71. As is known, man is free to think and will as he wishes, but not to speak whatever he thinks or to do whatever he wills. The freedom meant here, therefore, is spiritual freedom and natural freedom only as they make one; for thinking and willing are spiritual, and speaking and acting are natural. The two are readily distinguishable in man, for he can think what he does not utter and will what he does not do; plainly, spiritual and natural are discriminated in him. He can pass from the former to the latter therefore only on a decision to do so--a decision which can be likened to a door that must first be unfastened and opened. This door, it is true, stands open, as it were, in those who think and will from reason in accord with the civil laws of the land and the moral laws of society, for they speak what they think and do what they will to do. But in those who think and will contrary to those laws, the door stands shut, as it were. One who watches his volitions and subsequent deeds knows that such a decision intervenes, sometimes more than once in a single utterance or action. This we have premised for it to be understood that by acting from freedom according to reason is meant to think and will freely _and_ thence to speak and do freely what is according to reason. 72. Since few know, however, that the law above can be a law of divine providence, principally because a man is also free then to think evil and falsity (still divine providence is continually leading him to think and will what is good and true), for clearer perception we must proceed step by step and shall do so in this order: i. The human being has reason and freedom or rationality and liberty, and has these two faculties from the Lord. ii. Whatever a man does in freedom, whether with reason or not, provided it is according to his reason, seems to him to be his. iii. Whatever a man does in freedom according to his thought, is appropriated to him as his and remains. iv. A man is reformed and regenerated by the Lord by means of the two faculties and cannot be reformed and regenerated without them. v. A man can be reformed and regenerated by means of the two faculties so far as he can be led by them to acknowledge that all truth and good which he thinks and does are from the Lord and not from himself. vi. The conjunction of the Lord with man, and man's reciprocal conjunction with the Lord, is effected by means of these two faculties. vii. In all the procedure of His divine providence the Lord safeguards the two faculties in man unimpaired and as sacred. viii. It is therefore of the divine providence that man shall act in freedom according to reason.