vine providence, as was said, constantly travels in a different
direction from that of man's will and against his will, always intent on
its objective. At each moment of its activity or at each step in its
progress, as it perceives man straying from that end, it directs, turns
and disposes him according to its laws, leading him away from evil and to
good. It will be seen in what follows that this cannot be done without
the tolerance of evil. Furthermore, nothing can be permitted for no
cause, and the cause can only be in some law of divine providence,
explaining why it is permitted.

235. One who does not acknowledge divine providence at all does not
acknowledge God at heart, but nature instead of God, and human prudence
instead of divine providence. This does not appear to be so because man
can think and speak in two ways. He can think and speak in one way from
his inner self and in another from his outer self. This capability is
like a hinge that lets a door swing either way, in one direction as one
enters, in the other as one leaves; or like a sail which can take a ship
one way or the other as the skipper spreads it. Those who have confirmed
themselves in favor of human prudence to the denial of divine providence
see nothing else as long as they are in this way of thinking, no matter
what they see, hear or read, nor can they, for they accept nothing from
heaven but only from themselves. As they draw their conclusions from
appearances and fallacies alone and see nothing else, they can swear that
prudence is all. If they also recognize nature only, they become enraged
at defenders of divine providence, except that they think when these are
priests they are simply pursuing their teaching and office.

236. We will enumerate now some things that are tolerated and yet are in
accord with laws of divine providence, by which, however, the merely
natural man confirms himself in favor of nature and against God and in
favor of human prudence and against divine providence. For instance he
reads in the Word that:

1. Adam, wisest of men, and his wife allowed themselves to be led astray
by the serpent, and God did not avert this in His divine providence.
2. Their first son, Cain, killed his brother Abel, and God did not speak
to him and dissuade him but only afterwards cursed him.
3. The Israelites worshiped a golden calf in the wilderness and
acknowledged it as the god that had brought them out of Egypt, yet
Jehovah saw this fro