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of reversibility, the law of mercy. It would not have been proper or equitable that we should suffer for the sins of one who was our representative, if it were not also permitted us to acquire merit through the merits of one who became our substitute. If the sins of the first are imputable to us, it is entirely conformable with the law of reason that the merits of the second should be reversible to us. This is a sufficient response to those who insolently reproach God for our common condemnation in the persons of our first parents; for, even if we take it for granted, for the sake of argument, that we have not all sinned in Adam, by what right can we complain of being condemned in the person of our representative, when we are saved by the merits of a substitute? To rebel against God on account of the law of imputable sins, without having regard to that other law which is its complement and explication, and by which the merits of others are reversible to us, is indeed extreme boldness, and supposes either bad faith or shameful ignorance. It is, under any hypothesis, a real folly.

Order being restored in the universe by the union of all things in God, and order in humanity, in so far as it was disturbed by sin, it only remained, in order fully to restore it in the latter, on the one hand to put man in a condition to rise above himself so as to accept tribulation freely, and on the other hand to give to this acceptance a meritorious virtue. God provided for both necessities by the divine mystery of the incarnation, so rich in its consequences, and so admirable in itself. The most precious blood shed upon Calvary not only effaced our fault and satisfied our debt, but by its inestimable value being applied to us enabled