Page:Essays on Catholicism, Liberalism, and Socialism.djvu/162

upon man and the angels a liberty different from his own liberty, and in this manner constituted diversity in the moral world. He afterward subjected this liberty to certain inviolable laws and a necessary limit; and the necessity of this limit and the inviolability of these laws caused the angelical and human liberty to enter into the vast unity of his marvelous designs.

The divine will, which is absolute unity, is shown in the precept given to Adam in paradise, when God said to him, “Thou shalt not eat.” Human liberty, with the imperfection annexed to it, the power of choosing, which is diversity, is set forth in the condition, “and if thou shalt eat.” Finally, we behold diversity return to the unity from which it proceeds: first in the menace made by God to man when he says, “thou shalt die the death;” and then in the promise made to our first parents, when God announces to the woman that she should give birth to One who would crush the serpent’s head. By means of this promise and threat God proclaims the two ways by which diversity, which proceeds from unity, returns to this unity—the way of his justice and that of his mercy.

If the prohibition enjoined upon man is suppressed, the exterior manifestation of absolute unity 1s destroyed.

If the condition annexed to the prohibition i1s suppressed, the exterior manifestation of diversity, which is human liberty, is destroyed.

If both the menace and the promise are suppressed, you destroy the ways by which diversity, in order not to be subversive, returns to the unity from whence 1t proceeds.

As union between the physical creation and the Cre-