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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.
Objection 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.
Objection 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 (Question 44, Articles 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 (Article 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 (Question 44, Article 4;
Question 65, Article 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 to Objection 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 to Objection 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 to Objection 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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