70. THERE ARE LAWS OF THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE, AND THESE ARE UNKNOWN TO MEN It is well known that there is a Divine Providence, but it is not known what its nature is. This is not known because the laws of the Divine Providence are interior truths, hitherto concealed within the wisdom of the angels; but they are now to be revealed in order that what belongs to the Lord may be ascribed to Him, and what does not belong to man may not be ascribed to any man. For very many in the world attribute all things to themselves and their own prudence; and what they cannot so ascribe they call accidental or happening by chance, not knowing that human prudence is nothing and that accidental and happening by chance are empty words. [2] It is said that the laws of the Divine Providence are interior truths, hitherto concealed within the wisdom of the angels. This is because in the Christian world, as far as religion is concerned (ex religione), the understanding has been closed in respect to Divine things, and consequently has become in such things so dull and resisting that man has not been able because he has not been willing, or has not been willing because he has not been able, to understand anything about the Divine Providence except the fact that it exists, and to reason whether it exists or not, and also whether it is only universal or also particular. When, so far as religion is concerned, the understanding has been closed in respect to Divine things, it could advance no further. [3] Since it has been acknowledged in the Church that man is unable from himself to do good that is in itself good, and is unable from himself to think truth that is in itself truth, and since these are one with the Divine Providence so that belief in one depends on belief in the other, therefore, lest one be affirmed and the other be denied and thus both perish, it must be explicitly revealed what the Divine Providence is. This, however, cannot be revealed unless the laws are disclosed by which the Lord provides and rules the things of man's will and understanding; for these laws enable man to know the nature of the Divine Providence; and only he who knows its nature can acknowledge it, for in this case he sees it. For this reason the laws of the Divine Providence, hitherto concealed within the wisdom of the angels, are now revealed.