as one wills. The
two faculties are constant and are present from first to last in each and
all things which a man thinks and does. He has them not from himself, but
from the Lord. It follows that the Lord's presence in these faculties is
also in the least things, indeed the very least, of man's understanding
and thought, of his will and affection too, and thence of his speech and
action. If you remove these faculties from even the very least thing, you
will not be able to think or utter it as a human being.

[2] It has already been shown abundantly that the human being is a human
being by virtue of the two faculties, enabled by them to think and speak,
and to perceive goods and understand truths, not only such as are civil
and moral but also such as are spiritual, and made capable, too, of being
reformed and regenerated; in a word, made capable of being conjoined to
the Lord and thereby of living forever. It was also shown that not only
good men but evil also possess the two faculties. These faculties are in
man from the Lord and are not appropriated to him as his, for what is
divine cannot be appropriated but only adjoined to him and thus appear to
be his, and this which is divine with the human being is in the least
things pertaining to him. It follows that the Lord governs the least
things in an evil man as well as in a good man. This government of His is
what is called divine providence.

286. Inasmuch as it is a law of divine providence that man shall act from
freedom according to reason, that is, from the two faculties, liberty and
rationality; and a law of divine providence that what he does shall
appear to be from himself and thus his own; and also a law that evils
must be permitted in order that man may be led out of them, it follows
that man can abuse these faculties and in freedom according to reason
confirm whatever he pleases. He can make reasonable whatever he will,
whether it is reasonable in itself or not. Some therefore ask, "What is
truth? Can I not make true whatever I will?" Does not the world do so?
Anybody can do it by reasoning. Take an utter falsity and bid a clever
man confirm it, and he will. Tell him, for instance, to show that man is
a beast, or that the soul is like a small spider in its web and governs
the body as that does by threads, or tell him that religion is nothing
but a restraining bond, and he will prove any one of these propositions
until it appears to be truth. What is more easi