God's Governing of Things

We observe an unfailing order in the world. Order involves an orderer, a governor. In an earlier part of our study we saw that things in the world have existence and direction to their end or purpose by the divine goodness. Therefore, divine goodness governs the world.

The universe is not an end unto itself. It is contingent being, not necessary being; it has being or goodness by participation. Hence it comes from a cause other than itself, and is directed to an end other than itself. It is directed or governed by the necessary being, the necessary goodness, the divine goodness. That is, the universe is made to express and manifest the divine goodness.

Ultimately, the world has one governor, not many governors. The harmony of the universe manifests this fact. Besides, there is only one divine goodness.

The effects of government in the world may be variously considered. In so far as all creatures are to manifest the divine goodness, the effect of government is one. In so far as creatures are divinely governed so as to be good and to do good, the effect of government is twofold. In so far as the effects of government are discerned in a vast multitude of individual creatures, the effect of government is manifold.

All things are subject to the divine government, since this is the divine goodness of God himself. The divine goodness is both the first effecting cause and the ultimate final cause (or ultimate goal) of everything. No positive being can exist without the divine goodness, and therefore everything, in particular and in singular as well as in general, is governed by the same divine goodness.

God alone designs the government of the universe, and this is his providence. The design is carried into execution or actual governing operation through use of secondary causes (creatures) as media or means of governing.

Since God is the first and universal cause, nothing in the universe can lie outside the order of his government. When something seems to evade divine government, the very cause of the seeming evasion will be found in the divine government itself. As we saw in our study of divine providence, nothing whatever is outside the divine rule.

Nothing can resist the general order of divine government. Even a sinner in his act of sin aims at apparent good; it is good that the sinner is after, although he perversely seeks it in the wrong place. Sin is against God’s law and will, but it cannot upset the general order of divine government. And, out of evil God draws good, “ordering all things pleasingly,” as he “moves from end to end mightily.”