524. If we could be saved by nothing but mercy then everyone would be saved, even the people in hell. In fact, there would not be any hell because the Lord is mercy itself, love itself, goodness itself. So it goes against his essential divine nature to say that all people can be saved directly and that he does not save them. We know from the Word that the Lord intends the salvation of all and the damnation of no one.

169. Throughout the created universe, both in its grandest constituents and in its most infinitesimal, we find these three ingredients, namely, end, cause and effect. These three are found in the grandest and most infinitesimal constituents of the universe for the reason that the same three exist in God the Creator, who is the Lord from eternity. However, because He is infinite, and because the infinite elements in an infinite being are, in a distinct combination, one (as demonstrated above in nos. 17-22), therefore in Him these three also, and the three in His infinite elements, are, in a distinct combination, one.

It is in consequence of this that the universe - which was created from His being, and which regarded in terms of its functions is an image of Him - acquired these three ingredients in each and all of its constituents.