He was the priest of this great world; and offered the morning and evening sacrifice of thanksgiving for the whole earthly creation. Of this creation he was also the lord; not the tyrant, but the rightful, just, benevolent sovereign. The subjection of the inferior creatures to him was voluntary; and productive of nothing but order, peace, and happiness. With these endowments and privileges, he was placed in paradise, no unhappy resemblance of heaven itself; and surrounded by every thing which was "good for food, or pleasant to the eye," or fragrant to the smell. In an atmosphere, impregnated with life; amid streams, in which life flowed; amid fruits, in which life bloomed and ripened; encircled by ever-living beauty and magnificence, peaceful within, safe without, and conscious of immortality; he was destined to labour, only that he might be useful and happy, and to contemplate the wonders of the universe, and worship its glorious Author, as his prime and professional employment. He was an image of the invisible God; created to be like him in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, his most illustrious attributes; and, like him, to exercise dominion over the works of his hands.

In this situation also, removed far from death and disease, from sorrow and fear, he was formed for endless improvement. His mind, like that of angels, was capable of continual expansion, refinement, and elevation; and his life, of perpetual exaltation in worth, usefulness, and honour. God was his visitor, angels were his companions.

To complete this system of delight, he was created to be the parent of countless millions, who, like himself, were all to be sinless. They were also to inhabit the same world of peace, life, and happiness; to possess the same immortality, and to share in the same endless enjoyment. At the head of this lower creation,

he was to stand and survey this great globe, filled with his own offspring; and to see the whole immense family, like himself, children of God, and heirs of his everlasting love.

Dwight.

THE FALL.

GOD having created Adam, he presented to him the animals he had before formed, and gave to them those names by which they are still distinguished. A mute attention marked the behaviour of Adam during this presentation; but when he observed that he alone was created without a female companion, a gleam of sur prise glanced across his expressive countenance; which was no sooner perceived by the Almighty, than he laid him asleep, and taking from his side one of his ribs, formed of it a woman, to whom he gave the name of Eve, which signifies the mother of all things.

This pair, lovely in form, and pure in mind, God placed in a paradise adapted to their perfections ;-a garden, wherein grew every tree that was pleasant to the sight, or grateful to the taste; and through which flowed a river, that, after having served to water it, divided itself into four branches, and spread over a great part of the globe. Here for a time did the primogenitors of mankind lead a life of perfect bliss; but an uninterrupted continuance of happiness being incompatible with a residence in this revolving planet, they at length experienced a sad reverse.

In the midst of their delightful abode, God had planted two trees endowed with supernatural powers; -one, The Tree of Life, the fruit whereof conferred immortality; the other, The Tree of Knowledge,

from eating the fruit of which a perception of the difference between good and evil was to be acquired. And, as the first trial of their obedience to his com mands, after giving them permission to eat of the produce of all the other trees and plants, he enjoined them not to taste of the tree of knowledge, assuring them that it would prove their destruction if they did. Eve, however, being one day employed in the nurture of some flowers and plants at distance from her husband, (a first and fatal separation !) the serpent, a creature surpassing every other in subtlety, and endowed at that time with the faculty of speech, persuaded her, through the instigation of the Prince of Deception, to taste of the forbidden fruit; telling her, that the knowledge they would acquire thereby would enable them to lead a much happier life than they did at present a life little inferior to that of Gods.

Overcome by these persuasions, Eve plucked of the fruit, and ate; and being pleased with the flavour, entreated her husband to do the same. Adam, suspicious of some fraud, hesitated for a while; but being impelled by an excess of affection to share the fate of her he loved, be the consequences what they would, he at length reluctantly consented. Thus, by disobeying the commands of their Creator, did this first, and nearly perfect pair, bring on themselves, and entail on their posterity, "all the ills which flesh is heir to."

No sooner had they both tasted of the fatal tree, than a sense of shame was implanted in their minds ; and though till now they had not observed any impropriety in their appearance, they perceived that they were become naked, and made for themselves a covering of fig-leaves. Being likewise deprived of that innocence which had hitherto emboldened them to converse freely with their Maker, who sometimes deigned to bestow that privilege on them, the first time they

heard his voice after the commission of the fatal deed, conscious of their transgression, they hid themselves from his presence among the trees of the garden.

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The Almighty, observing that they thus withdrew themselves, demanded of Adam the cause of this unwonted procedure, asking him why he now avoided entering into conversation with him, as he had hitherto always delighted to do? Adam making no reply, God addressed them in the following manner: "I had determined, when I placed you here, that you should lead a happy life, free from pain, care, or vexation, and that all things which might contribute to your enjoyment and pleasure should grow spontaneously, without your being necessitated to procure them by labour and fatigue, which would unavoidably bring on old age, and a consequent dissolution: but your silence convinces me that you have disobeyed my injunction relative to the tree of knowledge, and thereby forfeited my benevolent intentions towards you."

Adam endeavoured to vindicate himself, by laying the blame on Eve: "The woman whom thou gavest to be with me," said he, "she gave me of the tree, and I did eat." While Eve, in her own justification, replied, "The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.”

These palliations not appearing satisfactory to God, he allotted punishment to Adam, because he had weakly submitted to the counsel of his wife, which his judgment should have prevented him from doing; and he pronounced this sentence against him: "Cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of -it all the days of thy life. Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee. Thou shalt eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."

To Eve he thus said: "I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee."

The fraudful serpent was upon this occasion deprived of the faculty of speech; poison was inserted under his tongue, and a general enmity against mankind implanted in him; but at the same time, the readiest method of destroying him, by bruising his head, was suggested to man. And as this creature had hitherto been a quadruped, as a farther mark of his displeasure, for the malicious deception he had practised on Eve, God caused him to crawl upon the ground: "Upon thy belly shalt thou go," said the Lord, "and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life."

And, lest Adam and Eve should eat of the tree of life, as they had done of the tree of knowledge, and by that means secure to themselves immortality, he expelled them from the garden of Eden, placing on each side of the gate, through which they passed, armed cherubims, to prevent a possibility of their return.

How humiliating and afflictive must this expulsion have been to them!-banished for ever from that delightful spot where they had tasted of ineffable and uncloying happiness!-from a garden, in which uncultured grew the goodliest trees, loaded with the fairest fruit!-a lovely landscape, fanned by the purest air, and inspiring delight and joy!-Such was the place from which this unhappy, erring pair were driven, to - wander down into a lower world, a spot, to their late residence, obscure and wild, and where they were doomed to suffer toil, anxiety, and pain.

Thus fell the first-created pair; and they have left to their descendants, at once, an awful example of the ruinous consequences attending a wilful disobedience