117. There are people who suppose that Adam had such freedom or free will that he could love God and be wise of himself, and that this free will was lost in his posterity. But this is an error. For a person is not life but a recipient of life (see above, nos. 4-6, 55-60), and one who is a recipient of life cannot love and be wise by virtue of any power his own. Consequently when Adam tried to be wise and to love by his own power, he too fell from wisdom and love and was cast out of Paradise.