n. Therefore,
that position has been preserved; and, at the appearance of the most noble
supreme Manifestation, it became apparent and clear. For the position of
Adam, with regard to the appearance and manifestation of the divine
perfections, was in the embryonic condition; the position of Christ was
the condition of maturity and the age of reason; and the rising of the
Greatest Luminary(105) was the condition of the perfection of the essence
and of the qualities. This is why in the supreme Paradise the tree of life
is the expression for the center of absolutely pure sanctity--that is to
say, of the divine supreme Manifestation. From the days of Adam until the
days of Christ, They spoke little of eternal life and the heavenly
universal perfections. This tree of life was the position of the Reality
of Christ; through His manifestation it was planted and adorned with
everlasting fruits.

Now consider how far this meaning conforms to the reality. For the spirit
and the soul of Adam, when they were attached to the human world, passed
from the world of freedom into the world of bondage, and His descendants
continued in bondage. This attachment of the soul and spirit to the human
world, which is sin, was inherited by the descendants of Adam, and is the
serpent which is always in the midst of, and at enmity with, the spirits
and the descendants of Adam. That enmity continues and endures. For
attachment to the world has become the cause of the bondage of spirits,
and this bondage is identical with sin, which has been transmitted from
Adam to His posterity. It is because of this attachment that men have been
deprived of essential spirituality and exalted position.

When the sanctified breezes of Christ and the holy light of the Greatest
Luminary(106) were spread abroad, the human realities--that is to say,
those who turned toward the Word of God and received the profusion of His
bounties--were saved from this attachment and sin, obtained everlasting
life, were delivered from the chains of bondage, and attained to the world
of liberty. They were freed from the vices of the human world, and were
blessed by the virtues of the Kingdom. This is the meaning of the words of
Christ, "I gave My blood for the life of the world"(107)--that is to say, I
have chosen all these troubles, these sufferings, calamities, and even the
greatest martyrdom, to attain this object, the remission of sins (that is,
the detachment of spirits from the human