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For, besides such benefits as, according to this administration of
nature of which we have made some mention, He lavishes on good and bad
alike, we have from Him a great manifestation of great love, which
belongs only to the good. For although we can never sufficiently give
thanks to Him, that we are, that we live, that we behold heaven and
earth, that we have mind and reason by which to seek after Him who
made all these things, nevertheless, what hearts, what number of
tongues, shall affirm that they are sufficient to render thanks to Him
for this, that He hath not wholly departed from us, laden and
overwhelmed with sins, averse to the contemplation of His light, and
blinded by the love of darkness, that is, of iniquity, but hath sent
to us His own Word, who is His only Son, that by His birth and
suffering for us in the flesh, which He assumed, we might know how
much God valued man, and that by that unique sacrifice we might be
purified from all our sins, and that, love being shed abroad in our
hearts by His Spirit, we might, having surmounted all difficulties,
come into eternal rest, and the ineffable sweetness of the
contemplation of Himself?
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