himself and all men into the awful abyss of the wrath of God, which means His holy hatred of sin,¹ and involved them in misery, as will be still more evident from what we are now about to say regarding the consequences of that sin.

God, in warning Adam, had said of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, 'In² the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shall surely die.' Hence, after eating of the tree, they understood from the change in their outward and inward condition the truth of the warning, and knew how much Satan had deluded them. For at that very time they died, as far as the inner and true life was concerned, since the cause of the loss of man's happiness and peace of heart and the reason of inward and spiritual death is that man has become alienated from God, who is the source of true life and of all happiness, and has lost love for Him and trust in Him, and has grown proud and selfish. Therefore, in this manner, that happy bond of union with God which man once possessed was done away, and opposition took the place of agreement. Thus, before committing sin, Adam's inward powers—by which are meant will, desire, intention, conscience, knowledge and intellect—being in complete harmony with one another, rendered his peace of heart perfect. But now, on the contrary, in place of the perfect knowledge of God, which formerly existed in man's heart, there is only a defective and

defiled knowledge of God and recognition of good and evil. This is evident in the human conscience. And, instead of that perfect peace and happiness, unrest of heart and misery have come, and, in place of that straightforward will which was in complete accordance with the will of God, a fickle will has entered into man, so that with feeble desire he inclines to good and with strong desire does he cherish an inclination to evil and to carnal and sensual pleasures. And, as in the beginning the spirit ruled the soul (نفس) and through it the body also, so, after the entrance of sin, its condition has undergone a change, and, since man's spirit has become deprived of and parted from the fountain of life sensual desires have gained strength in him and reached the position of sovereignty. Thus man has fallen from a condition of illumination into one of darkness, and has become vanquished by Satan and subject to him.

And from this spiritual death the death of the body also proceeded, for the latter is only the result of the former in this way that, when because of sin there occurred a discord among man's powers of body, soul and spirit, then that discord destroyed his body too and drew it towards death, to which beasts and plants had previously been subject but not man. Therefore man became subject to death in body as well as in spirit. And, since man had become alienated from his God, the death of his