e saw in the last chapter that, because death and corruption were gaining
ever firmer hold on them, the human race was in process of destruction. Man, who was created in God's image and
in his possession of reason reflected the very Word Himself, was disappearing, and the work of God was being
undone. The law of death, which followed from the Transgression, prevailed upon us, and from it there was no
escape. The thing that was happening was in truth both monstrous and unfitting. It would, of course, have been
unthinkable that God should go back upon His word and that man, having transgressed, should not die; but it was
equally monstrous that beings which once had shared the nature of the Word should perish and turn back again into
non-existence through corruption.