“Many other mysteries,” says Hugo, closing the first “Part” of his
first Book, “could be pointed out in the work of the creation. But we
briefly speak of these matters as a suitable approach to the subject
set before us. For our purpose is to treat of the sacrament of man’s
redemption. The work of creation was completed in six days, the work
of restoration in six ages. The latter work we define as the
Incarnation of the Word and what in and through the flesh the Word
performed, with all His sacraments, both those which from the
beginning prefigured the Incarnation and those which follow to declare
and preach it till the end.”
It is unnecessary to follow Hugo through the discussion, upon which he now
enters, of the will, knowledge, and power of the Trinity, or through his
consideration of the knowledge which man may have of God. In Part V. of
the first Book, he considers the creation of angels, their qualities and
nature, and the reasons why a part of them fell. With Part VI. the
creation of man is reached, which Hugo shows to have been causally prior,
though later in time, to the creation of the world which God made for man.
From love God created rational creatures, the angels purely spiritual, and
man a spirit clothed with earth.[75] Hugo considers the corporeal as well
as the spiritual nature and qualities of man, and his condition before the
Fall. The seventh Part is devoted to the Fall itself, and discusses its
character and sinfulness.
At length, in the eighth Part, Hugo reaches the true subject of his
treatise, the restoration of man. Man’s first sin of pride was followed by
a triple punishment, consisting in a penalty, and two entailed defects,
the penalty being bodily mortality, the defects carnal concupiscence and
mental ignorance.
“Regarding his reparation three matters are to be considered, the
time, the place, the remedy. The time is the present life, from the
beginning to the end of the world. The place is this world.[76] The
remedy is threefold, and consists in faith, the sacraments, and good
works. Long is the time, that man may not be taken unprepared. Hard is
the place, that the transgressor may be castigated. Efficacious is the
remedy, that the sick one may be healed.”
Hugo then sets forth the situation, the case in court as it were, to which
God, the devil, and man, are the three parties. In this trial
“... the devil is convicted of an injury to God in that he seduced
God’s servant by fraud and holds him by violence. Man also is
convicted of an injury to God in that he despised His command and
wickedly gave himself to evil servitude. Likewise the devil is
convicted of an injury toward man, in first deceiving him and then
bringing evil upon him. The devil holds man unjustly, though man is
justly held.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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