For this, my friends, is the lesson which Adam's fall teaches us,
that in God alone is the life of immortal souls, whether of men, or
of angels, or of archangels; and in God alone is righteousness; in
God alone is every good thing, and all good in men or angels comes
from Him, and is only His pattern, His likeness; and that the moment
either man or angel sets up his will against God's, he falls into
sin, a lie, and death. That He has given us reasonable souls for
that one purpose, that with our souls we may look up to Him, with our
souls we may cling to Him, with our souls we may trust in Him, with
our souls we may understand His will, and see that it is a good, and
a right, and a loving will, and delight in it, and obey it, and find
all our delight and glory, even as the Lord Jesus, the Son of Man,
the New Adam, did, in doing not our own will, but the will of our
Father.
For, as St. Augustine says, man may live in two ways, either
according to himself, or according to God; by self-will or by faith.
He may determine to do his own will or to do God's will, to be his
own master or to let God be his master, to seek his own glory, and
try to be something fine and grand in himself: or he may seek God's
glory and obey Him, believing that what God commands is the only good
for him, what makes God to be honoured in the eyes of his neighbours
is the only real honour for him.
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