Page:Essays on Catholicism, Liberalism, and Socialism.djvu/110

sentence passed upon him will not be without appeal, nor will his condemnation be irremediable, until, through repeated acts of sin, his guilt reaches that point alone known to God, where the angelical and human prevarication have an equal weight in the divine balance; so that no man may say to God, why didst thou not create me angel? Nor may the angel say, why didst thou not make me man?

O Lord, who is not terrified at the spectacle of thy justice? But what grandeur equals the greatness of thy mercy? What balance so even, as that thou holdest in thy hand? What measure so true, as that with which thou metest out justice? Who knowest as thou dost, numbers and their mysterious agreements? How admirably executed are thy prodigies! How excellently arranged are all things which thou hast established, and how harmoniously beautiful in their arrangement! O Lord, enlighten my understanding, that I may better comprehend something of thy designs from eternity, something of thy plans and their execution: because he who knows thee not, knows nothing; and he who understands thee, knows all things.

If man may not ask of God, why didst thou not create me an angel, nor why didst thou not create me perfect, may he not at least say to Him, Lord, it would have been better for me if thou hadst not created me; why didst thou create me such as I am? If thou hadst consulted me, I would never have consented to receive life with the power to lose it; hell terrifies me more than nothingness.

Man, left to himself, only falls into blasphemy. When he questions God, he blasphemes, unless the God who is to answer him teaches him how to inquire. When he