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There was then in the eternal providence an
incomparable privilege for the queen of queens,
mother of fair love, and most singularly all perfect.
There were also for certain others some special
favours. But after this the sovereign goodness poured
an abundance of graces and benedictions over the
whole race of mankind and upon the angels, with which
all were watered as with a rain that falleth on the
just and unjust, all were illuminated as with a light
that enlighteneth every man coming into this world;
every one received his portion as of seed, which
falls not only upon the good ground but upon the
highway, amongst thorns, and upon rocks, that all
might be inexcusable before the Redeemer, if they
employ not this most abundant redemption for their
salvation.
But still, Theotimus, although this most abundant
sufficiency of grace is thus poured out over all
human nature, and although in this we are all equal
that a rich abundance of benedictions is offered to
us all, yet the variety of these favours is so great,
that one cannot say whether the greatness of all
these graces in so great a diversity, or the
diversity in such greatness, is more admirable.
For who sees not that the means of salvation
amongst Christians are greater and more efficacious
than amongst barbarians, and again that amongst
Christians there are people and towns where the
pastors get more fruit, and are more capable? Now to
deny that these exterior means were benefits, of the
divine providence, or to doubt whether they did avail
to the salvation and perfection of souls, were to be
ungrateful to the divine goodness, and to belie
certain experience, by which we see that ordinarily
where these exterior helps abound, the interior are
more efficacious and succeed better.
In truth, as we see that there are never found two
men perfectly resembling one another in natural
gifts, so are there never found any wholly equal in
supernatural ones. The angels, as the great S.
Augustine and S. Thomas assure us, received grace
according to the variety of their natural conditions;
now they are all either of a different species or at
least of a different condition, since they are
distinguished one from another; therefore as many
angels as there are, so many different graces are
there.
And though grace is not given to men according to
their natural conditions, yet the divine sweetness
rejoicing, and as one would say exulting, in the
production of graces, infinitely diversifies them, to
the end that out of this variety the fair enamel of
his redemption and mercy may appear; whence the
church upon the feast of every Confessor and Bishop
sings "There was not found the like to him."
And as in heaven no one knows the new name, save
him that receives it,(1) because each one of the
blessed has his own apart, according to the new being
of glory which he acquires; similarly on earth every
one receives a grace so special that all are
different. Our Saviour also compares his grace to
pearls, which as Pliny says are otherwise called
unities, because each one of them is so singular in
its qualities that two of them are never found
perfectly alike; and as one star differeth from
another in glory,(2) so shall men be different from
one another in glory, an evident sign that they will
have been so in grace. Now this variety in grace, or
this grace in variety, composes a most sacred beauty
and most sweet harmony, rejoicing all the holy city
of the heavenly Jerusalem.
But we must be very careful never to make inquiry
why the supreme wisdom bestows a grace rather upon
one than another, nor why it makes its favours abound
rather in one behalf than another. No, Theotimus,
never enter into this curiosity, for having all of us
sufficiently, yea abundantly, that which is requisite
to salvation, what reason can any creature living
have to complain if it please God to bestow his
graces more amply upon one than another?
If one should ask why God made melons larger than
strawberries, or lilies larger than violets, why the
rosemary is not a rose, or why the pink is not a
marigold, why the peacock is more beautiful than a
bat, or why the fig is sweet and the lemon acid, -
one would laugh at his question, and say; poor man,
since the beauty of the world requires variety it is
necessary there should be difference and inequality
in things and that the one should not be the other.
That is why some things are little, others big, some
bitter, others sweet, the one more, the other less
beautiful.
Now it is the same in supernatural things. Every
one hath his proper gift from God; one after thus
manner, and another after that,(3) says the Holy
Ghost. It is then an impertinence to search out why
S. Paul had not the grace of S. Peter, or S. Peter
that of S. Paul; why S. Antony was not S. Athanasius,
or S. Athanasius S. Jerome; for one would answer to
these inquiries that the church is a garden diapered
with innumerable flowers; it is necessary then they
should be of various sizes, various colours, various
odours, in fine of different perfections. All have
their price, their charm and their colour, and all of
them in the collection of their differences make up a
most grateful perfection of beauty.
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