The Government of the World

a) Meaning of World Government

We have seen that God, in creating and preserving the world, has an end in view, a purpose to be attained. Being supremely wise, God cannot act without such an end. Hence, things created are directed toward the attainment of their end, God, creating all things for an end, must eternally decree the manner in which creatures shall attain unto that end.

In other words, God must have established a plan of government by which creatures are directed toward the attainment of their end. Creatures, then, are governed unto the achievement of their end. But we have two kinds of creatures in the world, viz., the free, and those destitute of freedom. Man has free choice; other worldly creatures have not. Hence the eternal decrees by which God governs the world must be suited to the natures that he has made. The creatures that have no freedom will be governed by necessity, that is, without choice, or possibility of refusal of obedience. Thus minerals, plants, and brute animals are governed by physical laws. Man, who has free choice, has understanding by which he is aware of an order in things that he is called upon to observe and forbidden to disturb; but man is not necessitated; in his free acts he is guided by suasion, but is not forced. Man as a body is subject to physical laws, like the law of gravitation and the law of inertia; as an animal, he is subject to the physical laws of nutrition, growth, etc.; but as a rational free creature, he is subject to the moral law as recognized by reason (conscience), and this law is called the natural law. Thus, creatures are governed by physical laws and by the natural law. Man alone, among worldly creatures, is subject to the natural law. The natural law is a moral law; it is not a physical law; it does not enforce obedience, but invites it and shows it reasonable and right. Can man, then, refuse to obey the natural law ? Certainly he can. Does man, by such disobedience, thwart the plans of God and render the end of creation unattainable? No, for the end of creation will infallibly be attained. We have seen that this end is the external glory of God; and if man does not show forth this glory in Heaven, he will manifest it by showing the divine justice in hell. But man may indeed fail to attain his end inasmuch as it affects himself. God wants man to attain to eternal happiness in the possession of Himself; and man, if he is to attain this end, must freely choose to attain it. Now man is prone to evil, to sin, and, unless God had prepared special helps for him, he would surely fail to attain his last end. But the all-perfect Creator and Preserver of the world is also its allperfect Governor; and God has provided for all contingencies, and has arranged from eternity all requisite helps and graces that will enable man to choose well and choose effectively in the attainment of his last end. And the whole government of the world by physical laws, by the natural law, and by the law of special helps (or law of grace) belongs to what we call the Providence of God. God governs the world. The fact of physical law and the natural law manifests this truth to us. We may say that God’s government of the world is the expression of His providence.

b) The Fact of Divine Government

In proving the existence of God we used the Argument from Design and directed attention to the marvellous order observable in the world. Now, order is neither more nor less than a suitable arrangement of means for the attainment of a foreseen and intended end. Thus order is inevitably the expression of plan and purpose. In a word, order in the world is the physical expression of the world’s government according to the providence of God. If we deny the existence of Divine Providence (and its expression in the government of the world) we must make this denial for one of three reasons, viz., (1) God does not know how to rule the world to the extent of providing for the fulfilment of His end even in smallest details, acts, movements, events; or (2) God does not have the power so to rule the world; or (3) God has no care, no concern about the world, and it is a matter of indifference to Him whether the world attains or fails to attain its end. These reasons are not admissible. The first makes God imperfect in point of knowledge; the second, in point of power; the third, in point of wisdom. But, as we have seen, God is all-knowing, all-powerful, all-wise, as He is infinitely perfect. Therefore, once the fact of God’s infinite perfection is admitted, the fact of His providence must also be acknowledged. Those who deny Divine Providence are, above others, Materialists, Pantheists, Fatalists, Deists,

