were to be with the children of men. [Prov. 8:31] But how is this, O Lord? Thou hast in Heaven so many Seraphim, so many Angels; and canst Thou thus take to heart having lost men? Indeed, what need hast Thou of Angels or of men to fill up the sum of Thy happiness? Thou hast always been, and Thou art in Thyself, most happy; what can ever be wanting to Thy bliss, which is infinite? "That is all true," says God; "but" (and these are the words of Cardinal Hugo on the above text of Isaias)---"but, losing man, I deem that I have nothing; I consider that I have lost all, since my delight was to be with men; and now these men I have lost, and, poor hapless creatures, they are doomed to live forever far away from me."
But how can the Lord call men His delight? Yes, indeed, writes St. Thomas, God loves man just as if man were His god, and as if without man He could not be happy; as if man were the god of God Himself, and without him he could not be happy. St. Gregory of Nazianzen adds, moreover, that God, for the love He bears to men, seems beside Himself: "We are bold to say it, God is out of Himself by reason of His immense love;'" so runs the proverb, "Love puts the lover beside himself."
"But no," then said the Lord, "I will not lose man; straightway let there be found a Redeemer Who may satisfy My justice in behalf of man, and so rescue him from the hands of his enemies and from the eternal death due to him."
And here St. Bernard, in his contemplations on this subject, imagines a struggle to ensue between the justice
