{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/105/1050274.htm","path":"chr/ecf/105/1050274.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/105/1050274.htm","text":"Chapter 27.\u2014Even Evils, Through God\u2019s Mercy, are of Use.\nHe asserts that \u201cno evil is the cause of anything good;\u201d as if punishment, forsooth, were good, although thereby many have been reformed. There are, then, evils which are of use by the wondrous mercy of God. Did that man experience some good thing, when he said, \u201cThou didst hide Thy face from me, and I was troubled?\u201d 1199 Certainly not; and yet this very trouble was to him in a certain manner a remedy against his pride. For he had said in his prosperity, \u201cI shall never be moved;\u201d 1200 and so was ascribing to himself what he was receiving from the Lord. \u201cFor what had he that he did not receive?\u201d 1201 It had, therefore, become necessary to show him whence he had received, that he might receive in humility what he had lost in pride. Accordingly, he says, \u201cIn Thy good pleasure, O Lord, Thou didst add strength to my beauty.\u201d 1202 In this abundance of mine I once used to say, \u201cI shall not be moved;\u201d whereas it all came from Thee, not from myself. Then at last Thou didst turn away Thy face from me, and I became troubled.","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. V: A Treatise on Nat...","type":"page"}