264、理性是指理解何为真理，由此理解何为虚假，以及理解何为良善，由此理解何为邪恶的官能；自由是指自由地思考、意愿并行出这些事的官能。从前面的讨论可以看出，并且从后面的讨论进一步看出：每个人自受造、因而自出生时起就拥有这两种官能，它们来自主；它们不会从人那里被拿走；人貌似凭自己思考、说话、意愿和行动的表象就来自它们；主就住在每个人的这些官能里面，人凭这种结合活到永远；凭借这些官能，人能被改造和重生，没有它们则不能；最后，正是这些官能将人类与动物区分开来。
264. The origin of evil is in the abuse of the abilities proper to us called rationality and freedom. By rationality, I mean the ability to discern what is true and therefore what is false, and to discern what is good and therefore what is evil. By freedom, I mean the ability freely to think, intend, and do such things.
The following conclusions can be drawn from what has already been said, and will be further supported below. We all possess these two abilities from creation and therefore from birth--they are given us by the Lord. They are not taken away from us. They are the source of the appearance that we think and speak and intend and act with what seems to be autonomy. The Lord dwells in these abilities within each of us, and it is from this union that we live to eternity. We can be reformed and regenerated because of these abilities, and not apart from them; and it is by them that we are distinguished from animals.
264. The origin of evil comes from abuse of the faculties which are peculiar to mankind and are called rationality and freedom. By rationality we mean the faculty of understanding truths and thus falsities, and of understanding goods and thus evils; and by freedom we mean the faculty of thinking, willing and doing these freely.
It can be seen from preceding discussions, and it will be further seen from subsequent ones, that a person possesses these two faculties from creation and so from birth; that they come from the Lord; that they are not taken away; that they produce the appearance that a person thinks, speaks, wills and acts as though of himself; that the Lord dwells in every person in these faculties; that owing to that conjunction a person lives to eternity; that a person can be reformed and regenerated in consequence of these faculties and not apart from them; and that it is these faculties which distinguish the human being from animals.
264. THE ORIGIN OF EVIL ARISES FROM THE ABUSE OF THE CAPACITIES PROPER TO MAN, NAMELY RATIONALITY AND LIBERTY
By rationality is understood the capacity of understanding truths and thereby untruths, and goods and thereby evils; and by liberty is understood the capacity of thinking, willing and doing these freely. From what precedes it can be established, and it will be further established from what follows that every man, from creation, consequently from birth, has these two capacities, and that they are from the Lord; and that they are not taken away from him, and that from them is the appearance that man thinks, speaks, wills and acts as from himself; that the Lord dwells in these capacities with every man; and that man by virtue of that conjunction lives to eternity; that by means of these capacities, but not without them, man can be reformed and regenerated; finally, that by them man is distinguished from beasts.
264. THE ORIGIN OF EVIL IS FROM THE ABUSE OF THE CAPACITIES PROPER TO MAN, THAT ARE CALLED RATIONALITY AND FREEDOM.
By rationality is meant the capacity to understand what is true and thereby what is false, also to understand what is good and thereby what is evil; and by freedom is meant the capacity to think, will and do these things freely. From what precedes it is evident, and it will become more evident from what follows, that every man from creation, consequently from birth, has these two capacities, and that they are from the Lord; that they are not taken away from man; that from them is the appearance that man thinks, speaks, wills, and acts as from himself; that the Lord dwells in these capacities in every man, that man by virtue of that conjunction lives to eternity; that man by means of these capacities can be reformed and regenerated, but not without them; finally, that by them man is distinguished from beasts.
264. QUOD ORIGO MALI SIT EX ABUSU FACULTATUM, QUAE HOMINIS PROPRIAE SUNT, ET VOCANTUR RATIONALITAS ET LIBERTAS. Per Rationalitatem intelligitur facultas intelligendi vera et inde falsa, ac bona et inde mala; et per Libertatem intelligitur facultas illa libere cogitandi, volendi et faciendi. Ex praecedentibus constare potest, et ex sequentibus ulterius constabit, quod hae duae Facultates cuivis homini a creatione et inde a nativitate sint, et quod sint a Domino; et quod non auferantur; et quod ex illis sit apparentia, quod homo cogitet, loquatur, velit et faciat sicut ex se; et quod Dominus in illis facultatibus habitet apud unumquemvis hominem; et quod homo ex conjunctione illa vivat in aeternum; et quod homo per illas, et non absque illis, reformari et regenerari possit; tum quod homo per illas distinguatur a bestiis.