be compared to the change
which the golden image of a beautiful man undergoes when it is
transformed into the image of a dragon, the matter at the same time
being corrupted." (Preger 2, 214. 217. 325.)

Dilating on the substantiality of original sin, Flacius furthermore
declared: "Original malice in man is not something different from the
evil mind or stony heart itself, not something that destroys him
spiritually as a disease consumes him bodily, but it is ruined and
destroyed nature itself (_sed est tantum ipsa perditissima et iam
destructissima natura_). Original malice was not, as many now think
infused from without into Adam in such a way as when poison or some
other bad substance is thrown or poured into good liquor, so that by
reason of the added bad substance also the rest becomes noxious, but in
such a way as when good liquor or bread itself is perverted so that now
it is bad as such and poisonous or rather poison (_ut illud per se iam
malum ac venenatum aut potius venenum sit_)." (Preger 2, 313.)

Also concerning the body and soul of fallen man Flacius does not
hesitate to affirm that, since they are permeated and corrupted by
original sin, "these parts themselves are sin, _eas ipsas [partes,
corpus et animam] esse illud nativum malum, quod cum Deo pugnat._" "Some
object," says Flacius, "that the creature of God must be distinguished
from sin, which is not of God. I answer: now do separate, if you can,
the devil from his inherent wickedness!... How can the same thing be
separated from itself! We therefore can not distinguish them in any
other way than by stating that with respect to his first creation and
also his present preservation man, even as the devil himself, is of God,
but that with respect to this horrible transformation (_ratione istius
horrendae metamorphoseos_) he is of the devil, who, by the force of the
efficacious sentence and punishment of angry God: 'Thou shalt die,' not
only captured us to be his vilest slaves, but also recast, rebaked, and
changed, or, so to speak, metamorphosed us into another man, as the
Scripture says, even as he [the devil] himself is inverted." All parts,
talents, and abilities of man, Flacius contends, are "evil and mere
sins," because they all oppose God. "What else are they than armed
unrighteousness!" he exclaims. Even the natural knowledge of God "is
nothing but the abominable source of idolatry and of all superstitions."
(Preger 316f.; Gieseler 3, 2, 255.)

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