Page:Essays on Catholicism, Liberalism, and Socialism.djvu/63

teach those who combat here, that they are in communion with those who suffer in purgatory, and those who triumph in heaven? Who but God could unite in loving bonds the living and the dead, the just, saints, and sinners? Who but God could connect oceans so immense?

The law of unity and of variety, that law by excellence which is both human and divine, without which nothing can be explained, and which explains all things, is here shown to us in one of its most surprising manifestations. Diversity exists in heaven, since the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are three persons; and this diversity is merged, without confusion, into unity; because the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God, and God is one. Diversity existed in the terrestrial paradise, because Adam and Eve were different persons; and this diversity is merged, without being blended, into unity, because Adam and Eve represent human nature, and human nature is one. In our Lord Jesus Christ there is diversity, because there is a conjunction of the divine nature on the one hand and the corporal and spiritual elements of his human nature on the other. The human and divine natures are merged, without being confounded, in our Lord Jesus Christ, who is only one in person. Finally, diversity also exists in the Church, because she is militant on earth, suffering in purgatory, and triumphant in heaven; and this diversity is merged, without being confounded, in our Lord Jesus Christ, the sole head of the universal Church; and who, as the only Son of the Father, is, like the Father, the symbol of a diversity of persons in a unity of essence: as he is also, in quality of God-man, the symbol of a diversity of essence in a unity of person; and, being at