when the heaviest disasters afflicted the Church, Almighty God set
forth before men the undying life of the Cross, and the reality of that
religion which seemed to be powerless to check the outrages of its
professed followers.

In Paradise, then, as has been said, the whole nature of man ministered
to the fulfilment of the end for which he was created, namely, the
knowledge and love of God. He came forth from his Maker's hands endowed
not only with a natural soul and body untainted with sin, but with such
supernatural gifts, arising from the Divine Presence within him, that
nothing was wanting but perseverance to his final perfection. The
various elements in his nature were not, as now, at war with one
another. His body did not blind the eye of his soul, and agitate it with
the storms of concupiscence; nor did the soul employ the body as its
instrument of rebellion against God. Though not yet admitted to that
glorious vision of the Eternal which was to be the reward of his
obedience, yet he lived in direct commerce with the world of spirits. He
knew and conversed with God and His angels in a way which is now wholly
incomprehensible to the vast majority of his descendants.

When Adam fell, he became, in one word, what we all are now by nature.
Not only was he placed under a curse, but his God was hidden from his
eyes; and that corporeal habitation, which he had abused to his soul's
destruction, became the prison of his soul's captivity. Though
created in the image of God, and retaining, even when fallen, certain
traces of his celestial origin, he became a mere helpless denizen of
earth, and a veil descended and hid his God and all spiritual beings
from his mind. From that time forwards _suffering_ became not merely the
law of his daily life, but the only means by which he could be first
restored to the Divine favour, and finally be taken to a happy eternity.