Whether All Things Are Subject to the Divine Government?
Objection 1: It would seem that not all things are subject to the
Divine government. For it is written (Eccles. 9:11): "I saw that
under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the
strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the learned, nor favor
to the skillful, but time and chance in all." But things subject to
the Divine government are not ruled by chance. Therefore those things
which are under the sun are not subject to the Divine government.
Obj. 2: Further, the Apostle says (1 Cor. 9:9): "God hath no care
for oxen." But he that governs has care for the things he governs.
Therefore all things are not subject to the Divine government.
Obj. 3: Further, what can govern itself needs not to be governed by
another. But the rational creature can govern itself; since it is
master of its own act, and acts of itself; and is not made to act by
another, which seems proper to things which are governed. Therefore
all things are not subject to the Divine government.
_On the contrary,_ Augustine says (De Civ. Dei v, 11): "Not only
heaven and earth, not only man and angel, even the bowels of the
lowest animal, even the wing of the bird, the flower of the plant,
the leaf of the tree, hath God endowed with every fitting detail of
their nature." Therefore all things are subject to His government.
_I answer that,_ For the same reason is God the ruler of things as He
is their cause, because the same gives existence as gives perfection;
and this belongs to government. Now God is the cause not indeed only
of some particular kind of being, but of the whole universal being,
as proved above (Q. 44, AA. 1, 2). Wherefore, as there can be nothing
which is not created by God, so there can be nothing which is not
subject to His government. This can also be proved from the nature of
the end of government. For a man's government extends over all those
things which come under the end of his government. Now the end of the
Divine government is the Divine goodness; as we have shown (A. 2).
Wherefore, as there can be nothing that is not ordered to the Divine
goodness as its end, as is clear from what we have said above (Q. 44,
A. 4; Q. 65, A. 2), so it is impossible for anything to escape from
the Divine government.
Foolish therefore was the opinion of those who said that the
corruptible lower world, or individual things, or that even human
affairs, were not subject to the Divine government. These are
represented as saying, "God hath abandoned the earth" (Ezech. 9:9).
Reply Obj. 1: These things are said to be under the sun which are
generated and corrupted according to the sun's movement. In all such
things we find chance: not that everything is casual which occurs in
such things; but that in each one there is an element of chance. And
the very fact that an element of chance is found in those things
proves that they are subject to government of some kind. For unless
corruptible things were governed by a higher being, they would tend
to nothing definite, especially those which possess no kind of
knowledge. So nothing would happen unintentionally; which constitutes
the nature of chance. Wherefore to show how things happen by chance
and yet according to the ordering of a higher cause, he does not say
absolutely that he observes chance in all things, but "time and
chance," that is to say, that defects may be found in these things
according to some order of time.
Reply Obj. 2: Government implies a certain change effected by the
governor in the things governed. Now every movement is the act of a
movable thing, caused by the moving principle, as is laid down
_Phys._ iii, 3. And every act is proportionate to that of which it is
an act. Consequently, various movable things must be moved variously,
even as regards movement by one and the same mover. Thus by the one
art of the Divine governor, various things are variously governed
according to their variety. Some, according to their nature, act of
themselves, having dominion over their actions; and these are
governed by God, not only in this, that they are moved by God
Himself, Who works in them interiorly; but also in this, that they
are induced by Him to do good and to fly from evil, by precepts and
prohibitions, rewards and punishments. But irrational creatures which
do not act but are acted upon, are not thus governed by God. Hence,
when the Apostle says that "God hath no care for oxen," he does not
wholly withdraw them from the Divine government, but only as regards
the way in which rational creatures are governed.
Reply Obj. 3: The rational creature governs itself by its intellect
and will, both of which require to be governed and perfected by the
Divine intellect and will. Therefore above the government whereby
the rational creature governs itself as master of its own act, it
requires to be governed by God.
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