Page:Legends of Old Testament Characters.djvu/88

66 The bones of Adam and Eve, says Tabari, were taken by Noah into the ark with him, and were reburied by him.

This article may be fitly concluded with the epitaph of Adam, composed by Gabriel Alvarez, and published by him in his "Historia Ecclesiæ Antediluvianæ," Madrid, 1713.

"Here lies, reduced to a pinch of dust, he who, from a pinch of dust, was formed to govern the earth, ADAM, the son of None, the father of All, the stepfather of All and of himself. Having never wailed as a child, he spent his life in weeping, the result of penitence. Powerful, Wise, Immortal, Just, he sold for the price of disobedience, power, wisdom, justice, immortality. Having abused the privilege of Free-will, which weapon he had received for the preservation of Knowledge and Grace, by one stroke he struck with death himself and all the human race. The Omnipotent Judge who in His Justice took from him righteousness, by His Mercy restored it to him whole again: by whose goodness it has fallen out, that we may call that crime happy, which obtained such and so great A Redeemer. Thenceforth Free-will, which he in happiness used to bring forth Misery, is used in Misery to bring forth Happiness. For if we, partakers of his pernicious inheritance, partake also of his penitential example, and lend our ears to salutary counsels, Then we (who by our Free-will could lose ourselves) can be saved by the grace of the Redeemer, and the co-operation of our Free-will. The First Adam Lived to Die; The Second Adam Died to Live. Go, and imitate the penitence of the First Adam; Go, and celebrate the goodness of the Second Adam."

 VIII. WHEN Seth had ascended the throne of his father, says Tabari, he was the greatest of the sons of Adam. Every year he made the pilgrimage to the Kaaba, and he ruled the world with equity, and everything flourished during his reign. At 