Introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 October 2009
Summary
He came into the World a Philosopher, which sufficiently appeared by his writing the Nature of things upon their Names: he could view Essences in themselves, and read Forms with the comment of their respective Properties; he could see Consequents yet dormant in their principles, and effects yet unborn in the Womb of their Causes; his understanding could almost pierce into future contingents, his conjectures improving even to Prophesy, or the certainties of Prediction; till his fall it was ignorant of nothing but of Sin, or at least rested in the notion without the smart of Experiment … I confess 'tis difficult for us who date our ignorance from our first Being, & were still bred up with the same infirmities about us, with which we were born, to raise our thoughts, and imaginations to those intellectual perfections that attended our nature in its time of Innocence …
These effusive estimates of Adam's abilities were delivered by Robert South in a sermon to worshippers at St Paul's Cathedral, London on a Sunday morning in November 1662. While this description of Adam's philosophical acumen was notable for its eloquence – South was widely acknowledged as the most gifted preacher of his generation – there was nothing unusual in its substance. From quite early in the Christian era, patristic writers had commented on the unique intellectual capacities of our first father, on the vast extent of his knowledge, and on the magnitude of his losses at the Fall.
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- The Fall of Man and the Foundations of Science , pp. 1 - 16Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2007