This then premis'd (as I see no Reason why it should not) and that
during all this Space they liv'd on _Fruits_ and _Sallets_; 'tis little
probable, that after their Transgression, and that they had forfeited
their Dominion over the Creature (and were sentenc'd and exil'd to a
Life of Sweat and Labour on a cursed and ungrateful Soil) the offended
God should regale them with Pampering _Flesh_, or so much as suffer
them to slay the more innocent Animal: Or, that if at any time they had
Permission, it was for any thing save Skins to cloath them, or in way of
Adoration, or _Holocaust_ for Expiation, of which nothing of the _Flesh_
was to be eaten. Nor did the Brutes themselves subsist by Prey (tho'
pleas'd perhaps with Hunting, without destroying their Fellow Creatures)
as may be presum'd from their long Seclusion of the most Carnivorous
among them in the Ark.
Thus then for two thousand Years, the Universal Food was _Herbs_ and
_Plants_; which abundantly recompens'd the Want of _Flesh_ and other
luxurious Meats, which shortened their Lives so many hundred Years; the
[87][Greek: makro-biote-a] of the Patriarchs, which was an Emblem of
Eternity as it were (after the new Concession) beginning to dwindle to
a little Span, a Nothing in Comparison.
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