71. It Is a Law of Divine Providence That We Should Act in Freedom and in Accord with Reason

It is generally recognized that we have a freedom to think and intend whatever we wish but not a freedom to say whatever we think or to do whatever we wish. The freedom under discussion here, then, is freedom on the spiritual level and not freedom on the earthly level, except to the extent that the two coincide. Thinking and intending are spiritual, while speaking and acting are earthly.

There is a clear distinction between these kinds of freedom in us, since we can think things that we do not express and intend things that we do not act out; so we can see that the spiritual and the earthly in us are differentiated. As a result, we cannot cross the line from one to the other except by making a decision, a decision that can be compared to a door that has first to be unlocked and opened.

This door stands open, though, in people who think and intend rationally, in accord with the civil laws of the state and the moral laws of society. People like this say what they think and do what they wish. In contrast, the door is closed, so to speak, for people who think and intend things that are contrary to those laws. If we pay close attention to our intentions and the deeds they prompt, we will notice that there is this kind of decision between them, sometimes several times in a single conversation or a single undertaking.

I mention this at the outset so that the reader may know that "acting from freedom and in accord with reason" means thinking and intending freely, and then freely saying and doing what is in accord with reason.

14. Being and expression in the human God are, in a distinct combination, one. Wherever there is being, there is also expression. One is not possible without the other. For being exists through expression, and not apart from it.

This concept reason comprehends when it considers whether there can be any being that does not have expression, or any expression that is not one of being. And because one exists together with the other and not apart from the other, it follows that they are one, but one in a distinct combination.

They are one in a distinct combination like love and wisdom. Love, too, is being, and wisdom its expression, for love does not exist except in a state of wisdom, and wisdom does not exist except as a result of love. Consequently, when love is in a state of wisdom, then it has expression. These two are one in a relationship so formed that they can indeed be distinguished in thought, but not in fact. And because they can be distinguished in thought and not in fact, therefore we say that they are in a distinct combination one.

Being and expression in the human God are also in a distinct combination one like soul and body. A soul does not exist apart from its body, nor a body apart from its soul. The Divine soul of the human God is what we mean by the Divine being, and His Divine body is what we mean by its Divine expression.

To believe that a soul can exist and can think and be wise apart from a body is an error arising from misconceptions; for every person's soul exists in a spiritual body after it has cast off the material integuments which enveloped it in the world.