IV.
Sedrach saith to him: Chastisement and fire are thy discipline: they are bitter, my Lord: 1 it were well for man if he had not been born: why then didst thou make him, my Lord? Why didst thou weary thine undefiled hands 2 and create man, since thou didst not intend to have mercy on him? God saith to him: I made Adam the first creature and placed him in Paradise in the midst of the tree of life and said to him: Eat of all the fruits, but beware of the tree of life: for if thou eat of it, thou shalt die the death. But he transgressed my commandment, and being beguiled by the devil ate of the tree.