Casualists. Pantheists and Materialists are forced by their strange doctrine on the production of the world to deny providence in the world; but we have seen that this doctrine is false and absurd. Fatalists assert that some blind cosmic force is at the back of things and causes all acts and events to occur precisely as they do occur; but this doctrine contradicts common sense and experience, involves the denial of free-will, and denies the Divine Intelligence and Will, making them a blind and meaningless force. Deists say that God has made the world, but has ceased to care for it, and has tossed it aside as a child tosses a toy of which it has grown tired; but this doctrine contradicts preservation, which we have seen to be a fact (Chap. Ill, Art. 2), and denies the Divine Wisdom, for certainly it would be unwise in the Creator to make the world for an end, and then to care nothing whether that end were attained. Casualists teach that the acts and events of the world are the outcome of sheer chance (Latin casus, “chance”) ; but we have seen the futility of the chance theory (Chap. I, Art. 3, a). We perceive, then, that the doctrines opposed to the facts of Divine Providence are unworthy of attention, and are flatly inadmissible. The most notable reason urged against the fact of Divine Providence is the existence of physical and moral evil in the world. We have considered this difficulty in another place (Chap. I, Art. 3, c), but there is need for direct and particular study of the matter here. 1. Physical Evil,—Physical evil is that which affects the nature or activities of things. Common examples of such evil are: sickness, death, pain, lameness, wounds, deformities, debility, poverty, plagues, famine, results of wars, etc. Physical evil is alleged as an argument against Divine Providence by those who say: “How can an all-good and all-powerful God permit His children to be afflicted by such hardships, such woes, such miseries?” We answer: There would be value in the complaint if: (1) God’s end in creation were thwarted by the existence of physical evil, or (ii) the existence of physical evil conflicted with the perfection of God. But neither condition is verified. For: (1) Physical evils do not thwart the end of creation. The end of creation is the glory of God and the eternal happiness of men. Now, physical evils are often a help to man, and not a hindrance, in the task of working out his salvation. Sickness, poverty, pain, and other physical ills have often turned the minds of men away from the pursuit of fleeting things and fixed their purpose upon eternal verities and values. These ills or evils are an evidence to man that he is not as God made him, but is of a race that has suffered a loss and has been injured by a Fall. And, while physical evils may be justly regarded as punishments for sin, as deprivations effected by the primal sin of humanity, they may also be regarded, with greater justice, as mercies and kindnesses. Do we not need continual prods to remind us that we have not our be-all and end-all in health or wealth or worldly success or fame or a career? Is it not a merciful dispensation that tends to make us see life as it is, against the light and the background of eternity? Is it not a kindness that makes us see, in however much tribulation and sorrow, that this world is not our final home, but our workshop; not our field of victory, but our field of battle? Besides, life is not all misery; life is not a continuous scourge of physical evil. Indeed, life presents so much that is attractive and joy-giving that men are strongly inclined to live it for these things, and, without physical evils to afflict them, they would inevitably run into excess and inordinateness, and so fail of attaining their last end. When we come to the question of just why such and such evils afflict such and such men, we cannot, of course, make answer. The thing is a mystery. We must simply trust God, who gives us a thousand evidences of His love and care for one evil that He allows to afflict us. We must know, from the thousand evident expressions of care, that there is reason for the affliction, or it simply would not be. And what is our own love toward God worth—protest it how we may—if it cannot endure obscurity in the inscrutable designs of providence, and if it cannot bear the occasional evils that come to us, and evils of which God is not the author?—Some men complain of injustice when they are made to suffer evils, especially when they feel that they suffer more than other men. This complaint is simply insanity. None of us has a claim in justice to life; God is not bound to give us anything. And the gifts He does give us, life and reason and free-will, are so great and wonderful that we are fools indeed to complain of any conditions under which they are received or held. To complain that we are not treated fairly in life, is to make a complaint as silly as that of the man who received a wholly unmerited gift of one million dollars, and then complained because one of the bills was a little soiled. Chesterton {Orthodoxy, pp. ioi f.) says: “If the miller’s third son said to the fairy, ‘Explain why I must not stand on my head in the fairy palace,’ the other might fairly reply, ‘Well, if it comes to that, explain the fairy palace.’ If Cinderella says, ‘How is it that I must leave the ball at twelve?’ her godmother might answer, ‘How is it that you are going there till twelve ?’ ” So when weak human beings complain, “How is it that I must suffer these ills in my life?” we may reasonably answer, “How is it that you enjoy this glorious life?” If the weakling whines, “Explain why I am made to live in misery,” we may fairly answer, “Explain why you are allowed to live at all.” If life were only for this world and for time, then physical evils would be unmixed hardships; but since life is what it is, a brief but glorious opportunity for untold glory and unending happiness, then evils which make us, or tend to make us, realize life’s purpose are not unmixed hardships, but kindnesses and blessings. And it is God and God’s providence that turns physical evils to man’s account and makes them blessings in disguise; for God is not the author of such evils ; they come from creatures, and all of them have their roots in that first bad choice of free man that wrecked the world. Hence, far from being an argument against providence, physical evils are actually an evidence of God’s loving providence for His creatures. (ii) Physical evils are not an evidence of imperfection in God. We have already seen the proof of this in our discussion of the first point. Physical evils are not of God’s authorship, and they are turned by God to man’s account. In this we have evidence of God’s perfection, not of imperfection. As a sick man is sometimes made to take bitter medicine or undergo a painful operation to save his life, and these hardships are no evidence of unwisdom in the physician or surgeon, but proofs of the doctor’s skill, so the physical ills which may make man, sick and wounded by original sin, sound and strong in spiritual health, are no evidence of unwisdom in the Divine Physician, but evidence of His wondrous skill. As a wise and devoted father may allow his beloved son to feel the consequences of an act of folly, in order that wisACTION OF GOD UPON WORLD dom may come through bitter experience, so the most wise and loving Father of men may allow His children to suffer physical evil (although He is not the cause or author of such evil), in order that they may learn to withdraw their hopes and their trust from things of time and to fix them upon eternal values. We are forced by reason to the conclusion that the existence of physical evils is no argument against Divine Perfection, but, on the contrary, is a proof of such perfection. 2. Moral Evil.—Moral evil is sin, and man is its author. Sin comes from the abuse of free-will, that great gift which God gave and will not take away. God is in no sense the cause of sin. God made man free, and if He should take away freedom, He would destroy human nature. God will not contradict Himself by taking away what He gave, even if the gift be abused. The existence of moral evil does not conflict with the wisdom of God. Nay, as in the case of physical evil, the fact of moral evil is the occasion for the manifestation of God’s wisdom, power, and providence. For God often draws good out of moral evil. Consider: the persecutors of the early Christians committed horrible sins; these sins were not of God’s willing, but were against His will. Abuse of freedom in man caused these sins. Yet out of them God drew the glorious fortitude of the martyrs. Again: Judas committed a crime unspeakable and terrible in the sight of God; but was not a world redeemed in consequence ? God never wills moral evil—the thought is itself a blasphemy, for sin is sin precisely because it is in conflict with the Eternal Reason and Will of God. But God permits moral evil because He does not thwart free-will. God, hating sin as only infinite perfection can hate it, yet shows His marvellous power and providence by turning the very fact of sin to man’s account. Thus, far from being an argument against Providence, the fact of moral evil, and the turning of its outcome to man’s account, is an evidence of an all-wise Providence.

