72. But as few know that this can be a law of the Divine Providence, chiefly because man has thus freedom also to think evil and falsity, although the Divine Providence is continually leading man to think and to will what is good and true, therefore, that this may be clearly perceived it will be set forth distinctly step by step in the following order:
I. Man has reason and freedom, or rationality and liberty; and these two faculties are from the Lord in man. II. Whatever a man does from freedom, whether it be of reason or not, provided it is according to his reason, appears to him to be his own. III. Whatever a man does from freedom according to his thought, is appropriated to him as his own, and remains with him. IV. It is by means of these two faculties (rationality and liberty) that man is reformed and regenerated by the Lord; and without them he cannot be reformed and regenerated. V. By means of these two faculties man can be so far reformed and regenerated as he can be led by means of them to acknowledge that everything true and good that he thinks and does is from the Lord, and not from himself. VI. The conjunction of the Lord with man, and the reciprocal conjunction of man with the Lord, are effected by means of these two faculties. VII. The Lord preserves these two faculties in man unimpaired and as sacred in every step of His Divine Providence. VIII. Therefore it is of the Divine Providence that man should act from freedom according to reason.
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