countrymen tell us ridiculous Stories about the Tree of Life, _viz._ That it was of prodigious Size, and all the Water of the Earth gush’d out at its Foot, _&c._ Footnote 345: _Philo Judæus._ It is from the History of Paradise that pagan Poets took their _Nectar_ and _Ambrosia_, which were said to be the Meat and Drink of the Gods; upon which some put this Construction, _viz._ _Nectar_ signifies _young_; _Ambrosia_, _Immortality_; intimating, that in a State of Innocency, the Vigor of Youth would have been immortal. The Heathen were not without some Idea of the Mosaic Creation, and Fall of Man, and of a Woman that brought Sorrow into the World; envying, that a Fire, which is the Light of Knowledge, was hid from them ... and also of Old-Age, brought in by the Counsel of a Serpent.—— Paradise, in _Plato_’s _Symposium_, is _Jupiter_’s _Garden_, and also is the Pattern of _Alcinous_’s _Orchards_, and the _Hesperides_: The Golden-Apples kept by a _Dragon_, were the forbidden Fruit in Paradise: The Fable of _Hercules_’s killing the Serpent of the _Hesperides_, is borrowed from the Seed of the Woman, breaking the Serpent’s Head. What is _Ovid_’s _In nova fert animus_? but an imperfect Transcript of _Moses_’s Journal of the Creation, _&c._ ’Tis said by _Moses_, _The Spirit of God moved on the Face of the Waters_; hence _Thales_, makes Water to be the first Principle of all natural Bodies: His Reasons are deliver’d by _Plutarch_. _Homer_ says, All things are made of the Ocean. The _Chaos_, whereof all things were made, according to _Hesiod_, was Water. _Orpheus_ says, all things were generated of the Ocean[346]. _Plato_’s _Atlanticus_, what is it but a Fable? built upon _Moses_’s History of _Noah_, and the Flood, and the Causes that brought it upon the World. Footnote 346: ωκεανος—γενεσις παντευς τετυκται. What is the _Bacchus_ of the Heathen, but the _Noah_ of _Moses_? formerly called _Boachus_, for _Noachus_, as might easily be, mistaking the _Hebrew_ Letters B and N, which are not very much unlike. By _Janus_ and _Saturn_, _Noah_ is meant; and some take _Jupiter_ to be _Japhet_, for tho’ _Jovis_, and the other oblique Cases are derived from _Jehovah_, yet _Jupiter_ is another. The Fable of Heaven being stormed by the _Giants_, arose from what the Builders of the _Tower of Babel_ said, _viz._ _Let us build a City and a Tower, whose Top may reach unto Heaven_.... But no Man imitates the Scriptures more than _Homer_, who was an inquisitive Traveller into all Countries. But to proceed to the Pagan Account of Paradise, and the Fall of Man: