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                                       The Garden: Introduction



Adam and Eve tending the Garden of Eden. Under God's gaze the Garden is bringing forth plenty. Adam gathers fruit and Eve herbs, while in the background the mythical 'vegetable' lamb - which grew and propagated like a plant - grazes. Catalogue no. 20

During the seventeenth century, Protestant theologians encouraged people to read the Bible literally and as a coherent historical narrative. In this narrative, the events which took place in the Garden of Eden defined the rest of the course of human history. The outline of the story related in the opening three chapters of Genesis can be given relatively briefly. God had created the first man (Adam) and woman (Eve), and placed them in paradise, where it was their task to look after the Garden. They lived in an environment of pristine natural fertility and peace. All this was altered when the man and the woman sinned (the Fall), by disobeying God and eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. As a consequence of the Fall, Adam and Eve were expelled from paradise and forced to fend for themselves. The earth became corrupted and harder to till for food. Women were punished by the pains of childbirth, and death overshadowed all people. At the same time, God promised future redemption for humanity through Christ.

Although the basic narrative was easy to establish, the meaning of the events which had taken place in the Garden was often the subject of debate in the seventeenth century. To a considerable extent, the way in which scripture was understood depended on the theological assumptions of the interpreter. Nowhere was this more true than in the interpretation of the Fall. Many early-modern English readers of the Bible followed the teaching of Theodore Beza (building on the work of John Calvin), and believed that the proper understanding of God's nature, in particular of his divine foreknowledge of events, demanded the predestination of human nature, and the division of people into the inherently righteous and the inherently sinful. According to this view, the seed of both the elect and the damned could be found in Adam; his original sin clouded the nature and lives of all human beings, but was atoned for in the elect by Christ's sacrifice.

Most members of the Hartlib circle believed in some version of this theology, and were also persuaded by the biblical criticism of reformed scholastic theologians, who argued that the teaching of Calvin and Beza was fully compatible with a literal interpretation of scripture and with the understanding of the events of Genesis given by the first Christian writers, in particular in the Epistles of St Paul. However, over the course of the seventeenth century, English readers of the Bible became increasingly familiar with alternative interpretations of the text of the Bible and of the teachings of both the early Christians and the first generation of reformed theologians. In particular, the belief that Adam's sin had been imputed to all future human beings came to be challenged, as did the view that Christ had died for the elect alone. Irrespective of which tradition they came from, seventeenth-century English interpreters of Genesis stressed the liberty of Adam's actions and the role of human free will in the Fall. For traditional Calvinists, however, the Fall had led to human bondage to sin and death, and the effective loss of the ability to act with pristine freedom. The recovery of this liberty could only be achieved through God's preservation of his saints, and his providential guidance of their affairs.

  
catalogue no. 20

If the actions of Adam and Eve provided material for the prehistory of free will, then several other aspects of the story of Genesis were used by early modern readers to explain the origins of human nature and practices. Adam was considered by many to be a type of Christ; more controversially, he was thought by some to be the original monarch who had been given dominion over the world by God. Mid-seventeenth-century English readers disagreed about such questions as whether Adam's rule had been conditional on his labour; whether property had initially been held in common; whether the dominion which Adam had could be passed on by inheritance; and whether Adam's example embodied the proper authority due in the future to all monarchs and to the fathers of all human families. The answers which they gave were often either inspirations for or reflections on their own political stances, especially as they were forced to choose between King and Parliament in the 1640s.

Debate also focussed on the meaning of Genesis' account of Eve for the future status of women. Although many orthodox authors wished to stress Adam's responsibility for human sin, others regarded Eve as most culpable. Eve was characterized variously as weaker than Adam, and therefore more easily deceived into sin, or as Adam's equal in knowledge and thus as the real perpetrator of his fall. Many interpreters wished to argue that Genesis justified a subordinate status for women, either through the inferior creation of Eve, or through her being punished, after the Fall, by being made subject to Adam's authority. The second, more historical, interpretation perhaps won wider favour. Critics of Eve were, however, careful to preserve the prophetic identification of her with the future Church of Christ.

By and large, such complex interpretations did not feature in the writings of members of the Hartlib circle, which were more concerned with the practical examples to be derived from a literal and historical reading of Genesis. Even when reference was made to the political meaning of Adam's rule, it was turned to provide a justification for the contemporary pursuit of improvement. Writing to his uncle, John Beale (see catalogue no. 17 ), in 1657, Peter Smith referred to God's punishment of Adam, and his sentence in Genesis 3:19 that 'in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread' (Hartlib Papers, 52/20A-21B):

wch indeed, though it was a punishment to Adam, yet is it the best nurse of health, & chearfullnesse to his posterity: And I suppose that if great conquerours, & troublers of the world were but sensible of those pure & naturall delights of eating the fruits of their owne planting & living upon their owne labours, or in a higher sphear were capable of the joy that ariseth from such actions that benefitt the publick without hurt to any particular, such as are the invention of the plow, planting of fruit, dreining of Fens etc. they would acknowledge their glory to be very partiall, & their great joyes to be attended with intervalls of trouble & remorse in comparison of these.

For Hartlib and his friends, as well as for many other seventeenth-century readers, the most important meanings of the story of the Garden could be found in the account of history which it gave and in the lessons which it taught about human behaviour. Thus, the opening chapters of Genesis contained information about the original human condition and the potential which human beings had had before the Fall. They revealed that Adam and Eve had always been intended to work (to dress the Garden) but that labour had not always been onerous or difficult. They showed that the human mind, when it was not encumbered by sin, had the capacity to understand the natural world and to comprehend the essences of things from the observation of their appearances. Such a capacity had enabled Adam to name all the creatures of the earth (Genesis 2:19-20), using, it was supposed, a language which united words and things.

  
    catalogue no. 19

Information drawn from apocryphal writings and from Jewish tradition further suggested that Adam had once possessed a deep knowledge of the workings of the universe, which had been communicated to him by God. This true and complete natural theology had been the basis for the pious acts of worship which Adam and Eve had performed in paradise before they fell, and which are described at length in accounts of Eden such as that given in Milton's Paradise Lost (catalogue no. 68). Although most critics argued that the Fall had occurred on the evening of the sixth day, before the sun had set on the creation of man, they nonetheless believed that Adam in his innocency had possessed a special knowledge of God and his actions.

The most important lesson which had to be drawn from the Fall was the need to be obedient to God and to his providential decrees. Satan, whom commentators depicted as having entered the body of a serpent in the Garden and given it a voice with which to tempt Eve, was always on hand to repeat the deception with which he had encouraged the first human beings to sin. Yet devout people might overcome Satan's wiles, and in the process recover some of the lost knowledge which Adam had once possessed. The hope of members of the Hartlib circle was that, in the last days, it might be possible to restore the fertility which the earth had lost after the Fall through the practice of a scientific husbandry, which also paid attention to the spiritual duties of the farmer or gardener that Adam had neglected at the moment of his sin. Observation and the compilation of experimental knowledge would help to achieve this, as well as to restore the lost wisdom of Adam. Chemical researches, such as those undertaken by Ralph Austen (see catalogue no. 14 ), Benjamin Worsley, and the young Robert Boyle, might begin to establish which element made plants grow, or provide substances to heal human illnesses. Experiment and innovation would perhaps restore the earth's lost fruitfulness as well as providing the liberating activity of labour for England's poor. This good work could expect divine support since a number of biblical prophecies seemed to suggest that God would restore lost knowledge and plenty to the saints at the end of time.

The millenarian context was important for improvers like Hartlib and his friends. As Calvinists, they did not believe that human beings could bring about their own salvation. Indeed, one of the lessons of Eden was that the covenant of works, under which Adam and Eve had originally been placed, represented an impossible route to heaven. Only the covenant of grace which God had subsequently made with his elect could promise redemption, although it also placed a heavy burden of obedience on the believer. Part of that burden could be relieved by collaboration with providence in the improvement of the world, once the time was ripe. The apocalyptic expectation under which they lived helped to encourage members of the Hartlib circle to adopt practical interpretations of the Bible. Perhaps surprisingly, given their interest in Comenius's philosophy (see catalogue nos. 39 and 40 ), they seem in the end to have largely rejected more mystical readings of the Bible, such as those to be found in the contemporary English translations of the work of Jacob Boehme. Their view of Genesis was governed by a sense of history. Accordingly, they were receptive to the idea that Eden had been a real place which could be located geographically. They believed that the events that had taken place in the Garden had begun the process of human history, which might be about to end in their lifetimes. The notion of a return to Eden inspired their work, which was intended to improve mankind spiritually as well as materially.



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