320. IV. IF MAN BELIEVED, AS IS THE TRUTH, THAT ALL GOOD AND TRUTH ORIGINATE FROM THE LORD, AND ALL EVIL AND FALSITY FROM HELL, HE WOULD NOT APPROPRIATE GOOD TO HIMSELF AND ACCOUNT IT MERITORIOUS, NOR WOULD HE APPROPRIATE EVIL TO HIMSELF AND ACCOUNT HIMSELF RESPONSIBLE FOR IT. As this, however, is contrary to the belief of those who have confirmed in themselves the appearance that wisdom and prudence originate from man, and do not flow in according to the state of the organisation of men's minds, treated of above (n. 319), it must now be demonstrated; and in order that this may be done clearly, the following order will be observed:
1. He who confirms in himself the appearance that wisdom and prudence originate from man and consequently are in him as his own, must needs see that if this were not so he would not be a man, but either a beast or a statue; when yet the contrary is true. 2. To believe and think, as is the truth, that all good and truth originate from the Lord and all evil and falsity from hell, appears as if it were impossible, when yet it is truly human and consequently angelic. 3. To believe and think thus is impossible to those who do not acknowledge the Divinity of the Lord, and who do not acknowledge evils to be sins; but it is possible to those who acknowledge these two things. 4. Those who are in the acknowledgment of these two things reflect only upon the evils in themselves and, so far as they shun them as sins and turn away from them, they cast them out from themselves to the hell from which they come. 5. In this way the Divine Providence does not appropriate either evil or good to anyone, but one's own prudence appropriates both.
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