125 PREDESTINATION contingency, which the plan of divine provi- dence conceives to happen from contingency. Reply Obj. 3. The order of divine provi- dence is unchangeable and certain, so far as all things foreseen happen as they have been foreseen, whether from necessity or from con- tingency. Reply Obj. 3. That indissolubility and un- changeableness of which Boëthius speaks, per- tain to the certainty of providence, which fails Pt. Q.23 Art. 1 not to produce its effect, and that in the way foreseen; but they do not pertain to the neces sity of the effects. We must remember that properly speaking necessary and contingent are consequent upon being, as such. Hence the mode both of necessity and of contingency falls under the foresight of God, who provides universally for all being; not under the fore- sight of causes that provide only for some par- ticular order of things. e S Fe - S |- FOURTH ARTICLE Whether Providence Imposes Any Necessity on Things Foreseen? We proceed thus to the Fourth Article:- Objection 1. It seems that divine providence imposes necessity upon things foreseen. For every effect that has a per se cause, either present or past, which it necessarily follows, Es happens from necessity; as the Philosopher proves (Metaph. vi. 7). But the providence of God, since it is eternal, pre-exists; and the effect flows from it of necessity, for divine t providence cannot be frustrated. Therefore di- f vine providence imposes a necessity upon things foreseen. 1 Obj. 2. Further, every provider makes his work as stable as he can, lest it should fail. But God is most powerful. Therefore He as- = signs the stability of necessity to things pro- vided. Obj. 3. Further, Boëthius says (De Consol. iv. 6) Fate from the immutable source of providence binds together human acts and for- tunes by the indissoluble connection of causes. It seems therfore that providence imposes necessity upon things foreseen. On the contrary, Dionysius says that (Div. Nom. iv. 23) to corrupt nature is not the work of providence. But it is in the nature of some things to be contingent. Divine providence does not therefore impose any necessity upon things so as to destroy their contingency. I answer that, Divine providence imposes necessity upon some things; not upon all, as some formerly believed. For to providence it belongs to order things towards an end. Now after the divine goodness, which is an ex- trinsic end to all things, the principal good in things themselves is the perfection of the uni- verse; which would not be, were not all grades of being found in things. Whence it pertains to divine providence to produce every grade of being. And thus it has prepared for some things necessary causes, so that they happen of necessity; for others contingent causes, that they may happen by contingency, according to the nature of their proximate causes. Reply Obj. 1. The effect of divine provi- dence is not only that things should happen somehow; but that they should happen either by necessity or by contingency. Therefore whatsoever divine providence ordains to hap- pen infallibly and of necessity happens infal- libly and of necessity; and that happens from

Read ST I.22.4. Does providence impose necessity on things foreseen? Besides God,
what is the principle good in things? What does this mean for the providential ordering of
all things by God? Put differently, what does providence seek to accomplish in human
beings?