Choose a topic from Part 2B:
1. Man, dowered with free will, had to exercisethat free will in choosing or rejecting God. Had there been notrial, no temptation, man would have had a kind of mechanicalprogress from Paradise to heaven, and the greatest of his gifts,the gift that makes him most like to God in his being (that is,free will) would have been a vain and unused gift. Free humannature had to have a chance to choose freely, and this was given inthe temptation. There was no need for Adam to succumb to thetemptation. He had a perfect human nature, and he had supernaturalgrace and supernatural gifts. No creature could harm him or forcehis choice, against his will. That Adam sinned, that he chose toabuse freedom instead of using it, was his own fault.
2. The manner and order of the first man's temptationwere entirely suitable. The temptation was rounded and complete. Itappealed to the intellect and will; the appeal was made through thesenses; into the whole event of the temptation there entered one ofthe man's own species, the woman; one thing of the animalorder, the serpent; and one thing of the vegetal order, the treewith its fruit.
"Before a man chooses his confessor, he ought to think well about it, and pray about it also; but when he has once chosen, he ought not to change, except for most urgent reasons, but put the utmost confidence in his director."
St Philip Neri
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"What good does it do to speak learnedly about the Trinity if, lacking humility, you displease the Trinity? Indeed it is not learning that makes a man holy and just, but a virtuous life makes him pleasing to God. "
Thomas á Kempis
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"Happy is the youth, because he has time before him to do good. "
St Philip Neri
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