Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 2.djvu/417

Rh is a likeness of the Divine Image in a twofold respect, first, in its spirituality, subtilty, and incorporeality; and, again, because in his mind, word, and life, man is an emblem of the. Secondly, on account of his power over all, &#91;Gen. i. 26,] his sovereignty, and his free will. Thirdly, because from him intended to take a temple for His union [thereto], and to be worshipped of all with it for ever and ever.

After had thus created man a reasonable image, a wonderful temple, and a bond of the universe, in short, a small world existing in the great world. He took from him a rib and made therewith woman, and placed them in the delectable paradise of Eden which He had prepared for them, and commanded them that they might eat of all the trees in paradise, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil they were not to eat. And He further decreed, that in the day they should eat thereof they should die the death. Now, hereby declared the freedom of man's will; for, had they not been free to act. He would have wronged them in punishing their transgression of the command; whereas, if they were really free agents. He justly condemned them, inasmuch as with 'wicked intent, and in their own self-sufficiency, they trampled upon and despised the Divine command, in order that they might become gods, and be released from obedience to their Creator, after the advice of the devil who deceived them. Because of this, they became debtors to death, and fell under subjection to the devil, and were shorn of their glory, and put on shame, and were removed from the companionship of angels, and became mourners in a land of curses. Their children also, because they walked in the selfsame way of transgression, bound more tightly the yoke of the devil, and of death, on their necks, and these forgat their Creator, and walked after their own hearts' lust, and the desires of their own minds, and nourished iniquity, and strengthened rebellion,—"who, being past feeling, gave themselves over unto