Whether Anything Can Happen Outside the Order of the Divine
Government?
Objection 1: It would seem possible that something may occur outside
the order of the Divine government. For Boethius says (De Consol.
iii) that "God disposes all for good." Therefore, if nothing happens
outside the order of the Divine government, it would follow that no
evil exists.
Obj. 2: Further, nothing that is in accordance with the
pre-ordination of a ruler occurs by chance. Therefore, if nothing
occurs outside the order of the Divine government, it follows that
there is nothing fortuitous and casual.
Obj. 3: Further, the order of Divine Providence is certain and
unchangeable; because it is in accordance with the eternal design.
Therefore, if nothing happens outside the order of the Divine
government, it follows that all things happen by necessity, and
nothing is contingent; which is false. Therefore it is possible for
something to occur outside the order of the Divine government.
_On the contrary,_ It is written (Esther 13:9): "O Lord, Lord,
almighty King, all things are in Thy power, and there is none that
can resist Thy will."
_I answer that,_ It is possible for an effect to result outside the
order of some particular cause; but not outside the order of the
universal cause. The reason of this is that no effect results outside
the order of a particular cause, except through some other impeding
cause; which other cause must itself be reduced to the first
universal cause; as indigestion may occur outside the order of the
nutritive power by some such impediment as the coarseness of the
food, which again is to be ascribed to some other cause, and so on
till we come to the first universal cause. Therefore as God is the
first universal cause, not of one genus only, but of all being in
general, it is impossible for anything to occur outside the order of
the Divine government; but from the very fact that from one point of
view something seems to evade the order of Divine providence
considered in regard to one particular cause, it must necessarily
come back to that order as regards some other cause.
Reply Obj. 1: There is nothing wholly evil in the world, for evil is
ever founded on good, as shown above (Q. 48, A. 3). Therefore
something is said to be evil through its escaping from the order of
some particular good. If it wholly escaped from the order of the
Divine government, it would wholly cease to exist.
Reply Obj. 2: Things are said to be fortuitous as regards some
particular cause from the order of which they escape. But as to the
order of Divine providence, "nothing in the world happens by chance,"
as Augustine declares (QQ. 83, qu. 24).
Reply Obj. 3: Certain effects are said to be contingent as compared
to their proximate causes, which may fail in their effects; and not
as though anything could happen entirely outside the order of Divine
government. The very fact that something occurs outside the order of
some proximate cause, is owing to some other cause, itself subject to
the Divine government.
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