Brownson opposes by a single formula, that
_life is relative in its very nature_. God alone is; all creatures
live by virtue of what is not themselves, no less than by virtue of
what is themselves, the prerogative of man being to do consciously,
that is, more or less intelligently. Mr. Brownson carefully
discriminates between Essence and Life. Essence, being object to
itself, alone has freedom, which is what the old theologians named
sovereignty; -- a noble word for the thing intended, were it not
desecrated in our associations, in being usurped by creatures that
are slaves to time and circumstance. But life implies a causative
object, as well as causative subject; wherefore _creatures_ are only
free by Grace of God.
That men should live, with God for predominating object, is the
Ideal of Humanity, or the Law of Holiness, in the highest sense; for
this object alone can emancipate them from what is below themselves.
But a nice discrimination must be made here. The Ideal of Humanity,
as used by Mr. Brownson, does not mean the highest idea of himself,
which a man can form by induction on himself as an individual; it
means God's idea of man, which shines into every man from the
beginning; "Enlighteneth every man that cometh into the world,"
though his darkness comprehendeth it not, until it is "made flesh.
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