To think and conclude from what is interior or prior is to do so from ends and causes to effects; but to think and conclude from what is exterior or subsequent is to do so from effects to causes and ends. The latter procedure is contrary to order, the former according to order.
For to think and conclude from ends and causes is to do so from goods and truths, seen clearly in the higher region of the mind, to effects in the lower. Such is human rationality by creation.
To think and conclude from effects is to conjecture causes and ends from the lower region of the mind, where are the sensuous things of the body with their appearances and fallacies. This in itself is nothing else than to confirm falsities and lusts, and after their confirmation to see and believe them to be verities of wisdom and goodnesses of the love of wisdom.