“Child!” asked the Black Friar, “did Christ die for thee against His will?”
“I would humbly think, not so, Father,” answered Agnes meekly, “sith He needed not to have so done at all without it were His good pleasure.”
“Right!” was the rejoinder. “It was by reason that God the Father loved thee, that He gave Christ to die for thee; it was by reason that Christ loved thee, that He bare for thee the pain and shame of the bitter cross. Tell me, is there in this world any that thou lovest?”
Agnes hesitated. It seemed something new and strange to think that she could love, or could be loved, since the death of her mother. But she thought, and said, that she loved little Will Flint.
“Tell me, then,” pursued her teacher, “if this little lad were in some sore trouble, and that thou couldst quickly ease him thereof, should he need for to run home and fetch his mother to entreat thee?”
“Surely, nay!” responded Agnes. “I would do the same incontinent (immediately), of mine own compassion, and the more if he should ask it. I would never tarry for his mother!”
“My daughter, is thy love so much better than His that died for us? Should Christ tarry till His mother pray Him to be thine help, when of Himself He loveth thee?”
“But, Father—I pray you pardon me if I speak foolishly, in mine unwisdom—how then needeth a mediator at all, if God the Father be so loving unto men?”
“God is a King, whose law thou hast broken. He is all perfect; therefore must His justice be perfect, no less than His mercy. A lawgiver that were all justice should be a scourge unto men; but a lawgiver that were all mercy should be as good as no law. God hath appointed His Son to be thy Surety; and by reason that He is thy Surety, He is become thine Advocate. He hath said in His Word that the Son is the Advocate with the Father; but of an advocate with the Son never a word saith He. Wherefore God saw fit to appoint a Mediator, He knoweth, not I. I am content that having thus decreed, He hath Himself provided the same.”
Agnes looked up, after a moment’s thought, with an expression of fear and trouble on her white face.