88. Everyone who has any thought from interior understanding can see that the power to will and to understand is not from man, but is from Him who has Power itself, that is, Power in its essence. Only consider, what is the source of power? Is it not from Him who has it in its very potency, that is, who has it in Himself and thus from Himself? Power in itself, therefore, is Divine. Every power must have an opportunity which has to be given to it, and thus there must be an act of determination from an agency more internal or higher than itself. The eye has no power to see from itself, nor the ear to hear from itself, nor the mouth to speak from itself, nor the hand to act from itself. There must be an opportunity and a consequent determination from the mind. Nor has the mind from itself the power to think and to will this or that apart from something more internal or higher which directs the mind to it. It is the same with the power to understand and the power to will, which can be given only by Him who has in Himself the power to will and the power to understand.
[2] From these considerations it is clear that these two faculties called rationality and liberty are from the Lord and not from man; and because they are from the Lord, it follows that man wills and understands nothing whatever from himself, but only as if it were from himself. That this is so anyone may convince himself who knows and believes that the willing of every good and the understanding of every truth are from the Lord and not from man. The Word teaches in John iii. 27; xv. 5, that
A man cannot receive anything from himself, and cannot do anything from himself.