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use all of them by right and reason in the service of his creator.
For he showed him such great love that he formed him to His
image and likness, above all other creatures. And He gave
him by nature the most perfect understanding
so that he would love Him and know that he could have nothing better
than to share in His
good things, more than any other creature. Nor did God
ever make for any other creature so many good things as he has made for
man, and He would like him to use them (see note). If if not,
it is right that he should suffer. For the one who does good deeds
in order to have His grace and love is not doing any kindness to God,
for he acts more for his own benefit than for someone else's. And this is because
it does him good to love and serve. For he may well call himself weak
and weary, if by his own folly he loses such great, such noble,
such excellent glory through his sin, by which he gains nothing.
And in the end he gets nothing from it but shame, blasphemy,
and vituperation. And he drags it behind him to that place where
he has nothing but pain, wrath, sorrow, and sadness, from which he
will never see deliverance for as long as he lives. And so is
lost to him the great joy which would have been given had it not
Notes and Questions
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