Rational Psychology #549

549. XL. DIVINE PROVIDENCE

No one, I think, is so insane as to deny that there is some supreme direction or Divine Providence; for all things are full of the Deity, and in each and every one of them we wonder at the order which is attributed to nature and the perpetual preservation thereof, not from itself which would be absurd, but by some higher Being from whom it existed and consequently subsists. We are confounded by the abundance of phenomena confirming a directing Providence, as, for instance, that everything appears to be for the sake of a use or end; that one end is plainly for the sake of another, so that there is a series of ends, from some first end through intermediates to the last end, that is, the first. But let us see this from example: The earth exists that it may be inhabited by living creatures; the mineral kingdom, that it may produce the vegetable; the vegetable kingdom, that it may nourish and sustain the animal; the lower species of animals, that they may serve the higher, and all that they may serve the human race; the atmospheres, that we may be surrounded therewith and be held together in body, and that we may breathe and speak; the ether with the sun, that our several parts may exist and also that we may see. But why mention other examples? There is not the least worm nor a small herb nor a blade of grass without its use, to wit, that it may serve as a means to some end. Thus the visible world is a complex of means to an end beyond the world, that is, beyond nature which is of the world; for ends make their progress by means of natural effects, and thus by means of the whole of nature. As to the fact that there is such a perpetual relation and progress of ends, to wit, that one thing is continually for the sake of another, this must be ascribed to Divine Providence, namely, that God has so provided that the several particulars shall maintain their order. ¹

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