Course 1, Chapter 16: The fall of Man

1. With what punishment did God menace oar first parents?

*The punishment with which God threatened our first parents was death to both body and soul. He said to Adam, In what day soever thou shall eat of it, thou shall die the death. They were guilty of revolt like the angels, and like them they deserved to be treated; if God did not execute his threat, it is owing entirely o his great mercy.

2. How did our first parents fall?

The devil in the shape of a serpent deceived the

•woman by saying to her that if they ate of the forbid den fruit they should become gods. The woman being deceived, ate of it and then offered it to her husband. Adam was not deceived, but to please his wife he also ate of the forbidden fruit.

3. In what condition did they find themselves after their fall?

After their fall, remorse and shame seized upon their conscience, and they sought to hide themselves among the trees of the garden. The Lord called them before him and pronounced upon them a just condemnation.

4. What punishment did he pronounce upon the serpent?

He condemned the serpent to crawl upon the earth and to eat the dust. God wished to show how hateful the devil was to him, by punishing the reptile which had been the instrument of his crime. He moreover said to it: / will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head. These words announced a Redeemer to come

5. What punishment did he pronounce upon our first parents?

He condemned the woman to bring forth with pain, and to be subject to her husband; he condemned man to gain his bread by the sweat of his brow, and to undergo all the miseries of nature and death. He also deprived him of all his supernatural privileges.

6. What do you remark on this punishment?

In this punishment I remark a great mercy of God. He had the right to execute the sentence of ileath on our first parents the moment they sinned, yet he did not do it; he granted them time for repentunce. He did more, he gave them the means; he announced to them a Redeemer, and thus left them the .iope of being one day restored to his favor.

Q What did God then do?

68 CATECHISM OF PERSEVERANCE.

A. Touched with compassion for our first parents, he gave them clothes to cover themselves. After this they "went forth from the terrestrial Paradise, and a cherub, armed with a flaming sword, was placed at the entrance to prevent their return.

7. Did Adam do penance?

Adam did penance for his sin during nine hundred and thirty years, and had the happiness to recover the favor of God arid to die in his love.