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Reply. Nothing can resist the order of the divine
governance as it proceeds from God, the most universal
cause of the good of the whole universe, but a being may
well resist this order as it proceeds from a particular
cause. Thus those who sin oppose some determined good
according to the law of God and therefore they are justly
punished by God. Cajetan points out in connection with
the reply to the first objection that "those who sin
mortally look at two things: first, what they intend to
do, and this is good in a sense; and secondly, something
beyond their intention, and this is the deformity of the
act, consisting in the privation of the proper order.
Here sinners depart from a certain order of good and act
against this order." But even this deformity is
permitted by God for the sake of a greater good, at least
with regard to the end of the whole universe, and thus
sinners do not oppose the divine governance in general but
only in a particular instance.
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