I. SECT. the Deity in the garden of Paradife. This favoured portion of the earth is represented, as containing within itself every external object capable of conferring happiness. The beauty of its fcenery, the falubrity of its climate, the variety and excellence of its fruits, all contributed to the beatitude of the first pair, and tended to elevate their thoughts to that Being, who was the author and contriver of fuch numerous bleffings. Confidered in this point of view, it was equally a delightful refidence for man, and a kind of magnificent temple consecrated to the fervice of God. Its very name conveyed the idea of happiness and pleasure, which can only exift in their full perfection, when the will of man thoroughly coincides with the will of God, and when obedience is unattended with those painful acts of felf-denial, and with that hatred on the part of a debased world, which at present are inevitably attached to it. The beauty of the garden of Paradife cannot be conveyed to our minds in a ftronger light, than by confidering, that heaven itself is frequently designated, by this very appellation. "To day fhalt thou "be. III. "be with me in Paradife," was the confo- CHAP. latory promise of our bleffed Saviour to the penitent thief. If, therefore, we are taught," (to use the words of a late pious prelate) "that heaven refembles the garden "of Eden, it feems fair and reasonable to "conclude, that the garden of Eden re"fembled heaven, and was, from the beginning, intended to do fo; that, like "the temple under the Law, and the "church under the Gofpel, it was, to its happy poffeffors, a place chofen for the "refidence of God; a place designed to represent and furnish them with ideas of 66 66 66 heavenly things; a place facred to con templation and devotion; in one word, "it was the primitive temple and church, "formed and confecrated for the ufe of "man, in his ftate of innocence. There, મંદ undisturbed by care, and as yet unaf"failed by temptation, all his faculties "perfect, and his appetites in fubjection, "he walked with God, as a man walketh "with his friend, and enjoyed communion "with heaven, though his abode was upon "earth. He ftudied the works of God, as they came fresh from the hands of the "workmafter; and in the creation, as in a glafs, he was taught to behold the glo 66 SECT. I. "ries of the Creator. Trained, in the "school of Eden by the material elements "of a visible world, to the knowledge of "one, that is immaterial and invisible, he "found himself excited by the beauty of "the picture, to aspire after the transcen"dant excellence of the divine originala.' Such was the Paradife of Scripture; and from it the Heathens derived that belief in a ftate of pristine integrity, and that idea of the peculiar facredness of groves, which prevailed fo univerfally among them. A notion appears to have been very widely diffused, that mankind formerly lived in complete happiness and unstained innocence; that fpring reigned perpetually, and that the earth fpontaneoufly gave her increase. "Immediately after the birth of "man," fays Hefiod, "the golden age com menced, the precious gift of the immor"tals who acknowledged Chronus as their fovereign. Mankind then led the life of "the Gods, free from tormenting cares, "and exempt from labour and forrow. "Old age was unknown; their limbs were "braced with a perpetual vigour, and the a Bp. Horne's Sermons, vol. i. p. 68. " evils 1 III. "evils of difeafe were unfelt. When the CHAP. " hour of diffolution arrived, death assumed "the mild aspect of fleep, and laid afide "all his terrors. Every bleffing was theirs; "the fruits of the earth fprung up fpontaneously and abundantly; peace reigned, "and her companions were happiness and pleafure." 66 A fimilar idea, though not expreffed with the elegance of the claffical mythologifts, occupied the minds of our Gothic anceftors. The firft inhabitants of the world, according to the ufual fyftem of the Heathen nations, were confidered by them as fomething more than human; their abode was a magnificent hall, glittering with burnished gold, the mansion of love, joy, and friendship. The very meaneft of their utenfils were compofed of the fame precious materials, and the age acquired the denomination of golden. Such was the happiness of the primitive race of mortals; a happiness which they were destined not Β Ως όμοθεν γεγάασι θεοι θνητοι τ' ανθρωποι, HESIOD. Op. et Dier. lib. i. 1. 108. long 1 I. SECT. long to enjoy. The blissful period of innocence was foon contaminated; certain women arrived from the country of the giants, and by their feductive blandishments corrupted its pristine integrity and purity. The circumftance, which principally deferves notice in this ancient tradition, is the cause affigned by the Goths for the termination of their golden age. Women are faid to have corrupted it; and thus to have introduced fin and mifery into the world. It may perhaps be difficult to pronounce whether this be an allufion to the fatal tranfgreffion of our first parent, or whether it may not rather refer to the intercourfe between the fons of Seth and the daughters of Cain, which was the principal cause of the univerfal wickednefs of the antediluvians". In either cafe, its coincidence with the page of Scripture is not a little remarkable. A fimilar belief in an original state of purity is ftrenuously maintained by the inhabitants of Hindoftan. "There can arife "little doubt," to use the words of an elegant modern Hiftorian," but that by the C Edda, Fab. Vii. d Gen. vi. 2, 4. Satya |