Whether anything can resist the order of the Divine government?
Objection 1: It would seem possible that some resistance can be made
to the order of the Divine government. For it is written (Isa. 3:8):
"Their tongue and their devices are against the Lord."
Obj. 2: Further, a king does not justly punish those who do not rebel
against his commands. Therefore if no one rebelled against God's
commands, no one would be justly punished by God.
Obj. 3: Further, everything is subject to the order of the Divine
government. But some things oppose others. Therefore some things
rebel against the order of the Divine government.
_On the contrary,_ Boethius says (De Consol. iii): "There is nothing
that can desire or is able to resist this sovereign good. It is this
sovereign good therefore that ruleth all mightily and ordereth all
sweetly," as is said (Wis. 8) of Divine wisdom.
_I answer that,_ We may consider the order of Divine providence in
two ways: in general, inasmuch as it proceeds from the governing
cause of all; and in particular, inasmuch as it proceeds from some
particular cause which executes the order of the Divine government.
Considered in the first way, nothing can resist the order of the
Divine government. This can be proved in two ways: firstly from the
fact that the order of the Divine government is wholly directed to
good, and everything by its own operation and effort tends to good
only, "for no one acts intending evil," as Dionysius says (Div. Nom.
iv): secondly from the fact that, as we have said above (A. 1, ad 3;
A. 5, ad 2), every inclination of anything, whether natural or
voluntary, is nothing but a kind of impression from the first mover;
as the inclination of the arrow towards a fixed point is nothing but
an impulse received from the archer. Wherefore every agent, whether
natural or free, attains to its divinely appointed end, as though of
its own accord. For this reason God is said "to order all things
sweetly."
Reply Obj. 1: Some are said to think or speak, or act against
God: not that they entirely resist the order of the Divine government;
for even the sinner intends the attainment of a certain good: but
because they resist some particular good, which belongs to their
nature or state. Therefore they are justly punished by God.
Reply Obj. 2 is clear from the above.
Reply Obj. 3: From the fact that one thing opposes another, it
follows that some one thing can resist the order of a particular
cause; but not that order which depends on the universal cause of all
things.
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