The Summary of Physics Restored

181Who will deny that times are predestined for things to be born, unless he imagines the nature of the Universe to be confused and disordered? Nature brings forth everything from her bosom in a definite, appointed order, for her Author has prescribed to her the law of order and the times of production. Conception, birth, life and death have their own times and fulfil fixed spans. Whatever came into the light or was taken out of it in this year or another had been ordained to do so. Nature, God’s deputy in the kingdom of the Universe, foreknew these things at the prompting of the divine Spirit, so that she might bring them about through her ministry. They do not happen by chance, but have a necessary cause, though hidden from us. Yet the supreme Governor of things is not subject to the law of necessity: he establishes it and changes everything at his will. He decrees concerning all things, even the smallest, and none of his decrees is disordered or uncertain. Thus the order that runs through the series and succession of things and times has its law of necessity from divine decrees.