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Letters concerning the Establishment of the Holy Synod (1723)

Eastern Patriarchs, tr. King, 1865

5. Article 5

We believe that all things, whether visible or invisible, are governed by the providence of God. And those things which are evil, God knows that they are evil, and allows them, but he is not their deviser, nor indeed their Creator; but when they have taken place, sometimes they are directed by Supreme Goodness toward something useful; which does not make them indeed so, but directs them to something better, as far as possible. We should adore but not pry into divine providence, in things that are hidden, and judgments not at all revealed. Those things indeed taught by Holy Writ concerning it, which tend toward life eternal, we should gratefully inquire into, and consequently we should receive from it without doubting our first conceptions concerning God.