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Though this is not a primary idea in Confessions, Augustine sees all the events of his life as divinely just; he sinned, suffered, and was saved all according to God's perfect justice. There is very little sense of cause and effect in this idea of justice, since sinning is largely its own punishment (Augustine speaks of his early sexual adventures as a "hell of lust"). Following the Neoplatonists, Augustine suggests that a disordered mind or perverted will is punished by its own miserable state and by its attachment to transient things. The only true reward is the return to the stability of God.
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