they were noted, and in no wise inconsiderable streams. The Pison, Moses tells us, encompassed the whole land of Havilah; a country well known by this name from after Abraham's day'; and in the times of Saul ;* although not thus called in the antediluvian world; for it must have been thus denominated from its having been planted after the flood, by Havilah, one of the sons of Joktan; or perhaps originally by Havilah, a son of Cush. We can find no more. of Gihon, than that it compassed the whole land of Ethiopia, or land of Cush." The country called the land of Cush, was what the sons of Cush first planted, most probably Babylonia; undoubtedly not called the land of Cush, until after the flood, when Cush, the son of Ham, and grandson of Noah, had been an inhabitant of it. The river Hiddekel was known to Daniel; it was a great river in his days, and one of the visions he saw, was made to him in the third year of Cyrus, king of Persia, upon its banks. The fourth river of Moses' Eden was the Perath, or Euphrates, a river so known as to want only to be named, to be sufficiently distinguished from all others. It was called, by way of eminence, The Great River, in Abraham's days; and so in like manner by Moses at the exit out of Egypt. It is well known throughout

h

› Gen. ii. ubi sup.

1 Sam. xv. 7.

Ver: 7. See Connect. b. iii.

2 Gen. xxv. 18.

b Gen. x. 29.

d Gen. ii. ubi sup,

Gen. x. 7. Sce Connect, vol. i. b. iii. Ibid.

Dan. x. 4.

Gen. xv. 18.

* Gen. ii. 14.

* Deut. i. 7.

1

the scriptures by the same name; and the heathen geographers are all very full in their accounts of it." In this manner, therefore, Moses describes the situation of the garden of Eden, not as if he had thought the flood had washed it away, so that the place of it could no where be found; but he remarks what names the rivers of it had from after the times of the sons of Noah, what countries they bounded; and he so remarkably observes, that it had been situate in the neigh bourhood of the most known river in the world, the river Euphrates that it must be evident, he had no thought of placing it in some obscure corner, which surely he would have done, if he had intended a mere fiction. And I apprehend, considering him as `describing a real place, that he would have added more, if he had thought what he wrote was not clear enough to leave no doubts, at the time he wrote, concerning the situation which he described.

III. The site of the garden of Eden, as Moses de scribes it, seems to have been well known in the world, both before, and in, and after Moses' time. The scrip tures are generally concise; every part is confined to the matter it treats of; therefore the garden of Eden being situate beyond the Euphrates, and near the river, upon whose banks Daniel was, in his captivity at Babylon. But the history of the bible, from after Abra

1 The reader may find it thus named in all parts of the Old Testament.

m Vide Strab. Geogr. lib. 11. Plinii Nat. Hist. lib. 5. c. 24. lib. 6. c. 9, &c.

ham's days to about the time of the captivity, has no accounts relating to any thing beyond the Euphrates; therefore it is no wonder, if we meet any thing remarkable relating to places of this country in all this interval. But Abraham and Lot came into Canaan, from Haran ;" and before they dwelt in Haran, they had left a further part of the country of the Chaldees, for they came from Ur, They were not young men when they left these parts, but may well be supposed to be no strangers to a country in which they and their fathers had for many generations lived. Accordingly we find them readily agreeing in a material point concern ing the subject of our enquiry. They sojourned toge ther in Canaan, between Bethel and Hai; their flocks and herds were so large, that they could not conveniently live together, but were now to separate; and Lot, we read, chose to live in the plain of Jordan, because it was every where well watered, even as the garden of the Lord, and like the land of Egypt. Abraham and Lot had been together in Egypt; so that this country was well known to them; and from the whole course of their travels, it must appear, that they could have seen no parts of the world so well watered as the plains of Jordán, except the lands adjoining the waters of the Nile, and the waters of Babylon. They speak ex

1

Gen. xii. 5.

Gen. xi. 31.

P See Connect. vol. i. b. 5. Abraham was seventy years old, when his father removed from Ur to Haran, and seventyfive when he came into Canaan.

9 Gen. xiii.

VOL. IV.

Ver. 10.

H

• Ver. 1.