Concerning many Historical Tenents generally received, and some deduced from the history of holy Scripture. CHAPTER I Of the Forbidden Fruit. [Sidenote: _Opinions, of what kind the forbidden fruit was._] That the Forbidden fruit of Paradise was an Apple, is commonly believed, confirmed by Tradition, perpetuated by Writings, Verses, Pictures; and some have been so bad _Prosodians_, as from thence to derive the Latine word _malum_, because that fruit was the first occasion of evil; wherein notwithstanding determinations are presumptuous, and many I perceive are of another belief. For some have, conceived it a Vine; in the mystery of whose fruit lay the expiation of the transgression: _Goropius Becanus_ reviving the conceit of _Barcephas_, peremptorily concludeth it to be the _Indian_ Fig-tree; and by a witty Allegory labours to confirm the same. Again, some fruits pass under the name of _Adams_ apples, which in common acception admit not that appellation; the one described by _Mathiolus_ under the name of _Pomum Adami_, a very fair fruit, and not unlike a Citron, but somewhat rougher, chopt and cranied, vulgarly conceived the marks of _Adams_ teeth. Another, the fruit of that plant which _Serapion_ termeth _Musa_, but the Eastern Christians commonly the Apples of Paradise; not resembling an apple in figure, and in taste a Melon or Cowcomber. Which fruits although they have received appellations suitable unto the tradition, yet can we not from thence infer they were this fruit in question: No more then _Arbor vitæ_, so commonly called, to obtain its name from the tree of life in Paradise, or _Arbor Judæ_, to be the same which supplied the gibbet unto _Judas_. Again, There is no determination in the Text; wherein is only particulared that it was the fruit of a tree good for food, and pleasant unto the eye, in which regards many excell the Apple; and therefore learned men do wisely conceive it inexplicable; and _Philo_ puts determination unto despair, when he affirmeth the same kind of fruit was never produced since. Surely were it not requisite to have been concealed, it had not passed unspecified; nor the tree revealed which concealed their nakedness, and that concealed which revealed it; for in the same chapter mention is made of fig-leaves. And the like particulars, although they seem uncircumstantial, are oft set down in holy Scripture; so is it specified that _Elias_ sat under a juniper tree, _Absalom_ hanged by an Oak, and _Zacheus_ got up into a Sycomore.