rms of the body were
constant. Must not a house be steady for a variety of things to be done
in it by a person? So must a temple be for the various acts of worship,
preaching, instruction and devout meditation to be possible in it. So in
much else.

[3] As for the varieties found in the constant, fixed and certain, they
go on to infinity and have no end; no one thing in the whole universe or
in any part of it is ever precisely the same as another, nor can be in
the progress of things to eternity. Who disposes these varieties which
proceed to infinity and eternity so that they have order unless it is He
who created what is constant to the end that they may exist in it? And
who can dispose the infinite varieties of life among men but He who is
life itself, that is, love itself and wisdom itself? Except by His divine
providence, which is like a continual creation, can the infinite
affections of men and their thoughts thence and thus the men themselves
be disposed so as to make one? Evil affections and the thoughts from them
to make one devil which is hell, and good affections and the thoughts
from them one Lord in heaven? We have said and shown several times before
that the whole angelic heaven is like one man in the Lord's sight, an
image and likeness of Him, and all hell over against it like one
monstrous man. This has been said because some natural men seize on
arguments for their madness in favor of nature and of one's own prudence
from even the constant and fixed which must exist for the variable to
exist in it.

X. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS ONE'S OWN PRUDENCE; THERE ONLY APPEARS TO BE
AND IT SHOULD SO APPEAR; BUT DIVINE PROVIDENCE IS UNIVERSAL BY BEING IN
THE LEAST THINGS

191. That there is no such thing as one's own prudence is contrary to
appearances and therefore to the belief of many. Because it is, one who
believes, on the strength of the appearance, that human prudence does all
things, cannot be convinced except by reasons to be had from a more
profound investigation and to be gathered from causes. The appearance is
an effect, and causes disclose how it arises. By way of introduction
something will be said about the common faith on the subject. Contrary to
the appearance the church teaches that love and faith are not from man
but from God, so also wisdom and intelligence, therefore prudence also,
and in general all good and truth. When this teaching is accepted, one
must also agree that there is no such thi