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All natures, then, inasmuch as they are, and have therefore a rank
and species of their own, and a kind of internal harmony, are
certainly good. And when they are in the places assigned to them by
the order of their nature, they preserve such being as they have
received. And those things which have not received everlasting being,
are altered for better or for worse, so as to suit the wants and
motions of those things to which the Creator's law has made them
subservient; and thus they tend in the divine providence to that end
which is embraced in the general scheme of the government of the
universe. So that, though the corruption of transitory and perishable
things brings them to utter destruction, it does not prevent their
producing that which was designed to be their result. And this being
so, God, who supremely is, and who therefore created every being
which has not supreme existence (for that which was made Of nothing
could not be equal to Him, and indeed could not be at all had He not
made it), is not to be found fault with on account of the creature's
faults, but is to be praised in view of the natures He has made.
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