  But if this is so, why do the evil prosper and the good suffer? What are we to make of natural disasters, of pain, suffering, death, and the like? What, in short, are we to make of evil in the world? Although William does not take up the logical compatibility of evil with an all-good, knowing and powerful god, he does attempt to explain at length how a range of particular kinds of evil are compatible with God's providence and care for human beings. His explanation, in general, is not novel and has roots in Augustine. He distinguishes the evils perpetrated by free agents and for which they are therefore to blame from other forms of evil, and argues that these other evils are in fact not really evil but good. Pain, for example, provides many benefits, among which is that it mortifies and extinguishes “the lusts for pleasures and carnal and worldly desires” (OO I, 764a; Teske 2007, 58). In many cases, what we call evil is in fact God's just punishment, which William implies always has beneficial effects. As for the blameworthy evils done by free agents, William thinks that God permits these, but that it is incorrect to say they come from God or are intended by him. They are rather the consequence of rational creatures’ misuse of the free will with which they were created, and the moral balance will be set right in the future life, if not this one.