The First Step to Conversion

2 Secondly, he shall contemplate how all the same is an enmity toward God / which the Satan (through his deception) has awakened in our first Parents / for the sake of which abominations we must die the death / and perish with our bodies.

3 Thirdly / he shall contemplate the three abominable chains / to which our soul (during the time of this earthly life) lies firmly bound: as the first is the severe Wrath of God / the abyss and dark world (which is the center or ground and creaturely life of the soul.) The second chain is the desire of the devil against the soul / with which he constantly hisses at, tempts, and (without ceasing) wants to cast the soul from the truth of God / into vanity (as in pride / greed / envy / and wrath) / and blows and kindles these same evil properties (through his desire) constantly in the soul / whereby the will of the soul turns away from God / and enters into a selfishness. The third and most harmful chain, to which the poor soul is bound