Of God and His Creatures
That Divine Providence is not inconsistent with Fortune and
Chance*
THE multitude and diversity of causes proceeds from the order of divine
providence and arrangement. Supposing an arrangement of many causes,
one must sometimes combine with another, so as either to hinder or help
it in producing its effect. A chance event arises from a coincidence of
two or more causes, in that an end not intended is gained by the coming
in of some collateral cause, as the finding of a debtor by him who went
to market to make a purchase, when his debtor also came to market.*
Hence it is said: I saw that the race was not to the swift . . . .
but that occasion and chance are in all things (Eccles ix, 11) to
wit, in all sublunary things (in inferioribus).*
3.73 : That Divine Providence is not inconsistent with Freedom of the Will
3.75 : That the Providence of God is exercised over Individual and Contingent Things