The operation of Divine providence takes place unceasingly,
through means, out of pure mercy.
Divine providence has its means and methods.
Its means are the instruments by which a person becomes human
and is perfected in intellect and in will.
Its methods are the ways these goals are accomplished.
The means by which a person becomes human and is perfected in intellect
are in common parlance called truths,
which in thought become ideas,
and in the memory are called facts,
and which in themselves are
the concepts on which the various branches of knowledge are founded.
All of these means regarded in themselves are spiritual.
But because they exist in natural embodiments,
owing to their investiture or clothing they appear to be natural,
and some of them material.
DP 336
The methods, on the other hand,
by which Divine providence operates upon the means
and through the means to form the person and perfect him,
are also infinite in number and infinite in their variety,
being as many as the operations of Divine wisdom out of Divine love
to save mankind.
Thus they are as many as the operations of Divine providence
in accordance with its laws . . ..
That these methods are most secret
is something we illustrated by the operations of the soul in the body,
of which a person knows so little as to know scarcely anything . . ..
that still less is it possible
to penetrate into the secret operations of Divine providence.
It is enough to know its laws.
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