478. The reason he is called Adam is that the Hebrew word Adam means man. But the fact that Adam was never used as a proper name, only Man, is quite clear from the consideration that both here and earlier he is spoken of in the plural and not in the singular, and that the term refers to both man and woman. The two together are called Man. Anyone may see from these words that both are included, for it is said, 'He called their name Man on the day in which they were created', and similarly in 1:26, 28, 'Let Us make man in Our image, and they will have dominion over the fish of the sea. This shows also that the subject is not about someone who, when created, was the first human being of all, but about the Most Ancient Church.

694. Just as heaven, deriving as it does from the Lord, constitutes through mutual love one human being and one soul so to speak, and consequently has one end in view, which is to preserve and save all men eternally, so conversely does hell, deriving as it does from the proprium, constitute through self-love and love of the world, that is, through hatred, one devil and one frame of mind (animus), and consequently has one end in view, which is to destroy and condemn all men eternally. That this is the nature of their endeavours I have perceived thousands and thousands of times. Unless therefore the Lord were preserving everybody in every fraction of a moment, man would perish.