Summary of the Article

In this Article we have studied the fact of the government of the world. We have seen in the existence of this government the expression of God’s providence, which guides all things toward the ultimate end of creation. We have studied the fact of providence directly, supplying a negative argument by showing the futility and inadequacy of doctrines opposed to it. We have rounded out our proof by considering the unreasonableness of the complaint made against providence on the score of the existence of physical and moral evil.

This Book takes up the first truth implied in the Existence of God, proved in Book First, viz., the existence of a relation, a bond, between God and man, a bond that is rightlyrecognized by man in the practice of the true religion. In this Book the nature of religion is studied, and the need of a supernatural revelation for the true and sufficient religion is indicated. The Book is divided into two Chapters, as follows: Chapter I. The Nature of Religion Chapter II. The Need of Revelation in Religion

God exists. He is the Creator, Preserver, and Ruler of all creatures. The chief of worldly creatures is man. Man has understanding and free-will, and these splendid faculties find their highest and noblest use in knowing, loving, and serving God. In such function of intellect and will man exercises the virtue of religion. This Chapter deals with the nature of religion, defining it, describing it as a thing required by rational man, and as a thing found among all men of all times. The Chapter also refutes false notions that have been advanced to explain the origin of religion among men. All these matters are dealt with in the following Articles: Article I. The Meaning of Religion