16 save it should be an infinite atonement, this corruption could not put on incorruption;
17 Wherefore, the first judgment which came upon man must needs have remained to an endless duration,
18 And if so, this flesh must have laid down to rot and to crumble to its mother earth, to rise no more.
19 O the wisdom of God, His mercy and grace!
20 For behold, if the flesh should rise no more, our spirits must become subject to that angel which fell from before the presence of the Eternal God and became the devil, to rise no more;
21 And our spirits must have become like unto him, And we become devils - angels to a devil - to be shut out from the presence of our God and to remain with the father of lies, in misery like unto himself;
22 Yea, to that being who beguiled our first parents,
23 Who transformeth himself nigh unto an angel of light and stirreth up the children of men unto secret combinations of murder and all manner of secret works of darkness.
24 O how great the goodness of our God! Who prepareth a way for our escape from the grasp of this awful monster -
25 Yea, that monster death and hell, which I call the death of the body, and also the death of the spirit;
26 And because of the way of deliverance of our God, the Holy One of Israel, this death of which I have spoken, which is the temporal, shall deliver up its dead, which death is the grave;