Volume I, Treatise VIII, Chapter II

In Which the Second Truth or Principle Is More Particularly

Ir is a truth so firmly supported by the authority of Holy Scripture, that all misfortunes and sufferings come from the hands of God, that it would not be necessary to stop any longer to prove it, if the devil, by his vain subtilties, did not endeavour to obscure it, and render it doubtful. For, from that other truth I before proposed, that God is neither the cause nor author of sin, he endeavours to draw a false conclusion, making some believe that, though the evils which happen by natural causes, or from irrational creatures, as sickness, hunger, thirst, heat, and cold, come from the hand of God, because the causes from which they proceed are incapable of sin; yet, the evils which happen by means of man, as, to be robbed, to be wounded, to be dishonoured, come not from God’s hand, nor are directed by the order of his providence, but proceed only from the malice and sinful will of man. We cannot hold this opinion without falling into a dangerous error; and St. Dorotheus discourses very well upon this subject, whilst he reprehends those who receive all things as not coming from the hands of God. ‘“When we have anything said against us,” says he, ‘“we imitate dogs, who, when a stone is thrown at them, run to bite it, and take no notice of him that threw it; so we take no notice of God who sends us these mortifications for the expiating our sins, but run after the stone, and make an attack upon our neighbour, endeavouring to revenge ourselves upon him.” (Doct. vii.)

To destroy entirely this error, and solidly establish the contrary truth, divines take notice, that in every sin we commit, there are two things that occur to it. The, one is, the motion or exterior act; the other is the irregularity of the will, whereby we trangress what the commandments of God prescribe. God is the cause and author of the first;—man only is the cause and author of the second. Let us put the case, for example, that a man fights against another and kills him. To kill him be must have a sword in his hand, he must lift up and stretch out his arm, and make a thrust, and perform several other natural motions, which may be considered in themselves, and are quite distinct from that irregular will which caused him to kill the man. God is the cause of the motions considered in the first place; and it is he who properly produces them, as he produces all other effects that proceed from irrational creatures. For, as they cannot move themselves or act without God; so neither can man without his help be able to move his arms, or put his hand to his sword. Moreover, these kinds of natural motions or actions have nothing in them that is bad; because if a man should make use of them, either for his own defence, or in a just war, or as a minister of justice should kill another, it is certain he would not commit any sin at all. But as to what makes the action sinful, that is to say, as to the irregularity of the will that moves or determines him to commit a murder, and puts the mind out of the right way,of reason, though this be what God permits by a secret judgment of his providence, because when he might he does not hinder it, yet for all this we may say with truth, that he is not the cause of it. The truth of this is explained by the following comparison:—One has received a hurt in his foot which makes him lame. What causes him to walk is the faculty and power he has to move himself; but what causes him to halt is his hurt in his foot. It is the same in every vicious or sinful action. The cause of the action is God; but the cause of the sin mixed with the action, proceeds from the free will of man.

So that God neither is nor can be the cause or author of sin. But as to other evils, whether they proceed from natural causes, and irrational creatures, or whether they come from men, or from what other source soever they spring, or after whatsoever manner they happen, we must hold for certain that they proceed from the hand of God, and happen to us by his divine Providence. It is God that moved the hand of him that struck you—it is God that gave motion to his tongue who gave you injurious language. “And there is no evil in a city,” says the Prophet Amos, “which our Lord has not done.” (Amos 3:1) Which truth the holy Scripture frequently takes notice of, often attributing to man the evil which one man does to another, and says, that it is God himself that has done it.

In the second book of Kings, God, speaking of the chastisement wherewith he resolved to punish the crimes of David, makes himself the author of all those evils which were to happen by the means of his son Absalom. “It shall be,” says he, “from your own family, that I will raise up evil upon you. I will take away your wives before your face, and will deliver them up to your neighbours. You have sinned in private, but I will accomplish what I have said in the presence of all the people of Israel, and in the sight of the sun.” (2 Kings 12) It is for this reason, and upon this very account, that impious kings who exercise most unheard-of cruelties on the people of God, are termed in holy Scripture the instruments of the divine justice. ‘“Woe be to Assur, the instrument of my fury” (Isaias 10:5), says our Lord by the Prophet Isaias. And speaking of Cyrus, whom he intended to make use of in punishing the Chaldeans, he says, “that he conducted him by the hand to subdue all nations before him.” (Isa. xlv. 1.) St. Austin treating this matter says; that “their impiety and wickedness was, as it were, an axe in the hand of God. They were the instruments of God moved to indignation, but were not any share of the kingdont of God appeased and mitigated. For God does, in things of this nature, as a man ordinarily does. A father being angry with his child, lays hold of the first twig he finds, gives him some strokes, and then casting the twig in the fire, he designs for this his child the inheritance that belongs to him. Just so does God make use sometimes of wicked people for the chastisement and correction of the good.” (Sup. (Psalms 73))

We read in ecclesiastical history, how, after the taking of Jerusalem, Titus making a tour about the walls of the city, and seeing the ditches filled with the carcasses of the slain, whose stench infected the whole country, lifted up his hands to heaven, calling God for his witness, that it was not he himself who was the cause of that bloody massacre and woeful desolation. The same history affirms also that Alaricus, King of the Goths, marching with an innumerable army to sack Rome; and meeting with a certain holy person, who conjured him not to be the cause of those so great calamities and miseries which would ensue: It is not my own inclination, said he, which carries me on in this enterprise, but I find myself pushed on and forced to it by @ certain spirit, or ghost, that haunts and torments me, and even compels me day and night, by a constant repetition of these words, “Go, and destroy Rome.” So that hereby we may see — all things come from the hand of God, and are sent us by his holy will and appointment. Wherefore, when Semei cursed and reviled King David, and flung stones at him; David hindering those who were resolute in taking revenge upon the wretch for this affront, made answer, “Our Lord has ordered him to curse David; and who is he that dares dispute or ask, why it is our Lord’s pleasure to have done so?” (2 Kings 16:10) That is, our Lord has chosen him as an instrument whereby to chastise me..

But we must not look upon it so surprising a thing, that men are made the instruments of God’s justice and providence, since even the devils themselves, who are obdurate in their malice, and so ardently desirous of our ruin and destruction, are also here upon earth sometimes made the instruments and ministers of the same providence and justice. St. Gregory upon these words of the first book of Kings, ‘the evil spirit of our Lord seized upon Saul” (1 Kings 16:23), takes notice, that the same spirit is called the spirit of our Lord, and an evil spirit. Evil, by reason of its bad intent; and of the Lord, to shew that God made use of it to punish Saul. This the holy text declares more openly in the same place, when it says, “that the evil spirit was sent by our Lord to torment Saul.” (1 Kings 16:14) It is for the same reason, says this great saint, that the devils who afflict and persecute the just, are styled in Holy Writ, the thieves of God. They are called thieves, to denote the desire they have of doing us an injury; and of God, to let us understand that they receive from him the power of hurting us, St. Austin makes a very just observation upon this point: Job, as he takes notice, did not say, “the Lord gave, and the devil took away;” but knowing for certain the devil could do him no harm, but only what God permitted him, he refers all equally to God, and says, ‘‘the Lord gave, and the Lord took away.” (Job 1:21) So that, continues the same saint, refer all your grievances and afflictions to God; for the devil can do nothing to you, without the permission of him who has his power from above. They could not enter into the swine of the Gerasenians without first asking leave of Jesus Christ. How then can they afflict, how can they tempt you without this same license and permission? They who without this could not touch the swine, how should they touch the children or hurt them?

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